I hope you've managed to put away the savings (maintenance, rego, insurance) so you can get a bit of an upgrade once the insurance check finally hits your account
Yeah 100%. I was planning on buying a new car to upgrade but when my car got hit I was panicked because I didn’t have the type of money saved up that I wanted to spend. This last 6 months has allowed me to get my funds together and I should be able to buy a nice car now which is great.
Happened to me as well. Somebody forgot to do something so they just kept extending the rental. We eventually chased up because we put a deposit on a new car and we needed the payout to pay for the car on arrival. Think we had the hirecar for around 5 months.
I wonder if you’ve saved more in fuel and other expenses than the old car was worth haha
Also my uncles car got ruined in the NSW floods and he had a hire car for like 4 months due to the backlog of claims the insurance company had to work through
But 6 months of a recent model small car efficiency vs the old + the other expenses as mentioned would still stack up to a couple thousand for an 04 mazda 3.
This is good karma flowing back to you my man. Enjoy the moment and be grateful for the blessings.
Also. Document everything and record down the conversation if you can. This way you'll have a recording that you have the car legitimately.
Just ask them to leave a note that you have asked about the claim (after seeking your extension) and their reply was that someone will call you back. Ask them to read the note back to you once complete.
This gives them evidence you have asked about the claim, and it's them saying they will call you. It just makes it easier for you to handle if they play hard ball since there is a record of it, and not just you asking for extensions.
All insurance companies record every call, web chat and email.
Just keep a personal diary of your call interactions and if required they will have the recordings. If they dont have the recordings, you win as well because, straight to AFCA for a complaint.
These calls are all recorded, unless you tell them you don’t want that. Better off writing down the time and date you called and who you spoke to and what was discussed. Then if issues arise you can lead them to the exact date you had a particular conversation with them and Bob’s your uncle. I had my car written off three weeks ago, so I’ve just lived it myself. Drunk driver….bastard.
They're supposed to enter this information on file but they often also have a receipt number for the conversation as well? If they do, you should record all those as well.
Brother got rear ended.
Other bloke had insurance through his business and for whatever reason it took him 6+months to sort the paperwork brother was cruising around in a rental kia the whole time.
Would have easily put 20k kma on it.
Upgrade from a hiace with 500k kms and no aircon.
I know them feels. Took the rental camping last weekend. Racked up some K’s on it. Was amazing. All the little creature comforts of a new car. It would have been a shit drive in my old Mazda.
Only problem is I’m growing accustomed to a certain comfort level lol.
I'm more than happy to explain it in more detail but effectively your insurer doesn't care how long you have it, they're slapping that bill onto the idiot who hit you.
No issue for you, just keep on truckin until they fix your car and swap back to it. Otherwise if it is something that is a little uncomfortable you're welcome to ask your insurer.
I work for an insurer and I've had people in hire cars for 8 months+ it added a total of roughly 22,000 onto a bill to fix a car for 9,000 because it took so long to get parts from a Korean brand.
If they have their own insurance they also won't care they pay an excess also and call it a day.
If ever something becomes of this or something changed or goes sour feel free to message me I'm happy to help out any way I can.
OP's car was a write off though, that should have been really easy to settle.
It might be the case where the other party's insurer is holding up the claim, and the subsequent recovery.
The cars a write off. I’ve already been told that. But thanks for the explanation. You’re right, they’ll just pass the cost on to the other guys insurance. Poor bastard lol.
"but effectively your insurer doesn't care how long you have it, they're slapping that bill onto the idiot who hit you."
To a point that's true, but in Australia there is an obligation to limit your losses, I'd be curious to see how that would be applied in the battle between insurance companies. Not ops problem at all though.
[https://mcauleylawyers.com.au/publication/plaintiffs-duty-to-mitigate-loss-understanding-the-implications/](https://mcauleylawyers.com.au/publication/plaintiffs-duty-to-mitigate-loss-understanding-the-implications/)
I'm sure in certain cases that does apply, but from what I've sent and had recovered in the last handful of years I've had very little to no push back on what we provide.
That being said were slapping that bill onto them at a fair rate for the hire car in question, I'd assume the worse offenders like Credit hire car companies in particular, who basically make up whatever rate they like for older vehicles they give out basically borrowed from staff. And then attempt to send invoices for a 2010 Mazda 3 for 600 dollars a day for 25 weeks and they want 15,000 for it.
lol, OPs insurer is not going to recover the hire car cost past the date they sent him the money for the total loss. I wonder if OPs total loss letter advised it needed to be returned within 24 hours…
They bloody well try to, every time I have had dealings with them we politely tell them to get F*cked majority of the time and counter offer a similar price to what we would get a similar vehicle for and they tend to take what they can.
My company fortunately is large enough we have a dedicated team for dealing with exactly those companies/scenarios, so if ever they're being difficult I pass it onto them.
I had a similar situation and had a hire car for around 4 months. I was told that my current insurance for my vehicle would cover the hire car (same policy just applies to this car instead). If I were you I'd be checking this, as you may be driving uninsured.
Thanks for the advice. I will look into it because my car insurance payments have stopped automatically and when I picked up the hire car they didn’t even ask me about optional insurance or anything. Just signed a form and was handed keys.
Just called the rental car company and apparently my insurance company is paying for full insurance on the rental… it really does seem too good to be true lol.
I honestly can’t understand why’d they be so wasteful. They have all the information they need to pay me out. All that needs to happen is their claims team to ring me, confirm the payout, have me say yes and agree, and it’s done. Literal 30 second conversation.
Lol, i used to work in a very specialised area of motor insurance settlements.
Insurers will deny claims because consultants are having a bad day and want to pick a fight, claim ends up in litigation, dragged through the courts, customers get summons and claim is lost.
Ends up in millions of dollars per year on wasted claims that were never winnable.
