Accident claim process with Allianz – repair, write off or replacement car

BalticBear

Hi all,

I was in a car accident recently and I am looking for a bit of guidance. My insurance company told me to deal directly with the other driver’s insurer since it was his fault. Liability has already been admitted by the third party insurer which is Allianz.

I rang Allianz and they said their garage will be in touch with me but I have not heard anything since. No calls or emails. My car is badly damaged, almost destroyed, and I would say it is dangerous to drive it in the current state.

What I am not clear on is the following.
Am I entitled to a replacement hire car while this is being sorted out?
Do Allianz organise everything for me or am I supposed to chase their repairer or assessor myself?
Since liability is admitted what happens next. Do they repair my car or could it be written off if the cost is too high?
If it is written off how is the payout calculated?

I am just a bit lost on the steps I should expect here. Anyone with experience of Allianz or similar claims, I would really appreciate some advice.

Thanks!

db

If you have comprehensive insurance I would go through your own insurance who will then claim off the third party insurer. I had a similar experience where Alliance were the third party insurer and we messing me about looking for me to bring it to a back street body shop. When I got my own insurer to deal with it they picked it up, gave me a hire car for a week, and got it fixed at a top body shop. I paid the excess which I then claimed back from Alliance along with compensation for devaluation.

bazz26

How long has it been since you contacted them? Have they accepted liability on behalf of their client?

Just remember that claiming off your own insurance will mean there is an open claim on your policy until the claim is settled and your insurance company is reimbursed by the other party's insurance company. You won't be able to switch insurance companies come renewal time with an open claim on your policy.

BalticBear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123746733#Comment_123746733

I do, but as @bazz26 replied, worried about the open claim although my insurance isn't being renewed soon. Happy enough with the body shop they chose to the work, red abby motors, had a previous claim there but it was for super minor damage compared to this.

I'll have a think if they don't provide me a rental I might go via my own insurance.

BalticBear

The incidicent happened on Thursday, claim opened and liability accepted by the taxi driver who hit me. So from my understand that means liability has been taken on their side? The lady on the phone said Red Abby Motors will contact me for the rest, but I didn't really ask about any rental car yet, when I had a super minor incident happen to me previously I was driving with the car around for 3 months before they did the repair. That's not the case now, don't think the car is safe to drive on the road hence the need for the rental until they repair/write the car off.

poppers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123746969#Comment_123746969

Its been less than 48 hrs and its the weekend. i doubt the Body shop will be ringing you until monday at the earliest. they were probably only notified yesterday about it. id get back on to your own insurance company and see if you are eligible for a rental car while yours id off the rd.

bazz26

Contact them again stating you have had no contact from the garage and what is the story. If your car is off the road then you also need to press them for a rental until it's repaired. So you need to keep on them for updates as they can drag their heels when they want to.

BalticBear

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123746996#Comment_123746996

Yea, absolutely, I understand that, it's more of what the next steps are. I don't really want to involve my insurance company, although I did notify them of the incident. Just due to the excess being payed, but I might if Allianz doesn't play ball.

Henry Ford III

Insurance forum Mods?

I can't see why your insurer wouldn't pay for your repairs and recover it from the 3rd party.

893bet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123748327#Comment_123748327

They will but ultimately you lose your no claims bonus.

extra-ordinary_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123748371#Comment_123748371

Incorrect.

mulbot

Hi OP, had a similar setup recently, accident happened on a Friday evening, other drivers fault, actually alliance are my own Insurance, notified them on the Monday morning, I contacted the other party's insurance and it was a, matter of them getting details from their insured etc and filing the report, I didn't get a car until the Thursday (which was a bit of a crap situation), alliance told me that I could open a claim with them and they could pursue but advised to first go through the other party's insurance. PM if you need any other details on this.

893bet

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123748385#Comment_123748385

Even if they recover, you have claimed on your policy is my understanding. Hence they encourage you to deal direct with the insurer.

Henry Ford III

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123748415#Comment_123748415

Yes but you won't be penalised for it.

mulbot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123748415#Comment_123748415

No that's not right. You will have an open claim until it's recovered from the other party, at that point you will have all details and standing reverted back. You definitely don't lose any no claims in that circumstance

Charles Babbage

Inform them that you'll be renting a car, at their expense, until yours is repaired. This will encourage faster action.

...Ghost...

Hi OP. First of all, you don't have to follow the wishes of Allianz. Their job is to minimise their loss, not yours.

I was in an accident a few months ago. The other driver was Allianz and rear ended me. My car was less than 3 years old. First job was getting them to admit liability. Second job was getting them to swallow the fact that I would not be using their approved repair shop. Third job was not falling for their tactic of accepting the garage quote as settlement of the claim in full.

The claim handlers are well trained, but dont let them deceive you. You should not be left without a car, so you can rent one. Just email the claim handler, telling them your car is unsafe after the accident. Rent like for like, don't rent any Ferraris. They can arrange a rental, but in my case, we drive EV and they got us a Diesel hybrid despite us requesting EV. So maybe rent your own and send them receipts.

