Someone drove into my car. Not a lot of damage But frustrating. She drove off but a neighbour spotted it and gave me her address so I have her insurance details. She has offered to pay for damage but not sure how much its likely to cost. I have never had to deal with an accident. Can I insist that it is repaired through a decent repairer. Ideally audi
Someone reversed into my car. Can I insist on insurer paying repairs at approved repairer
- Thread starter sunshinewelly
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I have but might depend upon the insurer and you might not get consessions like a courtesy car. Best go through audi ensurance https://insurewithaudi.co.uk/ensurance if you can.
But for that I would look at not going through insurance, the damage in that photo looks more comestic.
You may put her off by insisting on an audi only repair...
But for that I would look at not going through insurance, the damage in that photo looks more comestic.
You may put her off by insisting on an audi only repair...
The square piece of plastic is damaged. What ever that is and the horizontal honeycomb section is deformed slightly The rest are scuffs
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A guy reversed into my A4 a year ago, and put his tow bar through the front grill. I went to a local Audi specialist (I didn't want to rip him off, but I wanted it properly repaired through that specialist with genuine parts) and got a quote and then presented it to the guy and said he can either settle it privately, or go through insurance. He decided he didn't want it on his insurance so paid for it privately. However I didn't know about that Ensurance thing. I would sign up to that, and get them to deal with it. If that doesn't work (because the incident happened before you signed up), just do what I did; tell the person you will get a private quote and that she can then decide whether to settle privately or use her insurance.
If she says she wants to go through insurance, you actually go through your own insurance company. Providing she has admitted liability, you can then just go ahead and get it repaired and they will simply pay for, and then reclaim the costs from her insurance company. That way, you don't have to worry about the repairer not being on the list of approved repairers for her insurance company.
If she says she wants to go through insurance, you actually go through your own insurance company. Providing she has admitted liability, you can then just go ahead and get it repaired and they will simply pay for, and then reclaim the costs from her insurance company. That way, you don't have to worry about the repairer not being on the list of approved repairers for her insurance company.
The fact that she drove off wouldn’t leave me feeling confident about her being straightforward to deal with.
As per a recent thread, my wife’s car was in an incident. Swapped details, got a quote and gave the guy till the end of the week to pay it straight to the body shop before I booked it in.
Not sure I’d offer up the same to someone who ******** off for fear of hassle or excuses when approaching a payment deadline.
As per a recent thread, my wife’s car was in an incident. Swapped details, got a quote and gave the guy till the end of the week to pay it straight to the body shop before I booked it in.
Not sure I’d offer up the same to someone who ******** off for fear of hassle or excuses when approaching a payment deadline.
Yes I can see that, I guess you also know that going through your insurance may raise your premium as it is a no fault claim. It did mine...
WHY
why would i go through my insurance ? surely its her insurance that picks up the tab
why would i go through my insurance ? surely its her insurance that picks up the tab
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If insurance is used, you deal with your insurance company. Assuming liability has been accepted by the other party, then all costs are recovered and your insurance remains unaffected. If you phone your insurance company, they will explain this to you.
You aren't, however there insurance will contact your insurance and they will, in turn, contact you.
When another driver drove into the wing of my car causing far more damage my premium went up because the no fault claim.
"What is a 'non-fault' claim?
A 'non-fault' claim is a claim where one of the following is true:
- The claim has not led to the customer's insurer making any payments
- All payments made by the insurer have been recovered from a third party and/or their insurer
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This is (IMHO) poor form on behalf of the insurance company. I work in the insurance sector, and have to deal with similar situations. It comes down to how individual insurance companies assess risk. Some take the view that if you have been involved in an incident, even if it is not your fault and/or you incurred no costs (or all costs were recovered), the risk of another incident occurring in the future has increased. As a result, your premium goes up. Admiral are an example of a company such as this. You also have to report to Admiral if you have been on a speed awareness course as they deem this to indicate an increased risk, and again, increase your premium, whereas other insurance companies do not believe it to be a risk factor.