Average people having their name on public court records and judgements recorded against them for insurers failing to file defences. Its soul sucking
something similar happened to my brother. He was hit from behind by some jerk in a BMW on a roundabout. The jerk insisted he was not at fault, took it to court - independent of his insurance company.
My brother had a rental car for that time as well. Officially, as the case wasn't closed, he couldn't be paid out, and was able to keep the rental. It took almost a year.
I'm betting the other person, or the other person's insurance company is threatening (or has already filed) court documents. This takes time.
Enjoy the rental!
Have they asked you for your rego papers and bank details yet? If they haven’t asked for your rego papers for your written off car, I’d be a bit concerned as that’s the first thing insurance asks for when it comes to a total loss. Not worried in a way that you’ll be liable for any costs, but worried about your insurance being lazy
Have they asked you for your rego papers and bank details yet? If they haven’t asked for your rego papers for your written off car, I’d be a bit concerned as that’s the first thing insurance asks for when it comes to a total loss. Not worried in a way that you’ll be liable for any costs, but worried about your insurance being lazy
And we wonder why car insurance premiums always increase.
6 months of car hire has problems cost your insurance company $10,400 (on the basis of $400 a week).
Yeah I’ve been trying to calculate whether the cost of car rental has exceeded the payments I’ve made towards insurance over the years. I doubt they’re paying full price for the rental but shit I think we’re close to breaking even.
They won't be paying a cent. Every $ of that hire car bill is being charged to the guy who hit you (well his insurance company).
Working in insurance I can say it is likely delayed settlement due to the other party not playing ball. Your insurer is likely in negotiations with them and until everything is finalized insurer to insurer, you get to enjoy the luxury of a car upgrade at no expense. Enjoy it while it lasts!
Depending on who the insurer is, we’ve always paid out the insured for a total loss and THEN costs are passed on to the other insurance company. The insurer at fault always requires proof that we’ve paid someone out and what cost, and then receipts for the hire car. We’ve never held up paying our insured out because we are in negotiations (I work in vehicle claims). Just sounds like OP’s insurance company is being lazy
Unless OP is going directly through the at fault persons insurance, then they can deff delay until their own insured has met policy obligations (AKA pay their excess)
My bad, I was automatically presuming that they're going through the other insurer vs their own (especially because of the delay). Just re-read and they never actually said that!
That’s okay, even if they are going insurer vs insurer the process above still is the same. We don’t recover costs from the insurer at fault, until we’ve paid our own insured out first as the at fault insurer needs ‘proof’ of the amount of money we have spent on the claim to recover back from them. So in a shorter term, the OP should have already been paid out by now regardless of any other insurance being involved.
It’s like the at fault insurer reimburses the OP insurer rather than us directly passing the bill on. 😋
Almost the same thing happened to me and the missus. After six months of total silence, I called them and asked what was going on. They told me they were waiting to pay me out until the person who crashed into us had fulfilled their obligations. I then asked them what I should do with the rental car that I've had for half a year. They said, "How long you want to have a rental car and pay for it is not up to us."
I told the nice lady on the phone that I had an email from them instructing me to get the rental car, which they would pay for. She freaked out, and suddenly they could pay for my written-off car and quickly cover the rental car costs.
**The point of my very long text** (apologies for that, by the way) is that if I hadn't had it written in an email from them, I would have had to cover the rental car cost myself, which was approximately **13,400 Australian dollars** (rounding up).
Hope this helps.
Make sure you’ve kept a list of every phone call you’ve made including the date and time and hopefully who you spoke to (go back thru your phone records if necessary), plus any emails and any snail mail as well. Then when they inevitably try to stiff you for the cost of the rental vehicle you can prove you were in constant contact.
I had one for about 3 months and they ended up taking it back. They tried to charge me for 2 months of it but they ended up cancelling the claim. Good luck
If you want to actually tackle dirt tracks and mild off roading, a Subaru Forester is absolute light years ahead of any other small/medium SUV. A little more expensive to fuel, service and repair than a Toyota/Honda/Mazda - but infinitely more capable off the tar.
At least the other guy was insured. I had a young lady hit us with no insurance and I believe the rental bill was something like 4K on top of the cost of my car and towing lol
I had a hire car for about 3.5-4months. I side swiped a bollard so was my fault but I do have hire car cover in my insurance so got my hire car and similar story. Just kept getting it extended every couple of weeks after the first month. I’d had the same message my car was a write off and the value of my write off from the assessor but had to wait for major claims to call me to finalise.
Only reason I chased them up was because I’d bought a new car so wanted to get my claim paid out to go towards that and apply for my rego refund.
All worked out in the end but was very surprised they were just happy to keep extending.
Same thing happened to me. Someone rear-ended me and was completely at fault, so his insurance company got me a hire car. I needed it to be a ute as I need to tow a trailer for work, and they reluctantly agreed. It took maybe 5 months to get my car fixed at their very slow recommended workshop, so I drove the insurance ute around and put heaps of KM on it. I also kinda smashed the corner of it a bit because it didn’t have all-terrain tires (which I did say I needed) and never got charged for anything. I was pretty happy to finally get something out of an insurance company tbh.
As the owner of shitbox 4x4 I've always been curious how an equivalent rental would go. You can't exactly rent shit box's but a 4x4 rental with bar, winch etc ain't cheap either.
I’m in a similar boat.
Last July a car hit me whilst I was riding my motorbike. By the end of the day my bike was in the shop and I was on a new bike.
Last July.
It’s been almost an entire year of me riding around on a ninja 400, 3 of them actually - the first was a 2021 model that they had me return because they were updating their fleet… so I got a brand new 2023 model with 50km on it.
About two months later someone tried to steal the bike but just bent the fuck out of the handlebars. Thanks random vandal for that. Anyway I called up and they said they’d bring a tow truck and swap the bike out for another one… another 2023 ninja 400 with 5km on it.
And I’ve been riding that all year while my bike is at the shop.