You can use your own repair shop. Allianz need to accept the quote before work is done, so dont just drop it off. Sounds like a tow is needed too. So include everything and get them to do the leg work as much as possible.

Your car is worth less after repair. Make sure they include compensation for loss of value. Any baby seats in the car? Get them to pay for replacements.

Finally, if you are injured, get checked out. Do not sign any document from Allianz that states you are accepting their offer in full settlement of the claim. Make sure it is only for material damages.

I was disgusted by what I saw as underhanded and very sneaky practices, that I decided I had no choice other than to seek legal advice after the claim handler used unsavoury tactics to leave me out of pocket.

And by the way, even though this was not your fault, it will impact your insurance premium for at least the next 5 years. You have to declare it when asked, even when the accident was entirely the other persons fault.

thoneaseessi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123749165#Comment_123749165

I would tend not to admit liability now . I would take photos etc and leave it to the insurance to sort out

As an investigator said to me don't admit liability and after an incident you may wrongly assume you were at fault

mulbot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123749196#Comment_123749196

The OP already stated the other party was liable

thoneaseessi

I meant in general

I think it's old school admitting liability. Let insurance sort it out without making admissions.

a

...Ghost...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123749227#Comment_123749227

The insurer already accepted liability in this case. It's important to get that done quickly so things can move forward. They also try to screw their own policy holder and/or the injured party when speaking to the injured party. They tried to get me to disclose why the other party crashed into me. I thought it bizarre when asked and although I had seen the other driver looking at her phone shortly before she crashed into my car, I can't say 100% that she was still doing that at the time of the accident. So I told the claims handler I would only be guessing. The fact was I was stationary when rear ended and the events leading to it were immaterial to me. I suspect the insurer would have used a statement that the insured was on the phone to wriggle put of covering the driver.

HazeDoll

Just a bit of advice - record all phone conversations with any insurance company. I use an old phone with a voice recorder app and I put the phone call on speaker. Make sure the person you are talking to gives their own name.

mulbot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123750363#Comment_123750363

You need to inform whoever your talking to if you intend to do this.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123750437#Comment_123750437

As I understood it, only one participant in a phone call needs to be aware that it is being recorded

mulbot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123750507#Comment_123750507

Yep, you're correct. I meant to ask it as a question, as I wasn't 100% sure

HazeDoll

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123750507#Comment_123750507

It depends on who you ask but my understanding is the same as this. I recently won a long-running argument with Eir and they flatly refused to back down until I started playing recordings of phonecalls to their 'customer service' dept back to them. The snippy lady on the phone got very high-horsey that I had recorded Eir employees without their consent. I told her to go off and look up the legislation and she said "Oh, don't worry, I will be escalating this matter." Anyway, somebody rang me back later that day and refunded me two months' direct debits. No more was said about the recordings.

The way I look at it, I'm not going to tell them I have these recordings unless I have what I need to prove they're not being honest. If that situation arises they can threaten me with the legalities and I can threaten them with the recordings.

I have a long recording somewhere of a very unfortunate customer service chappie from Vodafone repeatedly saying "I can assure you that you would not have been promised those speeds" until I played him the audio from the day I was promised those speeds. I had been trying to get him to pass me up the line to a supervisor and he kept saying that he was the best person to help me and it was simply impossible for him to pass the call up. Managed it the second I played the recording though…

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123750688#Comment_123750688

So do you record all your phone calls then and just have them saved somewhere until you know you’ll never need them?

HazeDoll

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123750717#Comment_123750717

No. That would be weird and creepy. You have misunderstood my posts.

Henry Ford III

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123749165#Comment_123749165

Your final paragraph is totally incorrect.

A settled claim where the 3rd party was at fault will have no affect on your policy and premium.

...Ghost...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123751970#Comment_123751970

I wish that were the case. Maybe I just got very unlucky. My personal experience diverges.

Accident over 10 years ago. Third party insurer admitted liability early on. Property claim settled quickly. Injury claim took 3 years. I was shafted for 3 years despite liability being admitted.

My premiums were still loaded for the next 2 years after the claim was settled. Discovered it when getting online quotes and ticking the box to say “no accident or claims in last 5 years” the quote was reasonable. When calling the insurance companies to confirm quotes I was either refused a a quote, or my premium was loaded because there was an accident within 5 years (or more in some cases), again, despite liability being admitted by third party and despite claim being closed.

I got different advice when renewing my insurance a couple of months ago depending on which insurance company I was dealing with. AXA said I only needed to declare at fault accidents but this wasn’t clear on the website. Most others said I had to declare regardless of fault even if claims were settled. This was relevant because I was recently rear ended and wanted to be sure everything was done properly.

The insurance company always wanted to know the settlement figure. This was after the claims were settled, so why ask if it doesn’t matter or impact the policy/price?

mulbot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123752103#Comment_123752103

They ask because they need to know if you had an accident and were liable for it