It certainly isn't standard practise, some insurers take the view that in the case of a non-fault claim, the claimant is no more or less likely to be involved in another incident in the future. Car park incidents are a classic example of this. It is very much down to how each insurance company assesses risk.
With the example I cited earlier with my own car, my insurer (Aviva) told me that providing all costs were recovered from the third party, it would not be a factor in assessing future premiums. So, probably, the OP should check their policy wording and/or phone them for explicit clarification on this point.
It certainly isn't standard practise, some insurers take the view that in the case of a non-fault claim, the claimant is no more or less likely to be involved in another incident in the future. Car park incidents are a classic example of this. It is very much down to how each insurance company assesses risk.
With the example I cited earlier with my own car, my insurer (Aviva) told me that providing all costs were recovered from the third party, it would not be a factor in assessing future premiums. So, probably, the OP should check their policy wording and/or phone them for explicit clarification on this point.
Posts above that state that you must go through your own insurance provider are false. It is worth contacting the third parties insurance provider directly in the first instance. They are often happy to deal with you directly where their insured is clearly at fault. I have done this twice on two occasions where it was clear-cut and didn't need to get my own insurance company involved.
Did they allow you to use a repairers of your choice and do you think then the OP would still be able to use Audi's Ensurance?
Also would the other person insurance not share any information with the claimants insurers?
Also would the other person insurance not share any information with the claimants insurers?
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Yes that is true, but the third party insurer doesn't have to deal with you. I would say you've been lucky in your two cases that the insurance company was flexible enough to deal with you directly. You also then might have the issue of having to follow the terms and conditions in place for someone else's contract (re choice of repairers, cover vehicles, etc). Of course, if your own insurance company is likely to increase the premium due to the non-fault claims, as discussed above, then that maybe the better of two evils.
Correct. They may not want to deal with you but there's nothing prohibiting you from asking. In my case I was quite happy to use their approved repairers. On one of the instances, the third party's insurer passed me to the uninsured loss recovery team that they use and they then dealt with everything with me directly.
On a side note as soon as you even enquire about claiming to your own insurance they will raise your premium. So only contact them once you are sure.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/money/2013/sep/30/insurance-query-higher-premiums
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/money/2013/sep/30/insurance-query-higher-premiums
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That article is really just an example of typical poor journalism. There are many factors that could affect your premium, and the pricing models are bespoke to each insurer, depending on the risk they want to insure and how they view that risk. That is why you get a whole range of quotes for any insurance policy, because different insurers will assess your risk differently, depending on their view. Whilst that article does keep saying "it may" and "it could", it is written to lead you to think "it will" increase your premium just by making an enquiry, and it simply doesn't work like that.
I write the models that are used for pricing various different policy types, and whilst it is true that the details could be used in that manner (and I will happily single out Admiral through personal experience as a particularly poor example of an insurance company that appears to use any excuse to increase the premiums), that article is just misleading as many insurers don't operate like that.
Made no change to mine when I made a enquiry, got to the point of getting a quote from an audi body shop, almost £4000, but then dropped I the claim. In the end paid for it myself at a local bodyshop and paid £350.
The op really needs to consider that the cost of repairing just cosmetic damage, with the painting of a new small piece of plastic, against the risk of having his premium raised.
With regard to who repairs your car, it depends who you are insured with.
A recent non-fault accident led me to claim for the repair of mine this year, my insurance company were a nightmare - broken promises regarding courtesy vehicles and repair centres and never instigating any communication (I.E I had to chase them every step). If I wanted to nominate a repair centre my insurers wanted me to pay my excess and a £250 fee for the privelidge. To top it off, they passed my details to a hateful personal accident claims company who called two or three times a week trying to get me to launch a personal injuries claim.
After 5 weeks of having to look at my broken car in the company car park and on the suggestion of an Audi assessor I had spoken to, I contacted the third party’s insurer who were an absolute delight to deal with, let me take the vehicle to whoever I wanted and put me in a like for like courtesy vehicle.
Needless to say I’m now insured with them.
