Help - rear ended!

Dunks · 10 Jul 2018 at 10:38

Hey guys, as title! I was rear ended when stopping for traffic lights at a large round about. The guy was driving a works van and while he didn't really admit fault he said "I thought you were going to run the light like everyone else".

I've spoken to Admiral who have said it seems like a clear cut non fault accident on my end and have put through to Auxillis who seem to be an accident management company. It's my first accident and I've never dealt with these companies but have heard stories about them claiming back extortionate costs from the other insurers and then it results in a massive argument over costs.

What are my options? Will the 3rd party insurer contact me if they agree they were at fault to arrange repairs and car hire? I'm a bit wary of signing all these numerous credit agreements for the accident management company car hire and other costs.

Cheers

Dunks · 10 Jul 2018 at 11:26

Thanks for the replies guys. I've got a good description of the guy, it was his works van and I've got his name, their details, their accident management company details as well. Photos of my car and his car also.

Looking at the car hire agreement it's about £130 a day for the car, which does seem steep, and usually this is what results in accident management companies arguing with insurers!

I've already contacted admiral who said it seems a non fault claim and then they passed me through to Auxillis, the accident management company.

Can I contact their insurer and see if they have admitted fault and then sort out repairs and car hire from them directly?

Dunks · 10 Jul 2018 at 16:19

[TW]Fox said:
On the contrary the third party insurer has every incentive to treat you well - if they treat you well you'll let them handle the claim and not a third party management company and that means they get to control the costs. Many insurers now have dedicated teams whose job it is to proactively reach out to the innocent party and offer to sort everything.

This is what happened with me when I had a similar issue - the third party insurer contacted me, handled everything, allowed my choice of repairer and provided an Enterprise E Class rental for the duration of the repair all paid for by them at a rate they were able to negotiate themselves.

What actually happens is your own insurer will either:

a) Palm you off onto an accident management company
b) Treat the whole thing as a fault claim meaning basic hire car, limitations of repairer, suspended NCB and then seek to reclaim the costs from the third party.

Where there is no credible dispute over fault I would always advocate going via the third parties insurer to sort things - you still need to notify your own insurer obviously, but let the third parties insurer handle everything provided they are happy to do so on terms you are satisfied with,

Called the third party, they said they had logged the accident from the guy that hit me, then they took some details and got back to me within 30 minutes.

I think it's their accident management/fleet management company as he spoke to their insurers QBE to check the status of the claim. I asked if they had said it was non fault on my behalf, and he said they never say whether it was or not to them, but that they'll be sorting everything out for me, including a hire car with Enterprise. So guess it must non fault on my behalf?

They've also allocated me to a BMW approved body shop also, but not that it probably means that much!

Dunks · 10 Jul 2018 at 16:24

james.miller said:
Somebody did that to me, the week I passed my test. You were stopped at a red - It's totally clear cut.

I only passed 10 months ago

Dunks · 10 Jul 2018 at 20:47

Looking into the body shop the insurers have passed my details onto and unsurprisingly seem very body work orientated, do these places also carry out mechanical/structural inspections? Will they just farm it out?

Dunks · 11 Jul 2018 at 09:46

Getting a VW Scirocco from Enterprise shortly, to replace the Z4. They initially offered an Insignia, which looks quite nice, but my request of an automatic means a car of that size would be another day or so!

Another question, when the crash happened a small amount of steam/vapour seemed to come out from the top of the bonnet at the windscreen on the driver's side, it wasn't continuous even with the engine running after the impact.

When driving back everything felt fine, coolant levels were good, temperature was fine, anyone experience something similar?

I'm thinking maybe the impact caused a joint to briefly separate somewhere allowing a release of steam or exhaust gases?

Dunks · 11 Jul 2018 at 17:55

Ricochet J said:
Insist that a BMW dealer does the work.

Dropped the keys for them to come and collect the car, will see how they are first!

Ended up getting a Golf estate GTD, quite nice actually but a tank compared to my Z4! But it's definitely very nice being in a 12 year old newer car!

Dunks · 19 Jul 2018 at 17:10

So unsurprisingly the insurer is deeming it a total loss. Body shop is quoting £3700 Inc VAT, insurers are valuing the car at £3600.

