How long is reasonable?

[Hammer]

My wife had an accident, her fault, and the car is in for repair. She paid extra on her policy for a 'guaranteed hire car' even if it's her fault, so they took the car away to repair and left us with the hire car. It turns out that 'guaranteed' means for 14 days only, and the car has now been at the garage for over 4 weeks and is still not ready yet, so we are paying for the hire car ourselves now. She rear-ended the other car, so damage was front bumper, bonnet, etc. No engine damage.

Is this a reasonable amount of time to fix a couple of dents? They sat on the car for a week waiting for it to be assessed, during which time we would have been happy to have kept it as it was perfectly drivable, then it took another week to order the parts, and another 2 weeks plus to actually fix it. The insurance company say this is all perfectly reasonable, but we are now out of pocket for more than 2 weeks car hire costs. Can we do anything about this?

[Hammer]

I know that insurance companies are supposed to repair your car in a ‘reasonable’ time, which is suitably vague, and I’m wondering if the amount of time that they have taken to repair the car is unreasonable. I guess my question is really whether I have any grounds for claiming back at least some of the cost of the hire car from the insurance company for leaving us without a car for so long. It’s particularly annoying that it sat at the garage for two weeks without anyone touching it even though it was in a drivable condition.

[vulcan]

A garage doesn't normally start repairs until the insurance company has assessed and agreed to what is to be replaced or repaired.They,the companies,have a limited number of assessors,who travel many miles to check many vehicles.unfortunately all this takes time.Again the garage usually only order parts after the vehicle has been assessed,they dont want to be left with parts which the company hasn't agreed to.
An accident can cause more damage than is obvious, until this is established no insurance company will risk a vehicle being used on the road until it has been assessed.
[ I have seen a case where the damage was superficial and after assessment the vehicle was allowed to be used until the body parts were received.]

[vulcan]

unfortunately,adding these various delays mount up.
One question, did the Insurance company insist you took the car to their preferred repairer or did you choose the garage ?

[ummmm]

About 3 or 4 days for the repair.

[divlong]

I had exactly the same thing some years ago when the head gasket blew under warranty. The insurance company would only pay for a single week of car hire yet took over a week to assess the vehicle.

Their comment was that it was my fault that it was in the garage waiting for assessment!

As if the garage were going to reassemble it so that I could drive it while I was waiting.

I never got anywhere trying to claim the extra week's car hire.

Cheers

Duncan

[Hammer]

The insurance company chose the garage.

Just wondered if there was any point pushing the insurance company to pay for the hire car. I haven't got the time or energy to take them to court or anything like that but would write a strongly worded letter if I thought it might get me somewhere.

[vulcan]

Hammer, if the insurance company chose the garage than they[ins co] should pay for hire.
Insurance companies choose the repair garage because the standard of work is assured.
If the repairer takes longer than the two weeks than the insurance company should recognise this fact and pay accordingly.

[woozer]

Have the garage told you why the car is taking so long to repair - is there a delay on parts ? If it is something out of the control of the insurer or their approved repairer then they are not obliged to assist you.
If the garage is being inefficient you may be able to negotiate with them for a courtesy car or for an extension of hire with the insurer.
If your car is roadworthy why not get it back and drive it until the repair can be completed.
If your contract with the insurer was for 2 weeks car hire then that is all you are entitled to.

[Hammer]

We're getting the car back today, that's a total of 31 days. I'm prepared to accept 7 days for the assessor to do their stuff and 7 days for the parts to be delivered, but that still means the garage has taken 17 days to do a job they originally said would take 4 or 5. The garage's excuse is that they are very busy and short-staffed.

The car was roadworthy until they started taking off panels and repsraying them, so getting the car back after they'd started wasn't an option - we did ask.

Thanks for all the responses. I think I'll take it further with the insurance company. Don't see why I should be out of pocket for the best part of £200 because they chose to use a garage that takes on too much work.