A recent non-fault accident led me to claim for the repair of mine this year, my insurance company were a nightmare - broken promises regarding courtesy vehicles and repair centres and never instigating any communication (I.E I had to chase them every step). If I wanted to nominate a repair centre my insurers wanted me to pay my excess and a £250 fee for the privelidge. To top it off, they passed my details to a hateful personal accident claims company who called two or three times a week trying to get me to launch a personal injuries claim.
After 5 weeks of having to look at my broken car in the company car park and on the suggestion of an Audi assessor I had spoken to, I contacted the third party’s insurer who were an absolute delight to deal with, let me take the vehicle to whoever I wanted and put me in a like for like courtesy vehicle.
Needless to say I’m now insured with them.
I doubt if the Police would see it as criminal damage but leaving the scene of an accident https://www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/fin...iving-and-accidents/leaving-scene-of-accident
But then, these days, I think the underfunded Police would not be that motivated..
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This is unfortunately not an uncommon story with insurance companies, and is clearly one of the reasons why they have a bad reputation. They all have their own view on how they should operate their claim handling facility, and how good it needs to be.
I once had to deal with an insurance company (not in motor insurance), and they actively have a policy of providing a claims service that is difficult to use. By doing this, it ensures that there are many claims that people either don't start, get half way through and don't finish, or complete the initial process but then never follow it up to completion. They calculated the saving as hundreds of thousands of pounds over several years. They don't lose any premium since the policy has already been purchased, so all they are potentially losing is the premium/income due to the loss of the repeat business from the unhappy customer, which is very small. They might also lose a few sales due to the unhappy customers leaving bad reviews on social media, but again the loss is so few so they don't consider it is worth dealing with.
I have reported it to my insurer. The car is under a fleet insurance policy so not too concerned about the premium etc. The 3rd party seems to be not as apologetic now. It seems I did not park close enough to the kerb (she avoided the car parked in front of me) and that my car was the wrong colour to be seen at night. i will let my insurers deal with it.
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Just one thought... I recently had a far less than satisfactory repair from an ‘Audi dealership’ repair centre, than I have had with other independent ARC companies.
So it’s really not always best to go dealership for body repairs... Was somewhat shocked and disappointed to reject a repair!
So it’s really not always best to go dealership for body repairs... Was somewhat shocked and disappointed to reject a repair!
.............got my policy documents for this at the weekend, thanks again.
audi ensurance seem a lot better than my own insurer. My own insurer wants me to pay the excess and then they will try to get it back. They recommended repairer is a local joke and i would not take a wheel barrow there to be repaired.
gave audi ensurance a ring (despite not taking out the cover until after the accident - checked with them and thats fine)
they have now arranged an approved audi body shop to do the repair and have offered a hire car whilst repairs take place.
they also will contact the 3rd party insurer first before anything is done so that no excess is payable.
gave audi ensurance a ring (despite not taking out the cover until after the accident - checked with them and thats fine)
they have now arranged an approved audi body shop to do the repair and have offered a hire car whilst repairs take place.
they also will contact the 3rd party insurer first before anything is done so that no excess is payable.
DarkyUK
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I have used Audi Ensurance before and they are good, even claimed for the cost of a replacement child seat following a no fault accident. One thing to keep in mind though, they use a car hire company which charges a fortune, I think the cost of the hire car I was in when someone drove into me was well into the thousands, that in turn pushes up the cost of the claim which you have to then declare when you have a hunt around at your insurance renewal.
I think the insurance bill which Direct Line got when a BMW drove into my old A7 was over £20,000, about 6 to 7K of that was the hire cost from the sports car hire company which Audi Ensurance used.
Also, I initially got put in a fairly old Audi A6, I then complained after a couple of weeks and got swapped for an almost new Audi A8, I was in the car for about 2 to 3 months.
I think the insurance bill which Direct Line got when a BMW drove into my old A7 was over £20,000, about 6 to 7K of that was the hire cost from the sports car hire company which Audi Ensurance used.
Also, I initially got put in a fairly old Audi A6, I then complained after a couple of weeks and got swapped for an almost new Audi A8, I was in the car for about 2 to 3 months.
