Young driver insurance quandary

[Darren C]

My 18 year old son's Morris Minor was T-boned in a carpark by an elderly lady reversing 32 feet out of a parking bay while turning 90 degrees before she hit his parked car. The drivers door is dented and it snapped the door striker plate in half on the B pillar. He witnessed the accident and faced a lot of abuse from the lady who blamed my son for parking there after she'd gone shopping so she wasn't expecting his car to be there when she reversed 32 feet before hitting it broadside, and therefore it was my sons fault and she refused to give insurance details
Anyhow, our quandary is this....

We have fully comp insurance with a well know insurer, the incident was reported and is a no-fault incident on my sons part. Our insurance have agreed to repair the car which will take 1-2 weeks.
My son was told he would have a courtesy car while his is repaired.
The garage nominated by his insurance have booked his car in, in 2 weeks time (which is now 7 weeks since the accident which I am very annoyed about) but because he is under 25 they can't lend him their courtesy car (the garage insurance won't cover under 25's) I have contacted his insurance and they told us to hire a car and they'll pay.
Unfortunately after phoning around, no one will hire us a car to anyone under 21 years of age. I have contacted the insurance and they don't want to help as its not their problem my son is too young under UK rules for hire cars, yet his policy is fully comp and includes a replacement car while his is repaired.
This whole thing is turning into a bit of a nightmare as its been blo*dy hard work, taken 7 weeks, numerous email and phone calls to make a claim and get them to agree to have the car fixed. He took photo's at the scene and the insurance have clear pictures of the accident showing clearly the other cars reg No and the driver.
I have had to buy and fit a new door catch so the door would close, carryout temporary repairs so he could at least drive the car albeit with a dented door.
Looks like we're knackered now on him getting to work & college and will have to foot that bill.
Apologies if this is a rant, but it's not what you expect from fully comp insurance with a mainstream classic car insurer.

Anyone got any ideas on getting him a courtesy car that the policy entitles him to?

[DustyM]

If all else fails can he use public transport/ taxis and bill those to the insurance?

[Darren C]

Jon, my axe to grind here is that he has fully comp insurance (which I paid the full premium for) yet I have already had to stick my hand in my pocket to buy parts and spend my time to drive out to the scene, fix the car and continually pester them to react to the claim which has take 7 weeks for them to nominate a garage to repair. (we got them 3 quotes within 2 days of the incident 7 weeks ago)

Is it just me, but making a claim on fully comp insurance should be just 1 phone call, the car should be collected assessed and repaired with a courtesy car provided and the blame sorted later???

The insurance are disputing the door lock I had to buy now.

Heaven knows if they'll foot taxi & public transport fees, and why should I now have to pay out for these and face a battle to reclaim the cost when his policy clearly states a car while his is repaired?

[KS]

As an aside, she could be prosecuted for leaving the scene of an accident.

[Uk911]

If he has the other cars registration number tell his own ins she caused the collision, report collision to the police and inform them of situation with the woman not providing details and failing to report a collision, tell your own ins company you will be using taxis to get about and keep all receipts which will be added to your claim against her as out of pocket expenses, also mention to your own ins company something along the lines of mis selling a policy as he can not get even though clearly written in his policy a hire car, and um and ar about the insurance ombudsman / trading standards and see what happens.
Only problem in all this is he should have reported the collision to police within 24hrs, but hey were all human.... Just my 2 p's worth... Hope you get sorted ... Mark..

[Mr Pharmacist]

If they can't give him a courtesy car as per the policy as he's under age then has the policy been mis-sold?

Anyway there's some info here about what else you can claim that might help claw some of the costs back if you can't get a courtesy car.

http://theinsuranceblogger.co.uk/car-insurance-claims/

Good luck

[Darren C]

The accident was in a car park across the road from the Police Station!

He walked over and reported it within 10 minutes of the incident.

They told him as he had photos on his phone and the reg number of the other car it was a civil matter and they weren't interested

The Police told him to give the reg number to his insurance. He telephoned me and I told him to go back in and get a crime ref number.

