I would appreciate some guidance from the forums experience on something I suspect is simple, but is new territory for me.
I got rear-ended yesterday (no laughing at the back please…) pretty badly. The other driver was great and admitted fault and swapped details, and I’ve logged it with my insurance company online.
The car was recovered by BMW Assist (who were utterly amazing throughout, truly superb service) and will be taken to my local BMW main dealer. All good so far.
I have a strong suspicion the car is going to take a few months to fix, assuming they don’t write it off, so I need a hire car that’s appropriate for a long work commute and family life, and it turns out I was a dumbass and neglected to add this to my policy. Lesson learned.
How likely is it I can ask for a suitable car for the duration, and have the third parties insurance add it to the claim? Any previous accidents I’ve had have been a quick fix so I’m not sure if this is entirely normal, or something I’ll need to push for?
The other thing is I really want BMW to complete the repairs, rather than my insurance company choosing. I’m with Aviva and they have an additional excess to pay for choosing my own repairer, so it seems like this will be fine, but is it going to be that simple, or another potential argument?
Long post, sorry, but I’d be grateful for your experience and guidance.
I'd suggest speaking to your own insurer and getting their advice on having the hire costs reclaimed from the other party.
Also enquire from your chosen repairer as to their loan car policy options.
Car repair times are at an all-time high nowadays so I expect you're correct in your estimate.
Good luck with it all.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
I had a similar situation about 18 months ago although not as serious as your accident.
The other party admitted liability and reported it to his insurance company and they contacted me 2 days later and said they would repair my car, I informed them that I had a preferred repairer and they would liaise with them, which they did. They also arranged a replacement car for the duration of the repair, in my case about 3 weeks. I did not have hire car cover on my own insurance.
At no point did my insurance company become involved. I believe in a no fault accident you have the right to have your vehicle repaired wherever you wish and the right to have a replacement vehicle of equivalent standard even if you don't have cover on your policy.
I hope you get everything sorted without any trouble.
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Thanks ralphy, that’s certainly the plan as soon as I can get through to a human being on the phone. Just good to know if this is relatively straightforward or I need to go into the conversation with my best persuasive voice on.
Brilliant, huge thanks for sharing that. I really hope my case plays out the same.Originally Posted by wjkerfoot
In an ideal world I just want BMW to deal with everything, hire car as well, and send the bill to the other parties insurance.
Nothing to add to others' replies except to say that BMW itself almost certainly won't carry out the repairs; it will likely be done by one of its local approved body shops. That said, I understand completely your wish to have BMW deal with everything.
Are you aware that adding the cost of a hire car to an insurance claim (especially a large or ‘exotic’ car) is the most likely cause of writing off your car?
We recently insisted on a Volvo accident repair rather than the insurer’s nominated body shop.
Not a problem although we were responsible for getting the quote into the hands of the insurer who then had to get their estimators to review and approve the quotation.
The Volvo repairer, was not a Volvo owned shop, it was their nominated repairer. It took absolutely ages to get a quotation from Volvo due to body shop workload. We had to do the chasing. There was then a bit of a palaver either loading or finding the quotation on the Audatex system. Then, quite a wait for the insurer’s review and approval - due to the estimating team’s workload.
Both vehicle owner’s insisted on manufacturer approved repairs. Both seem to have been done well. The Volvo nominated workshop looked very clean and well equipped.
However, I suspect that both insurers and manufacturers use the same repairers and it would have been a bit quicker and easier to go with the insurer’s.
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Yeah I get that, it's just the fact that the car is under warranty and it's a PCP car, so I want absolutely everything managed by them, any future claims for problems to go through them, all with them having complete visibility and involvement with the car throughout.
No... but so be it. Perhaps the wrong attitude, but I need a car for work and family life so I can't spend the next few months in something unsuitable. Insurance is all about getting you back to the right state and that carries a cost. I won't shed a tear if the car is written off, I just want to get back to normal ASAP.
Useful to know, thank you. BMW Assist say they'll work directly with my insurer so I suspect this will be pretty simple. I'm happy to put the legwork in myself though since this is my preference, so good to know that's a potential.
On that note, for anybody remotely interested, BMW Assist is a magical thing.