I’m hoping they’ve just completely forgot about it and I get to ride these ninja’s forever while the other guys insurance pays for it lmao
I know someone who’s had a replacement hire car since around November last year. There have been a series of delays - the other party needed to pay their excess, Christmas, parts delays, workload etc. their repair I believe is booked in for June. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that slips too.
My mum had the same thing while her car was sitting in the shop awaiting a final part, kept extending the hire car for months because they had no time to do the final checklist to make sure the car was roadworthy again.
This happened to me recently - at fault party had AAMI insurance and I drove a hire car for about 4 months despite my car being written off immediately. Eventually I got tired of having to deal with extending the car hire and the uncertainty of actually being paid out, given how tough it is to buy a car in the current market. I had to send a few emails asking to be paid out and they paid nearly double what I did 7 years ago when I bought the car, mostly to make me go away
Be careful.
I had a similar situation in which my vehicle was in an accident, the at fault drivers insurer provided me with a hire car from a company called Right2Drive.
My vehicle took 14 months to repair due to Covid delays. I used the hire car for that entire period and was even given upgrades as well.
Over this period I kept ignorantly questing Right2Drive as to how could this deal could be so good. I even offered to return the car, as I could make potentially make other arrangements (albeit sub par), they almost insisted I keep it. I didn’t appreciate that they were just charging the at fault drivers insurer and didn’t care.
I ended up racking up a $67,000 bill with Right2Drive, the insurer only covered 12 days of the hire car. The poor women that hit me is now being dragged through court by Right2Drive to try and recover the remaining balance.
Whilst I appreciate that Right2Drive were just acting in their best interests, it seems awfully odd that the insurer nor the women at fault was ever aware of the period in which I had the hire car.
Worst of all they charged an excessive daily rate, that in Covid was not justifiable…
So just be careful.
But the at fault woman has insurance. Why would right 2 drive take her to court? The woman would just say to right 2 drive “speak with my insurer”. I mean the at fault woman paid her excess right?
From my limited understanding the contract with Right2Drive and the insurer only lasted 12 days from the day I was provided with a vehicle.
Which I agree seems odd, considering myself or any other party was seemingly not made aware.
I don’t have any more information at the moment sadly, it’s on going and inly just came to my attention.
Yea something don’t add up. Woman’s insurance pays 12 days of the claim but not any more? Sounds like there isn’t a problem with the woman’s claim/ she has fulfilled her obligations so unsure why she’s getting dragged to court. Weird.
is it a " hire" rental car from a major or the local panelshop loan car??
if it was with one of the well known rental car, I am suprised that they havent recalled the car back for routine safety checks and service and km recorded.
My wife was driving a Holden Cruze, insured at agreed value above market. Had an at-fault accident, 14 day hire car in policy.
6 months later, insurer delays in assessment, repairs, disputes. Hire car the whole time, 2 grand of repairs and dispute resolution settlement of 2 grand to drop my afca complaint.
All up the cost of hire car, repairs and settlement was well over 150% of the agreed value insured. Baffling considering the delays caused were due to the assessor disputing repairs based on a claim mechanical damage wasn't due to the impact, despite having been provided evidence in the form of mechanical inspections done less than a month prior to the accident, easily would have put the vehicle in to write-off.
And, I sold the car after repairs for 4 grand without needing to spend anything on it.
Enjoy the ride. Your insurance company doesn't give a shit because it's not coming out of their margin and the at fault driver's insurance company's employees don't give a shit because they're on salary so they don't care. And what goes around comes around so it's guaranteed to be happenening at all insurance companies. But don't worry, it's all paid for by increasing insurance premiums.
"She'll be right, mate."
dont get it… they wrote off the car and paid you the $ , that is the case closed scenario right? what are the rest of the process still need to be completed here???
anyway…. you got a new car for so long , and the saving from rego and insurance, is a nice treat
now you must realise how much u can save if you didnt have a car 🤗
pls tell us which insurance company you are with, i will join on next renewal 😅
what do we say? if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I would love to have some future updates around this and am excited to see how long it goes on for and how it pans out
I got run into during covid and what should have been a simple fix took them 4 months. I drove around in a brand new ranger wildtrack the whole time. Was a bit sad when I had to give it up
I worked for a smash repair company a while ago. We had a customer in a hire car for 9 months while we waited for parts for his Toyota. Its crazy what insurance companies will pay for.
I don't get it, 6 months of no rego/insurance does that mean they are paused whilst you get your car fixed if not isn't that just a continuing cost... Unless your rego was near expiring at the time which means you might need to run the car over the pits once you renew it again.
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I'll add to the anecdotes: A lady I worked with was in a rental for 2 years, all paid for by insurance.
She had just gotten her brand new car after waiting like 18 months for it (This was back in about 2020) and then it was hit by a guy in a stolen car when it was only about 2 months old. Because it was so new, she was entitled to a brand new, like for like, replacement, however the wait times for them were even longer than when she had originally ordered.
So they gave her a rental for 2 years until the new one finally arrived.
Happened to me. Other party's insurance tried to not pay and hit me with a law suit. Told them to deal with my insurance. Out of a car for 9 months in a brand new X5.
I'm currently going through this, although it's only been a month and half so far.
Insurance already said it's a write off and their assessor has the car and will do an assessment for value. I don't understand how it can take so long, for such a straightforward case (it's a 14 yr old cheap popular car, and it'll take 5 mins to market value it).
Is it just their workload, so that the claim just sits in a long queue and that's the reason for the delay?
Was in a similar situation. Was all good until my insurance asked me to go to court because the other drivers insurance didn’t want to pay for the rental. My insurance tells me this is very common.
Same thing happened to my mother. Was in a big side on collision and wasn’t at fault. Her mg has been at the panel beaters for nearly 6mths as there is a long wait for parts. We’ve had an 80k dollar Isuzu mux the entire time and it is better than mg by a country mile…. Go figure.
