Non fault accident claim help

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Tue 6 Aug 2019 11:47
Non fault accident claim help - r5

I was involved in an accident on saturday, 3 car pile up at a set of traffic lights, Car no3 at the back went into car no2 in the middle ultimately sending them crashing into me car no1 at the front.

I called my insurance and they have told me Auxillis will be calling to get me into a hire car, and that somebody from their approved garage will call to arrange to take my car away and estimate the cost of the damage.

The car is a 2006 Golf Gti, from what i can see it needs a new rear bumper, tailgate and pass side rear light, i don't believe there is any structural damage at all. I really don't want the car written off, i have owned it from new and have looked after it meticulously so it has sentimental value to me.

What is the bet way to proceed to avoid a write off, i will be totally gutted if it ends up becoming a CAT C or similar for damage that can easily be fixed, i am guessing their bodyshops are going to charge a fortune, i am even contemplating fixing it my self and not even claiming to avoid it being written off but then i think why the hell should i have to do that when its no fault of my own.

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Tue 6 Aug 2019 12:02
Non fault accident claim help - daveyjp

Considering Auxillis will be charging an excessive amount for the hire car which is also part of the claim I suspect it will be written off (car value maybe £3k?).

If you want to keep the car drop the claim through your company (Auxillis are only in it for their money), cancel the hire car and find a local insurance approved bodyshop to price up a repair, then claim directly through the third party insurer with a price (assuming they have accepted liability).

Edited by daveyjp on 06/08/2019 at 12:03

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Tue 6 Aug 2019 12:07
Non fault accident claim help - gordonbennet

If you have the insurance details of the at fault party, contact them directly, if their insured has told the truth they should (if they have any sense) bend over backwards to sort this out for you, to help keep accident chasers out of the picture to mitigate their costs.

Assuming the car is repairable, they should drop off a basic courtesy car and collect yours and swap back over when repairs are completed, if you are reasonable with them and assist them in mitigating costs (by avoiding the below) they are more likely to play ball with you and hopefully get your car fixed up well...you can only ask them and see what they have to say.

The people who are going to contact you at present are probably accident management specialists, they will want to 'credit hire' you a new car of similar class to yours at a high hire cost, this won't help your case at all and is likely to mean an extended period of faffing about, during which time the hire costs escalate and still won't get your car repaired.

DaveyJP's similar method is a good alternative.

Edited by gordonbennet on 06/08/2019 at 12:08

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Tue 6 Aug 2019 13:00
Non fault accident claim help - mcintosh

I was in a similar situation back in January and went the Auxillis route because it seemed easiest at the time.

Damage to the car seemed fairly minor - just needed a new tailgate and a kink in the bumper straightening out - but they declared it uneconomic to repair. The car's value was assessed as £5K, which seems far beyond what a repair would have cost. I'm convinced it was the cost of the credit hire etc. that doomed.it.

I later discovered that the scrappage company had auctioned it off as a Category S so the damage can't have been disasterously bad.

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Tue 6 Aug 2019 14:28
Non fault accident claim help - r5

Hmmm ok well i haven't accepted any hire car yet and nobody has called to arrange to take my car away to the insurances approved garage, i don't have the insurance details of the at fault party, in this case i assume its the car at the back? I say car it was actually a BT van.

Am i allowed to ask my own insurance company for the third parties details to claim direct? I assume they won't like this? Have i techicaly even started a claim if i haven't accepted a hire car or arranged for them to collect my own car? My insurance passed my details on to Auxillis who have tried ringing me multiple times today, i haven't answered so far as i am not sure what the best way to proceed is just yet.

Should i try and get some quotes my self from local bodyshops and ask for the third partiesdetails from my insurance? What if the third party dosen't accept liability straight away? and is my insurance company supposed to contact me to let me know if they have or is this something i need to chase up my self? Truly appreciate the replies as this is my first accident.

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Tue 6 Aug 2019 14:40
Non fault accident claim help - r5

Sorry Should have said, my insurer has already stated that if i claim from them it wont affect my NCB guessing that won't be the case i go through the 3rd party?

