being charged for courtesy car by my car insurance company

[dsb1]

Hi all,

Hopefully someone can help me with some info about my problem.

 

Basically i had a car accident 2 years ago someone smashed into the back of me, my car had to go into body repair shop and i had a courtesy car off my insurance, all pretty straight forward or so i thought.

 

About a week ago i get an email off my insurance company solicitors sayin that if i dont answer around 50 questions about what happened with my claim etc i will be held liable for all charges for the courtesy car which totals £26.000.

 

Now most of the questions are quite simple to answer but there are a few about my financial circumstances, they want me to send 6 months bank statements and if i dont do so in 14 days all charges will be sent to me because i have failed to help them with there claim against the other party involved in the crash.

 

Basically i would like to know if anyone else has ever had this prob, and what do you think i should do next other than see my own solicitor which im doing thur, im just wondering what peoples thoughts are on this.

 

Kind Regards

Daniel

[empowered]

£26K:eek: What were you driving.. a Ferrari? Basically the other insurance company are probably trying to find out if you could have been well off enough to have hired a car yourself or if car hire was even necessary. How long did the repairs take? They are probably disputing the car hire bill and refusing to pay your insurers.

[dsb1]

hi, the courtesy car was a merc CLK it was the amg version, my car took 79 days in the repair shop waitin for parts to arrive, my prob is though even if i could afford to to hire a car myself why should i ? thats what i pay insurance for, it seems to me that my insurance company cant get the money back off the other insurance company so they tryin to get me to pay for it which is wrong i think.

 

They have sent me a letter stating in the agreement/contract that i signed that if they ever have problems getting the money back off the other party i then have to help the by answering any questions they need answering inc financial questions, i just find it strange that i have to answer all these questions and questions about my finances etc.

 

Defo going to need to see a solicitor, was just hoping for more peoples opinions on this matter and what they think will happen.

 

Thanks

 

Daniel

[empowered]

If you look in the small print of the contract hire document you will see that you will be liable for credit hire charges if the credit hire company cannot get reimbursement from the insurance company. Basically you and the repairing garage have a duty to mitigate losses - was your damaged car drivable? You could have accepted a lesser model. Did you have access to another car? Any insurance company would query and dispute such a high charge.

[dsb1]

my car was defo not drivable, and i just execpted any car that was given its not up to me to pick and choose cars i just excepted that car, i would be suprised if a court made me pay any money for this courtesy car, maybe i should just try and answer all the questions and sent my bank statements to them, but im gonna see solcitor on thur see what he says.

 

Thanks

 

Daniel

[anna1983]

Hi

 

I'm totally with you. I received a letter yesterday that I need to pay a £7000 for a courtesy car which I used over 2 years ago. Going to see someone about that tomorrow. Lets hope everything will work out well in the end

[dsb1]

Hi anna, yes lets hope, im still in shock that they are tryin to make me pay but after looking more into it there seems to have been some court case where now insurance companys can try and reclaim the money back of us and in the last year more and more people find themselves in the same situation, like you say lets hope everythin goes ok with the solicitor.

 

Post up how you get on at the solicitors be intersting to see what they say, i was booked in for today but my solicitor rearraged for tue next week ffs so now gotta worry about this all over the weekend, oh well.

 

Good luck

Dan

[anna1983]

Hi Daniel

 

Yes you right a lot of people having more problems like that. I spent all day today searching and reading forums about the company (Drive Assist) who wants to rip me off and I found a lot of interesting posts. I can say don't give up because all they want to do is search for a fool who going to pay them a lot of money for nothing! Take care and I will post if I will find something out tomorrow ;-)

[dsb1]

Hi anna, thanks for that its good to speak to someone in the same boat so to say:-) im sure we be ok they prob just tryin it on as you say lookin for some fool to just pay up, but im just bit worried that it goes to court etc i cant be botherd with all the hassle.

 

All the best.

 

Daniel