My Peugot Partner van has just been written off. 2004 123,00 miles and
only worth £1225 on the book price. It was for commercial use. Plainly
not my fault as the Dodge Charger pulled out of a car park onto the
main road .. he never looked and I smacked him.
I am looking for another van (any offers) and also trying to keep the
Painting and Decorating business customers happy.
Will lose working days for sure. Anyone have the expereince of how I
can maximise my claim above the value of the van. It was all signed up
... does that put value on?
Cheers

Mike P the 1st

Mike P the 1st wrote:

My Peugot Partner van has just been written off. 2004 123,00 miles and
only worth £1225 on the book price. It was for commercial use. Plainly
not my fault as the Dodge Charger pulled out of a car park onto the
main road .. he never looked and I smacked him.
I am looking for another van (any offers) and also trying to keep the
Painting and Decorating business customers happy.
Will lose working days for sure.

I'm no fan of the "claim for everything" culture, but to prevent lost
income sounds like a reasonable grounds for claiming for a rented van,
not sure how easy it is to do without getting the loathsome claims
management companies involved (who will encourage you to claim for
whiplash treatment and a gold-plated hire van).

On Sep 5, 2:52*pm, Andy Burns wrote:
Mike P the 1st wrote:

My Peugot Partner van has just been written off. 2004 123,00 miles and
only worth £1225 on the book price. It was for commercial use. Plainly
not my fault as the Dodge Charger pulled out of a car park onto the
main road .. he never looked and I smacked him.
I am looking for another van (any offers) and also trying to keep the
Painting and Decorating business customers happy.
Will lose working days for sure.

I'm no fan of the "claim for everything" culture, but to prevent lost
income sounds like a reasonable grounds for claiming for a rented van,
not sure how easy it is to do without getting the loathsome claims
management companies involved (who will encourage you to claim for
whiplash treatment and a gold-plated hire van).

Is the van actually damaged beyond reasonable repair or is it mainly
cosmetic? If the fault is clearly with the third party then their
insurance company can't just write the van off, only your own
insurance company can do that. So if the van can be made road legal
for not much money then it may be worth keeping it whilst maximising
payout from the third party.

On Mon, 5 Sep 2011 07:41:03 -0700 (PDT), airsmoothed
gently dipped his quill in the best Quink
that money could buy:

On Sep 5, 2:52*pm, Andy Burns wrote:
Mike P the 1st wrote:

My Peugot Partner van has just been written off. 2004 123,00 miles and
only worth £1225 on the book price. It was for commercial use. Plainly
not my fault as the Dodge Charger pulled out of a car park onto the
main road .. he never looked and I smacked him.
I am looking for another van (any offers) and also trying to keep the
Painting and Decorating business customers happy.
Will lose working days for sure.

I'm no fan of the "claim for everything" culture, but to prevent lost
income sounds like a reasonable grounds for claiming for a rented van,
not sure how easy it is to do without getting the loathsome claims
management companies involved (who will encourage you to claim for
whiplash treatment and a gold-plated hire van).

Is the van actually damaged beyond reasonable repair or is it mainly
cosmetic? If the fault is clearly with the third party then their
insurance company can't just write the van off, only your own
insurance company can do that. So if the van can be made road legal
for not much money then it may be worth keeping it whilst maximising
payout from the third party.

"The Accessor" (whoever he works for) wrote it off. £1300 in parts
and they somehow managed to produce an end bill of £2092.
It was not drivable.


Mike P the 1st

On 05/09/2011 14:45, Mike P the 1st wrote:
My Peugot Partner van has just been written off. 2004 123,00 miles and
only worth £1225 on the book price. It was for commercial use. Plainly
not my fault as the Dodge Charger pulled out of a car park onto the
main road .. he never looked and I smacked him.
I am looking for another van (any offers) and also trying to keep the
Painting and Decorating business customers happy.
Will lose working days for sure. Anyone have the expereince of how I
can maximise my claim above the value of the van. It was all signed up
.. does that put value on?
Cheers

Mike P the 1st

If they do write it off, the ins company will offer you silly money for
it in the first instance.

The technique (I learnt from a fleet manager) is to refuse the money &
ask them to buy you an equivalent van e.g same make, model, spec, year &
mileage.