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Tue 6 Aug 2019 15:05
Non fault accident claim help - bazza

If you're claiming off the 3rd party at fault it shouldn't affect your NCB because you're not claiming. But they may well mark you as a higher risk and increase your premium, although when this happened to us, that did not happen. The car sounds driveable? If so a simple solution as above seems easiest.

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Tue 6 Aug 2019 15:10
Non fault accident claim help - daveyjp

As you have a hire car you need to decide what to do to ensure you don't end up with a bill for it.

Are you sure it was BT and not Openreach? They are now different companies so you need to know which one it was. However knowing it is such a large organisation makes it easier. They will have a dedicated insurance department that will handle claims and you can claim through them - I'm sure they have a website with a contact us section.

NCB is smoke and mirrors. Your NCB level may not be affected, but the renewal quote level may be. Not an issue as you can shop around.

I had a no fault claim - NCB percentage remained the same, renewal premium doubled.

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Tue 6 Aug 2019 15:04
Non fault accident claim help - mcintosh

My memory is a bit hazy 7 months down the line so don't take this as definitive advice...

My recollection of dealing with Auxilis was that it was all or nothing - if you wanted them to handle the claim then you had no option but to accept the credit hire. My insurance company were pushing me to go with Auxilis on the basis that otherwise I could lose my NCB if it went through their normal claims procedure. If you've not answered Auxilis's calls then I don't think you're on the hook yet.

Honest John has a FAQ on credit here:

www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/what-is-credit-hire

The whole thing is a minefield and made me uneasy although no-one's come chasing me about the credit hire charges so far (6 months later), so I'm hoping the third party didn't think they were excessive.

My advice is to take your time, think carefully and don't be pressured into a quick decision, especially once Auxilis have you on the phone. Also I found I did need to chase Admiral/Auxilis to get things done and actually get the cheque once the third party insurer had agreed to pay out.

Not sure who is liable in your case - in my case there was just other car involved.

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Tue 6 Aug 2019 16:40
Non fault accident claim help - skidpan

I was in a similar situation back in January and went the Auxillis route because it seemed easiest at the time.

Damage to the car seemed fairly minor - just needed a new tailgate and a kink in the bumper straightening out - but they declared it uneconomic to repair.

We were in exactly the above situation in August 2017 in her 2015 Nissan Note

Wife had to make an emergency stop due to an idiot pulling out, obviously he did not stop and wife did not get his reg. Plumber behind also did not stop, possibly on the phone. He blamed the wife for not indicating but when he phoned later that evening for our details I asked what she should have indicated. He went away to think and came back after speaking to his dad and admitted liability.

In the meantime I had informed our insurers and my independent legal cover insurers. They checked the reg and it cam back as a Peugeot Partner? but wife was 100% certain it was Citroen Berlingo. She knows the Citroen badge is the inverted arrows plus she is never sure which is the Peugeot and Vauxhall badges, Lion or Griffin, I never have a problem. We smelt a rat.

He asked us to get a couple of quotes but since only one local repairer would do a free quote we had to make do with one (local body shop we had used some years ago). It needed a new tailgate, bumper cover, number plate plus all the sundries such as paint etc. Surprisingly they said the glass was reusable did not know bonded glass would come out in one piece, you learn something new everyday. Quote was just over £1500 all in.

E-mailed him the quote and told him if he wanted to avoid the insurance he would have to pay the garage within 2 days and sign an agreement that if extra work was needed he would pay within 1 day. I was stunned when he did both.

Car took 4 days to fix and all was good.

Accident is noted on the policy as "no claim made" and at renewal the price fell by £40 compared to the previous year.

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Tue 6 Aug 2019 16:42
Non fault accident claim help - r5

I am with direct line, i was under the impression my claim was through direct line and only the hire car was being offered by Auxilis, having done some googling it appears that Auxilis handle both hire car's and the claim in some cases. I am going to ring my insurer to confirm.

The more i read the more i feel like i need to do more research before i start making any decisions as mentioned above, i don't want to be rushed into making any quick decisions, Taking the hire car at this point could be a disaster if i want to avoid a write off assuming the hire care costs become part of how economical the claim is in terms or repairing.

At this point i have not agreed to accept a hire car, There is no hire car arranged to be delivered, and i have not spoken to their approved garage and arranged for them to come and collect my car. I am going to ring my insurance and tell them i want to get some quotes from some independent body shops my self which will hopefully work out cheaper than using theirs and give me a better chance of not having my own car written off.

