Missus parked the car outside her aunt’s house yesterday shortly before an old lady lost control of hers & hit the front passenger front quarter full whack – her car flipped & firefighters had to cut her out of it, not just a glancing blow unfortunately (the recovery guy said it looked like the drive shaft was snapped when he dragged it onto the truck & the wheel was hanging off). Never happened to me before so a couple of questions to help set my wife at ease (well, slightly closer to it 😆 )

We’ve an 8 month old baby to cart around so really need a car until we get a new one sorted – what’s the deal with courtesy cars in the event of a total loss thesedays? Will we get one until the claim is settled or is it not as straightforward? Also, can we claim car hire back from the other insurer until we get a new car? The car was bought as an approved used car from the main dealer under a year ago so i’d be hoping to get the “dealer price” valuation back, what’s the chances of that – slim/none?

Not heard much back on the old lady, apparently still in hospital with a couple of broken bones – although a relative of hers popped round last night to take photos & try and work out what happened – seemed quite adamant that it definitely wasn’t a black out and even if it was she’d never had that happen before (???) very strange.

Cheers,
J

how old is it? If new-ish it might not be written off, might just be repaired.

If you’ve got the number of the ladies insurance company, ring them direct and tell them you need it sorted. Blame shouldn’t be an issue, so I’d expect them to pay out quickly (might be a matter of days if its a simple pay out), but you can tell them you need a rental car in the mean time and they should sort you out (if not, you can rent one and claim the money back).

I’d expect (if written off) a low-ball offer for the car, if you can find evidence it’s been undervalued then you can evidence that. The ombudsman guide says that you should get retail price minus a haggling amount, rather than trade price or whatever

If you’ve got the number of the ladies insurance company, ring them direct

Don’t even do that – just ring your insurance company and they will set everything into motion – they will sort a car out, get in touch with a loss recovery team etc.

Speak to your own insurance company – they should be sorting out a loan car for you. You’ll keep it until the claim is settled.
If you hire one yourself I wouldn’t bank on being able to claim the money back.

Cheers all – from being stung by a previous crash (not at fault) my missus insists on getting extra legal assistance etc. along with the insurance so it hopefully should be fairly straightforward – she spoke to our insurers yesterday & just waiting to hear back from them about a courtesy car, but just slightly worried that we’ll be left with no car after the settlement, because we will need to hire one – don’t fancy shelling out hundreds on car hire costs every week until we decide on another car so i’m wondering if we can claim hire costs back from the other party.

Car is a 4 year old Skoda roomster scout, not anything too fancy but not that many of them around & we got a pretty good deal on ours when we bought it and the missus fancies another one.

j

Your insurance will have special rates with a special car rental provider who has managed to negotiate an exclusivity arrangement for non-fault claims. Definitely don’t hire your own unless instructed to do so…

Your own insurance company will likely wash their hands of things once they’ve paid you for the car. If you want a hire car until you get a replacement you’ll need to either engage a claims management company or go direct to the third party insurers.

I seem to recall that cover for a hire car after a write-off was an optional extra on my insurance.

worried that we’ll be left with no car after the settlement, because we will need to hire one – don’t fancy shelling out hundreds on car hire costs every week until we decide on another car so i’m wondering if we can claim hire costs back from the other party.

Once the claim is settled you won’t be eligible for a courtesy car – it would be madness to allow that: Have accident, get paid for a total loss and then continue to claim off the third party in perpetuity for a hire car and keep the settlement to spend on coke/hookers/log stoves/bikes.

Who said anything about perpetuity? That would be madness but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to get a couple of weeks car hire post settlement to give us time to find another car – I’m not taking the piss, we need a car to get the baby around in & I’ll need to hire one if they won’t give us one – it’s not like I’m claiming the glove box was full of Faberge eggs ffs. OR AM I? 8)

I am pretty sure once they have written the cheque you are on your own regarding a hire car,surely you can arrange one (new car) prior to settlement.

Who said anything about perpetuity? That would be madness but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to get a couple of weeks car hire post settlement to give us time to find another car

I know, I was just taking the logic to its highly illogical conclusion 😉

But I am sure you’ll find in the Ts&Cs that if the claim was your fault, you’ll get a set length of time in a courtesy car (say 2 weeks) and if it was a no fault (as is your case) you’ll get one until the claim is settled. I can’t say I have ever heard of courtesy cars being paid for after the claim is settled. I guess the onus is on you to start looking for a suitable replacement car now, not when the claim is settled.

I got my cheque and bought a new car a day or so later then I rang my insurance company to say they could take the hire car back. They were very surprised i didn’t want it any more!

Sounds like the missus should spend months deciding on the perfect car in the perfect colour / upholstery combo for the dog & baby to tear up & befoul I should start looking for a new one sooner than later then – have already hinted that an enormous 300bhp awd Volvo estate is probably the safest option, because SAFETY 8)