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So. Someone Drove into me.


Capa

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So, I had finished the week at work, during which time I had sat down, had a long think and decided to keep the Boxster for the time being and possibly put a bit of money into it. Yet, I came home to this on Friday afternoon:

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As it transpired, the offending party was good enough to leave their details with someone who was in the house at the time. I'm annoyed, but obviously not as annoyed as I potentially could be. Quite simply, the driver of the car that crashed into me, reversed straight out a driveway across the road into the front of my car.

So. I checked over the damage and have found that the dent has actually come out a fair way; I've found evidence of it being much larger than it is - paint cracking, slight deformation etc. I also tried to remove the headlight and have found the mechanism to take that out is no longer functional.

I've been on the horn to the insurance company [admiral] who gave me two options:

  • Enact a 'no fault' service, whereby I don't pay an excess and my no claims is unaffected
  • Pay my excess and claim through my insurance.

Shockingly enough, I voted for option 1. Upon which I was put through to a third party company called 'Albany Assistance', who would be covering the cost of repairs and providing me with a hire car whilst mine was out of action.

I'd like to point out at this time, a delightful individual decided to steal my mobile phone [good weekend, eh?] so conversation between parties has got a little more difficult. Never-the-less, Albany got hold of me at work and went through the T&Cs and gave me three options for a garage to make the repairs, it was agreed that Harwoods Group's accident repair shop would carry out the work. Considering they are the local main dealer, I'm pretty pleased with this so far. They have sent a claim form via email that I must fill out however, before anything continues.

At this point, I decide to do a little research on this 'Albany Assistance' lot. It turns up that there are plenty of horror stories on Google, about people having to pay costs on their hire car, everything taking ages etc. I'm a little wary about reading too much into that, as it will most likely only tell one side of the story (people rarely post about good experiences) but does anyone here have any experience with them or a similar agency?

Failing that, any tips on alternative avenues on where to go from here, even if it is just a case of 'fill out the damn claim form and stop whining!?'

Thanks!

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AVOID !

I had a taxi bump my rear bumper, nothing drastic that a bit of plastic weld and paint fixed.

This 3rd party company, apointed by my insurance company, wanted to put me in a Porsche as a hire car and use a Porsche approved garaged 30 plus miles away, and then if they couldn't recover the much hinflated hire car costs, I was to underwrite the costs !

ie They wanted me to garrantee their workmanship. Or another way, if they couldn't do their job efficiently and correctly I would be paying !!

And when I asked what garrantees I got, their response was "we will try our best to recover all costs "!

Naturally I told them where to go with their premium inflating antics, that I would not underwrite their job, and called the owner of the taxi company.

A £3000 bill turned into about £300 and all were happy.

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You are responsible for hire car costs if the 3rd party company drag their heels.

The best thing you can do is contact the insurers of the person who hit you and ask if they admit liability. If so deal direct with them and they will get you a car etc.

You will have to declare it unfortunately as its classed as a non fault next time around when you renew.

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Unfortunately I thought that might be the case. Not pleased about that.

Eeeeh. Right. I'll give the offender's insurance company a call tonight then. What would be the way to go, should they not admit liability? I've got a £400 excess that I'd rather avoid paying if possible....

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Better to get a quote for repair from someone decent and offer to the third party to settle it direct with you. Doesn't look like much damage and introducing the insurers only inflates costs for all concerned. It will hit your premiums as well in future, even no fault claims are taken into consideration.

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I got hit earlier this year in the rear bumper,nothing over the top but enough to need a new bumper.luckily they admitted liability straight away,and

my insurance sorted everything very quickly, engineer within two days and at the workshop within five.No excess due to admittance but i was offered another porsche as a loan car but declined as i didn't need it.

I think taking loan cars like that when you don't need them is just pushing all of our insurances higher in the long run.

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I would be inclined to agree with Mike and try for a mutually agreeable solution between you and the other driver.

