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I was reversed into in the car park of the leeds urban bike park by a council van. My handbrake was on and I was parked, the driver just didn't look in his rear view mirrors and went into my bumper. No injury. He admitted fault at the scene and later via email provided insurance details. The car is still drivable.
Informed my insurer, who said they would deal with if I want but it will impact my insurance as a no-fault claim/accident. To avoid this they gave me the details for the other party to chase on my own.
Leeds council do all of their insurance in house. They have a phone number (40 attempts and every one rings out). They have an email, and a labarinthine form to submit. I submittted this form 5 times (ignored every tiem); and after another five prompts, finally replied stating I needed 5 (yes, five) formal quotes from garages to continue "As this is a liability claims process we need the quotes for our process".
Obviously, there is no way I can get five separate garages to drop the entire front wing off the car to check the chassis, springs, subframe mounts and everything else that could be damaged. My understanding is that they should decide on LIABILITY, but not anything else. No garage is going to do that work for no possible hope of actually being paid to fix it.
What would you do? I cannot get through and they are ignoring both calls and emails. Solicitors' letter? Accident management firm? (if so, are there any pitfalls i should know?) Just suck it up and get my insurance company to chase them at the risk of cocking up my no claims and insurance premium?
Isn't this part of what your insurance company are meant to do?
Why are they making you do the chasing?
You have paid your insurance company. Get them to do it. How much has your time cost so far?
Well I had a no fault claim this year, the effect on my insurance at renewal was I got it down by £80...
it’s what you pay your insurance company for. Make them work.
Set your insurance on them. Obviously you doing their job for them saves them money.
Even if you carried on what you are doing you still need to declare the no fault claim. I'm with everyone else. Get your insurance company to do it.
Either get your insurance company to sort it or go through the accident management firm.
I have used this route in the past when my insurance company wouldn't give me a courtesy car untill they had proof I wasn't at fault.
(you'd think the other driver getting charged with careless driving would have persuaded them of that)
Thee management company will cost the the council's insurance more but they are more likely to act quickly to get it resolved.
I had a no fault claim last year, no impact at all on my premium. Get the insurers to do this, it is what you pay them for.
The logical suggestion is, as everyone else says, to let your insurer deal with it. Officially you still have to declare non-fault accidents sorted out between parties anyway. Their effect on premium is minimal.
I'd suggest the alternative is (1) you pay out of your pocket to get it fixed (and any other costs) THEN (2) issue your letter before action to the council. Council forms are not your concern, multiple quotes are not your concern unless the garage rips you off (and the council can then show you overpaid). They may help get things settled quicker - but I'm pretty certain your insurer won't be filling in their form nor getting multiple quotes if you ask them to do it.
Obviously, there is no way I can get five separate garages to drop the entire front wing off the car to check the chassis, springs, subframe mounts and everything else that could be damaged.
Jesus, how fast was the van reversing?
Informed my insurer, who said they would deal with if I want but it will impact my insurance as a no-fault claim/accident.
You've just been fobbed off. Get back on to them.
Informed my insurer, who said they would deal with if I want but it will impact my insurance as a no-fault claim/accident. To avoid this they gave me the details for the other party to chase on my own.
Your insurer is promoting insurance fraud then.
Even if you claim off the other insurance it will need to be declared at renewal as a non fault claim. It will impact your next quote regardless of who manages it.
Whoever you spoke to needs a talking to, this is not correct.
However, normally on non fault claims you want the 3rd parties insurance to deal with it as they will want to get it done as fast as possible to reduce the costs. If you set your insurance on it they'll run up all sorts of bills as they're not paying for any of it... £150 a day rental car? Yes please.
My advisor (ensure) told me that if it was settled without their action it would be noted as a 'notification' and so would not require declaration at the point of renewal.
Van was doing about 15mph at most, but has pushed a number of body panels out of place. I suspect no chassis damage of course - the point was that I'd imagine a garage would need to look a bit deeper before fixing.
Ok, will go back to my insurer.
If your vehicle is less than 12 years old the repair can only be done by a manufacturer approved repair facilities. Tell the council you will only accept an approved repair. Both Your insurance company and the council will want the cheapest job.
