Help Needed Urgently

[karlj]

I'll start from the begging,

About a month a go my partner was in a car accident with a council bin lorry, she when through her insurance company who said that she wasn't at fault and the council was.
Her insurance company arranged for her car to be assessed for repair through one of their approved repairers, the repairers said it was fixable and they got to work.
End of last week she got a phone call saying the car was finished, today she got another phone call from the repairers saying the car's ready and she had to arrange payment, so she rings her insurance company to find out what they meant "arrange payment" and her insurance company has said that she has to pay a silly amount because they haven't got the third parties details.

Now I don't know much about insurance other than I pay my premiums monthly but surely it's the insurance companies job to get the third parties details to sort out any payment.

My partner is at her wits end and I'm tempted by the idea of just going to get the car and driving away but obviously that's not a clever idea so what should she/we do? Please help cause I can be very impulsive and short tempered. Oh and I'll be ringing the insurance company tomorrow

 

[Robbie 733]

Are you sure the insurance company are not referring to any insurance excess you might have to pay, which in due course can be claimed back from the Council, as their vehicle was at fault ?

Check with your insurance company tomorrow, hope it all works out ok.

 

[karlj]

yeah it is the excess but i thought if you weren't at fault then you didn't pay it, cause if she'd known that she'd of let me and a friend fix the car

 

[frank]

thats standard practice i think karl, i suppose you have to claim it from the council afterwards eh

 

[karlj]

########, the problem is the excess is £650 and i don't have that sort of money laying around

 

[karlj]

can she refuse to pay it on the basis that she wasn't told from the beginning?

 

[frank]

can she refuse to pay it on the basis that she wasn't told from the beginning?

its probably written in the small print on her policy mate fwn

 

[karlj]

f-ing slimey turds grr, the council have tried to pass the blame onto her by saying that there is video evidence to say that she's at fault when i know full well that there isn't

 

[micra.jas]

What was your missus "VOLUNTARY" excess when she took out the insurance............as if she is under 21 or 25 then you have to pay a certain amount aswell as your volunary amount.........this may be the £650 you are talking about??


Im not sure about TPFT but i have always been fully comp as its always been cheaper to do....and when a lorry reversed into my classic mini with me in it.....i went thru the same process but the lorry drivers company paid all the fee's and i had to pay nothing.

 

[karlj]

unfortunately i don't know the ins and outs of her policy but she's 21 so i'm guessing that's why it's a rip off

 

[micra.jas]

i think 21 year olds have to pay a £250 or £300 comlusary excess.........But as u say she was not at fault..........but then ive neve rhad TPFT.

Best thing to do is speak with the company direct and ask your missus to double check her insurance papers.

 

[C0llis0n]

Insurance companies suck:down:

Ring them tomorrow and give them a right mouthful. Surely there procedures must include informing the policy holder that they may have to cough up the cash!

 

[karlj]

well it's now kinda sorted, she's now got her mum sorting it for her.
Her insurance company has said if she pays the excess (the garage) and give them the receipt then they'll get the money back off the council even if they have to go court

 

[micra.jas]

well thats some kinda good result at least

 

[Chris M]

We'll we've been unfortunate enough to have been in this situation a few times. Our old impreza got hit 3 times! Never our fault. And I was hit on my motorbike last year. And we've never had to pay anything. Although the Insurance company did try to get out of paying the ridiculous storage fee charged by the bike garage for my motorbike....but my soliciter soon sorted that one out!! We are TPFT.

 

[ibrooks]

Paying the excess is standard practice if your insurer fixes it. If it's someone else's fault they will then claim that excess back from the other party (or their insurers). Where people have not had to pay an excess is where the other party's insurers have picked up the bill for fixing the car.

When you are involved in a crash and exchange details the other person should pass your details to their insurer. If the other insurer knows they don't have a case they will often contact you direct and offer to fix the car - they take it away, get it fixed, return it and you pay nothing. If you've already passed the car to your insurers then they will contact them and try to make the same offer. Again if your insurer allows it then you'll never see a bill for your excess. The reason that they do this is to prevent them having to pay (or minimise) additional admin fees that your insurer will add to the bill if they get the car fixed. If there is any question over who was to blame (or the other party's insurer simply thinks they can wriggle out of it) then your insurer will pick up the bill for fixing your car and you will have to pay your excess. Once they sort out the blame issue the insurer of the "at fault" party will pay back the excess to the person who wasn't at fault.

As for "them" not informig her that there would be a bill to pay - it WILL be on the paperwork she signed when the policy was taken out and would even have been in the quote details so she knew full well that if she had an accident she would have an amount to pay. It's not the insurers fault if she didn't read what she signed. She might well get it back but she can't guarantee it.

Iain