General Thankyou Mr Bus Driver. Now I am Gutted!!

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General Thankyou Mr Bus Driver. Now I am Gutted!!

It's not up to their insurers to write it off. They have an obligation to return your vehicle to how it was before their client damaged it. I've heard of cases where people in your situation have had the other insurance company cover the cost of any repairs that were required. It does not matter that the cost of repair outweighs the market value of the car. Although I'm not sure what the extensive damage means in this situation.

I wouldn't be accepting any cash settlement from them. You want your car returned (or equivalent) in the condition it was in before their client crashed into it. Maybe speak to CAB about this, or your own insurers.

If you are in the RAC or AA (and as you drive FIATs why would you not be?:D) they offer free legal advice re such matters,. might be worth a call.
 
It's not up to their insurers to write it off. They have an obligation to return your vehicle to how it was before their client damaged it. I've heard of cases where people in your situation have had the other insurance company cover the cost of any repairs that were required. It does not matter that the cost of repair outweighs the market value of the car. Although I'm not sure what the extensive damage means in this situation.

I wouldn't be accepting any cash settlement from them. You want your car returned (or equivalent) in the condition it was in before their client crashed into it. Maybe speak to CAB about this, or your own insurers.

All of the above is 100% entirely WRONG. They are required to put you back in the position you were before the accident - i.e. the owner of an undamaged car worth £x. How they get you back to that position is up to them - they can either repair it or replace it with another car worth £x.

Whether or not you involve your own insurers is entirely down to personal preference. Most people do, as usually it's simpler and they look after you a bit better (after all, you are their customer). I wouldn't personally, as I worked in insurance claims for years so I'm pretty comfortable with it all.

It sounds like a 100% clear-cut case (drunk, police involved, parked, insured) , so your insurers will get their money back and the no claims discount will not be affected. Unless it comes up for renewal while they're dealing with it, in which case they may want you to pay more for the renewal, but they'll refund it all after they settle it. But I'd hope in the clear circumstances they'd be able to show a bit of common sense and not charge extra even if this did happen.

All insurance claims are logged on a central database these days anyway, so whether or not you involve your own insurers you'll still need to declare it for the next few years. It shouldn't make any difference to future premiums, although a few insurers do think that people who have non-fault accidents are always partly to blame. So if you ever get a high quote from the odd company this is why.
 
The BusCo will only be worth pursuing for something lost `outside’ of what is already covered by insurance.

120416

Their insurance company will pay for all of the OPs losses resulting from this crash. There would never be a need for the bus company to pay anything.
 
All of the above is 100% entirely WRONG. They are required to put you back in the position you were before the accident - i.e. the owner of an undamaged car worth £x. How they get you back to that position is up to them - they can either repair it or replace it with another car worth £x.

Not strictly true, and I'm surprised with this response if you've industry experience tbh. As you'd know the exact ins and outs are a lot more complex, and vary depending upon if your the indemnified claiming, or a 3rd party, so saying ARC is entirely wrong is incorrect on your part.
 
Their insurance company will pay for all of the OPs losses resulting from this crash. There would never be a need for the bus company to pay anything.

I view it differently.
The BusCo are liable for all of the losses of FFF2.
The InsCo are liable for - & pay-out on - the losses contracted.

120416
 
I view it differently.
The BusCo are liable for all of the losses of FFF2.
The InsCo are liable for - & pay-out on - the losses contracted.

120416

Sort of - almost all insurance policies give full cover for all losses sustained by a third party as a result of their policyholder's negligence. This is generally a legal requirement.

Only very rarely do some very large companies have cover that excludes only certain parts of third party liability. Some have an "all sections excess" that means that the policyholder pays the first £x of a third party claim. Often the insurer still handles the third party claim, and gets the money back from them. I don't know whether it's still the case, but Royal Mail didn't used to have any insurance at all, and just paid all claims themselves. They were very much a special case though, and this was to do with the fact that they are entirely owned by the government/the queen.
 
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Not strictly true, and I'm surprised with this response if you've industry experience tbh. As you'd know the exact ins and outs are a lot more complex, and vary depending upon if your the indemnified claiming, or a 3rd party, so saying ARC is entirely wrong is incorrect on your part.

It doesn't make much difference whether you're claiming from your own insurers or the third party's - their responsibility is to put you back as you were before the accident.

The only grey areas are where the value of the car is disputed and/or the repair cost is close to the car's value. Then you get into the arguments about whether to repair or write off.

The suggestion that you could get anyone to pay treble the car's value for repair is nonsense.
 
Don't get your own insurance involved, thats where it often goes tits up once they get their grubby mits on it. They'll write it off (and they can), keep the salvage themself and them claim it back from the other side. I doubt CAB would be interested either, they'll say contact your insurance co (n)

Yes OP could have the vehicle repaired if they insisted, but with damage to the 'B' pillar, short of reshelling it (which is probably what the £9k+ is) it'll never have the same structural integrity as before.

