I have already notified my insurer but I told them that I am not claiming from them and that I will claim from the "at fault" party myself. I don't have legal cover on my own insurance cover but I could include it for an extra of only £2.50 a month.

Thanks all for the help. Luckily I am good with DIY fixing of cars as I always service, maintain and repair my car myself. I am using my friend's car to go to work at the moment as he is away on holiday and left me with his car to look after i.e start the engine up from time to time. The thing is my friend will be back soon so I am thinking of just going ahead and repairing my car myself and taking evidence photos along the way and keeping all receipts of replacement parts. Fixing it myself will be much less costly than the £600 excess, that I would have to pay upfront, if I claimed from my own insurer. I know the insurance claim from the liable party will be painfully slow, and I could be left without a car to go to work. In the event that they tried to drag their feet, I understand that I have a time limit of 6 years to claim for damages i.e property damage not medical, is that right?

Thanks citizenB. They will but I will have to initially pay excess if I claimed from my own insurance, and I think I will have to later chase the "at fault" party to pay me back the excess. Dog's owner must be still sad about the unfortunate death of their dog so I feel awkward contacting them directly asking them to pay and I assume they expect their pet insurance to cover them and that is why they gave the details but their pet insurance doesn't want to deal with me.

Hi all, I recently had the misfortune of a stray dog jumping in front of my car, whilst the car was at 70 miles per hour, with no room or time, whatsoever, to maneuver to avoid it. The dog appeared from the crash barrier guards, literally about 3 meters in front of the car and jumped onto the path of the car. I looked to my left, there was a car, so I couldn't swerve left, to the right was the crash barrier so couldn't swerve right. I instinctively, slammed on the foot brake, but at 70 mph all you get is the ABS preventing wheel lock and you cannot stop within that distance. The inevitable happened, almighty bang, severe vibration as the dog was dragged under for a few seconds until it managed to pass under the car, I eventually came to stop as I was on emergency brake and looked at the rear view mirror and the dog was dead. Where I was stopped I saw cars swerving dangerously to avoid the dead dog and my car so I moved over onto the left lane then onto the hard shoulder where I stopped. I called the police. My car has serious damage, broken left head lamp/indicator unit, damaged bumper, leaking radiator, broken, hence, leaking power steering cooler, damaged aircon condenser(aircon radiator) and bent frame behind the bumper and registration plate damaged. I am without a car now as I managed to drive it home but now all power steering fluid and coolant has leaked and radiator fans won't turn as they are jammed against the radiator. The police managed to trace the dog's owner as the dog was chipped and the police gave me the dog's pet insurance details - direct line pet insurance. The police said I was lucky as it could have been worse and it was good I didn't swerve as that would caused a very bad accident on the motorway. Now, I called direct line pet insurance a few days ago to claim for the damage on my car and they are telling me that I cannot talk to them directly because I am not their customer, should they do that? They are saying that I should either, contact the dog's owner so that the dog's owner contacts them or claim from my insurance so that my insurance claims from them. The dog's owner is liable here as the dog shouldn't have been running astray on the motorway and I don't want to claim from my insurance as it is not my fault and if I do I will have to pay £600 excess. What should I do? Is direct line's pet insurance division trying to be difficult so that they don't pay?