|
hi room, my car was severely damaged by a lorry on the M1 three weeks ago i rang my insurance co to see what they were doing about the claim and all i got from them was " nothing your only tpft you will have to claim personally to the company that the lorry belongs to!!! the company involved is in germany and the driver didnt speak english anyway, the guy at vauxhall who i got a repair quote from reckons i wont get a penny ......what do i do now? thanks
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 14/02/2008 at 17:54
|
Have you tried contacting the German company? Give them a call and with a bit of luck there will be someone there with passable English. The German's are pretty honourable lot and you may find they will meet their obligations.
All is not lost.
|
Demonstrates another benefit of comprehensive insurance cover.
Chris M is right. You need to approach them with full details. Time, place, lorry reg, lorry driver name, damage details and estimate etc.
Pity 3 weeks have gone by since the incident but they should have records of where the lorry was at the given time and with any luck the driver may have also reported the incident.
Oh! Were the police called to the incident? They will have useful records too.
Edited by Round The Bend on 14/02/2008 at 14:18
|
|
|
I assume you have a police report number the name and number of the police officer who attended the name of the insurance company plus his personal and company details if you have all that plus the damage report and the police accident report send a copy to the insurance company a copy to the the haulage firm and a copy to the driver, you will need for it to transalated into German although German insurance companies will nearly always have an english speaker. Call the insurance company in Germany and explain the situation tell them what you are doing.If it is the other drivers fault and the police confirm that then they will pay up unlike UK insurance they are as Chris says pretty honourable.
May I also add that your own insurance company should be persueing this for you.
|
"May I also add that your own insurance company should be persueing this for you"
Only if he had legal cover surely? He's TPFT.
When my brother many years ago with TPFT had an accident his legal cover kicked in and after 12 months all was finally sorted. Legal bills were about £30k on each side mind and the car was worth less than £1000.
If OP does not have legal cover on his car insurance perhaps he has some cover via household insurance.
Best of luck zookeeper.
|
|
|
If, as he says in his post, the OP only has TPF&T, then that only covers him for his liability to third parties, and damage to his car by fire or theft - nothing else. It hasn't got anything to do with his insurance company
Edited by borasport20 on 14/02/2008 at 16:09
|
I have joined especially to post this.
As advised TPFT cover provides no cover for own damage.
There is often little premium difference for Comprehensive over TPFT and you do get windscreen cover too.
When the policy was purchased Legal Expenses is usually available for a modest cost or not so modest on many online quote sites. This is called Before The Event. However, you can usually buy After The Event Cover from most brokers, effectively the same cover but as you really need it now, it costs more.
Premiums are £10 - 30 for Before The Event and usually £25.00 - £50 upwards for after the event, the company can use the MID to check the reg on the (motor insurance database) to hopefully track down the insurer of the HGV and attempt to recover all your costs.
I would suggest you track a policy down to let these guys work for you. Overseas claims take ages. But on occasions insurers have UK Offices or claims handling teams and if the driver reported it and advised it was his fault then it should not be an issue.
If the other parties insurers admit fault then, the Legal Expenses people can inspect the vehicle, approve repairers, sort out a hire car and get the garage hire all paid directly by them.
Unfortunately if there is an argument about liability it takes longer to sort out, but even a 50/50 settlement will enable half the costs to be recovered and I assume there is no damage to the HGV this would be better than nothing.
Before you buy the After Event ULR cover, make sure they can cope with overseas claims and check there is no similar cover under the home insurance etc.
HTH
Clarkey
|
For the original poster this is after the event info... but if fully comprehensive is not much more it's worth it simply because (apart from excess) you're back on the road whilst they recover the money and the excess.
My brother who I referred to had legal cover and TPFT and although he eventually got money it took over 12 months. And due to a mix up there were storage charges for the car which he had to start repaying - luckily they agreed a monthly fee as by the time this was realised it had gone through the roof* In the end the insurance also reinbursed for that.
But until they payed up he had no car... well he had to borrow money to buy a new car.
* The mix up was insurance somehow thought the car was stored on his brother's drive. I lived in a hall of residence at Manchester University at the time and the other brother is in South Wales with no drive. Accident was in Bracknell outside the HP office.... and loads of witnesses. But it still dragged on...
|
|
thanks for the reassuring news , i really thought i was on a loser here , ive got a collision detail form issued by the traffic plod with my and other vehicle involveds details , plus i have a witness ( he actually stopped on the hard shoulder and ran back to give his details and he actually will testify as to the other driver was to blame) what action do i pursue? i dont have legal representation .... im thinking of photo damage of my vehicle , written quote for repair, witness written statement, then send it all to the third party concerned , oh by the way the insurance company i will be contacting go by the name of BALVA...thanks
|
Balva are a Latvian company. They have an English language section on their website.
www.balva.lv
|
|
|
By all means you can try this in your own, scan everything in, with a full clearly written signed statement and a diagram. I would suggest you get a second estimate to confirm the costs are reasonable and email it. Be aware with older car's and expensive repairs that it's possible insurers may look to write the car off (if it's anywhere near 50% of the current prices for similar cars on Autotrader etc it's quite likely)
If you want a blank claims form to fill in so you get all the info insurers like to see, just let me know and I can email one to you.
As mentioned they may well have representation in the UK to deal with this, making life much easier. But I feel for 20 or 30 quid it may well be worth letting a company do this for you, it will not cost you anything more than this premium and they have more clout and contacts.
You are looking for After The Event - Motor Legal Expenses policy to assist in recovery of repair costs form a foreign insurer. DAS, Angel Assistance & MSL (3 I can think of who I don't work with) should all be able to help provide the policy.
Goodluck.
Clarkey
(Commercial Insurance Broker)
|
Help is at hand closer than Latvia.
Motor Insurers Bureau www.mib.org.uk deal with accidents in UK involving foreign vehicles and their page for UK reps of foreign insurers shows that BALVA are represented by:-
Royal Sun Alliance Foreign Claims
17 York Street
Manchester M2 3RS
0870 600 2900
HTH
|
Hi,
You could try a company like helphire www.helphire.com/
I have never used them myself but have heard good things about them. I think they will charge you £10 for insurance in case you loose the case. As soon as they agree that they will take your case on you will be offered a hire car (If you car is damaged badly enough)
Worth a try
Best wishes
James
|
|
|
|
>>If you want a blank claims form to fill in so you get all the info insurers like to see just let me know and I can email one to you.
thanks clarkey147, a blank claim form would be very much appreciated .... and thanks to everyone else for taking the time to respond to my plight,
could you e-mail the form to barbapic 'at' gmail.com
cheers ..zookeeper
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 16/02/2008 at 13:01
|
SNIPQUOTE! could you e-mail the form to barbapic 'at' gmail.com
this is to clarkey147, i didnt receive the blank claim form you were going to e-mail to me i checked all my mail including spam , could you send it again if its no trouble to the above e-mail address , thanks again .....zookeeper
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 21/02/2008 at 19:35
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
