UKH

Had an incident last week which involved a spare wheel coming loose from a trailer towed by a car travelling in opposite direction to me. The spare wheel hit my bumper/wheel arch and caused enough damage so now cant drive the car until it is repaired. Managed to crawl it home as luckily incident happened within a km of where I live. Exchanged details, other driver accepted it was their fault etc. Logged it with my insurance company and apparently the other driver has contacted their insurance and given my details. 

This was 5 days ago and heard nothing - bit unsure what exactly is meant to happen? Is their insurance company meant to contact me to arrange a hire vehicle and repair? Or do I need to contact them?

Or just easier to claim via my own insurance and they reclaim the losses from the other drivers insurance? Or should I use a credit hire company?

Was going to call the other driver tomorrow but thought I'd find out what should happen. They have been amicable so far so don't want to upset the apple cart, however I am really struggling without a car as live in the sticks and they are unaffected as they didn't sustain any damage to their car!

Just contact your insurance company and let them deal with everything.

As The Lemming said. You only need to contact your insurance company normally. 

When I had a third party at fault claim, it was my my insurance company who dealt with the other company; I only ever did one phone call to my insurance company. They arranged the repairer. They did also though appoint a claims management company to arrange replacement car hire and any other costs besides the car repair that I would have/did incurred (which were none). 

Surprised it’s been five days; best give them a phone asap to clarify position. Make sure you have not been ignoring an unknown phone number from say a claims management company in case one was instructed! Of course you should satisfy yourself that the claims management company if they phone is genuinely working for your insurance company and not a cold caller. Therefore when you phone your insurance company ask if they have or going to appoint a claims management company so you are pre warned.

When I was hit from behind a couple of years ago I reported to my insurance company. They it seems pass the claim onto a third party claim handler who then arranged to collect my vehicle and drop off a hire vehicle for me to use in the mean time. They made contact first day after reporting the incident I think, if it has been 5 days I would call your insurance company and make them aware you haven't heard from anyone.

The other parties insurance may well also make contact to offer you a vehicle, I know they did in my case though by that time I already had one from my insurance.

Yes, call them right away

My wisdom in addition is, do not call the other driver

OK, thanks all.

I'll phone the other driver to double check whether I am to expect his insurance company to arrange car hire and repair or if it is to be done via my insurance company

First port of call should be your insurance company, not the other driver. You reported the incident to your insurance company, (presumably with the other drivers details including insurers and policy number? - this is the important thing), it's up to them to deal with the claim, including hire cars etc.

As everyone else has said, stick to ringing your insurance only. Tell them you need a car ASAP. Often they won't offer one unless you ask. 

You’ll get a call in 9 years asking all about the accident you had, just be a little patient 

I do not have insurance details - have his car reg, company details etc. which he gave at the time of the incident. 

I'll ring my insurance company and claim and see what they say. I can always contact him for policy details (or my insurance company can)

A repeat of all the other advice, get back in touch with your insurer ASAP.

You say the driver admitted responsibility? Was that witnessed? If so then get what was said written down as soon as possible and be prepared to be very certain that they accepted blame. 

Two years ago my daughter hit a large piece of debris that fell off a lorry immediately in front of her. She was very lucky not to have been seriously injured.  The car was nearly a write off, but her insurer did repair it. The company operating the lorry accepted the item fell off their vehicle but denied liability for the damage. 

Long story short but it went to court and my daughters insurance Co lost. 

The haulier holds themselves up as a family run and highly moral business. I wrote to the MD and asked him how he felt about his vehicle nearly killing my daughter and then hiding behind a lawyer and an insurance company. He never replied.  Ah well, it was only a car. My daughter was ok, and glad to hear that you are too.

I think I'd be interested in the long story - on the face of it it's difficult to see how they can accept that it fell off their vehicle but not be liable for the subsequent damage.

The law moves in mysterious ways.

My reluctance to share details was about not giving the lying, devious, insurers (can't be all of them can it!!?) a clue on tactics.  I suppose in the real world they all know these scams anyway....

The gist is that the insurer for the haulier successfully argued that it was an "accident" rather than a negligent act. They trotted out some maintenance sheets showing that the lorry was maintained,  so the fact that a very big bit of it fell off, destroying the front of my daughters car, wasn't their "fault". The court bought it. My daughter had all the stress of appearing as a witness in court and the loss of a day's pay to attend. All to listen to some smarmy lawyer wriggle out of it (liability).

What really boiled my p*ss was this so called family business assured us it would all be sorted. OK their insurers stepped in, but I invited the MD to at least pay my daughters £650 excess,  without prejudice.  No reply.

My daughter was a student at the time working to support herself and she really didn't need to find herself paying this. Her insurance premium doubled the year after the accident. 

To the OP, best of luck. Maybe you will be dealing with honest people.  You never know. 

Thanks for this - quite likely that I could end up in a similar situation! The spare wheel fell off his trailer (I've no idea how it was attached) so he could claim it was 'accidental' rather than 'negligence'. When I say 'he', then the driver of the vehicle was clearly very apologetic and knew it was his fault. However, what he is then told to say by his insurance so that they wriggle out of liability is a different matter...hey ho. 

Have now contacted my insurer and set things in motion and will just have to wait and see what happens...

If it helps,  I think the difference here is that the bit that fell off and hit you, is meant to come off, or be taken off.  By implication if it fell off it wasn't fixed on properly and that's a negligent act.

In my daughters case, a bit fell off that was never meant to come off as it just "broke". The haulier said they weren't negligent as it breaking was an accident. 

I think in the event of an accident, the golden rule is "always create a UKC thread". If that doesn't solve the problem, and a follow-up thread on a slightly altered topic isn't an option, than as a last result you phone the helpline for the car insurance you paid for.

Oh absolutely. I wouldn't want to do anything without checking here first.