They obviously can't do that & will make all sorts of excuses. Just use
the broken record technique.

Eventually they will get so fed up they will raise the offer.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

In article ,
Mike P the 1st writes:
On Mon, 5 Sep 2011 07:41:03 -0700 (PDT), airsmoothed
gently dipped his quill in the best Quink
that money could buy:

On Sep 5, 2:52*pm, Andy Burns wrote:
Mike P the 1st wrote:

My Peugot Partner van has just been written off. 2004 123,00 miles and
only worth £1225 on the book price. It was for commercial use. Plainly
not my fault as the Dodge Charger pulled out of a car park onto the
main road .. he never looked and I smacked him.
I am looking for another van (any offers) and also trying to keep the
Painting and Decorating business customers happy.
Will lose working days for sure.

I'm no fan of the "claim for everything" culture, but to prevent lost
income sounds like a reasonable grounds for claiming for a rented van,
not sure how easy it is to do without getting the loathsome claims
management companies involved (who will encourage you to claim for
whiplash treatment and a gold-plated hire van).

Is the van actually damaged beyond reasonable repair or is it mainly
cosmetic? If the fault is clearly with the third party then their
insurance company can't just write the van off, only your own
insurance company can do that. So if the van can be made road legal
for not much money then it may be worth keeping it whilst maximising
payout from the third party.

"The Accessor" (whoever he works for) wrote it off. £1300 in parts
and they somehow managed to produce an end bill of £2092.
It was not drivable.

How is it insured? Fully comp?
Does your insurance include renting a replacement?
Do you have cover for solicitor's fees?
Have the parties, or the insurers agreed who was at fault?

If it's agreed the other party was at fault (and it's not just your
opinion), the other party is responsible for meeting your costs,
but you must be able to show that you kept them to a minimum (e.g
make sure you have quotes from 3 van rental places and can show
you picked the lowest).
If you are fully comp, then it may be easier to do this via your
own insurer who will reclaim if the other party was at fault.
Last time I was involved in anything like this (which was probably
too many years ago to be valid today), it was the act of claiming
your insurance excess back from the other party which was their
effective admission of liability at the end of it all, and was
the key part to eliminating any loss of your future no claims
discount.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Mon, 05 Sep 2011 18:29:48 +0100, The Medway Handyman wrote:
On 05/09/2011 14:45, Mike P the 1st wrote:
My Peugot Partner van has just been written off. 2004 123,00 miles and
only worth ?1225 on the book price. It was for commercial use. Plainly
not my fault as the Dodge Charger pulled out of a car park onto the
main road .. he never looked and I smacked him.
I am looking for another van (any offers) and also trying to keep the
Painting and Decorating business customers happy.
Will lose working days for sure. Anyone have the expereince of how I
can maximise my claim above the value of the van. It was all signed up
.. does that put value on?
Cheers

Mike P the 1st

If they do write it off, the ins company will offer you silly money for
it in the first instance.

The technique (I learnt from a fleet manager) is to refuse the money &
ask them to buy you an equivalent van e.g same make, model, spec, year &
mileage.

They obviously can't do that & will make all sorts of excuses. Just use
the broken record technique.

Eventually they will get so fed up they will raise the offer.

Meantime, though you're without transport (or have had to buy a replacement
yourself with your own money).
I've always wondered why people let their insurance company handle _all_
aspects of a claim. After the vehicle, can't you just sue the other
party (small claims would probably be enough) and then let them reclaim
the monies from their insurance.

Andrew Gabriel wrote:

Last time I was involved in anything like this (which was probably
too many years ago to be valid today), it was the act of claiming
your insurance excess back from the other party which was their
effective admission of liability at the end of it all, and was
the key part to eliminating any loss of your future no claims
discount.

It may vary from insurer to insurer. When I was rear ended a few years ago
(very minor damage, my towbar only had paint damage but it had punctured the
other drivers aircon radiator and fan). Direct Line who insured the other
driver phoned me up the next day to admit liability and offer a hire van and
take my van in for repair.

It was one of the strangest phonecalls I have ever had. The guy was unable
to believe that I did not want any repairs doing. I ended up having to sign
a disclaimer that my van was not damaged and that I had wiped the paint off
the tow bar and did not want paying for doing so.