IF that doesn't work then I would be sorely tempted to use my insurance for what it's intended (even though you will probably get shafted).

Also agree with Mr E above regarding only taking loan cars if you actually need it.

Fingers crossed you get sorted out Matey and hope your month improves :D

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Thanks Exy,

Sorry, I should have written that earlier; the third party private option isn't on the table. My old man mentioned it at the time it was reported, and I gave them a call before bothering with Admiral. For reasonably honest reasons, they aren't willing to pursue that avenue. Which kinda sucks.

Haven't had much luck getting through to the co-operative insurance group tonight, after 20 minutes on hold on a premium rate line, I've just about had enough. Will try again tomorrow morning at work, methinks.

Going forward, is the issue with these companies related solely to the loan car? If so, as suggested above, I might be able to do without private transport for a couple of days - my initial fear was the car would be out of action for weeks, in which case I'll have a bit of a problem.

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I would be inclined to agree with Mike and try for a mutually agreeable solution between you and the other driver.

IF that doesn't work then I would be sorely tempted to use my insurance for what it's intended (even though you will probably get shafted).

Also agree with Mr E above regarding only taking loan cars if you actually need it.

Fingers crossed you get sorted out Matey and hope your month improves :D

feck me, are my eyes deceiving me ?

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the shame of it all is that your insurance premium will be loaded if you go through insurance even though this is clearly not your fault (you were not in the car!). This is why it's best to get the costs directly from the third party. So it's not good that they wont pay.

Failing that, avoid the first option that the insurers offered. These companies operate an outrageous service that charge a fortune for basic car hire to the 3rd party's insurer thereby increasing claims costs to the insurance industry - and we all pay for these in the end.

Good luck getting this fixed properly.

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Failing that, avoid the first option that the insurers offered. These companies operate an outrageous service that charge a fortune for basic car hire to the 3rd party's insurer thereby increasing claims costs to the insurance industry - and we all pay for these in the end.

Agreed. This practice should stop. IMO it's dangerously close to fraud. Which is quite ironic when you hear the industry saying they fight fraud...

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I've run some quotes through confused.com. It looks like it adds about £100 a year to my premium, which is a right pain in the ar*e, but it's going to cost me more than £100 to fix at the end of the day.

I've knocked the idea of a hire car on the head. I don't usually use the car to get to work, so I can live without it for a while. Hopefully that's going to minimise on the potential 'fraud' that's going to go on.

I called co-op this morning, and they are unwilling to admit full liability, despite the fact I pressed them on the fact that I wasn't in the car at the time. I don't really know how that makes sense, but after a while I ended up getting pretty frustrated and gave up.

Looking at this I'm presented with two options; to go with this shonky looking company, or to claim off my own insurance. :(

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Yep, you'll be surprised how many peeps dont want higher insurance premiums and would prefer to deal away from the pain of insurance comapines.

no--one was hurt, but if they do agree to deal outside it would be wise to get a letter stating "noone hurt and no future claims can be made." just for closure.

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I posed the idea of a private repair over the phone on Friday night - 'I'm on benefits, I can't afford that' was the retort I got. I'd say that's pretty conclusive.

If I go through my own insurance, I may as well fund the repairs myself. It's unlikely that they're going to cost me more than the £400 excess.

Whole damn thing is starting to annoy the shyate out of me.

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hang on,...

He's at fault and has driven into you !

If he doesn't want to be a gent about it, firstly report the accident to the police (as this should be done within 24hrs)

Then get your insurance company to claim of his. Yes it's a pain, but you will get your xs back.

Just coz he's a scrounging lazy git, does not mean he can damage other''s property and get away with it !

<rant off>

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Ha. It's a she rather than a he, but I do get your point. I just don't want 400 of my pounds tied up for a couple of months. Admittedly, I'm the one getting the wally points as really, that's too big an excess for a person in my situation. The pleasures of being under 25....

I'm half tempted to attack the front bumper with a hair dryer and try to push it out and pretend the whole damn thing never happened, stick the car up for sale for £4,500 and move on from the whole damn experience.

