Car on HP written off, how do I claim "other losses"

[deales82]

Hi All,

 

I will set the scene with a brief timeline of events....

 

1. Purchased a 62 plate car for 10k on a HP agreement with a £300 deposit, picked the car up from the dealers on the 2nd March 2016.

 

2. I made the first payment on the HP agreement on the 2nd April 2016.

 

3. On the 8th April 2016, the car was written off in an accident.

 

The other party pleaded no contest and their insurers have admitted full liability for the claim. I spoke with my finance company yesterday after receiving a letter from my insurer declaring the car a write off.

 

Naturally as the legal owner of the vehicle, the finance company are insisting that they deal with the insurers themselves. I fully expect however that the finance company will be acting solely in their own interests and not mine. I should also state that I have GAP insurance so I am not bothered about clearing the existing finance, but what does bother me is that it leaves me personally out of pocket, I believe (and this is where I need advice) that I should be able to claim....

 

1. My £300 deposit which was paid to the dealer at the start of March.

 

2. As mentioned above, I paid my monthly installment at the start of the month and only had 7 days use out of the car before the accident, so I believe I should be able to claim at least part of this back?

 

3. My next payment is due on the 1st May, I am concerned that if things don't move swiftly and the finance isn't settled before the end of this month then I will end up paying another month's payment for a car that I no longer have the use of!

 

My main question is... what route should I take to attempt to claim back these losses?? Should I wait for the insurer and finance company to conclude the settlement of the finance first? I am thinking of waiting for the dust to settle and then issuing a court claim to the other driver for any remaining losses, can I do this?? I am concerned that once the finance company has settled with the insurer then that will prevent any further claims being made??

 

Many thanks for any assistance given.

[unclebulgaria67]

Do you have legal cover on your Car Insurance ? If so they can contact the third parties Insurers on your behalf and negotiate them paying your various uninsured losses. If they failed to pay or an agreement could not be reached, a county court claim could be issued against the third party,

 

You have to think that you had use of the car between 2/3/16 and 8/4/16. Therefore you cannot claim, as if you never had the car. When you claim for uninsured losses, it is the excess, cost of a hire car if you need to have transport, personal injuries, loss of earnings directly related to the accident. You cannot claim depreciation in value, anything to do with the finance on the car.

 

Suggest that you speak to the finance company about any continued payments. If the claim takes say 3 months to settle between finance company, Insurers and GAP provider, are they really expecting you to pay 3 months worth of finance ? I would have thought that if the finance was being paid off between the Insurers and GAP, that you would not have to make further finance payments.

[deales82]

Do you have legal cover on your Car Insurance ? If so they can contact the third parties Insurers on your behalf and negotiate them paying your various uninsured losses. If they failed to pay or an agreement could not be reached, a county court claim could be issued against the third party,

 

You have to think that you had use of the car between 2/3/16 and 8/4/16. Therefore you cannot claim, as if you never had the car. When you claim for uninsured losses, it is the excess, cost of a hire car if you need to have transport, personal injuries, loss of earnings directly related to the accident. You cannot claim depreciation in value, anything to do with the finance on the car.

 

Suggest that you speak to the finance company about any continued payments. If the claim takes say 3 months to settle between finance company, Insurers and GAP provider, are they really expecting you to pay 3 months worth of finance ? I would have thought that if the finance was being paid off between the Insurers and GAP, that you would not have to make further finance payments.

 

Thank you for your advice, I have "Tesco Legal Guard" as part of the motor insurance policy and will be giving them a call this morning.

 

With regards to claiming back my finance payments, I have spoken with the finance company yesterday and they inform me that unless the balance is settled by the 29th April, I will be required to make another months payment. So essentially I have paid £478 in 2 montly payments for 1 month & 1 weeks usage!

 

I see your point in that it may be difficult to claim that I have not had any use of the car between 2/3/16 and 8/4/16. However, my argument is that I purchased a vehicle on HP in order to own it at the end of the term. If I wanted to flush my money down the toilet hiring a car then I would have gone to Hertz

 

I also, stupidly in hindsight had some "extras", extended warranty, safeguard protection etc... which total £678 added onto the car purchase and so these are within the financed amount. The problem is reading the small print of my GAP policy, they will only pay the shortfall for the vehicle and not any extras!

 

So to sum it all up, I had use of my car for 1 month & 1 week and it has cost me so far....

 

DEPOSIT: £300

1ST MONTHLY PAYMENT: £239

2ND MONTHLY PAYMENT: £239

UNINSURED EXTRAS ADDED TO FINANCE: £679

 

TOTAL: £1,457 or put it another way £40 per day of usage!

 

I cannot believe what a mess this has become, once the GAP insurer has filled the gap for the vehicle portion of the finance I am going to still be left with a shortfall of £679 excluding interest! which of course the finance company want settling immediately. I then need to find another £300 deposit to put down on another car.

