Renault Motorhome - Accident in a Hire Vehicle. Insurance Q?

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Sun 13 Sep 2020 09:26
Renault Motorhome - Accident in a Hire Vehicle. Insurance Q? - Danny Furniss
Hello all
I’m after a bit of insurance advice.
I hired a motorhome for a little family holiday. Unfortunately I had a slight accident in that I lightly scraped a parked car while attempting to park the motorhome.
Small scrape damage was left on my hire motorhome and the parked unattended car. I left my details on the windscreen of the parked car.
The motorhome was hired from a small firm that doubles up as a garage vehicle repair company. I paid a £750 deposit when I hired the vehicle. I informed the proprietor and motorhome owners ASAP. They wanted to try and repair both the motorhome and parked car themselves being motor mechanics and to presumably avoid going through their own insurers. They asked me to give their details
to the 3rd party parked car owners when they contacted me which they did the next day. The 3rd party then dealt with the hire firm and not me. I had no further contact with them. I returned the motorhome at the end of the little break and didn’t get my £750 back.
I’m not sure what the outcome is in that if the repair of both vehicles went through insurance or the motorhome / garage company repaired both vehicles.
My question is, do I need to inform my own personal insurance company?
Many thanks in advance for an advice.
Kind regards, Danny.
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Mon 14 Sep 2020 13:04
Renault Motorhome - Accident in a Hire Vehicle. Insurance Q? - ExA35Owner

Read the policy documents carefully. They will tell you what your company requires. Beware because insurers share data: it's unwise in the extreme to try to conceal information that they require you to give them, as that can void your insurance and also lead to grief when trying to get insurance in the future.

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Tue 15 Sep 2020 09:50
Renault Motorhome - Accident in a Hire Vehicle. Insurance Q? - Danny Furniss

Thanks for the reply.

I've downloaded and read a copy of my insurer's insurance policy and it does not state anywhere about any obligation to notify of them and incidents / accidents in another vehicle.

There is a specific "What are my Obligations". This seems to entirely relate to my insured vehicle with them and my obligations to notify them about any incidents in that car.

I've done a little bit of research and read that the insurance on hire vehicles is in the name of vehicle owner (hire compnay). The Car Hire Excess Insurance policies do not insure the car - they insure the policyholder against the risk of having to pay the car hire company for a sum due under the rental company's CDW policy excess, or for damage to the tyres, wheels, underbody or roof. It is a personal rather than car insurance policy. The fee that you pay as a customer in the event of an accident is "hire car waiver" fee which means that the owners are not allowed to pursue you for repairs monies etc. You simply lose your hire car waiver fee as I've done already.

Some advice on this website but nothing conclusive about having to notify my own insurers or not.

www.moneymaxim.co.uk/faq/car-hire-insurance/does-a...s

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Tue 15 Sep 2020 11:28
Renault Motorhome - Accident in a Hire Vehicle. Insurance Q? - Bromptonaut

I would be surprised if you did not need to advise. All my recent insurers Admiral, LV and Direct Line have wanted to know of ANY claims or convictions. I bumped my partner's car and was obliged to advise my own insurer.

Personally I'd let them know and take the hit (if there was one) rather than risk trouble in a future claim.

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Tue 15 Sep 2020 13:35
Renault Motorhome - Accident in a Hire Vehicle. Insurance Q? - Palcouk

Just rechecked my policy and under Obligations this appears to be a "catchall" paragraph

"You must tell us of any changes relating to your policy as soon as possible. - Changes include: reg. number, modifications, address, occupation, employment, claims."

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