It seems that the insurance company were prepared to cut out the middlemen
to save costs.

--
Adam

On Mon, 5 Sep 2011 17:56:42 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) gently dipped his quill in the best Quink that money
could buy:

In article ,
Mike P the 1st writes:
On Mon, 5 Sep 2011 07:41:03 -0700 (PDT), airsmoothed
gently dipped his quill in the best Quink
that money could buy:

On Sep 5, 2:52*pm, Andy Burns wrote:
Mike P the 1st wrote:

My Peugot Partner van has just been written off. 2004 123,00 miles and
only worth £1225 on the book price. It was for commercial use. Plainly
not my fault as the Dodge Charger pulled out of a car park onto the
main road .. he never looked and I smacked him.
I am looking for another van (any offers) and also trying to keep the
Painting and Decorating business customers happy.
Will lose working days for sure.

I'm no fan of the "claim for everything" culture, but to prevent lost
income sounds like a reasonable grounds for claiming for a rented van,
not sure how easy it is to do without getting the loathsome claims
management companies involved (who will encourage you to claim for
whiplash treatment and a gold-plated hire van).

Is the van actually damaged beyond reasonable repair or is it mainly
cosmetic? If the fault is clearly with the third party then their
insurance company can't just write the van off, only your own
insurance company can do that. So if the van can be made road legal
for not much money then it may be worth keeping it whilst maximising
payout from the third party.

"The Accessor" (whoever he works for) wrote it off. £1300 in parts
and they somehow managed to produce an end bill of £2092.
It was not drivable.

How is it insured? Fully comp?
Does your insurance include renting a replacement?
Do you have cover for solicitor's fees?
Have the parties, or the insurers agreed who was at fault?

If it's agreed the other party was at fault (and it's not just your
opinion), the other party is responsible for meeting your costs,
but you must be able to show that you kept them to a minimum (e.g
make sure you have quotes from 3 van rental places and can show
you picked the lowest).
If you are fully comp, then it may be easier to do this via your
own insurer who will reclaim if the other party was at fault.
Last time I was involved in anything like this (which was probably
too many years ago to be valid today), it was the act of claiming
your insurance excess back from the other party which was their
effective admission of liability at the end of it all, and was
the key part to eliminating any loss of your future no claims
discount.

Fully Comp
I have a rental van as part of my insurance, for 7 days .. tho it took
4 days before I knew my van was a write off. Van goes back 2moro.
Have heard nothing from either insurance company yet .. will start
ringing 2moro.
I have registered with a no win, no fee solicitors.

If it takes me a week to find another van, can I keep the rental van
and claim on his insurance ?

The other driver is from USA and using an American insurance comp.

Mike P the 1st

On 05/09/2011 22:37, ARWadsworth wrote:
Andrew wrote:

Last time I was involved in anything like this (which was probably
too many years ago to be valid today), it was the act of claiming
your insurance excess back from the other party which was their
effective admission of liability at the end of it all, and was
the key part to eliminating any loss of your future no claims
discount.

It may vary from insurer to insurer. When I was rear ended a few years ago
(very minor damage, my towbar only had paint damage but it had punctured the
other drivers aircon radiator and fan). Direct Line who insured the other
driver phoned me up the next day to admit liability and offer a hire van and
take my van in for repair.

It was one of the strangest phonecalls I have ever had. The guy was unable
to believe that I did not want any repairs doing. I ended up having to sign
a disclaimer that my van was not damaged and that I had wiped the paint off
the tow bar and did not want paying for doing so.

It seems that the insurance company were prepared to cut out the middlemen
to save costs.

Some insurance companies have worked out that it is cheaper to sort out
a valid claim from a TP themselves rather than the TP knock up higher
costs that they reclaim anyway.

On 05/09/2011 23:11, Mike P the 1st wrote:
On Mon, 5 Sep 2011 17:56:42 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) gently dipped his quill in the best Quink that money
could buy:

In ,
Mike P the writes:
On Mon, 5 Sep 2011 07:41:03 -0700 (PDT), airsmoothed
gently dipped his quill in the best Quink
that money could buy:

On Sep 5, 2:52 pm, Andy wrote:
Mike P the 1st wrote:

My Peugot Partner van has just been written off. 2004 123,00 miles and
only worth £1225 on the book price. It was for commercial use. Plainly
not my fault as the Dodge Charger pulled out of a car park onto the
main road .. he never looked and I smacked him.
I am looking for another van (any offers) and also trying to keep the
Painting and Decorating business customers happy.
Will lose working days for sure.