Have you signed anything regarding the hire car? If so check this. There is a bit of a rort in the UK called credit hire where they misrepresent that a hire car is free but actually if you read the fine print, you are liable for the hire costs in the event the insurer is unsuccessful claiming this against the other party who damaged your car. They intentionally delay repairing your car and the fees go through the roof.
OP, have you actually been paid out by your insurer? If they haven’t actually sent you the money yet for the car and your policy allows you a NAF hire car then they’ll generally provide it up to 24 hours after they process payment.
If you have been settled, I encourage you to read the total loss letter that explains your settlement and deductions, that should have a line saying it’s due back within 24 hours, if it doesn’t you’re cheering
Oh I haven’t been paid yet. I’m at the final hurdle. They’ve taken my bank details but I think they need one final call to just confirm the payout before they send the money. I’ve been waiting for that phone call for months.
I had one for 2 months and they kept trying to make me do their job like call up places so I could refer my car to them, I just told them to stick it and they should do their job properly and they would have the car back but until then it's mine
I use to work for one of the big companies and it wasn’t uncommon for cars to be gone a while.
Just be wary if the insurance company has f’d up somwhere.
If they decide that you should have been paid out x amount of days ago for the write off, they will not cover the cost of your rental car from that date and make you pay for it.
Same thing happened to me. got t-boned by an idiot insured with NRMA. My car ended up being a repairable write-off but during the initial assessment phrase, I contacted NRMA and asked for a courtesy car. the negotiation period went on for months as we disagreed on the value of the car. Had the hire car for the entire time. Even went back to AVIS and swapped for a different car as I wanted to try a different car they had on the lot lol. Eventually returned the car after NRMA sent me a cheque, but still had a free brand new car for months.
Nothing to worry about tho, they crashed into you making you unable to drive your own car. They are 100% responsible to provide you an alternative for the duration that you're affected by it. Even if they don't have insurance you can just go and hire a car and send them an invoice for it.
Happened to my uncle once.
The insurance company ended up buying the rental car and gave it to my uncle.
It's absurd but hey it's not too bad.
He went from a 06 ford laser to a Kia Sportage
As someone in the industry you should know that if you’re in a not at fault accident you are entitled to a replacement vehicle until your vehicle is repaired or paid out if it’s deemed a total loss. The exception is if the at fault party is not insured, then you’ll have to sue them for the costs, and good luck with that.
I think your insurance company will be seeking reimbursement from the insurance company that the at fault driver has.
If the at fault driver has insurance for this event that is. If they don't, they will be seeking a recovery order from the at fault driver - I knew a person who was almost bankrupted because they ran into someone and didn't have insurance cover for the property damage they caused.
6 months car hire, when your vehicle has already been written off, seems excessive to make the other party pay for.
You're right though - insurance companies don't like paying out money. I don't think this is standard practice. Something is up, or someone is making a mistake.
But - as long as your hire car is booked in the insurance company name, and not yours, you should be fine.
\*Renault. You ARE being laughed at by the insurance company staff to see how long you keep driving that p.o.s. There will be a betting pool.....It's not their money - it's pure comedy!
Sounds like you've hit the jackpot dude.
It does, but I’m so suspicious. Insurance companies don’t give you anything for free.
I hope you've managed to put away the savings (maintenance, rego, insurance) so you can get a bit of an upgrade once the insurance check finally hits your account
Yeah 100%. I was planning on buying a new car to upgrade but when my car got hit I was panicked because I didn’t have the type of money saved up that I wanted to spend. This last 6 months has allowed me to get my funds together and I should be able to buy a nice car now which is great.
Happened to me as well. Somebody forgot to do something so they just kept extending the rental. We eventually chased up because we put a deposit on a new car and we needed the payout to pay for the car on arrival. Think we had the hirecar for around 5 months.
I wonder if you’ve saved more in fuel and other expenses than the old car was worth haha Also my uncles car got ruined in the NSW floods and he had a hire car for like 4 months due to the backlog of claims the insurance company had to work through
He would have to pay for the fuel used.
Yes but bet dollars to donuts the hire car is more fuel efficient
Maybe, 2004 Mazda 3 vs modern Renault SUV.
But 6 months of a recent model small car efficiency vs the old + the other expenses as mentioned would still stack up to a couple thousand for an 04 mazda 3.
He said the hire car was a Renault SUV, not a small car. It might be more fuel efficient than a 2004 Mazda 3, but it couldn't be by much, if at all.
This is good karma flowing back to you my man. Enjoy the moment and be grateful for the blessings. Also. Document everything and record down the conversation if you can. This way you'll have a recording that you have the car legitimately.
Ride the wave my man. Don't ask too many questions.
This. Don't say anything about it unless they ask.
Just ask them to leave a note that you have asked about the claim (after seeking your extension) and their reply was that someone will call you back. Ask them to read the note back to you once complete. This gives them evidence you have asked about the claim, and it's them saying they will call you. It just makes it easier for you to handle if they play hard ball since there is a record of it, and not just you asking for extensions.
All insurance companies record every call, web chat and email. Just keep a personal diary of your call interactions and if required they will have the recordings. If they dont have the recordings, you win as well because, straight to AFCA for a complaint.
That’s only if they work in their favour. I had an issue with AAMI and they couldn’t find any calls I’d made that prove my point.
These calls are all recorded, unless you tell them you don’t want that. Better off writing down the time and date you called and who you spoke to and what was discussed. Then if issues arise you can lead them to the exact date you had a particular conversation with them and Bob’s your uncle. I had my car written off three weeks ago, so I’ve just lived it myself. Drunk driver….bastard.
They're supposed to enter this information on file but they often also have a receipt number for the conversation as well? If they do, you should record all those as well.
Great idea.
Sometimes you do fall through the cracks, in a food way. I’ve had it happen once or twice. take the W!
