Only just seen this thread, no worthwhile advice to give as it has already been said but glad the missus and unborn is ok :-)

 

And you turned yer phone off yer feckur...

LoL

dunx

P.S. Sorted at Jeff's gaff, his son was in !

 

My phones been on all day Duncan. Have you even got my number

And I spoke with Mark earlier too, Jezza P is on his jollies which I didn't know.

 

Good news cob, glad you and yours are ok! Don't forget to keep the receipts for the taxis that you had to get everywhere while you were waiting for your hire car, as the 3rd party insurers will re-imburse you!

 

Not much of an update as awaiting confirmation from the engineer that the car will be written off. However my insurers did say (when on the phone to them earlier) that when an offer is made for settlement of the car then they will take my £200 excess off that figure which I will then need to claim back via the legal cover on my policy. I'm not too chuffed at this mainly as I will probably only be offered £500 ish for the car anyway. Apparently it's all to do with how quick his insurers work on admitting liability but my insurers did say they will really push them as it saves them time and money.

So may need to find a car on a budget of next to nothing

Oh and I'm off to the docs tomorrow as my back is still killing me. I'm going to try get referred for physio at the hospital or something as I'm struggling currently.

Will update when I can as hopefully this thread will help others.

 

why are you having to pay your insurances excess fee?

 

The guy who I spoke to today in the claims department said I have to pay it and the legal cover on my policy will then claim it back once the other parties insurers admit liability. But this could take a while to do (claim not admit liability).

To be honest if and when the little Pug is written off, the legal eagles will have done their work and gotton his insurers to cough up for the excess too.

I do have sources on here who I'm sure could offer me knowledgeable advice (Moley etc)

 

Because until the third party admit liability or rather their insurers do Andy is claiming off his own insurance.

 

thats ****!

 

Yes and with the size of some excesses these days it can be a bit of a financial headache even if it is only for a few weeks.

 

True. In my case the excess is only £200 but I'm not talking about a £5k car here, it's worth max £600? probably closer to £400-500 so leaves me in a difficult position if I get a measly cheque for £200-300. People would rather weigh a car in for that than sell them Me, I can walk to work or buy a pushbike but rememebr my Mrs is 37 weeks pregnant and may rely on a lift somewhere. Depending on timing it could leave me without a hire car and NO transport at the WRONG time

Anywho, positive thinking, got a car currently. Now what was it which helps induce labor?? That's it, curry and sex

 

Yes I must admit with your good lady being pregnant this has left you, or could leave you, in a difficult postion. Try and get as much for your car as possible as you have nothing to lose dragging it out a bit and eeking the maximum for your loss.

In the meantime put all your mates, family and the local taxi firms on hugh alert.

As for sex and curry... does that not get a bit messy

 

Is it the rule where you decline the first 2 offers? I'll speak with Moley about this one if he has a minute spare one day.

Done. To be fair I've never had so many "if you need owt" offers from friends and family. Mumsy and her husband live 5 mins walk away and he has a bright yellow Hyundai

Plastic dust sheets, 3.65m x 3.65m from Wilkinsons, 97p
(Or maybe one after the other )

 

LOL The latter is probably best

Glad to hear you have plenty of help.

As for the insurance I would just go after top whack for the car no matter how many offers they make. Remember you may think it is only worth around £600 (and you may well be right), but small econmical cars are in more in demand than ever right now so look carefully at the cost of replacement. Moley should be able to offer better advice than I, but you want to make sure you end up with a repleacment as good or better than what you had before.

 

Hey, could be worse... I could be unemployed again

Hopefully doc can get me set up at hospital for physio as I can't afford the private thing.

 

Might be worth speaking to his insurers to see if he has admitted liability.

How bad is the car? If they class it as a cat C or D you should be able to buy it back (for peanuts) and fix it up. Depends how badly damaged it is though, might not be worth it.

 

Hang on to the V5 and tell your insurer in writing that they are not to dispose of the car until you have agreed a figure, in case you want to have an independent valuation done. This will put some pressure on them to move quickly as it will cost them money to store it and there is no way they can pass this on to you. Otherwise they will shift the car on to a scrap yard then just keep quoting the same low offer until you get bored and accept.

I did this several years ago when my Subaru was stolen and written off - they offered £9K initially and ended up paying me £12K.

 

Also start doing some homework on prices if they do write it off.

Find examples of similer spec cars on Autotrader/Pistonheads etc and print them off.
If the going rate for the car is £1000 and they offer you £500 you can show them the adverts and justify the higher value, and get a fair payout.

 

His insurers didn't come across as interested in speaking to me. They fobbed me off with regards to getting a hire car off them directly even though it will now work out more through my insurers.

My car isn't worth buying back to repair Gary Needs at minimum,
Bonnet
Headlight
Wing
Front bumper
Tracking/suspension
Possible drivers door
...and dunno if the engine took a clattering too as it's such a small tinny car.