As stated get your insurance company to chase it.
Sounds like the council Self-Insure so there's no insurer to really deal with, just a department in the council. It was the same in the company I used to work with and any claims would take an age to sort out with excessive demands like your 5 quote thing. I would strongly suggest you take it back up with your insurers, they can press the correct buttons faster to get your car repaired then claim the costs back off the council. If it was just a bumper scuff or one dent then it's worth going direct but as you mention multiple body panels there could be lots of hidden damage so I would definitely go through your insurers, that way if anything comes to light further down the line or you have a repair issue later on then you have a means to getting it fixed.
continuity
Free MemberMy advisor (ensure) told me that if it was settled without their action it would be noted as a ‘notification’ and so would not require declaration at the point of renewal.
Yeah that sounds like someone who couldn't be arsed helping. Go through an Esure quote and see if there's a box for notifications, instead what you'll find is that they'll ask/tell you to declare any "accidents or claims in the last x years" and it'll be listed as you'd expect
If your vehicle is less than 12 years old the repair can only be done by a manufacturer approved repair facilities
thankfully this is complete fiction.
The real risk of going through your insurance company is that the claim is effectively a fault claim until the 3rd party pays out. You also probably have to pay the excess up front. Both of these are resolved when the council finally pays, but if you are near renewal time, it can affect your premium if it isn't all sorted first (this can be fixed, sometimes, once the claim is settled too).
Given what you've said though, I would either go through your insurance, or pay for the repairs and start small claims process against the council (letter before action, immediately escalating it internally with them and likely effectively forcing them to pay up)
How so 5lab? That rust warranty is in effect a goodwill gesture at that age so manufacturer can insist on approved workshops. At the the very least you would have to prove materials and workmanship were to the required standard which would be provable but still leaves you at the mercy of the manufacturers UK agent.
Edit : When editing I inadvertently deleted the end of the sentence - to maintain the 12 year rust warranty. So to the written statement you are correct. Apologies.
Plot twist. Called my insurance. They, from the photos, told me they'd look to write the car off.
It's a 10yo mondeo ti x sport estate - the spitting image of https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-MONDEO-RARE-2-2-TITANIUM-X-SPORT/184376296609?hash=item2aedaf04a1:g:CZ4AAOSwMz5foY77 - currently for sale for £4250 with 130,000 on the clock - mine has 100k. They want to give me a grand.
So, looks like maybe I'll have to chase leeds to get it fixed. Solicitor's letter? Find some absurd way of getting 5 quotes to satisfy their shove-off problem?
For sale for doesn't mean it will sell for that, and that feels on the high side for a 10 year old Mondy, even a fancy one. Get a realistic valuation for your car from one of the trade sites and go back to your insurance with it. First offer is always shite.
Copy and paste the details of that ad in an email to your insurers for a start, then see if you can find some more. I’m not in the market for a new estate but I think that owner is being very optimistic.
Check Parkers and see if a friendly dealer will give you the price from Glass’ guide.
Your adviser is wrong. You will be asked at renewal whether you have had an accident in the last x years (3, 5 or 6 years are the usual timescales) whether your fault or not and the answer to that has to be yes.
You will then be asked whether the accident was your fault to which the answer would be no, assuming the other insurer pays out.
You will then be asked what the settlement figure was and you'll tell them.
Depending on the answers to these three questions will determine what the impact on the premium will be. There is very likely going to be an increase regardless given the non-fault claim but it would not be as large than if you claimed under your insurance and they could not recover the money from the other party (the definition of a 'fault' claim).
As for the value they are offering. I do not agree with this bit of it at all. Insurance (usually, there are exceptions) is based on the principal of indemnity meaning you should be put in back in the position you were before the loss so in my opinion you should be furnished with a car of the same spec or sufficient funds to buy a replacement however for reasons I've not fully looked into yet, insurers are allowed to offer you the trade price for such a vehicle and not the retail price. That said you should still go back to them with evidence you've no chance of finding similar car for £1k and they may up the offer a bit but probably not to replacement levels.