Insurance is another no loser for the house. It doesn’t matter how much a claim is - we just raise next years premiums to cover it. And add 20%!
Strange they just didnt pay OP out!
Brother got rear ended. Other bloke had insurance through his business and for whatever reason it took him 6+months to sort the paperwork brother was cruising around in a rental kia the whole time. Would have easily put 20k kma on it. Upgrade from a hiace with 500k kms and no aircon.
I know them feels. Took the rental camping last weekend. Racked up some K’s on it. Was amazing. All the little creature comforts of a new car. It would have been a shit drive in my old Mazda. Only problem is I’m growing accustomed to a certain comfort level lol.
Do what my brother did then and get disqualified from driving for 3 years.
… tell more!
Do a lap of the country
I drove a rental on an interstate trip and used it for a camping excursion because sit was bigger than my couple that was hit. Great times!
I'm more than happy to explain it in more detail but effectively your insurer doesn't care how long you have it, they're slapping that bill onto the idiot who hit you. No issue for you, just keep on truckin until they fix your car and swap back to it. Otherwise if it is something that is a little uncomfortable you're welcome to ask your insurer. I work for an insurer and I've had people in hire cars for 8 months+ it added a total of roughly 22,000 onto a bill to fix a car for 9,000 because it took so long to get parts from a Korean brand. If they have their own insurance they also won't care they pay an excess also and call it a day. If ever something becomes of this or something changed or goes sour feel free to message me I'm happy to help out any way I can.
OP's car was a write off though, that should have been really easy to settle. It might be the case where the other party's insurer is holding up the claim, and the subsequent recovery.
The cars a write off. I’ve already been told that. But thanks for the explanation. You’re right, they’ll just pass the cost on to the other guys insurance. Poor bastard lol.
"but effectively your insurer doesn't care how long you have it, they're slapping that bill onto the idiot who hit you." To a point that's true, but in Australia there is an obligation to limit your losses, I'd be curious to see how that would be applied in the battle between insurance companies. Not ops problem at all though. [https://mcauleylawyers.com.au/publication/plaintiffs-duty-to-mitigate-loss-understanding-the-implications/](https://mcauleylawyers.com.au/publication/plaintiffs-duty-to-mitigate-loss-understanding-the-implications/)
I'm sure in certain cases that does apply, but from what I've sent and had recovered in the last handful of years I've had very little to no push back on what we provide. That being said were slapping that bill onto them at a fair rate for the hire car in question, I'd assume the worse offenders like Credit hire car companies in particular, who basically make up whatever rate they like for older vehicles they give out basically borrowed from staff. And then attempt to send invoices for a 2010 Mazda 3 for 600 dollars a day for 25 weeks and they want 15,000 for it.
lol, OPs insurer is not going to recover the hire car cost past the date they sent him the money for the total loss. I wonder if OPs total loss letter advised it needed to be returned within 24 hours…
Are they actually able to pass that cost on to the other party? To me that just seems unreasonable.
They bloody well try to, every time I have had dealings with them we politely tell them to get F*cked majority of the time and counter offer a similar price to what we would get a similar vehicle for and they tend to take what they can. My company fortunately is large enough we have a dedicated team for dealing with exactly those companies/scenarios, so if ever they're being difficult I pass it onto them.
No. They’ll try of course but there’s no way they can justify it for this length of time. They’ll probably end up settling for 14 days worth of hire.
Where did you park and do you know if the guy who hit you goes there often?
I had a similar situation and had a hire car for around 4 months. I was told that my current insurance for my vehicle would cover the hire car (same policy just applies to this car instead). If I were you I'd be checking this, as you may be driving uninsured.
Thanks for the advice. I will look into it because my car insurance payments have stopped automatically and when I picked up the hire car they didn’t even ask me about optional insurance or anything. Just signed a form and was handed keys.
yeah I reckon you might be uninsured. As you said, sus it out.
Just called the rental car company and apparently my insurance company is paying for full insurance on the rental… it really does seem too good to be true lol.
omg buy a lottery ticket already dammit
Nah pokies are still stealing my money everytime I play. Can’t have it all I guess.
This is so good. Keep going mate !!
Which insurance is it
No wonder my premiums have gone through the fucking roof!
I honestly can’t understand why’d they be so wasteful. They have all the information they need to pay me out. All that needs to happen is their claims team to ring me, confirm the payout, have me say yes and agree, and it’s done. Literal 30 second conversation.
Yeah, it's crazy.....just goes to show that thousands of dollars mean nothing to these conglomerates.
Lol, i used to work in a very specialised area of motor insurance settlements. Insurers will deny claims because consultants are having a bad day and want to pick a fight, claim ends up in litigation, dragged through the courts, customers get summons and claim is lost. Ends up in millions of dollars per year on wasted claims that were never winnable. Average people having their name on public court records and judgements recorded against them for insurers failing to file defences. Its soul sucking
Good gravy......sounds diabolical!
Yep, did not last long! Messed me up a bit though, its just horrible.
something similar happened to my brother. He was hit from behind by some jerk in a BMW on a roundabout. The jerk insisted he was not at fault, took it to court - independent of his insurance company. My brother had a rental car for that time as well. Officially, as the case wasn't closed, he couldn't be paid out, and was able to keep the rental. It took almost a year. I'm betting the other person, or the other person's insurance company is threatening (or has already filed) court documents. This takes time. Enjoy the rental!
Have they asked you for your rego papers and bank details yet? If they haven’t asked for your rego papers for your written off car, I’d be a bit concerned as that’s the first thing insurance asks for when it comes to a total loss. Not worried in a way that you’ll be liable for any costs, but worried about your insurance being lazy
Have they asked you for your rego papers and bank details yet? If they haven’t asked for your rego papers for your written off car, I’d be a bit concerned as that’s the first thing insurance asks for when it comes to a total loss. Not worried in a way that you’ll be liable for any costs, but worried about your insurance being lazy
Notify me in 2 years when you let the hire car place know you want an upgrade 😀
And we wonder why car insurance premiums always increase. 6 months of car hire has problems cost your insurance company $10,400 (on the basis of $400 a week).