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I think you should do some sums for them.

cost of repair = X

their excess = Y (voluntary + compulsary)

their loss of no claims = Z

their increase in next year's premium = A

if I look at your pix, it looks like a <£500 repair perhaps. I'm sure that that is cheaper than Y + Z + A

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Mmmm, funding it out of my pocket is a pack of shyate though at the end of the day; the whole reason you have insurance is for instances such as this.

I'm going to wait until my new mobile is delivered, then start playing hardball with their insurer I think.

I can't see how they can deny responsibility due to the fact I was 15 miles away from the car at the time. Equally, since it's the other's insurance company, I can't see how they can take an excess.

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my comment was not for you to fund, rather how you should explain it to your neighbour.

I bet their excesses are high if they are on benefits as this is a way of reducing your insurance premium....get them to 'do the sums'

regarding your comment "the whole reason you have insurance is for instances such as this" in principle, I agree - however (any I have worked in and around the industry) I now hold the opinion that car insurance is just for total loss and expensive claims - not for small claims. This is because the wya NCB and premium loading works, for small claims, whether your fault or not, they always get the money back from you over the subsequent 5 years (IMHO)

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I would focus on dealing with her insurer. It may be frustrating but if you were not in the car and she left details then that is "liability" I would think.

Explain that you were hit and were not in the car and are holding them responsible. I would always position it that you are calling direct as its in their interest to help you as you are trying to keep the costs down.

They will give you a replacement car and they will not take your excess.

I have done this several times and it has been straightforward, shame your situation is slightly trickier.

Can you call them from your work if you have no mobile?

When the driver left details with your neighbour did they admit liability to your neighbour by saying " I just hit your neighbours car"? If so, you have a witness, tell the insurer that and see what happens.

I would imagine the only reason they are not admitting liability is because the person who hit you has not reported the claim. I would go and ask them politely to pick the phone up if I were you.

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and report the accident to the police too, another party was injured - your car !

failure will result in a fine and up to 8 points.. I speak from experrience many many years ago when I didn't realise the telegraph pole I chopped in half belonged to BT

I'm sure if plod turned up to ask him why he hadn't reported the accident the excuse "I just reveresed into a parked car" admits liability too.

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I had similar experience with a very well known insurance company who refused to pay out despite their client being at fault.

It finally got to a CCJ against them and they settled out of court. It was for £900 ffs.

I would put everything in writing (important) to them and if they refuse (and that will be in writing of course) to pay up then again in writing advise that you will have to have the repair done asap and that you will be taking out a CCJ to recover your costs.

Do not be put off by court action. They rely on people not wanting to persue this course of action.

You will get all your costs back including court fees and loss of earnings for court appearances. I know I have had to do it several times. Do not let the b@st@rds screw you.

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Hi Capa,

I've first hand experience of the same thing, same company. Insured through Admiral, someone bumped the Cayman. Passed to Albany as no-fault claim. I had to pay my excess, which is then refunded when the third party insurer accept liability.

I didn't have to pay any other costs, including the like-for-like replacement hire car. Which I had for about a month!

Anyhow, car was repaired - I also requested official Porsche centre repairs to ensure certificates come resale.

Collected car, paid excess, all done. And then the wait began.

I think it was about 9 months before I got my excess - the third party insurer dragged their heels (which I believe is just part of industry practice) and Albany are jobsworths at best when it comes to recovering this - leisurely would be a polite term. In the end I managed to get the details of the third party insurer from Albany (not sure if they should have given me these), I called them myself and had my excess back within 2 days. Absolutely rediculous. I'm told that excess recovery and liability acceptance can take a year. :thumbsdown_anim:

But, on a £10k claim, the £500 excess was pretty miniscule. Despite that problem, in the scheme of things, this is the path of least stress in my opinion if you want your pride and joy taking care of exactly as it should be and I would still do the same. The cars repairs were faultless. :)

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