I'm no fan of the "claim for everything" culture, but to prevent lost
income sounds like a reasonable grounds for claiming for a rented van,
not sure how easy it is to do without getting the loathsome claims
management companies involved (who will encourage you to claim for
whiplash treatment and a gold-plated hire van).

Is the van actually damaged beyond reasonable repair or is it mainly
cosmetic? If the fault is clearly with the third party then their
insurance company can't just write the van off, only your own
insurance company can do that. So if the van can be made road legal
for not much money then it may be worth keeping it whilst maximising
payout from the third party.

"The Accessor" (whoever he works for) wrote it off. £1300 in parts
and they somehow managed to produce an end bill of £2092.
It was not drivable.

How is it insured? Fully comp?
Does your insurance include renting a replacement?
Do you have cover for solicitor's fees?
Have the parties, or the insurers agreed who was at fault?

If it's agreed the other party was at fault (and it's not just your
opinion), the other party is responsible for meeting your costs,
but you must be able to show that you kept them to a minimum (e.g
make sure you have quotes from 3 van rental places and can show
you picked the lowest).
If you are fully comp, then it may be easier to do this via your
own insurer who will reclaim if the other party was at fault.
Last time I was involved in anything like this (which was probably
too many years ago to be valid today), it was the act of claiming
your insurance excess back from the other party which was their
effective admission of liability at the end of it all, and was
the key part to eliminating any loss of your future no claims
discount.

Fully Comp
I have a rental van as part of my insurance, for 7 days .. tho it took
4 days before I knew my van was a write off. Van goes back 2moro.
Have heard nothing from either insurance company yet .. will start
ringing 2moro.
I have registered with a no win, no fee solicitors.

If it takes me a week to find another van, can I keep the rental van
and claim on his insurance ?

I know someone who did just that, he had to argue with the insurers 'cos
they wanted to take the hire car back, but he argued that the three days
they'd given him was not enough time to find another similar spec,
similar history vehicle and make the arrangements to buy it.

The other driver is from USA and using an American insurance comp.

I have no idea what complications that might add.

I am assuming that as he's American and he's on his own American
insurance, he's likely to be in the services or working for a big
American company. If he's services and his contact details tell you
where, then down the line, if there are any problems, contacting his
commanding officer might help.

Mike P the 1st

If it is settled as his fault, then you also ought to be claiming for
loss of income for time lost due to the accident, general running around
and looking for another vehicle.

When a wagon hit my wife's parked car, she was unable to take it to
their nominated garage (partly because she was too nervous about going
to an area she didn't know during rush hour, but also because she had a
full caseload of mentally ill patients booked in weeks ahead and
couldn't just cancel), so I had to take it. Due to the time they wanted
the car there I had to leave before the nursery was open, drop my wife
at work, drive to the garage, wait for them to take me and our son to
the hire car company, wait again for them to finish preparing the car,
find that the car they'd given us was too small for his trolley to go in
the boot (despite me informing the insurers in advance), negotiate a
change with them and the insurers, wait while they prepared another car,
drive to my wife's work, drive her home so that she could then drive
back to work, while I got my car to drive to the nursery and drop our
son off, before finally getting to work at 12:00 - I normally started at
07:30! The whole thing had to be repeated in reverse when the car needed
to be picked up again. I could legitimately demonstrate that I'd lost 9
hours at £27.50 an hour and although they queried it, one written
response got their agreement and a full payout.

SteveW

In article ,
ARWadsworth wrote:

It seems that the insurance company were prepared to cut out the middlemen
to save costs.

If it's clearly not your fault, they are confident that the thirdparty insurer
will cough up for all the repair/expenses plus a not inconsiderable amount
for claim management etc.

They've realised that instead of paying some dodgy claimsdirect4Ualike they
may as well manage it themselves, and claim those fees from the third party
themselves... easy money.

