Car Insurance Query

[Givuzagame]

Can anyone help please?

 

I have a back injury due to being given an ultra small courtesy car. Is there a way I can claim for this as my apparent personal accident insurance sold by my car insurers only covers me for death,loss of limb or eyesight!

 

Was I wrong to presume I would get an average car for my 7 seater?

Wasn't looking for a straight swap but an average saloon would have sufficed.

 

Now I have back spasms and sleepless nights due to trying to get into the Matiz (which I returned as uncomfortable to drive therefore unsafe in my opinion).

 

Any help/advice would be welcome.

Thank you.

[unclebulgaria67]

The courtesy car is typically a small hatchback. If you wanted something bigger and your claim was non fault, you could have hired something bigger and claimed back from the 3rd parties Insurers.

 

How do you prove your back injury has anything to do with the small car? This would be laughed out of any court.

[Givuzagame]

As I didn't have a back injury before and returned the courtesy car as couldn't drive it due the inadequate size. I told the garage I returned to, the broker and the insurance company. They have possibly recorded those calls.

I have been to the hospital and been provided medication for muscle spasm as caused by the injury.

Why is the courtesy car "typically" a small hatchback. The insurance companies should be made to provide a similar car to the one they are repairing regardless of fault or non fault accident.

It should be made clear before accepting the policy what car would be given in that instant.

Anyone with more constructive advice please?

[unclebulgaria67]

The insurance companies should be made to provide a similar car to the one they are repairing regardless of fault or non fault accident.

 

Check the terms of your policy. Does the policy state that you will be given a car of a certain type.If it does then you can sue the Insurers for breach of contract and try to claim for the injury. But the courts would be looking for proof that the injury was related to the breach of contract. The Insurers would fight this with some vigor.

 

If your policy does state the type of courtesy car that must be provided, then speak to a solicitor. You will have to pay for the solicitor and then try to claim back the costs, if you were successful in court.

 

Personally I would not recommend you pursue this, unless you suffered considerable losses as a result of the injury i.e loss of income. You have to weigh up the legal costs of pursuing this, against the chances of success.

Edited June 28, 2010 by unclebulgaria67

[Mwynci]

err no, nobody forced you to use it. You had the choice.

Regarding the size of the courtesy car, the size is due to the garage usually owning them, insurance companies don't pay for them, in return the garage get the business. For them to keep a fleet of different sized cars would be rather expensive, which will reflect upon repair costs, which changes will change the premiums and so on. Many policies will define what size a

courtesy car is, and the market assumes it means a small class a car.

 

Just had my own quotes through, the market is hardening, permiums are going up up up, the insurer's want their money.

[Givuzagame]

No the policy does not state which type of car.

DLP -" The policy covers you for the cost of a replacement vehicle until your vehicle is returned to you"

DLP GOLD - A group a vehlcle (1.0) or if a commercial vehicle ....

THIS WAS FOR BUSINESS USE TOO!!!!

Maybe it was wrong of me to presume I would be given a fair deal and be provided with an adequately sized car. I guess expecting any level of customer service this day is naive?

 

I am STILL in pain and really annoyed that I am this way due the tightfistedness of the insurance company, who for the sake of a few pounds extra per day could have avoided this.

 

I appreciate you recommend to not pursue this but why should I suffer due to this?

 

Is there anyone I can complain to as I think this is disgraceful?

[Givuzagame]

err no, nobody forced you to use it. You had the choice.

Regarding the size of the courtesy car, the size is due to the garage usually owning them, insurance companies don't pay for them, in return the garage get the business. For them to keep a fleet of different sized cars would be rather expensive, which will reflect upon repair costs, which changes will change the premiums and so on. Many policies will define what size a

courtesy car is, and the market assumes it means a small class a car.

 

Just had my own quotes through, the market is hardening, permiums are going up up up, the insurer's want their money.

 

Yeah this outfit have just quoted me £101 a month to renew as I also lost my no claims bonus. Compare the market got me a deal for £44.

Who's the cowboy?

They make enough out of us and thank fully there is a lovely garage dealing with my repairs now who are willing to go the extra mile and provide me with an old but better sized car. THAT is customer service!

[Givuzagame]

Check the terms of your policy. Does the policy state that you will be given a car of a certain type.If it does then you can sue the Insurers for breach of contract and try to claim for the injury. But the courts would be looking for proof that the injury was related to the breach of contract. The Insurers would fight this with some vigor.