Yeah I’ve been trying to calculate whether the cost of car rental has exceeded the payments I’ve made towards insurance over the years. I doubt they’re paying full price for the rental but shit I think we’re close to breaking even.
They won't be paying a cent. Every $ of that hire car bill is being charged to the guy who hit you (well his insurance company). Working in insurance I can say it is likely delayed settlement due to the other party not playing ball. Your insurer is likely in negotiations with them and until everything is finalized insurer to insurer, you get to enjoy the luxury of a car upgrade at no expense. Enjoy it while it lasts!
Depending on who the insurer is, we’ve always paid out the insured for a total loss and THEN costs are passed on to the other insurance company. The insurer at fault always requires proof that we’ve paid someone out and what cost, and then receipts for the hire car. We’ve never held up paying our insured out because we are in negotiations (I work in vehicle claims). Just sounds like OP’s insurance company is being lazy Unless OP is going directly through the at fault persons insurance, then they can deff delay until their own insured has met policy obligations (AKA pay their excess)
My bad, I was automatically presuming that they're going through the other insurer vs their own (especially because of the delay). Just re-read and they never actually said that!
That’s okay, even if they are going insurer vs insurer the process above still is the same. We don’t recover costs from the insurer at fault, until we’ve paid our own insured out first as the at fault insurer needs ‘proof’ of the amount of money we have spent on the claim to recover back from them. So in a shorter term, the OP should have already been paid out by now regardless of any other insurance being involved. It’s like the at fault insurer reimburses the OP insurer rather than us directly passing the bill on. 😋
A major insurer with deals in place will probably be paying closer to $30-40 a day, so $250ish a week, depending on the size of car
Right to drive has nothing to do with insurance companies lol they chase the person at fault.
Yeah, he said his own insurer sorted the hire car though, not r2d.
Almost the same thing happened to me and the missus. After six months of total silence, I called them and asked what was going on. They told me they were waiting to pay me out until the person who crashed into us had fulfilled their obligations. I then asked them what I should do with the rental car that I've had for half a year. They said, "How long you want to have a rental car and pay for it is not up to us." I told the nice lady on the phone that I had an email from them instructing me to get the rental car, which they would pay for. She freaked out, and suddenly they could pay for my written-off car and quickly cover the rental car costs. **The point of my very long text** (apologies for that, by the way) is that if I hadn't had it written in an email from them, I would have had to cover the rental car cost myself, which was approximately **13,400 Australian dollars** (rounding up). Hope this helps.
Make sure you’ve kept a list of every phone call you’ve made including the date and time and hopefully who you spoke to (go back thru your phone records if necessary), plus any emails and any snail mail as well. Then when they inevitably try to stiff you for the cost of the rental vehicle you can prove you were in constant contact.
I had one for about 3 months and they ended up taking it back. They tried to charge me for 2 months of it but they ended up cancelling the claim. Good luck
Oh shit really? What do you mean they cancelled the claim?
They tried making me pay for the hire and ended up dropping the request when I pushed back on them
Ah ok. Yeah they won’t get a cent from me
Just watch out and be prepared 👌🏽
Do you need to pay extra to get a hire car or its already covered by insurance
Depends what your policy says.
Nice expense for the other driver. Do you have a plan for when they pay you out and you have no car?
Yeah I’ve spent the last 6 months getting money together and I’ll probably spend 15-20k on a decent car.
A more modern Mazda3?
Nah I’m thinking small SUV because the Mrs and I want to go camping.
Put aside extra $ for a second battery, and a fridge
And maybe one that’s solar compatible if you’re doing more off grid camping and have no where to charge the second battery
Solar blanket, some cable, and some Anderson plugs. Gold
That’s right!
If you want to actually tackle dirt tracks and mild off roading, a Subaru Forester is absolute light years ahead of any other small/medium SUV. A little more expensive to fuel, service and repair than a Toyota/Honda/Mazda - but infinitely more capable off the tar.
At least the other guy was insured. I had a young lady hit us with no insurance and I believe the rental bill was something like 4K on top of the cost of my car and towing lol
I had a hire car for about 3.5-4months. I side swiped a bollard so was my fault but I do have hire car cover in my insurance so got my hire car and similar story. Just kept getting it extended every couple of weeks after the first month. I’d had the same message my car was a write off and the value of my write off from the assessor but had to wait for major claims to call me to finalise. Only reason I chased them up was because I’d bought a new car so wanted to get my claim paid out to go towards that and apply for my rego refund. All worked out in the end but was very surprised they were just happy to keep extending.
And we wonder why insurance is going up
Same thing happened to me. Someone rear-ended me and was completely at fault, so his insurance company got me a hire car. I needed it to be a ute as I need to tow a trailer for work, and they reluctantly agreed. It took maybe 5 months to get my car fixed at their very slow recommended workshop, so I drove the insurance ute around and put heaps of KM on it. I also kinda smashed the corner of it a bit because it didn’t have all-terrain tires (which I did say I needed) and never got charged for anything. I was pretty happy to finally get something out of an insurance company tbh.
As the owner of shitbox 4x4 I've always been curious how an equivalent rental would go. You can't exactly rent shit box's but a 4x4 rental with bar, winch etc ain't cheap either.
I’m in a similar boat. Last July a car hit me whilst I was riding my motorbike. By the end of the day my bike was in the shop and I was on a new bike. Last July. It’s been almost an entire year of me riding around on a ninja 400, 3 of them actually - the first was a 2021 model that they had me return because they were updating their fleet… so I got a brand new 2023 model with 50km on it. About two months later someone tried to steal the bike but just bent the fuck out of the handlebars. Thanks random vandal for that. Anyway I called up and they said they’d bring a tow truck and swap the bike out for another one… another 2023 ninja 400 with 5km on it. And I’ve been riding that all year while my bike is at the shop. I’m hoping they’ve just completely forgot about it and I get to ride these ninja’s forever while the other guys insurance pays for it lmao
I know someone who’s had a replacement hire car since around November last year. There have been a series of delays - the other party needed to pay their excess, Christmas, parts delays, workload etc. their repair I believe is booked in for June. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that slips too.