I've asked the body shop for the breakdown of the quote, the place seems to only deal with or specialise in insurance repairs so I want to see how the pricing looks, and what needs replaced.

I've had a look on eBay at a boot lid in perfect condition is £60, a bumper is £90 and rear quarter around £100. I'm assuming the body shop will be using new OEM pattern parts that will require spraying.

I've just recently ploughed £800 into the car for a clean MOT pass two months ago

Dunks · 19 Jul 2018 at 17:34

bloodiedathame said:
You can haggle with the insurers to get a better value.

Yeah, similar mileage and condition cars are about £3800-4000 so will try push. Especially with the work I've done to it, it'll be the top end of that.

Dunks · 19 Jul 2018 at 19:41

Amos91 said:
Look at the option of cash in lieu if they won't budge on the total loss. That way it stays off the write off registry and you can get it repaired somewhere else, and potentially cheaper.

Hyburnate said:
Don’t believe Admiral ‘allow’ that. I know they dispose of cars without the option for buy back.

My insurer is Admiral but I have been dealing with the 3rd party insurer through the companies fleet management and insurer broker company and they've said cash in lieu is an option.

I'm waiting on the full breakdown from the body shop to see what needs repairing, I know for a fact I can have a boot lid, bumper and rear quarter in the right colour for less than £300.

Dunks · 20 Jul 2018 at 09:33

So as I thought, the quote is ridiculous. They seem to be charging £180 for a parking sensor, they look to be about £15-20 each, although probably non OEM but good enough for me. £600 for a bumper when there are perfectly good ones on eBay for £100.

Am I able to take the car elsewhere for alternative quotes at this stage? Or should I just try and get cash in lieu and fix it myself and avoid having it listed as category N.

Dunks · 20 Jul 2018 at 10:26

They're going to get back to my regarding cash in lieu. The body shop have also quoted £150 for a new tyre, even though it's a Potenza runflat 18" 255, hardly a 20" Pilot Sport 4S. Tyre looks fine also, so not sure why they need to replace it.

They're also quoting a refurb of the rim even though the kerbed damage was already there prior to the accident...

Dunks · 23 Jul 2018 at 14:00

Great, so the insurers say they won't cash in lieu as apparently the car is not road worthy.

So now my options are category N + £2600 and repair it myself and lose out when selling or just take the £3600 and lose out on the money I've spent (new shocks, pads and discs all round etc etc)

Dunks · 23 Jul 2018 at 15:54

bloodiedathame said:
"A Category N vehicle has also been written off by the insurer as it was uneconomical to repair, but the difference is that it suffered non-structural damage. The vehicle's structural frame or chassis did not suffer any damage."

Offer them £2k for it?

WoodyUK said:
It's going to get a Category * marker on it regardless of what path you take (buying back / repairing) etc.

If I'm reading correctly, they're offering a £1000 buy back value on it then? Seems rather unusually high if they're only offering £3600 as a total pay out.

Have a look what Cat N's of your model sell for and weight that up against your losses if you just take the £3600 (is the £3600 close to the value of a similar age/mileage model?)

Yeah, if I go the category N and buy back option they'll give me £2600, so £1000 to buy the car back. I would have thought that the buy back value would be closer to 10-20%, so £360-720.

There's not many cat D Z4s up for sale, but I was planning on keeping the car for years to come, so maybe it might not matter too much when I end up selling it as it probably won't be worth £3k even non-cat D then.

Dunks · 6 Aug 2018 at 13:41

So I'm going down the route of just taking the cash and then keeping the car, but I'm challenging the valuation.

An issue I'm having is that last week Enterprise, who are the car hire company, contacted me saying the insurers will no longer be paying for the hire car as they have reached a settlement and I will need to drop the car back off on Friday.

I called the insurers claim management company, on Thursday the 2nd as no settlement has been reached, who asked if I wanted it extended, I asked for an extension until Monday the 13th as I needed it last weekend for a 400 mile round trip, and again next weekend for an even longer trip. They said "Oh we cant do that, we thought you were going to ask for a week's extension, we can so until Wednesday the 8th".

I've got the car until Wednesday for the moment, but need it for all of next weekend and I am happy to relinquish the car on the Monday even without an agreed settlement.

Any ideas where I stand on this?