Car insurance liability when your private car damages property owned by a company.

[Pal1408]

Hi

I stupidly left my handbrake off,  and my car rolled down a hill and into a fence owned by a company. I am a part owner of the company that owns the fence.

My car insurance (Prima) states they won't cover the damage to the fence, just the car as they state  "you own the land', although I don't and I did make that clear to them when reporting the accident..

I understood a company is a separate legal entity, so should be considered third party damage and car insurance should cover?

The property has a £400 excess and I'm already going to be paying out the £500 excess on car insurance, so want to avoid paying both if I can..

Thanks for any advice you can give...

[Ethel Street]

I agree with you. You and the company are separate legal entities so the company property that you damaged is third party property as far as you are concerned..  Get the company to write to you holding you formally responsible for the damage to their fence with the quotations for the repair. Send it by post (proof of posting) to Prima and ask them to confirm they will deal with the the third party directly. Best that someone other than you writes on behalf of the company!

I suspect this is simply lack of knowledge by staff on customer service desks who don't understand the concept of companies and their shareholders being separate legal entities.

If Prima still make difficulties use their formal complaints system until either they agree to cover the TP claim or issue a deadlock letter. You can then go the FCA.

[Pal1408]

18 minutes ago, Ethel Street said:

I agree with you. You and the company are separate legal entities so the company property that you damaged is third party property as far as you are concerned..  Get the company to write to you holding you formally responsible for the damage to their fence with the quotations for the repair. Send it by post (proof of posting) to Prima and ask them to confirm they will deal with the the third party directly. Best that someone other than you writes on behalf of the company!

I suspect this is simply lack of knowledge by staff on customer service desks who don't understand the concept of companies and their shareholders being separate legal entities.

If Prima still make difficulties use their formal complaints system until either they agree to cover the TP claim or issue a deadlock letter. You can then go the FCA.

Thank you Ethel, their letter was literally one line, with an added bonus of a typo.....

"As you own the land that the property was damaged on we would not be able to dela with that aspect of the claim.", so I think it may be the initial fob off.

I have replied just stating "This is not correct, the fence is owned by XYZ ltd, please clarify?", but will follow it up with a letter from the company.

will let you know how I get on x

[unclebulgaria67]

Often vehicle insurers will refuse to deal with third party property damage claims. They will by lack of willing rely on the third party to use their company Insurance  and the companies Insurance would try to reclaim through your Car Insurance.

Agree with Ethel, but sometimes Insurance claims staff will try to avoid additional work.