Thread: Dealing with insurance company third party claim after an accident, any advice ?

Originally Posted by gromit

My son was driving his Toyota Corona home from work on Sunday and someone pulled out in front of him. He's fine but there is no way the car can be repaired which is a shame because is was mint inside and only had about 100K on the clock. The other person admitted fault and the Police were called

Our insurance was third party fire & theft, the other person was insured.
Spoke with the RACV and they will handle the claim with the other person's insurance company for a $300 admin fee but, they suggested I deal with the other party's insurance company directly. Something makes me think they somehow cover each other's claims hence the suggestion I deal direct rather than through the RACV ?
The car was towed away (organised by the Police) as it was a traffic hazard and the damage to the front corner meant it couldn't be easily moved.

I'm sure I'm going to get into a fight with Budget Direct over the value of the car, he paid $4.5K a few years ago, plus I need to get the tow fee & storage fee refunded.
The car is being recovered to our place and we should get salvage rights.

Any advice, ideally from experience, on how to make sure a sensible amount is paid out would be helpful.

In the meantime.......anyone interested in a nice Starfire motor to install in a Land Rover ? Low kms, head gasket recently replaced.


Colin

My R.I.P. bike was not insured. It only cost me 2k! The car I killed with it was insured by Shannons. First call was sad, Second call was to the right area. They paid the market value of my bike rather than clearly lose the argument I would have pursued IF needed. It was the other driver's fault and he was charged by police. Try talking works for me. Not to your 3rd party cover. Directly to the at fault person and or his/her insurance. Market value was 6k!

As you note gromit, when both cars are fully insured insurance companies would have agreements established which will allocate how claims are generally settled. These agreements don’t always play out the way you would expect.

Of course if one party does admit fault it shows they have integrity and you would like to think this should make it easier. Hopefully the other party also informed their insurer they admitted it was their fault.

Can’t give you legal advice, but would suggest you just need to present your case and go from there. If you don’t get the response you like then you should probably seek a legal opinion or go back to RACV for advice.

There are some very active Reddit groups where non-lawyers will give you plenty of opinions.

A good list here of where you can get free legal advice.

Reddit - Free Legal Services

No response from them so far so I'll make phone contact again today.
Car has been recovered to our place, it'll be 'interesting' to see what they offer for the market value.

The young bloke is back to using Mum's taxi. The towing yard were going to put me onto a bloke that would 'get me a car FOC and charge the insurance company'
The RACV warned me that these companies use their own rentals sometimes at exorbitant charges, the insurance will only pay a certain amount per day so you can end up out of pocket.

Colin

Any witnesses? Can make a big difference.

Originally Posted by simonmelb

Any witnesses? Can make a big difference.

Only a couple of young kids, the Police took statements.
Other driver admitted fault, failed to give way at a Give Way sign.
Drama with the insurer this morning over ownership of the vehicle, how do you prove ownership when everything is online nowadays ?
Hopefully better luck tomorrow.

Colin

Originally Posted by gromit

Drama with the insurer this morning over ownership of the vehicle, how do you prove ownership when everything is online nowadays ?

VicRoads don’t make things easy.

The only certificate you can find is your last renewal notice but that only proves you owned it when it was last due for payment. Hopefully the insurance company accepts that.

I just transferred a vehicle into my name and other than seeing it listed in my account (and getting an email saying it was transferred to me) I actually don’t have a registration certificate for it.

Originally Posted by gromit

Only a couple of young kids, the Police took statements.
Other driver admitted fault, failed to give way at a Give Way sign.
Drama with the insurer this morning over ownership of the vehicle, how do you prove ownership when everything is online nowadays ?
Hopefully better luck tomorrow.

Colin

Be careful, you might have to sue for the rental costs unless it was in your insurance policy, which costs about $10 a month in additional premium IIRC.

The other party's insurer has offered a hire car.
They wanted to remove the car for assessment, I explained that it's obvious from the pictures it's a write off. They will now get someone to contact me if more pictures are needed.
I was then asked if it's a 'classic car' to which I answered yes I was then told they had found one advertised for $3.5K to which I replied yes, they range from $3.5 to 18K.
I'm trying to get back the $5K he paid.

So far apart from delays and waiting to get through they have been OK to deal with.
I await their offer.

Colin