Insurance whilst abroad

bear1

I was thinking about this for a while but what is the procedure if you take your Irish car to the continent and have an accident?
Say the car is written off, bags out etc.
What would your Irish insurance do? Do they send out an assessor?
Or do they solely rely on photos?
Just want to be prepared in case it ever happens to me (touch wood)

CiniO

bear1 wrote: »

I was thinking about this for a while but what is the procedure if you take your Irish car to the continent and have an accident?
Say the car is written off, bags out etc.
What would your Irish insurance do? Do they send out an assessor?
Or do they solely rely on photos?
Just want to be prepared in case it ever happens to me (touch wood)

It depends on who is at fault of the accident.
If its not you but the other party, then most likely it will be local person with local insurer. You contact this insurer and they sort you out. They will assess your car, and get it fixed, cover any expanses and look into your claims for injuries.

If accident is your fault though, then other party will need to claim from your insurance for their damages and injuries. They don't need to do it directly through your insurer in Ireland, but just find reprezentative of your insurer in their country. Every insuer should have its own reprezentative in every country, and this info can be obtained from local insurance bureau (like mibi in Ireland).
Also in that case if you are comprehensive you can claim from your insurer for damage to your car. I'd imagine unless it's some ridiculously high claim, they won't be sending their own assessor, but might relay on quotation from main dealer or use assessir of their reprezentative insurer in country where accident happened

bear1

Thanks CiniO.
So just to see if I understand this correctly.
As you know yourself I'm in Warsaw with an Irish registered car. It is fully comp.
Say a Polish driver runs a red light and smashed into the side of my car therefore writing it off.
All I need to do in this case is go through his/her insurance policy? Would the amount payable therefore be on the value of the car within Poland (or any other EU state) or the market value of the car in Ireland? And for my insurance I just advise them that the car has been in an accident and fault is with the other party.

tossy

I wonder what would happen if your car was written off at the fault of a local driver and you were claiming off their insurance. Would they give you the market value of your car in that country or Ireland ? You could be significantly out of pocket.

bear1

Another question would be who owns the car once the claim has been paid? Surely if you are abroad then the insurer would be able to do nothing with the car?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

oldyouth

I take it you advised your Irish insurance co. that you were using the car abroad. Not all insurers automatically cover the Own Damage section of your policy when out of Ireland

bear1

Yes my company know. So who does the irish driver claim against?

oldyouth

bear1 wrote: »

Yes my company know. So who does the irish driver claim against?

More than likely, they would engage a local insurer as their Agents to conduct the settlement on their behalf. They would have local knowledge regarding repair costs, salvage, traffic laws and any legal responsibilities. Your Irish insurer would normally pay over funds to their Agent to disperse when matters have been concluded

CiniO

bear1 wrote: »

Thanks CiniO.
So just to see if I understand this correctly.
As you know yourself I'm in Warsaw with an Irish registered car. It is fully comp.
Say a Polish driver runs a red light and smashed into the side of my car therefore writing it off.
All I need to do in this case is go through his/her insurance policy?

Yes.

Would the amount payable therefore be on the value of the car within Poland (or any other EU state) or the market value of the car in Ireland?

See this might be bit tricky, as car normally considered written off in Ireland might not be considered written off in Poland.
F.e. car worth 5k, in Ireland after accident repairs would cost 6k, so obviously car is written off.
The same kind of damage in Poland, and repairs cost 3k, so car is not written off but repaired.
But if it was even written off in Poland, then it's very good question what value would they go by? I honestly don't know.
Brand new Irish registered car will be worth more than equivalent brand new Polish registered car.
But 10 year old Irish registered car will be worth much less than 10 year old Polish registered car.
Very interesting issue.
But whichever option they would choose and you wouldn't be happy, you can always fight for your rights in court.

And for my insurance I just advise them that the car has been in an accident and fault is with the other party.

I suppose.
That's what you could do in Ireland anyway. Claim of insurance of other party, and just advice your insurer that you were in accident which wasn't your fault.

Other thing is that in Poland decision about the blame in accident doesn't lie with insurers. It's the police that decide on the spot. If you don't agree with police decision, then case goes to court, and decision is made there. Insurers has nothing to do with decision who is at fault.

CiniO

bear1 wrote: »

Another question would be who owns the car once the claim has been paid? Surely if you are abroad then the insurer would be able to do nothing with the car?

Most insurers after writing car off, would leave the car with you, and subtract wreckage value from payout. That's how it works nearly everywhere anyway.

CiniO

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

That's true, but afaik it doesn't go through insurance bureau, but insurers representative. Insurers bureau is only to find out who is the representative.

CiniO

bear1 wrote: »

Yes my company know. So who does the irish driver claim against?

Which insurer are you with, who allows for such long term being abroad and keeping fully comprehensive cover?

bear1

CiniO wrote: »

Which insurer are you with, who allows for such long term being abroad and keeping fully comprehensive cover?

FBD

CiniO

bear1 wrote: »

FBD

My renewal is next month.
I checked them, and they refuse to give me a quote (at least online), based on fact that I had 4 claims in last 5 years (1 own car damage, and 3 windscreen).
Have I had only 3 claims (1 own car damage, and 2 windscreen) quotation is really good together with full 12 months EU cover it would be a brilliant offer.

djimi

CiniO wrote: »

But if it was even written off in Poland, then it's very good question what value would they go by? I honestly don't know.
Brand new Irish registered car will be worth more than equivalent brand new Polish registered car.
But 10 year old Irish registered car will be worth much less than 10 year old Polish registered car.
Very interesting issue.

The amount given to you is (supposedly) the cost to replace the car with like for like, and an Irish person who is still resident in Ireland is going to be buying from the Irish market (or at the very least a RHD market), so it would make no sense at all to base the valuation on the Polish market.

CiniO

djimi wrote: »

The amount given to you is (supposedly) the cost to replace the car with like for like, and an Irish person who is still resident in Ireland is going to be buying from the Irish market (or at the very least a RHD market), so it would make no sense at all to base the valuation on the Polish market.

Well, I'm not sure if that's so straight forward.
IMO it should be value of the car on Irish market. But knowing insurers, they would probably try to get away with paying less - which always could be appealed.

See f.e. Irish resident with his car in Poland who after his car is written of gets Irish market value of the car, might not be great, as he might need to go back to Ireland to get car like that and drive it back again to Poland, which is quite big expanse.

Also what in case if someone is not Irish resident anymore, but now resident in Poland, but still drives Irish registered car??