Scooby New

iTrader: (2)

My mum was involved in a completely non-fault accident yesterday (a lorry ran into her whilst she was stationary at traffic lights and dragged her car up the road .

Her insurance company have had the car (a Rover 25) recovered to a local independent body shop. However, she's not comfortable with this and wants the car to go the local Rover main dealer's bodyshop. The insurance company first told her that she couldn't do this as they decided who would carry out repairs to her car. My dad then rang them and they told him that if he insisted on doing this, then he would have to make all the arrangements and pay to have the car moved, they would not be entitled to a loan car whilst repairs were carried out, and they would have to settle up the repair bill and "try" to claim their money back!

My question is where does she stand? Can the insurance company do this? There is absolutely no dispute as to who was to blame for the accident - the police were called and the lorry driver admitted liability to them.

Anyone else had similar experience of this?

TIA,
Steve

pauld37

I think you can have the car repaired where you like, but if its not the insurers recommended repair centre then they dont guarantee the work. My wife had a new fiesta, she had ford insurance, however when she had an accident ford insurance did not have an approved ford repair centre in our area (poole) which seemed ridiculas. We insisted it be repaired at fords seeing as we had their insurance.

cheers Paul

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

I had an accident a while ago. My insurance company wanted it taken to one of their 'approved' repairers.

I told them no and that I wanted the work to be carried out by my local Subaru dealer.

I got the dealer to get a quote together and send it to the insurance company. It need a claims accessor to come out and look at the car, but that was all that was required.

The only issue, is that I would have had a loan car from the approved place, but there was nothing they could do if I wanted to have the repair elsewhere.

It took a while, but I eventually got a loan car from the dealer (it was during a busy time - lots of cars were crashed!!! ), but it was fortunate that I could use my parents car in the mean time.

Scooby New

iTrader: (2)

Cheers guys.

Well the "nice" insurance company appear to have had an assessor down at their approved repairers, who has "apparently" supplied a satisfactory quotation to them, and the work has "apparently" been authorised. However, no loan car is available for my mum as the approved repairer doesn't have one free at the moment!

They've told her that it's too late to have the car moved as the work has been authorised and any changes she makes will lead to the claim being delayed. Well that's nice of them

P1sses me off the way they advertise their friendly and helpful services, take your hard-earned, and then treat you like a total inconvenience when you're involved in an accident that is 100% not your fault.

Anywya, I'll shut up now before I get into a Joe Pesci/Lethal Weapon style rant containing lots of "f" words

pauld37

Thought most insurance companies use rental cars now?

ande

Next time you or anyone you know has a 100% non fault accident, then call your insurance company. If they give you the runabout, tell them you will call Helphire. Insurance companies hate these people as they will take on your claim, make a decision very quickly and once the repair has been finished they sue the insurance company for their money. And they provide a courtesy car almost as soon as they have approved the repair.

Ande.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

It's your car, you can do what you like with it. Don't let the insurers bully you. If work hasn't started then there is no reason to stop you going eleswhere.

However. I say this out of experience in the industry:

Taking your car to a main dealers for repair does and will not mean you will get a good repair. As the repair shops often operate exactly like that of the insurers "recommended" repairers. They wait 'til there is a free slot (up to 5 weeks) Then Fix as fast as possible, in as little time taken. They work like this to keep overheads down as they work on a price.

Only by going to an independent repairer that is known to take pride and care in what they do you can avoid this happening. Unfortunately, finding one is another matter, and hassle you don't want. All I can do is warn you of the dealer and insurer's repair tactics.

Bottom line is, it's YOUR car, you have the final say in who repairs it, not the insurer.