When I called on Friday to one of the departments they said to send my V5, MOT certificate and a copy of my paper license to them. Today when I questioned why the guy who I spoke to said keep them until the car is confirmed written off and you have agreed a settlement figure. So this is one thing I have in my favour.

Will do. The car had only about 4 owners before me, and has only now 87000 miles on the clock too. I'll get on said websites and print off pages if necessary with similar mileage cars/condition.

It's just the waiting not knowing if I will be stuck or what in a couple weeks. I'm hoping his insurers admit liability to save themselves time and money so I don't actually have to pay the excess, timing dependant.

Thanks for the advice though guys, being very careful with this one.

 

That's the problem with insurance.... you can have the best policy in the world, but if the person who hits you is with a crap company it makes the claim difficult.

 

I know mate. Just got 6 similar cars bookmarked after a quick look on the 'net. Vary from about £500-900 it seems. Not tried autotrader yet.

Appreciate your help anyways Gary

 

FPMSL, if it doesn't involve a camera + a £60 fine they're interested in nothing

TX.

 

Hope it all sorts out to your advantage COB. Obviously the only fair situation is for you to be back as you were before with a car of your own and even with a bit of compensation for you for all the problems which have been caused.

Les

 

Thanks for the kind words Les. I've managed to get in at the docs tomorrow morning and will see what he says.

Been trying to potter around today with the Mrs sorting rooms out for the baby coming but it isn't the easiest thing I've attempted.

 

Bit of an update:

Received a letter from his insurers this morning (which wasn't an admission of liability) stating the obvious. Sorry our customer bashed into you yada yada.

Basically said they would be prepared to collect the car, fix it or write it off and then offer me payment. All whilst offering me a hire car. Now this is weird as the cars been taken by my insurance to be fixed (or most likely written off) and then they will offer me a sum minus my excess.

So if I understand this right, I could have just used his insurance and recieved a payout minus nothing, or do what I did think was right and tell my insurance which will see me minus my excess till his insurance admit liability.

WTF?? Why would his insurers offer to do this without admitting liability?

Oh and the snidy bit at the bottom reminding me it's an offence not to keep costs at a minimum and not take the preverbial with the hire car. Does that mean I am being unreasonable by looking to recouperate all the ££ spent on 0800 phonecalls to my/his insurance?

Also when I just called my insurance to say they had contacted me and that I didn't wich to contact them back, the lady seemed totally clueless. No idea if they had admitted liability and I was speaking to the claims dept too. I am genuinely glad there are folk on here clued up as CIS seems uselss at times.

 

Hes prob done you a favour! Someone crashed into the back of my pickup a few years back (only worth 1600) Insurance offerd 1100 so good job i made £1800 out of whiplash claim!!

 

That's it! I'm telling Maz!

 

Hey Andy,

How's things?

You say the third party insurer hasn't admitted liability, but, in effect, they have. By offering to repair your car and supply a hire car they are conceding liability.

You have two options. You can accept the TP insurers offer, which could make things easier in that they shall pay for hire car up front. Alternatively, your own insuers may agree to waive the excess. They may do so on sight of this letter as they will know that they can recover the excess amount along with their own costs from the Third Party insurer. I used to work for a motor insurer (now a broker) and we did this - it's worth asking the question!

Hope it goes well for you mate.

Andy

 

COB - Unfortunately you have played the wrong play here. You should have called TP insurer and asked them to settle immediately. When they told you they couldn't, you advise them that you will need a hire car on a daily rate until they sort themselves out, but you will be adding the cost to the claim. Hiring on a daily rate with no notice is the most expensive way you can hire a car, but would be reasonable in your circumstances. They can either think about it for a couple of weeks and give you 500 for your car and a grand for the hire, or sort it out immediately and get off with 500 quid. As it stands, you have given them options to pay 500 or 300, with no time limit, so they will p155 you about for ages.

 

Hi Andy. Yeah not too bad, just got an emotional mrs - to be expected I guess
Thing is when I called my insurers to tell them about this letter they didn't seem to get the hint that it was a basic admittance of liability. If needs be I will call the legal team on Monday over the basic claims dept and tell them. They may be able to use it to speed things up... At worst I'll have a settlement figure minus my excess until they do admit liability (if they haven't already).
This is good in theory but read what I've said in previous comments please. When I rang his insurers last Friday to report the accident they weren't interested in sorting either collection of my car or a suitable temp replacement until at least Wednesday this week gone. Now that's unsuitable for me for the fact she is ready to pop our first child so I made my decision on the basis of having transport for those days until his insurers decided to write to me. Now also remembering that his insurers may have taken some time to actually speak to the guy who crashed into me and it then makes using my insurance a stronger option. They could have taken weeks to contact him either by phone or some automated letter.

That's the reasoning behind doing what I did, because no matter what pressure I tried to apply on the phone to his insurers, they weren't interested in the first 5-6 days over the weekend to receiving the letter yesterday.