Why have to pay xs when not at fault

[muirton]

Hi there

Just wondering if someone can tell me why when a car drives through the garden fence, and destroys a tree etc, the payment is made less the xs. Surely the other persons company should pay this. I am ready to argue the point, but thought I had best see if anyone knows why exactly.

So far the Insurance Company have advised we write to the driver and try and get it from him.

Any ideas?

[Movingon]

Your household insurance should not be involved. You should have the driver's and car details, and who he's insured with, and THEY should be paying you.

[benjee]

Originally Posted by muirton

So far the Insurance Company have advised we write to the driver and try and get it from him.
Any ideas?

You will only pay an excess if your claiming from your own Insurer. This is common practice. If you contacted the drivers insurer then they would settle the claim without your Insurer needing to do anything.

The excess is because you are claiming off your policy.

[muirton]

thanks for this, I will go and see what I can do.

[craigwalton]

If you are claiming through your own household insurance then you will have to pay the excess. However, this is recoverable from the TP Insurance Company. If you have already claimed from your own insurance ring them. They will claim from the TP Ins Co., and even though they will say it is up to you to claim back, they should insert a paragraph in their letter advising "Our insd has also paid an excess of £xxx and should be contacting you direct." The Ins Co usually pay up on this automatically

[Rob S]

I'm surprised that your insurance company have not made a claim from the drivers insurance for their losses.

[texaspete100]

The quickest way to get the damage repaired it is to go through your household insurance. You will have to pay your excess as this is the first part of any claim you make. However, most Motor Insurers do not have appointed experts who can repair damage to building's/contents/outside. It will usually be the case that a motor insurer will ask for 2 estimate's from different builder's/suppliers, then the cheapest one will be authorised. If you use your home insurance you will more than likely get an approved builder/suppiler who is on their books, he may be "self-authorising" and that will take all that hassle of having to liaise with the other insurers away.

Once the claim is paid and your excess has been deducted, write to the Third Party (responsible) Insurer and tell them you would like to submit a claim for uninsured losses. This will be your Excess and any other loss not covered by your home insurance e.g. Loss of Use, Inconvenience, loss of earnings etc.

You can quite easily submit a claim for about £50-£100 for micesllaneous expenses (inconvenience, postage & phone calls, time spent dealing with claim) along with your Excess claim. You will not need to provide any documentation to support this head of claim. You will probably get an offer of some sort for this item, not the full amount.

Hope this helps!

[Rob S]

The only problem with only going after the excess is that if you had any no claims bonus on the home insurance, it will be reduced because you made a claim. If the damage caused was the fault of the car driver, then your insurance company should be able to claim the full amount back including your excess.

[texaspete100]

Your Insurer will recover their "outlay" in full from the responsible insurer. You NCB will then be reinstated and your claims history will be "reset".

[JonCris]

Originally Posted by texaspete100

Your Insurer will recover their "outlay" in full from the responsible insurer. You NCB will then be reinstated and your claims history will be "reset".

Like car insurance many household insurance policies contain Legal Expenses (LEC) Cover as do some credit cards. You should call them to find out. If you have these advise them of your loss & their ULR (uninsured loss recovery dept) which is what the policy excess, loss of income, etc is called should pursue your claim for you

easy if claim through your on insurance you will get a lower payment plus you will also need to pay the excess but not if you goto the 3rd paty. they will pay more and your ncb etc will not be affected in anyway. also you cannegotiate diffrent things with a 3rd party which you cannot with your own !!!