I couldn't get through to Aviva at the side of the road, but got through to BMW Assist really easily. Within 5 mins they had everything they needed and had a recovery vehicle on its way. That arrived within 90-mins.
Then, separately, BMW Assist phone me and say 'your car has reported to us you've been in an accident, is everything OK, how can we help?'. I explained I had just spoken with them, but I thought it was brilliant that within no time at all after an accident, I have a human on the phone checking in on me, asking if I need help with onward travel, recovery, etc.
Then a little while later, less than an hour after the accident, I get another call from BMW Assist saying they'll pass my info on to Enterprise so they can get a temporary hire car to me later the same day. It's 5-days only, but still helpful in the interim.
I always assumed it was one of those tick-box marketing things to make the cost more palatable, but it really was impressive.
I should probably clarify, when I wrote that we were responsible for getting the quotation in the hands of the insurer, more accurately this was between the insurer, Volvo and the body shop but it wasn’t happening, so I ended up chasing, finding out what the hold ups were, digging out and sharing progress and Audatex IDs.
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The remedy will depend on your own insurance policy wording / terms and conditions. Other insured's experiences with their own insurers are not the best way of assessing the outcome of your own claim – because their policy wordings / terms and conditions are likely different to yours.
The AA guidelines ref uninsured losses (e.g. cost of hire car) explains claims ref same but note the word 'reasonable' : https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice...insured-losses
"Well they would say that ... wouldn't they!"
I had a similar situation although probably not as bad. The other party wouldn’t admit liability so Aviva sorted out the repair (at a nominated garage) and I was out of pocket for my excess(I didn’t need a courtesy car). Aviva took the other party to court and I git my excess back.
In your case if you are definitely the innocent party then it’s not Aviva responsible for the claim, it’s the other parties insurer. You have the right to have your car repaired at a garage if your choice and also request a courtesy car whilst yours is repaired. Quite often the body shop can supply one. As stated above mine was a BMW and they wouldn’t have done the body repair anyway. Aviva actually own a chain of repairers (Solus) so in theory can keep claims costs down.
Sorry to hear that you've been involved in an accident OP, hope you don't have any serious injuries. Bent metal can be fixed but soft tissue is a more complicated!!
Be careful of BMW Assist, they could be operating as an Accident Management Company and any hire care provided could be under a credit hire contract. I was a Defendant RTA solicitor in a previous life and dealt with many claims for credit hire. Most of them at exorbitant daily rates. The company will hire you a vehicle on credit whilst yours is off the road and seek to reclaim the cost of hire from the third party insurer. All well and dandy until there is a dispute over the fees and you get hauled to Court to explain why you needed such a vehicle and have disclose financial records to show why you couldn't pay the hire yourself and claim back at a later stage.
In my personal experience, I've found it a lot easier to contact the third party insurer directly. They will have a specific team to help parties who their insured's have collided with. They will provide you with a hire car at no cost to yourself but it will be from their network of preferred suppliers which will mean that the hire will not be on a credit basis and they can keep control of the costs as they are the paymasters. They should also bend over backwards to ensure that your vehicle is also repaired at your garage of choice. They do all this to avoid you going to an AMC who would just inflate the costs and present them with a bill at the end of it all.
If you want any more info or advice, drop me a PM and I'll give you my phone number.
kungfupanda - Hugely appreciated, the reply and the offer of guidance, thank you. It's great timing, as I just had a called from Enterprise on behalf of Aviva (so things are clearly moving, even if I still haven't spoken with Aviva) and exactly as you say, they're providing a similar car to mine 'on credit'. Your words are ringing around my head so I want to keep close to this detail, and I'm really grateful for your insight so I know the games that could be played. I'm given slight confidence from the fact it's my own insurer arranging this... but equally, to Bravo73's point earlier, this is clearly going to drive the claim cost up.
I have legal protection with my insurance so hopefully I have a little bit of cover, but the one thing you've made me do is consider drawing the BMW Assist involvement to a close and putting everything in the hands of Aviva. Once I can confirm it's OK for BMW to complete the repair and Aviva will work with them, I'll feel much better.
Thanks again for the PM offer, I may well take you up on that if things start to feel a little bit off with this claim.
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