I mentioned a while ago my wifes car got written off when it was parked up outside a shop. We eventually agreed to just take the money. Immediately the insurance company told my wife she had to return the hire car because she’d agreed to a settlement. She argued and they said she could keep it for five more days. Today is the return day.

In the meantime we’re waiting for the cheque to arrive. Even once it’s arrived we have to wait for it to clear and that’s assuming we then have found a car to replace her old one.

This all seems quite unfair to me. She’s a self-employed mobile worker and won’t be able to run her business now, she’s going to have to tell all her clients that she can’t do anything for them for at least a week or so, probably more, so we’re losing money and she could potentially lose clients. None of this is her fault.

Experiences in this area? We’ve both talked to the insurance company who have said this is policy, pretty much tough but we’ve been placed in this situation by the driver who was insured by this company and yet we’re now going to end up considerably out of pocket. Can we claim for more damages? (i.e. hire car costs or business loss costs?) Did we accept the offer too soon?

Probably going to be a cause of “learn by experience.” IANAL but I would imagine settlement is just that.Could have probably pushed to keep the rental till the cheque arrived but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

If I’m reading this right the other party has admitted liability and it’s their insurers that you are dealing with?

It’s probably time to speak to somebody either legal or from the claims industry. Some friends had similar and used a specialist company to deal with it all which ended up with them getting a hire car identical to theirs s they could still use roof racks etc while everything was being sorted. Keep records of everything and see if anyone suggests someone to use.

Is it the other drivers insurer who is providing the hire car and settling for the written off car?

If it is then a 3rd party liability claim, which you can pursue yourself, or, if you have legal cover on your/your wife’s car insurance – they can do this for you – the purpose of such cover is to provide you with the ability to claim ‘out of pocket’ expenses caused by the 3rd party.

You may find you have this cover on your home insurance too. It’s worth checking your policies.

This is only helpful if it is the [b]other driver’s insurer who is settling with you, as if it is your own insurer the legal cover does not apply – primarily as they will only pursue damages/expenses if they are certain they will succeed.

As the others said, sounds like the other party is known to you and has admitted liability, so you can claim for uninsured losses such as car hire, public transport, your excess (as we found out, it appears some insurance companies now charge you your excess even in a non-fault accident where you retain your no claims).

when you accepted the cash settlement it was “in full” and was not just for the value of the car. YOo (and Im sure I would too) would have assumed that during the negotiation on value you were just talking about the car and not incidental costs. I dont see why you cant go back to them and say you misunderstood the terms of the settlement but I wouldnt hold my breath. For Mrs S’s sake Id just get on and hire a small car for a week or get busy and buy a car on credit if you think you can get a replacement quickly.

Tough lesson I’m afraid.

I would imagine the terms of the offer were an amount of cash in full and final settlement, not cash “plus a rental car until you buy someone else”. From the rhe insurers perspective the cash settled all claims and thus included an amount for car rental if you so wished.

IME you can rent cars from £20 a day so it’s up to you to make a decison as to what’s more valuable, the business lost or the money.

@mikewsmith correct but I suspect that now we’ve accepted, it might be too late. As Coyote says, could be a learning experience for us. 🙁

Aye, as I thought. Thanks.

As Stoner says, just rent the smallest little car as cheaply as possible for a week. It’ll only be a few hundred surely, which your wife can then write off as a business expense, so in reality, 20-25% less than the upfront price (in the long term) – the risk (cost) of losing business, goodwill and clients is far higher than the cost of cheap rental for a week. Once the dust has settled, perhaps you can write to the parties concerned and try and recover costs, perhaps invoking the insurance ombudsman (does one exist?) if you feel you’re being treated unfairly.

moneysupermarket have just quoted £90ish squid for a week’s “mini economy” rental (that was from Birmingham for reference).

thanks, yes, it’s about the same up here. I’ll chat with the wife.

Update: Incensed and the sheer brutality of insurance companies in general, I decided someone was getting a piece of my mind. So I phoned our insurance company who told me case closed, sorry. I then phoned the drivers insurance company who interrupted me mid-rant and said, ‘oh sorry sir, actually you can keep the car until the cheque arrives’.

‘well, oh, but….ok, thanks.’

‘oh sorry sir, actually you can keep the car until the cheque arrives’.

Best to gett hat in writing, as they may not have told the car hire company who may well turn up and just take it back.