I would agree with this. Don't make the claim through your own insurance as they work on a 'knock' for 'knock' basis which is not in your interests.

About 10 years ago I used to be marketing manager for a firm of solicitors who handled the whole lot, worked entirely in my interests, and never involved my insurance co until it was all settled. Didn't cost a penny as it was up to the other party's insurers to pay his bill.
 
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I would agree with this. Don't make the claim through your own insurance as they work on a 'knock' for 'knock' basis which is not in your interests.

Knock-for-knock has nothing to do with liability. It is/was an agreement between insurers to prevent them arguing over the circumstances on every claim. By the law of averages, insurer A's clients will cause an equal amount of damage to insurer B's clients as B does to A. So these two companies enter into a K4K agreement. If either of these two companies have a claim against the other then they don't bother arguing or recovering any money from each other. Instead they just confirm K4K and close their claim.

K4K is not the same as settling 50/50. It is purely administrative and entirely without prejudice to the client or any claim he has for uninsured losses from the other side.

In the above example companies A and B both allow/disallow their respective clients' NCD based on their own interpretation of the circumstances, and without discussion with the other insurer. Usually the NCD decision for each client will be the same as if the two companies had spent man-hours arguing and had settled up one way or the other. Occasionally you get disputes between the client and their own insurer. Normally in such cases the insurer will allow the NCD if their client can prove that they recovered their excess and/or any other uninsured losses directly from the third party insurers.

At the time I left insurance K4K was starting to die out. I don't know how much of it is about these days. Most of the old larger insurers had K4K agreements between them but then Direct Line came along and didn't enter into agreements with any other insurer. Their business model was to cherry-pick the lowest-risk drivers, so in theory their clients wouldn't cause as many collisions as the average. So they did argue and recover or pay out on each claim. I don't know what's happened since.
 
Which ever way they work, my point is insurance companies act in their own best interests and not those of the client. My solicitor acted solely for me and when the insurance co's got difficult (or in other words tried to screw me) I had someone with the clout to argue back.

Come the day of the revolution they are first against the wall (along with the CSA, Bankers......)
 
UPDATE :

Two Items :

1. The letter I recieved for the Category was a typo error as an ammended letter has been recieved today after I rang them to query it. It will be deemed a Cat B.

2. I have had a phonecall today from the acting insurance company for the AT fault party. They have offered £6200 plus the cost of 3/4 tank of diesel, as long as I show the recent fill up reciept, which I still have.

Speaking to my cousin who is in the Trade, he says thats a good 1st offer, as he would expected to see a figure of around £5000 - £5500.

What do you guys think?.....

Croma was in excellent condition with 36,312 mile on the clock and Full Service History.

Your thoughts appreciated.:)
 
its a good offer they sell for way below book price, be hard to find another with mileage that low though. does that include you getting to keep the car?
shall i start my list of parts i need now? :devil:

No. But it will be moved if settlement is agreed to Universal Salvage in Sandwich of which I have found out today.

I cannot buy the Croma back, my husband ( FFF ) thought you could, but I am dealing with Commercial Vehicle Insurance and not Domestic Vehicle Insurance, hence why maybe the 1st offer is better than expected. But then again, could be wrong on buying it back.
 
there is no such thing as buy it back, its your car you own it, they can buy it off you for a salvage price if you agree, but they cant just keep it. you will make a lot more selling in in bits than any salvage price they offer. tell them if they want to keep your car then to up the offer by another £1500
 
there is no such thing as buy it back, its your car you own it, they can buy it off you for a salvage price if you agree, but they cant just keep it. you will make a lot more selling in in bits than any salvage price they offer. tell them if they want to keep your car then to up the offer by another £1500

OK....

Personally being female about this, I do not have the storage or space to have the Croma back, as the Bravo courtesy is in the Croma's place.

I cannot see what is really salvagable except Engine, Gearbox, Wheels, Exhaust and some of the body panels / interior. I do not have the time to strip the Croma and wait for somebody to come along and buy something, despite if its worth more in parts, for a model that did not sell more than 1400 units. But I will bear it in mind.

Maybe I should investigate there offer of £6200 in what it entails and what I am committing to.
 
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The total loss offer will be conditional on them keeping the salvage - it probably says so in their letter.

It sounds like a blooming amazing offer to me. I'd be inclined to accept it, but it wouldn't do any harm to haggle a bit - I doubt they'd go back on their first offer, but don't blame me when they say "we've looked into it and it's actually worth £3000!"

If you have the grey/blue interior is there any chance your front central cushioned armrest/lid could go missing before it goes away? I managed to scuff mine putting a desk in last week.
 
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