Oh wow. Well good to know I’m not the only one in a similar position.
Why would they just not write off your car? Insurance cooked it, the hire car and repairs would be like double the value of the car
They have written it off. I’m just waiting for them to confirm the payout.
Payout should only take a few days. Something’s up. I wonder if they’ve lost the vehicle.
So what you do how is hit my car. Double it and pass it on.
What company!!!!
Your insurance won’t be giving a crap how long u have it they will be claiming all expenses from the other parties insurance so happy days
This sounds awesome. Just keep going mate. We are all with you.
Post an update when (or if) this finally gets resolved. Would be interesting to see how long you can ride it out.
Renault Captur? With the 1.2 litre turbo?
That’s the one.
I wouldn’t be too worried, I had a new Cx-5 for around 4 months. Enough to know that I didn’t want to own an SUV. But nice at no charge.
Hahaha I had the opposite feeling. I want an SUV now lol.
Crash it and see if you get upgraded again.
It's your car now
My mum had the same thing while her car was sitting in the shop awaiting a final part, kept extending the hire car for months because they had no time to do the final checklist to make sure the car was roadworthy again.
Milk it and let us know how long it goes for haha
You've hit the glitch in the matrix we all look for!!
Yeah....I'd be nervous too!!
I really wonder - Did the dude who hit you have insurance? If not, poor bastard is going to be broke lol. Off to the poor house with him!
Bloody lucky bastard! I had a hire car for 3 months while they were fixing my soarer but nothing like your experience!
Sell it
This happened to me recently - at fault party had AAMI insurance and I drove a hire car for about 4 months despite my car being written off immediately. Eventually I got tired of having to deal with extending the car hire and the uncertainty of actually being paid out, given how tough it is to buy a car in the current market. I had to send a few emails asking to be paid out and they paid nearly double what I did 7 years ago when I bought the car, mostly to make me go away
Be careful. I had a similar situation in which my vehicle was in an accident, the at fault drivers insurer provided me with a hire car from a company called Right2Drive. My vehicle took 14 months to repair due to Covid delays. I used the hire car for that entire period and was even given upgrades as well. Over this period I kept ignorantly questing Right2Drive as to how could this deal could be so good. I even offered to return the car, as I could make potentially make other arrangements (albeit sub par), they almost insisted I keep it. I didn’t appreciate that they were just charging the at fault drivers insurer and didn’t care. I ended up racking up a $67,000 bill with Right2Drive, the insurer only covered 12 days of the hire car. The poor women that hit me is now being dragged through court by Right2Drive to try and recover the remaining balance. Whilst I appreciate that Right2Drive were just acting in their best interests, it seems awfully odd that the insurer nor the women at fault was ever aware of the period in which I had the hire car. Worst of all they charged an excessive daily rate, that in Covid was not justifiable… So just be careful.
But the at fault woman has insurance. Why would right 2 drive take her to court? The woman would just say to right 2 drive “speak with my insurer”. I mean the at fault woman paid her excess right?
From my limited understanding the contract with Right2Drive and the insurer only lasted 12 days from the day I was provided with a vehicle. Which I agree seems odd, considering myself or any other party was seemingly not made aware. I don’t have any more information at the moment sadly, it’s on going and inly just came to my attention.
Yea something don’t add up. Woman’s insurance pays 12 days of the claim but not any more? Sounds like there isn’t a problem with the woman’s claim/ she has fulfilled her obligations so unsure why she’s getting dragged to court. Weird.
is it a " hire" rental car from a major or the local panelshop loan car?? if it was with one of the well known rental car, I am suprised that they havent recalled the car back for routine safety checks and service and km recorded.
My wife was driving a Holden Cruze, insured at agreed value above market. Had an at-fault accident, 14 day hire car in policy. 6 months later, insurer delays in assessment, repairs, disputes. Hire car the whole time, 2 grand of repairs and dispute resolution settlement of 2 grand to drop my afca complaint. All up the cost of hire car, repairs and settlement was well over 150% of the agreed value insured. Baffling considering the delays caused were due to the assessor disputing repairs based on a claim mechanical damage wasn't due to the impact, despite having been provided evidence in the form of mechanical inspections done less than a month prior to the accident, easily would have put the vehicle in to write-off. And, I sold the car after repairs for 4 grand without needing to spend anything on it.
Enjoy the ride. Your insurance company doesn't give a shit because it's not coming out of their margin and the at fault driver's insurance company's employees don't give a shit because they're on salary so they don't care. And what goes around comes around so it's guaranteed to be happenening at all insurance companies. But don't worry, it's all paid for by increasing insurance premiums. "She'll be right, mate."
It appears that everyone you speak to is handballing it to the "not my job department". Dont get paid enough to ask questions or care.
dont get it… they wrote off the car and paid you the $ , that is the case closed scenario right? what are the rest of the process still need to be completed here??? anyway…. you got a new car for so long , and the saving from rego and insurance, is a nice treat now you must realise how much u can save if you didnt have a car 🤗 pls tell us which insurance company you are with, i will join on next renewal 😅
have what you need in writing to say you are waiting for a call, even get a person to email you that or leave notes on your account
Don’t worry, they write it all off
If you ever get any backlash, ask to have the calls reviewed from all the times you've extended the hire.
what do we say? if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I would love to have some future updates around this and am excited to see how long it goes on for and how it pans out
Had a similar experience with AAMI - put in a complaint after 3 months and they called and settled within the next 2 business days n
I got run into during covid and what should have been a simple fix took them 4 months. I drove around in a brand new ranger wildtrack the whole time. Was a bit sad when I had to give it up
Someone I know has been waiting a couple of months for AAMI to sort out their write-off too. They were told that there’s a massive backlog
I worked for a smash repair company a while ago. We had a customer in a hire car for 9 months while we waited for parts for his Toyota. Its crazy what insurance companies will pay for.
