The car was hit in the back at a zebra crossing and the third party admitted that he was at fault. My wife was driving the car at the time and my son (9yrs old) was in the car. Ambulance and police arrived then wife was taken to the nearest hospital as she suffered from whiplash, then discharged. We have reported the accident to our insurers but soon after that I received a phone call from the third party insurers that they can directly compensate our claims including a replacement car, which will not be under a hire agreement. It sounds like my car will be written off (big damage) and there is no way that I can buy another car like that with the amount of money I might be getting for it.

I would appreciate to hear useful comments to guide me on this.

Are you sure that this phone call is from the third party's insurers?

If so then they are trying to be pro-active about reducing their claims costs. One of the biigest leakages in money from the insurance industry is in accident management companies. So here's the scenario:

I'm an insurer (Wulfyn's Dodgy Insurance) and one of my policy holders smacks into you. Now I am liable for all losses incurred to you by my policyholder. As you don't have a car anymore then that is a loss, so I would have to reimburse you any costs of you getting transport.

One way you can get transport is by hiring a car. I would then have to pay for the cost of that car hire. If I give you a car to use then it might only cost me something like £150-£200 a day because I can set up an agreement with a car hire company to get cheap rates for high volume. If you however go to another company to hire a car then I would have to pay whatever rates they charge (prob £300 a day). If you go through an accident management company then they may well stick an extra £100 a day admin fee on top of that.

So by getting to you first I can provide you with a hire car but at a much lower cost to myself. This lowers my overall costs which allows me to reduce my premiums.

So I would say have a talk to the TP insurer, find out what they are offering to give to you and if you like it then go for it. If you are not happy then tell them that you are not happy.

I'm not quite sure what is meant by "not a hire car" - are they offering to just give you a replacement car to keep right away?

It would be useful to know pros and cons when going into an agreement with them directly. Not sure how this is gonna effect other claims such as personal injuries and the repairs, if possible - and - how my insurers would react to this?

If the TP has admitted liability then they will be dealing with the injuries and repairs etc.

But your current insurer won't be happy as they will want to give you a hire car and charge the TP insurer for it and make a profit themselves.

If in doubt always go through your own insurer first.

 

This makes sense.

you do have a legal obligation to 'Mitigate your losses' that is to limit any loss incurred- check the daily rate of the hire vehicle if you are supplied one by your insurer or someone they refer you to, and check how much the third party insurer would get the same vehicle for, then ensure you seek advice from the hire car provider, ensuring you advise them that you have had an offer of hire from them.

Many hire car companies operate 'credit hire' schemes, which enters you into a legally binding hire agreement, which may mean you are held personally liable for the hire should any issues arise and the insurer wont pay- that is the last thing you want.

Decided to use a third party company (no win no fee) as my insurers have been very slow. Also did not want to do it directly with the TP insurer as I don't feel confident in case of a dispute. I have been provided with a replacement car today (hire scheme - unfortunately) and the daily rate is £45. I have received letters and forms from goldsmithwilliams solicitors (lots of forms). I haven't signed anything yet apart from the car hire. Still a little bit confused?

I have always dealt with the TP insurer directly and have found this to be the best and fastest solution; in both claims I've had, the TP insurer provided the hire or replacement car though both times I had to insure it and claim that back.

Using a third party company is probably more risky but I've had no personal experience. I know some people have come unstuck with credit-hire agreements where the claim has dragged on and the hire fees have got stupidly high; then the TP insurer will only pay 'a reasonable amount' leaving you with a bill for the balance. Be careful and check credit hire threads on here and moneysavingsexpert !

I think you are wise to use a third party company, one item of your claim will be injuries, and whilst the average man in the street is capable of recovering an excess, hire charges etc very few know anything/enough about compensation for injuries.

Mossy

Claim for injuries - that's what I also thought - TP insurers would possibly be quick for a replacement hire car and the cost for the repairs but injury claims was a kind of ? on my mind - also, the service element would probably be short.

Ed G [TP insurer provided the hire or replacement car though both times I had to insure it and claim that back]

I wonder what insuranceguy might be thinking about this?

Hi mr macintosh,

I work for a claims management co.

my advice will b to take the hire car from the TP, because if you take or hire the car yourself, TP will not pay the charges for the car hire as they will argue that they were willing to provide a replacement vehicle untill you get paid for your vehicle whether it si a write off or in need of repair.

As for the P.Injury you dont have to use the TP as they will drag it on and on, if u use claim management co. it will get processed quicker because we use a big solicetor firms who are always dealing with these sort of claims day in day out.

i hope this was helpfull.

if you need further assistance let me know by email.

Hi Mr Macintosh,

If you read my thread regarding n/f accidents it explains all of this.

I think you would be wise to accept hire from the insurer, as you are then not exposing yourself to any risk of having to pay the money yourself.

With regards to PI, it depends what you are after- Harry is talking absolute rubbish I'm afraid to say- it is in the insurers best interest to settle any PI claim quicklky, to avoid solicitors getting involved.

Your compensation would depend on how long you suffer, and how the suffering affects you.... for standard whiplash, I would expect them to make an offer without medicals of £800-£1000 initially- so if you want to get some money for Christmas etc, you can settle that way- you can seek legal advice, and there is nothing that says you have to deal direct for PI, but solicitors claims normally take much longer that dealing direct would, but you would probably get a higher amount.

I dealt with an insurer, and had a pre-medical offer of £800 within 24 hours of the accident- the cheque within a week.

Thanks to all for the information I was given here, which was valuable. I've already started process. Repairs & rep. car TP insurers and PI through a management company. I need to get car back quickly but can wait for the claims.

TP insurers arranged my car's delivery to a garage for the repairs. Someone from the garage left a message saying that the car is beyond economical repair. Received a second call from the garage (the same person) and the person was telling me that I need to take the car from there to minimise their storage charges (they'd been instructed by the TP insurers. He also said that they wouldn't redeliver it because the TP insurance company told them that my insurance is only third party f&t. I told him what he said was irrelevant and told him to liaise with the tp insurance company as they'd been instructed by them not me. Would appreciate if i could receive any useful info to stop this game.

Hi,

the tp insurer wont normally dispose of your vehicle, it is your property and therefore yours to deal with. You should arrang for someone to collect the vehicle ASAP... it is likely that the insurer will deduct a 'salvage value' from your settlement, that is, what they feel the vehicle is worth in its current state/as salvage. If you contact them, they may arrang to salvage it and not deduct this- speak to them, they are only human; Ive done it many a time although we dont do it as a general rule.

hope this helps

Thanks for the info - useful. I'll try to negotiate this with them.