Insurance claim - advice required

Noel123

I was in an accident in which I clearly believe the other person is at fault. He has not claimed he is at fault.
I rang my insurance company and they told me I must ring his insurance company to make a claim
Should this not be the job of my insurance company?

I rang the other guys insurance company and they seed they will send out an assessor to get a report from the other guy and view his car.

I ask will the assessor contact me and view my car and was told no. They said after the assessor contacts the other guy and makes a decision on who is at fault only then will they contact me.
Seems very odd to me.
Any advice on what I do is grateful

d1234

Do you have photos/video of accident? Did you contact the Gardai?

I would also recommending looking at your own assessor. They can be useful if they are skillful.

MugMugs

d1234 wrote: »

Do you have photos/video of accident? Did you contact the Gardai?

I would also recommending looking at your own assessor. They can be useful if they are skillful.

And can cost a lump of your settlement.

Why is he at fault? What happened?

If your third party fire and theft and there's no claim being made against you then your insurer have no interest in the matter. Customer service should prevail though and out of common decency you'd expect them to at least report it to the other side.

Noel123

MugsMugs, Its his fault in my eyes as he went from a right only turn lane into my lane to make a left turn.
I am comprehensive. Are you saying as I am making a claim against him, there is nothing for my insurance company to do?
i.e. I have to do all the work through his insurance company?

MugMugs

Well if you have comp cover then intimate a claim against your own policy for repairs and tell your insurer that as the other party is liable to recover from them. They'll obviously want to recover if they can. Just be warned that if they don't recover it will effect your policy and you'll lose 3 years NCB.

MCD.

Based on that description I would say liability isn't entirely clear cut. Granted you only described it in a few words so I could be wrong.

It is a condition of most policies that you notify your insurer within a reasonable time of any incident that may give rise to claim.

In relation to this case, if you are the injured party you would usually chase the other persons insurer for payment. I agree that your insurer should probably have been more helpful.

Alternatively, they could have paid your damage themselves and sought recovery from the other party. But if its a straight forward claim its probably more straightforward to go through the other drivers insurer yourself.

Noel123

thanks mugsmugs and mcd. I will think about it and decide what to do. Still dont understand why his assessor will not want to look at damage to my car. Any ideas?

MCD.

Noel123 wrote: »

thanks mugsmugs and mcd. I will think about it and decide what to do. Still dont understand why his assessor will not want to look at damage to my car. Any ideas?

Likelihood is if the damage suggests that your man was entirely at fault its an open and shut case and you will be asked for estimates etc. If the estimates prove unrealistic or if the assesor determines that the damage to your mans car is not consistent with him being entirely liable they will take a look at you vehicle.

If the damage to your car (and his if he has comp) is relatively small it is in their own interest to close it off quickly as the more it drags on the higher the cost of the claim goes. But if they get a sniff that they might not be liable they will slog it out with your insurer.

Noel123

Should I go about finding a garage to give me an estimate for the work to fix my car so?
Or do I need to wait to hear from his assessor?
Want to get rolling with getting my car fixed

MCD.

If the car is in a road worthy state I'd take it to a garage and get the damage assessed and an estimate done up. It will probably expediate things which ever way the assessors view goes.

If his insurer have an approved repair network it would probably be a reasonable idea to go with them. Reason being

The repair will be quick
The network offers more security from your point of view. For example if the work is shoddily completed and the garage goes belly up you are unlikely to have any comeback if its your own garage whereas if its an approved repair centre the insurer will send it to a different garage in their network.

People are always suspicious of insurer garages but I have generally found them to be fine. In any case after the work is finished you can have it looked at by your own garage to make sure all is in order.

Noel123

thanks for help mcd. I will look up his insurance company approved garage and get quote

CiniO

MugMugs wrote: »

And can cost a lump of your settlement.

Why is he at fault? What happened?

If your third party fire and theft and there's no claim being made against you then your insurer have no interest in the matter. Customer service should prevail though and out of common decency you'd expect them to at least report it to the other side.

So in that case, who is to judge whose fault it was if OP's insurer has nothing to do with it?

MugMugs

CiniO wrote: »

So in that case, who is to judge whose fault it was if OP's insurer has nothing to do with it?

But it's not the case as the OP has subsequently advised he is comp. Your question doesn't really make much sense to me either. Could be my groggy head of a Saturday though. What are you asking?

CiniO

MugMugs wrote: »

But it's not the case as the OP has subsequently advised he is comp. Your question doesn't really make much sense to me either. Could be my groggy head of a Saturday though. What are you asking?

Sorry, I missed OP saying he is comprehensive.

Anyway - I was rather asking in relation to what you said before (possibly not clearly enough):

If your third party fire and theft and there's no claim being made against you then your insurer have no interest in the matter.

I've learned already, that in Ireland it's insurance companies which decide who is at fault at the accident.
I personally think it's utterly stupid way, as it is that way - let it be.

But now you are saying, that OP's insurer has nothing to do with it if there is no claim made against him (assuming it's other party's fault).

So who is to decide about fault?

Because it looks like it's other party insurer to decide if his customer is at fault and pay to the OP or not.
It's obvious their business is not to pay, so what's stopping them to decide it's not their customer fault?

It just seems crazy, that insurer of person who caused accident, which should normally pay for damage to OP, are going to decide who is at fault. It's obvious it's not in their interest to decide it was their customer who was at fault, because then they will have to pay to OP.

MugMugs

Sucks Eh?

By rights out of pure customer service your insurer should protect your rights but if the only interest that they have is for your liability to third parties and there's no third party claim forthcoming some generally don't get involved.

I used to fight for clients in my day but by and large it's more admin than its worth for the insurer.

corktina

It sounds to me as if liability may not be so cut and dried. If the guy changed lanes to turn left, and there was a collision, it does sound as if the OP may have hit him from behind, unless it was a sideswipe-type accident.

Whichever, the OP has fully comp and should go back to his Ins Co and initiate a claim on his own policy, if he is sure it was not his fault.

Noel123

I am the OP and I hit him because he went from the right lane across to my lane and I ended up hitting his back seat on the passengers side - which to me would suggest to the assessor that I could only do that if he turned left.