He went back in and they told him to go away as no one was injured and it was a civil matter.

With regards to the insurance, the policy states free "replacement vehicle" up to 2 weeks.

He reported the incident to the insurance there and then....that was 7 weeks ago!

[smallspeed]

find her and break her legs?

in all seriousness though, I think the police would eventually say "we don't care because its in a carpark" - I think her insurance would try to take the same stance as well, given its effectively on private land. doesn't help you at all, but as people have said before, insurance companies are a slimy bunch and a pain in the butt to deal with when it comes to getting money - they will try and wiggle out of anything!

just out of interest who is his insurance through? Seems like an interesting/different car and he's obviously pretty young.. I may have a contact who can help depending who it is

[Darren C]

Just the legs?
Arms too surely?


PM sent.

What really P*sses me off is the Morris is 1 owner from new before my son, 50 years old, 54K miles all original and nice and never been in an accident.

[smallspeed]

This is what makes me nervous with insurance - I think regardless of who you use, they will try and screw you somehow, AND none of them I've experienced make it easy to deal with them.. ..my old boss (an American statistics professor (ex lecturer)) used to say insurance was "betting against yourself"! doesn't make it an easier to pill to swallow

[inaglasshouse]

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/p ... se-mv.html

[inaglasshouse]

Although the police aren't interested (because it's a civil matter), civil matters obviously still offer recourse in law.
DVLA will disclose driver details from reg number if you have reasonable cause to need it. I would imagine that this case might be considered reasonable cause:
https://www.gov.uk/request-information-from-dvla
Then small claims court.

[Darren C]

Thanks, but getting the car repaired is not the issue (even though its been a long slog to file a claim) that bits now resolved.
I've spoken in length this afternoon with the Ombudsman and back and forth with his insurer. It's not easy as I'm not the policy holder so its a right pain to get anyone to talk to me.
Anyhow, looks like the buck has now been passed to a 3rd party who provide the legal cover with his insurance, to deal with a courtesy car, so have now started afresh with them. "Why can't the repairing garage supply their car?" is where they started with me.

[shoestring7]

Let him borrow the Bentley for a while?

C>

[Darren C]

Thanks Charles

The irony in all this is that there was an option we took out on his policy that cost us £20. It allows him to drive ANY, yes ANY car third party, over 20 years old providing it's insured and has the owners consent. Bentley's not old enough, but he could legally drive the rest of my collection including my highest value 365 Daytona Spyder

Yet they wont cover him on a poxy £10K hire car, in fact the garage courtesy car is a 54 plate corsa with galactic miles and rust!

So, update...

I got home this evening and checked the policy.

Heading..."Not being able to use your vehicle" "What is covered"

"The cost of hiring another car while your vehicle is being repaired or diagnosed. We will pay up to £70 a day and £750 in total" Then a load of blurb about cant guarantee same car, or tow bar or roof rack on hire car etc.

This was made clear to us when we took the policy out and was a selling point that made us pay the extra Breakdown cover to stop the lad getting stranded.

So, back on the phone to the insurer, quote them word for word. Response "Check the General Exclusions"

Back to the small print....

Doh!

"The policyholder must be able to meet the conditions of the hire car company"

Ok, so there's a claim here for mis-selling? But that isn't going to be a quick solution.

Back to the legal insurance cover that we paid extra for in the premium.....It covers reasonable expenses/out of pocket costs ie my son using Taxi's to work (he leaves for work at 05:30 and works until 14:00 on his day job and at weekend from 18:00 to 02:00) so buses & trains aren't going to cut it.
After waiting an eternity on the hold system I spoke to a very nice lady who said "yes, yes & yes they'll cover these costs while the car is being repaired" then the next hurdle "We need the name, address and insurance details for the 3rd party who caused the accident"........
But they refused to give my son these details
"sorry we can't help you without this"

So on the merry-go round again.