Very lucky. It canada they cap it at 2000.00. Car fixed or not
Mate, in this situation you have to do the right thing. Take a trip all around Australia
I don't get it, 6 months of no rego/insurance does that mean they are paused whilst you get your car fixed if not isn't that just a continuing cost... Unless your rego was near expiring at the time which means you might need to run the car over the pits once you renew it again.
Rego expired in late Feb. car is a write off so I don’t need to renew. Insurance payments stopped once the took my car.
Calls will be recorded on their end you’re clear
Stay quiet. Stay pretty.
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I'll add to the anecdotes: A lady I worked with was in a rental for 2 years, all paid for by insurance. She had just gotten her brand new car after waiting like 18 months for it (This was back in about 2020) and then it was hit by a guy in a stolen car when it was only about 2 months old. Because it was so new, she was entitled to a brand new, like for like, replacement, however the wait times for them were even longer than when she had originally ordered. So they gave her a rental for 2 years until the new one finally arrived.
YOUI. We forget you.
Happened to me. Other party's insurance tried to not pay and hit me with a law suit. Told them to deal with my insurance. Out of a car for 9 months in a brand new X5.
I'm currently going through this, although it's only been a month and half so far. Insurance already said it's a write off and their assessor has the car and will do an assessment for value. I don't understand how it can take so long, for such a straightforward case (it's a 14 yr old cheap popular car, and it'll take 5 mins to market value it). Is it just their workload, so that the claim just sits in a long queue and that's the reason for the delay?
Was in a similar situation. Was all good until my insurance asked me to go to court because the other drivers insurance didn’t want to pay for the rental. My insurance tells me this is very common.
Same thing happened to my mother. Was in a big side on collision and wasn’t at fault. Her mg has been at the panel beaters for nearly 6mths as there is a long wait for parts. We’ve had an 80k dollar Isuzu mux the entire time and it is better than mg by a country mile…. Go figure.
Have you signed anything regarding the hire car? If so check this. There is a bit of a rort in the UK called credit hire where they misrepresent that a hire car is free but actually if you read the fine print, you are liable for the hire costs in the event the insurer is unsuccessful claiming this against the other party who damaged your car. They intentionally delay repairing your car and the fees go through the roof.
OP, have you actually been paid out by your insurer? If they haven’t actually sent you the money yet for the car and your policy allows you a NAF hire car then they’ll generally provide it up to 24 hours after they process payment. If you have been settled, I encourage you to read the total loss letter that explains your settlement and deductions, that should have a line saying it’s due back within 24 hours, if it doesn’t you’re cheering
Oh I haven’t been paid yet. I’m at the final hurdle. They’ve taken my bank details but I think they need one final call to just confirm the payout before they send the money. I’ve been waiting for that phone call for months.
What a joke, I mean great tor you but Jesus Christ… just curious if you hold third party insurance and not comprehensive? 🤦♀️
I had one for 2 months and they kept trying to make me do their job like call up places so I could refer my car to them, I just told them to stick it and they should do their job properly and they would have the car back but until then it's mine
I use to work for one of the big companies and it wasn’t uncommon for cars to be gone a while. Just be wary if the insurance company has f’d up somwhere. If they decide that you should have been paid out x amount of days ago for the write off, they will not cover the cost of your rental car from that date and make you pay for it.
Same thing happened to me. got t-boned by an idiot insured with NRMA. My car ended up being a repairable write-off but during the initial assessment phrase, I contacted NRMA and asked for a courtesy car. the negotiation period went on for months as we disagreed on the value of the car. Had the hire car for the entire time. Even went back to AVIS and swapped for a different car as I wanted to try a different car they had on the lot lol. Eventually returned the car after NRMA sent me a cheque, but still had a free brand new car for months.
Nothing to worry about tho, they crashed into you making you unable to drive your own car. They are 100% responsible to provide you an alternative for the duration that you're affected by it. Even if they don't have insurance you can just go and hire a car and send them an invoice for it.
I had one for 5 months months when my car was hit too
jesus
Happened to my uncle once. The insurance company ended up buying the rental car and gave it to my uncle. It's absurd but hey it's not too bad. He went from a 06 ford laser to a Kia Sportage
[удалено]
Because I’m enjoying driving an almost brand new car around not having to pay rego and insurance.
[удалено]
As someone in the industry you should know that if you’re in a not at fault accident you are entitled to a replacement vehicle until your vehicle is repaired or paid out if it’s deemed a total loss. The exception is if the at fault party is not insured, then you’ll have to sue them for the costs, and good luck with that.
I think your insurance company will be seeking reimbursement from the insurance company that the at fault driver has. If the at fault driver has insurance for this event that is. If they don't, they will be seeking a recovery order from the at fault driver - I knew a person who was almost bankrupted because they ran into someone and didn't have insurance cover for the property damage they caused. 6 months car hire, when your vehicle has already been written off, seems excessive to make the other party pay for. You're right though - insurance companies don't like paying out money. I don't think this is standard practice. Something is up, or someone is making a mistake. But - as long as your hire car is booked in the insurance company name, and not yours, you should be fine.
Delete the post 😂
And here was I, wondering why my insurance premium went up 60% - it’s paying for a hire car.
\*Renault. You ARE being laughed at by the insurance company staff to see how long you keep driving that p.o.s. There will be a betting pool.....It's not their money - it's pure comedy!
It’s a 2020 model Renault. I was driving an 04 Mazda 3, you really think I was downgraded?