Darren

In article ,
Mike P the 1st writes:
On Mon, 5 Sep 2011 17:56:42 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) gently dipped his quill in the best Quink that money
could buy:
How is it insured? Fully comp?
Does your insurance include renting a replacement?
Do you have cover for solicitor's fees?
Have the parties, or the insurers agreed who was at fault?

If it's agreed the other party was at fault (and it's not just your
opinion), the other party is responsible for meeting your costs,
but you must be able to show that you kept them to a minimum (e.g
make sure you have quotes from 3 van rental places and can show
you picked the lowest).
If you are fully comp, then it may be easier to do this via your
own insurer who will reclaim if the other party was at fault.
Last time I was involved in anything like this (which was probably
too many years ago to be valid today), it was the act of claiming
your insurance excess back from the other party which was their
effective admission of liability at the end of it all, and was
the key part to eliminating any loss of your future no claims
discount.

Fully Comp

In which case you can probably have your insurers deal with it all.

I have a rental van as part of my insurance, for 7 days .. tho it took
4 days before I knew my van was a write off. Van goes back 2moro.
Have heard nothing from either insurance company yet .. will start
ringing 2moro.
I have registered with a no win, no fee solicitors.

I can't see the point in that, at the moment anyway.

If it takes me a week to find another van, can I keep the rental van
and claim on his insurance ?

You can try. (Always bear in mind that you might get nothing,
if it later turns out he wasn't insured and has no money.)
You may still need to be able to show that you minimised costs,
so make sure you get (and keep) several quotes, and you picked
the lowest. That may mean you have to change rental vans of course.

The other driver is from USA and using an American insurance comp.

That would ring alarm bells in my mind, about if he's really covered.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 06/09/2011 10:23, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In ,
Mike P the writes:
On Mon, 5 Sep 2011 17:56:42 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) gently dipped his quill in the best Quink that money
could buy:
How is it insured? Fully comp?
Does your insurance include renting a replacement?
Do you have cover for solicitor's fees?
Have the parties, or the insurers agreed who was at fault?

If it's agreed the other party was at fault (and it's not just your
opinion), the other party is responsible for meeting your costs,
but you must be able to show that you kept them to a minimum (e.g
make sure you have quotes from 3 van rental places and can show
you picked the lowest).
If you are fully comp, then it may be easier to do this via your
own insurer who will reclaim if the other party was at fault.
Last time I was involved in anything like this (which was probably
too many years ago to be valid today), it was the act of claiming
your insurance excess back from the other party which was their
effective admission of liability at the end of it all, and was
the key part to eliminating any loss of your future no claims
discount.

Fully Comp

In which case you can probably have your insurers deal with it all.

I would certainly not rely on that unless you have legal cover

I have a rental van as part of my insurance, for 7 days .. tho it took
4 days before I knew my van was a write off. Van goes back 2moro.
Have heard nothing from either insurance company yet .. will start
ringing 2moro.
I have registered with a no win, no fee solicitors.

Seems like a good idea.

I can't see the point in that, at the moment anyway.

If it takes me a week to find another van, can I keep the rental van
and claim on his insurance ?

You can try. (Always bear in mind that you might get nothing,
if it later turns out he wasn't insured and has no money.)

This is wrong.
http://www.motor-accident-claims.co....rs_bureau.html

You may still need to be able to show that you minimised costs,
so make sure you get (and keep) several quotes, and you picked
the lowest. That may mean you have to change rental vans of course.

Keep you costs to a minimum and keep all documents in support. Your
solicitors may have a scheme.

The other driver is from USA and using an American insurance comp.

Who hopefully have a company dealing with it over here for them

That would ring alarm bells in my mind, about if he's really covered.

On 05/09/11 22:25, root wrote:

Meantime, though you're without transport (or have had to buy a replacement
yourself with your own money).
I've always wondered why people let their insurance company handle _all_
aspects of a claim.

Because if you have fully comp insurance and legal expenses cover they will
deal with all of it, including reclaiming costs from the third party (vehicle
rental, loss of earnings etc).

After the vehicle, can't you just sue the other
party (small claims would probably be enough) and then let them reclaim
the monies from their insurance.

If you have legal cover your insurers (or their solicitors) deal with all
this for you. All you have to do is sign a few forms.