You Can Recover Your Insurance Excess if an Accident Wasn’t Your Fault

If you’re the owner of an insured vehicle, you will know that when a claim you submit to your car insurance company is approved, you’re obligated to pay an excess – even if the accident wasn’t your fault. However, it might be possible for your car insurance company to recover your excess and make you – and your budget – smile again.

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If a claim you submit after an accident is successful, your insurance company will cover the costs of the repairs (once you’ve made a small co-payment – the excess), but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll never see that money again.

You have to make an insurance excess payment if your claim is approved.

How to recover an insurance excess

If you were involved in an accident and it wasn’t your fault, there’s a chance you may be able to get your excess back (or at least a portion of it). Your insurance company can help you recover this money. The reverse applies – if you were at fault, the other party’s insurer may attempt to recover their costs from you and your insurer.

The first rule for the best chance to recover your excess money is: “Gather as much information as possible.”

At the time of the accident, fish out that notebook and pen gathering dust in the cubby hole and write down:
1. Date and time
2. Weather conditions
3. Road conditions
4. All the relevant personal details of the parties involved in the accident, as well as any witnesses.
  1. Full name
  2. ID number
  3. Contact number
  4. Address
  5. Vehicle description
  6. Vehicle registration number
  7. Vehicle licence details
Take photographs of the accident from as many different angles as possible and the licence discs of the vehicles involved.
Report the accident at the nearest police station to open a case as soon as possible.

When you are unlikely to recover your insurance excess

Obviously, if the accident was your fault there is no point trying to recover an excess – but, unfortunately, there are situations where recovery isn’t possible even if it wasn’t your fault, for example:

If you’re the only person involved in an accident. (That pillar might have jumped out at you, but we can’t claim from it.)
If you did not get the complete details of the person at fault.
You didn’t report it to the police station.
The guilty person doesn’t have income or assets with which to pay.
The legal costs of recovering the money outweigh the excess amount.
The guilty party cannot be traced
The merits of the claim are too tricky to be worth the recovery of the excess.

Conclusion

Being involved in a road accident is, at the very least, inconvenient and just not worth the time, money, and headaches. Remember that if you were speeding when the accident happened, you are a guilty party, no matter what the other circumstances might be.

Do you want to learn more about car insurance or review your car insurance requirements with the help of experts? Budget Insurance’s team is always ready to assist; contact them on 086 1600 120 or utilise their online car insurance calculator, which gives you an accurate and budget-friendly quote in minutes.