 

If your policy does state the type of courtesy car that must be provided, then speak to a solicitor. You will have to pay for the solicitor and then try to claim back the costs, if you were successful in court.

 

Personally I would not recommend you pursue this, unless you suffered considerable losses as a result of the injury i.e loss of income. You have to weigh up the legal costs of pursuing this, against the chances of success.

 

What is the true cost of pain and sleepless nights? Money isn't the issue here, it's the principal. I for one will NEVER use THAT insurance company again.

[unclebulgaria67]

You had expectations beyond what most Insurance companies would provide.

 

Suggest that you look for policies, that offer a guaranteed courtesy car, that is equivalent to the car being Insured. One Insurer you could try is NFU Mutual, who are known as one of the best regarded Insurers. NFU don't appear to restrict the courtesy car to a small hatchback.

 

Direct line have an option for a guaranteed hire car following a claim, which you have to pay the extra for when the policy is arranged. But you will see it is only for a small hatchback. Quite amusing that DL advertise this option as " don't compromise on comfort".

 

6. Don’t compromise on comfort

 

If you need to hire a car in a hurry, you may have to compromise on the quality. With Direct Line Guaranteed Hire Car, all cars are fully serviced hire cars – a small hatchback or similar – and less than three years old.

 

 

As a previous poster had said, it is normally the garage that provides the courtesy car and they don't have a selection to choose from.

Edited June 28, 2010 by unclebulgaria67

[sailor sam]

This is actually an interesting thread.

 

Having worked at a insurance approved body shop who provides courtesy cars, I may be able to clear one or two things up.

 

Insurance co's who 'provide' courtesy cars do exactly that; They provide a courtesy car which is normally a small hatch back. If the policy holder is involved in a situation where he/she needs a specific type of courtsey car then this should normally specified when taking out the policy.

 

As allready been said, if the TP is deffinatley at fault, then the OP could hire a vehicle of simsilar spec to his own and then recover the costs. But having said that, the OP would run the risk of paying if it transpired that the TP wasn't insured for example.

 

Unless you can prove the fact that the car caused your back injury (in which case the actual make/model of the car would need to be investigated by VOSA), I don't think you have a leg to stand on.

 

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Please Note

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

I would always urge to seek professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my scales at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice usefull.

[danielr]

LP -" The policy covers you for the cost of a replacement vehicle until your vehicle is returned to you"

DLP GOLD - A group a vehlcle (1.0)

group a cars are always small hatch backs, usually Daewoo Matiz in all the experiances that I've had.

 

just how big were you expecting a 1.0 car to be? it's not like they make 1 litre estate cars.

 

you can upgrade the car that you want as a courtesy car if I recall correctly, you could perhaps have asked for a group B car, which'd normally be 1.2 - 1.6 sized engine cars that are usually bigger in size...

 

 

Basically, you'd find it difficult to prove your injury was caused solely by the car, and you were advised of the sized car that you'd be getting. and you could have requested a different car when they delivered the courtesy car.

 

if this has really been such a problem then i'd suggest that you contact your insurance company and ask them to make sure that your cover car will not be a small car and must exceed the group a (1.0) range of cars.

 

you'll likely have to pay extra though.

[Endymion]

In order to suceed in a claim for a personal injury you have to be able to show that the injuries you sustained were forseeable by the Defendant or that they provided you with equipment that was faulty. No court in the land is going to see that providing you with a perfectly good car is going to forseeably cause you injuries.

 

Secondly, even if you did manage to persuade a court that it was forseeable that providing you with a hire car could lead to an injury, you would then still have to prove causation and by that you would have to get a medical expert to confirm that sitting in a car could cause the injuries sustained, which may be very difficult.

 

Thirdly you would be appealed to every court in the land even if you did win and no solicitor would represent you or no insurance company would insure you against your losses if you lost on appeal, which could run into the hundreds of thousands of pounds. All hire car companies & their insurers would be willing to fund the appeal(s) by the Defendant due to the potential floodgates that would open if by some miracle you did succeed.

[unclebulgaria67]

Could not have put it better myself Endymion.

 

Isn't there a saying, compensation culture world gone mad. I think the OP's post sums this up.

 

I can see we are headed in the same direction as the US, where people won't take risks, because of the fear of getting sued. Or if they do you have to complete a very long disclaimer form.