Skidsophrenic

I had an accident in icy conditions almost 2 years ago on a freezing evening when I stopped at the scene of another accident where a car had overturned due to black ice. Then, a few seconds later, a third car hit my car and skidded over a bank into a field. Police were called etc., and my car had damage to the back. My insurance included a replacement car so I phoned them and they organised for an accident management firm to sort it out as my car got collected to be repaired on the Tuesday but I got a replacement on the Thursday, thus being 2 days without a car. The next week, Swiftcover, the insurer of the lady who had hit my car, contacted me offering me a replacement car, that would have meant me being without a car for at least 7 days before they had acted. I informed them I already had one through my insurer but they were not happy with this. My car was some 21 days being repaired and resprayed. I later received several letters from Swiftcover saying they would not pay for my replacement car as I had not taken one from them. I wrote back to say I would have has they offered me one in time, but a car which was vital in the rural area I lived and that the sole reason I needed one was because their driver had not been able to stop. My insurer had to take Swiftcover to court to claim hire car costs and I had to arrange for a day off work to appear and only then was the matter settled out of court. Is such behaviour normal in such circumstances?

Asked on 9 January 2010 by MC, via email

Answered by Honest John
You were caught in the credit hire trap. Your repair may have been extended by the 'accident management' company in order to increase the length of the credit hire, which itself may have been at an inflated premium. This scam is the main reason by insurance premiums have risen so much over recent years. But because your insurer put you onto the credit hire operation, it was your insurer's responsibility to sort out the mess. You did the right thing in referring all correspondence to your insurer and insist that they resolve it as they are bound to do under their contract to you and their duty in law to ‘mitigate’ losses. However, if who you took to be your ‘insurer’ was really no more than a broker and not the actual underwriter, you could still be trapped. More here: www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/credit-hire-1
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