Before i ring them back can anybody confirm what my obligations are at this point in terms of how soon i need to get repair quotes etc? i can understand if i had a hire car then i should be looking to get the car in for repair ASAP but i don't have a hire car so i am not racking up any unnecessary charges for anybody at this point? I work mon-fri 9-5 (replying to this thread as and when i get a spare 10 mins at work) The weekend may be the soonest i can get the car to a body shop for a quote. Is that reasonable?

Edited by r5 on 06/08/2019 at 16:44

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Tue 6 Aug 2019 21:30
Non fault accident claim help - nick62

Just a note of caution when using the "at fault" party's insurance company.

I was rear-ended a couple of months ago. Young guy didn't want to go through the insurance (he was in a "nice" Audi A3), but his insurers called me a couple of hours later, (they had "seen" he had a bump on his black box).

I told them I wanted my own preferred workshop to sort-out the damage (rear bumper and the most minor ding in the tailgate of a VW T5 van), which was the local VW van centre. Insurance co. flatly refused as the rates were "not the same as a bodyshop"! The cost at this point was approx. £900 + VAT.

Went to a very well rated local body shop and 3rd party insurance company now happy - but, they needed an engineer (local independent assessors) to verify the ding in the boot (this could not be seen on photographs). All this took nine days from dropping-off the van, before a spanner or lick of paint had been laid on it, (I was working overseas so did not need it).

As I had opted to take a £200 bounty in lieu of the hire car, I honestly think the insurance co. did not give a flying fig about the amount of time all this has taken (now 17 working days and counting)?

They are completely incompetent and hope it has cost them at least 3x the original £900?

No wonder insurance is so expensive, they can't even get it right when the claim is as straightforward as mine.

Edited by nick62 on 06/08/2019 at 21:34

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Tue 6 Aug 2019 21:55
Non fault accident claim help - Terry W

There is no point in getting emotional over cars - at some point they will be damaged.

Changing the system it is likely to cost time and money - insurance companies have a process in place to cause them minimum hassle. It won't always give them the best answer but over all claims it will probably save money rather than dealing with each one individually.

The only exceptions to this are:

- genuinely classic cars where a repuatable owners club valuation may support payout

- good quality data to support a valuation of anything not classic.

I know some people will be attached to 10-15 year old cars they have meticulously maintained from new and feel that a payout is too low. These will be more than balanced by the owners of time expied heaps claiming rediculous sums for write offs. Just get real!!

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Wed 7 Aug 2019 11:48
Non fault accident claim help - Andrew-T

Getting back to basics, avoiding a write-off depends simply on what the insurers (whoever takes the blame, clearly not you in this case) consider to be the market price of another vehicle identical to yours, or the cost of repairing the damage. To make that assessment they will need an estimate from a recognised bodyshop and probably some photos.

If they decide the car is not worth repairing they will buy your damaged car for its 'market value'. You don't have to accept that: you can choose to 'buy it back' for less (in my case about one-third less) and have it repaired wherever you prefer, topping up if necessary - most bodyshops will estimate for a full set of OEM parts, but will save bits here and there if they can. If the car is 100% reliable and still structurally sound, this may be a good option. My car went this way 2 years ago and is still 100% reliable.

Don't underestimate the damage in a rear-end collision, the floor pan may be more distorted than you realise.

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Thu 8 Aug 2019 09:45
Non fault accident claim help - Jungerns

Hope you get it sorted. My lad was side swiped in a complete no fault accident

It took me over 2 months to get a satisfactory payout and for it FINALLY to be accepted as a non fault claim. The insurers simply didnt want to know. Even when it came for renewal time suddenly the no claims hadnt been added.

Took another 3 weeks to battle it out. No one else would have got the end result purely because they would have given up. To the OP if that car is 2006 I can gurantee its a write off......what I did and to be fair to the Nationwide accident repair place were good they put car down as immaculate and 1 owner from new (it was) and we ended getting the highest possible payout (in hindsight they wanted me to shut up lol)

Make sure you push for yours to be accepted as immaculate pre accident

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