Reply With QuoteI very much doubt the insurance company will give you cash settlement.
Either way, fault or no fault, I expect it will affect your own premium next time you're due for renewal.
The day started off badly when our bathroom window outer pane shattered, not just cracked, half of its fallen out.
Then the wife heads off to take the kids to school and another Mum on the school run, maybe going a little too, fast skidded on some ice and hit my wife's car. Wife was stationary at this point and the other car continued into a hedge on the side of the road.
Very low speed so no one was hurt, out car had minimal damage, the other car came off worse but mainly caused by the hedge but still not terrible. The other car was new and expensive so understandably they are going through their insurance. Hopefully they will be honest with what happened and it will be a no fault claim for us.
While their is cosmetic damage to repair (dent and paintwork) my wife's car is almost 10 years old and has several bumps/scrapes. I'm wondering if its possible to get a cash payment to the value of the repair rather than get the repair done now. Id then put the money towards a bigger tidy up in the future. Anybody gone down this route before?
A quick google suggests its possible but wondered if anyone had first hand experience. Thanks
I very much doubt the insurance company will give you cash settlement.
Either way, fault or no fault, I expect it will affect your own premium next time you're due for renewal.
Doesn’t seem to matter whose fault it is, a claim is a claim. I don’t think you’ll get cash.
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Dependant upon the relative value of your car vs the cost of the repairs, they may view your car as a 'total loss', in which case they may pay you the book value and let you 'buy it back off of them' as scrap value.
It may then have a write off classification at that stage though, so it really would all depend on many factors and insurance companies view.
As Reggie has said, I cant see them handing over any money without the repairs being carried out, or the car written off though.
Thanks for the replies. My car wont be a write off, I cant see the repair costing more that £1k even at inflated insurance job rates.
Very annoying as it had almost been 5 years since her last bump but now ill have another 5 years of a claim on record.
You're probably entitled to a hire car for however long it takes. Can cost of that be added to the £1k?
In my experience the cost of car hire is often more than the repair itself.
It might be possible If you submit a claim directly to the other persons insurance.
Write a letter to the other persons insurers (quote her registration and policy number if you have them) explaining why you hold her at fault, namely that she was travelling too fast for th rad conditions, failed to see the ice on the rad, braked too harshly causing her to skid and lose control and skide into your wifes car which was stationary on her side of the road. If your wife took pictures of the accident scene/ aftermath, then send those as well as that will help.
With this letter enclose 2 estimates for the repair of the damge, and a "Pro-Forma" invoice from which ever garage produced the cheaper estimate and request a "cash in lieu of repairs" settlement from her insurers.
Providing they accept liability, there is no reason why they shouldn't play ball and as the name suggests its a payment in lieu of repairs, NOT a total loss settlement.
A couple of caveats here:
1) You are unlikely to able to claim a chas in lieu of repair settlement from your own insurers under a comprehensive policy.
2) You may struggle to get a garage to give you a pro-forma invoice as they will probably have had people doing this in the past who don't go back to them to actually have the work done, so best use a garage you have a good relationship with, or be prepared to pay them a deposit againt the work being done.
3) As has been mentioned above, this is an accident / claim, and even if you claim off the third party's insurers, you should still disclose it as a claim come renewal time, which May, or may not affect your renewal premium.
No fault accident last year, done through their insurance & no effect on my premium.Originally Posted by reggie747
Really depends on who you are with I guess, as this increase seems a common view.
Thanks - this is what i'm hoping for. If her insurance company accept liability then I assume they would be happy settling the claim in the cheapest way. Although I cant prove it was her fault so they might push for 50/50.
Same here a couple of years ago. My premium went down and this year went up by 2%.
The best way to retain control and to avoid a claim being registered to impact your policy is to contact the other insurer direct. If you don't have her details, as long as you have the reg there are online searches you can do for a few £ which will tell you.
Most have a dedicated claims line now for third parties, it is in nobodies interest for the cost of accidents to be highly inflated by intermediaries, fees being added on by your insurers, etc, that's what drives up premiums for everyone I'd tell them that you hold their client at full fault, and are happy to explore what they can offer you direct to reach an amicable settlement but reserve your position, if they dispute responsibility or do not propose a route that is acceptable, you will either pass to your insurer or a claims handler.
If they accept responsibility, they will be quick to offer you a courtesy car (if needed) and suggest some approved repairers. Unlikely they will offer a cash settlement. If you aren't happy with the repairer they suggest, you can nominate your own who will provide a quote for their review, might add a few days to the process rather than their own who may hold a pre-approval for certain repairs and thresholds. It takes a few calls but you stay in control and it will NOT affect your claims record. They will be keen to start sending you messages like Thanks for confirming nobody injured, thanks for confirming you will use X to repair your car, just remain firm in reserving your position until you are happy with what is proposed. They may also offer a cash sum in lieu of a rental, great if you don't need one, but something like £300 goes nowhere if you do, they can rent at maybe 1/3rd the cost you can, £300 might get you 3 to 4 days.
If you ask your insurers to handle the claim your premium on renewal may well be impacted even if no fault, just not to the extent it would if it was a fault claim. They will also offer you a third party claims handler as an option for avoiding that happening. It can be a mixed bag, if you google a company like Auxilis you will see what I mean from reviews https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/auxillis.com. They take a sizeable commission from the repairer, ramp up the cost of rental cars, add their own fees on etc. Then in the small print, if the other side refuses to settle the claim as it has suddenly become many multiples of what it should have been, you can end up being sucked into court to help support their "claim". That's rare, but it does happen, the other insurer will be keen to try to avoid the extra cost of a claims handler, hence why all of them are trying to make it simpler to deal direct.
All depends how comfortable you are with these things, unfortunately I've handled a few for my family over the past 24 months, all of which were idiocy on the third parties side and in each case the car was sorted at a garage we were happy with, the process ran smoothly and no impact on premiums. It might take 4 or 5 hours of calls though, hope this helps.
Worth checking out the fifth section....
https://www.comparethemarket.com/car...o-be-declared/
'Do I need to declare a non-fault claim?
Yes. You need to declare all accidents that you’re involved in, regardless of who or what was at fault.
Almost every insurance provider will have a clause in their policy requiring you to declare any incidents you’ve been involved in while driving in the past 5 years. If you don’t report something and your insurance provider finds out about it later, they could invalidate your policy.'
Last edited by JonRA; 19th January 2023 at 18:35.
There is a difference between declaring an incident to your insurer and making a claim. Yes, you should always inform them of any accident but that is not classed as a claim, they treat that as them physically having to do something. So ask them to handle the matter and it may become a non-fault claim, tell them you are dealing or the third party claims handler they might suggest (and no doubt get commission off) and it is not classed as a claim.
Same happened to me a few years ago. No fault accident, third party was very quick to admit liability. Taken care of through their insurers. Any effect on my future premium was absolutely minimal. When I ran through a comparison website with and without the accident, I think there was £20 difference.
I had an old Micra. The damage was a dent in the door panel and they wrote it off which surprised me. I did buy it back but it wasn't going to pass MOT without a new door as they claimed the dent was dangerous so we scrapped it. This actually worked out better for us as the scrap dealer paid more for the car than was taken off us by buying it back. It's still going according to vehicle check.
Last edited by Christian; 19th January 2023 at 14:45.
Don’t see why they shouldn’t give you a cash payment.
Usual practice obviously to repair the car but why? I damage something belonging to someone else I pay them for the damage, I don’t necessarily get it repaired for them. Why are cars special?
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