 

We are also a 1 car family, and I know the insurer is going to want the hire car back once they have sent their portion of the settlement to the finance company, but we need a car in order to find a replacement car which I can not do until both the GAP insurer has settled and I have somehow paid off any remaining shortfall myself.

 

I am so stressed and frustrated with the whole thing, especially as the other party was completely responsible for the accident and have admitted 100% liability. His vehicle (a small lorry) suffered relativley minor damage and he is probably all fixed up and back on the road now, completley oblivious to the situation he has placed me in.

[unclebulgaria67]

I will message someone who deals with the legal side of claims and ask them whether they think some of your other losses might be claimable from the third party. You have paid for extended warranties which might not be reflected in the market value covered by Insurance, so you could be out of pocket.

[deales82]

I will message someone who deals with the legal side of claims and ask them whether they think some of your other losses might be claimable from the third party. You have paid for extended warranties which might not be reflected in the market value covered by Insurance, so you could be out of pocket.

 

Thank you, to be honest, had the accident occurred 2-3 years down the line then I would not be seeking to recover the losses I have suffered. But the fact that I have paid considerable money for warranties and protections which became null and void only 1 month after purchase is to me completely unacceptable.

[unclebulgaria67]

You could approach the company providing the warranty to see if they will refund you any money and if not get it in writing. This just shows that you have tried to mitigate this loss and cannot retrieve the loss through early cancellation of the warranty.

 

In regard to extras on the car, when you negotiate market value offered by Insurers, you should make sure these are factored in. You might be able to assess how much extra these would add to the sale price of a car and get something in writing from a garage confirming this.

[deales82]

I have just spoken to the GAP insurer, who inform me that I still need to carry on paying the premiums after the claim, even though I cannot claim on the GAP policy again.

 

So that's another £450 flushed down the toilet

[unclebulgaria67]

I have just spoken to the GAP insurer, who inform me that I still need to carry on paying the premiums after the claim, even though I cannot claim on the GAP policy again.

 

So that's another £450 flushed down the toilet

 

That is because you will not have completed paying for the GAP policy that will meet the difference between Insurers market value and what you paid for the car.

 

You would have to pay the full premium, had you had the accident say 10 months down the line or the 1 month as you experienced.

[deales82]

The trouble is the GAP insurer will only be covering the vehicle element of the finance shortfall, I calculate about 200 quid. Yet I need to pay £450 in premiums.

 

Not be mention that I also need to take out a further GAP policy on my replacement vehicle.

 

I decided yesterday to write a letter to his insurers directly, so just waiting on a response on that.

[liverpoolluke]

The trouble is the GAP insurer will only be covering the vehicle element of the finance shortfall, I calculate about 200 quid.

 

the shortfall will be much more than this as you would still have to pay the APR on the original car finance, the insurance company will only payout a trade type value not a retail value

[deales82]

I have been thinking about this overnight.... Why should I be claiming on my GAP insurance policy at all? The policy was taken out for my piece of mind and not for his insurers benefit! If it was my fault and I wrote the car off then I would, of course, claim on it. But I can't help but think that me claiming on my own gap policy is the equivalent of a fault claim, as in... yes the insurance will pay out but I then need to suffer the consequences of making a claim (another 11 months of premiums to pay, on a policy that I can no longer claim on)

[liverpoolluke]

The gap insurance is there that cover the shortfall between the payout on the car (which will always be less than what you paid due to depreciation) and what you owe the finance company

[unclebulgaria67]

Given that you only bought the car about 2 months ago, there might not be too much difference between what you paid and current retail value. But i suspect that your Insurers will only pay book value and know you have this GAP to cover the difference. There will then be an argument about the cars value between the car and GAP Insurers.

 

You have been extremely unlucky and feel very sore as a result. You just have to see how it goes and if you are left out of pocket try to claim back any amounts from the third party. But expect the third parties Insurers to refuse to cover any amounts that don't relate directly to the accident.

[deales82]

Given that you only bought the car about 2 months ago, there might not be too much difference between what you paid and current retail value. But i suspect that your Insurers will only pay book value and know you have this GAP to cover the difference. There will then be an argument about the cars value between the car and GAP Insurers.

 

You have been extremely unlucky and feel very sore as a result. You just have to see how it goes and if you are left out of pocket try to claim back any amounts from the third party. But expect the third parties Insurers to refuse to cover any amounts that don't relate directly to the accident.

 

I just didn't expect to end up massively out of pocket for something that is not my fault If his insurer (I say "his" it is actually fleet insurance as it was a company owned lorry that hit me) refuse to help me, then I will pursue the company who the vehicle belonged to through the courts if necessary.

 

I have tried to speak with solicitors but it seems, unless you are paralysed or suffered an amputation as a result of the accident they don't care.

 

I just feel so lonely in this whole thing, the various insurers / finance company are looking after their own interests but there is nobody to look after mine.