Very weird insurance story

  • Drivingforfun's Avatar
    I’m just putting this up for interest’s sake really, and welcome any comments. I don’t really have any specific questions, although constructive comments / advice is always welcome!


    A relative was chatting with a someone at work who had their car written off (not at fault) around 4 years ago. It was complicated enough as it was an uninsured driver but was further complicated as the culprit was in this country illegally, and is no longer here


    He’s still driving a hire car almost 4 years on. His car wasn’t a cheap car but not a supercar - it’s a sporty-spec saloon worth around £90k new. He gets a new hire car every 3 months - he’s had S classes, BMW 5 series estates, a Tesla model S, that sort of thing


    We all know that insurance companies claim a lot of money for giving people hire cars - it’s not uncommon for a day’s rental to be what you could lease the car for a month… he’s said the claim is currently at £450,000


    I know they have to lend out an equivalent car to what you’ve lost and remember someone I know getting a Fiesta which was billed at around £140 a day so can well believe a posh saloon being £3-400 a day

    The victim / claimant has lost all faith now, and just happily accepts a nice new car every 3 months when it turns up. Most recently the owner of the hire company, apparently, delivered the car himself, as he wanted to meet and thank him!


    Why do they do this? It seems like a bit of a gambling addiction - they keep pumping money in to fighting this hoping they won’t have to pay out for the car … but they could’ve paid for it 5 times already. Would it not be better to just cut their losses?

    Could the amount of the settlement come back to bite him, would it "look bad" having a half-million pound claim on your history? I'd imagine, seeing as this was the insurers' choice and not his, it should be, at worst, equally severe to a £90,000 claim of writing off the car?


    Looking forward to any comments
  • 4 Replies

  • Beelzebub's Avatar
    That all sounds very fishy.

    When (if?) the at-fault party pays up, they can challenge the hire costs. The victim (storyteller?) has a duty to mitigate his losses, which he plainly hasn't done.

    As for coming back to bite him, the claim will simply be recorded as non-fault, without a cost attached. I've only ever been asked once about the cost of a past claim, and "Don't know" was accepted as the answer.
  • Rolebama's Avatar
    From what you say I wonder if the MIB are involved? My daughter's accident a few years ago involved them and they paid out an amazing amount. We don't know the total figure but they paid her loss of earnings for three months, replacement riding gear for them both, repairs to his motorcycle, private hospital costs including overnight stays, cosmetic surgery, counselling for panic attacks, and my costs for taking her backwards and forwards for hospital and doctor's visits. They paid out for my son-in-law's treatment in a private hospital as well. Total must have been many thousands of pounds in the end. His insurer knocked him back two years NCD, and they reimbursed him for those losses as well.
  • TC1474's Avatar
    From what you say I wonder if the MIB are involved? My daughter's accident a few years ago involved them and they paid out an amazing amount. We don't know the total figure but they paid her loss of earnings for three months, replacement riding gear for them both, repairs to his motorcycle, private hospital costs including overnight stays, cosmetic surgery, counselling for panic attacks, and my costs for taking her backwards and forwards for hospital and doctor's visits. They paid out for my son-in-law's treatment in a private hospital as well. Total must have been many thousands of pounds in the end. His insurer knocked him back two years NCD, and they reimbursed him for those losses as well.

    The MiB simply become the defendants in cases of untraced or no insurance cases and are treated in exactly the am e way as if liability was being pursued against the third party.

    What you describe is normal. It is nothing special, and in fact general damages (injuries payments) tend to be about 10% lower than if it had been directly against the third party insurers.

    However, once liability has been admitted by the third party (in this case the MiB) they are obliged to pay for any private medical treatment, and specialist treatment which will facilitate an early level of recovery and allow settlement to at least be discussed.

    Paying for your costs, loss of earnings, replacement kit, damage, all out of pocket expenses et al is standard and has to be paid by the third party in cases of genuine costs incurred.

    In catastrophic cases it goes much further than that, but because the MiB were involved, the claim will not have been dealt with an differently to a straight third party claim other than it will have taken longer as the MiB are given an automatic 3 months to conduct their own investigation and there are a number of strict protocols that have to be observed.
  • olduser's Avatar
    I’m just putting this up for interest’s sake really, and welcome any comments. I don’t really have any specific questions, although constructive comments / advice is always welcome!


    A relative was chatting with a someone at work who had their car written off (not at fault) around 4 years ago. It was complicated enough as it was an uninsured driver but was further complicated as the culprit was in this country illegally, and is no longer here


    He’s still driving a hire car almost 4 years on. His car wasn’t a cheap car but not a supercar - it’s a sporty-spec saloon worth around £90k new. He gets a new hire car every 3 months - he’s had S classes, BMW 5 series estates, a Tesla model S, that sort of thing


    We all know that insurance companies claim a lot of money for giving people hire cars - it’s not uncommon for a day’s rental to be what you could lease the car for a month… he’s said the claim is currently at £450,000


    I know they have to lend out an equivalent car to what you’ve lost and remember someone I know getting a Fiesta which was billed at around £140 a day so can well believe a posh saloon being £3-400 a day

    The victim / claimant has lost all faith now, and just happily accepts a nice new car every 3 months when it turns up. Most recently the owner of the hire company, apparently, delivered the car himself, as he wanted to meet and thank him!


    Why do they do this? It seems like a bit of a gambling addiction - they keep pumping money in to fighting this hoping they won’t have to pay out for the car … but they could’ve paid for it 5 times already. Would it not be better to just cut their losses?

    Could the amount of the settlement come back to bite him, would it "look bad" having a half-million pound claim on your history? I'd imagine, seeing as this was the insurers' choice and not his, it should be, at worst, equally severe to a £90,000 claim of writing off the car?


    Looking forward to any comments

    I think I would be very nervous, I would have contacted the insurers to get in writing that I was not going to have to pay for the hire, and why is the claim not progressing.

    I think insurers have a fund they all pay into to cover claims where uninsured drivers are the responsible party, so I can understand the insurers being in no great hurry, and this one has got put onto the backburner but it looks as though the burner went out!

    When someone discovers it, I think the do do will hit the fan, then they are going to want to recover the costs from somewhere!😳