Insurance claim?

[Jackie]

Anyone had an experience of claiming on their French Insurance policy? I cut the lawn today and the wretched mower picked up a stone and hurled it through the back nearside window of the car. I am wondering if it is worth claiming on either the car policy or the household policy, both with Groupama, or whether the eventual cost to me would be greater than if I paid to have it replaced myself! I could do it myself if I can get the glass. The car policy is the equivalent of fully comp. Anyone had a similar experience? What did you do?................John in 79

[Will]

You will probably have a franchise (excess) though this doesn't always apply to glass claims. Best thing is to talk to the insurance agent from whom you bought the insurance. In general, if you are not yourself at fault you will not lose any bonus (though you may have to pay the excess if the insurer cannot claim off a third party). We are going through a small claim ourselves at the moment which is an interesting experience - a cross between intense bureaucracy and laissez-faire. Had we known what was involved we would probably have paid for the repairs ourselves.

[Miki]

[quote]Anyone had an experience of claiming on their French Insurance policy? I cut the lawn today and the wretched mower picked up a stone and hurled it through the back nearside window of the car. I am won...[/quote]

Done the very same thing John !

Two summers ago, after cutting the lawn and going in and out of the cars in the car park to get back to the barn to park the cutter, I looked at our car and thought the back window looked a little frosty but I was hot and went to get a drink. In the morning I looked in the mirror and again was mystified to see this frosty back window !!

Anyway it sunk in that the blasted window was smashed and spent an hour or more cleaning it all out after bashing it through (first remember to protect the bodywork) in to a large dustsheet. It had to be caused by the mower, as I remembered the stones being thrown up but I thought they were hitting the trees only .

I rang our car insurers and they said simply to get it fixed and tell the auto glass company to bill them. Car was fully comprehensive (tous risques) and no franchise for windows.

Look through your policy to see if there is a Franchise, if not, let the insurers pay, it's why you pay them

[Val_2]

I have a Picasso which is covered for all window breakages in my policy regardless of how it happened. Luckily, as a lorry broke the big windscreen by hurling stones up off the road and the cost of replacement was 375€ which I paid the garage and then was reimbursed 100% with no claims lost and within 7 days of submitting the invoice to the insurers. We've had several insurance claims on different vehicles over the past few years from having a back door on one van wrenched off by a fork lift truck to almost writing off a nearly new Berlingo van after "falling" off a newly tarmac-ed road which had a drop of nearly 10" along one side without warning lines. I drove out of the supermarket in a rush and didn't notice a high concrete bollard by the passenger door over which I drove getting it stuck under the vehicle and causing over £300 worth of damage. This we paid to have put right privately because the excess is equivalent to £150 straight away and I would have lost a valuable NCB. Seems everyone I know who has had a smallish prang either leaves the damage or gets it done privately to protect their NCB.  You will find french insurers on the whole are pretty good at getting claims sorted and getting you mobile again,not the petty haggling we used to get in the UK.

[Jackie]

Thanks for all the replies folks. I looked at the policy and it says for broken glass "sans  franchise" so I rang Groupama and they said get it fixed and bring us the bill.

On examining the policy, yes I know I should have looked closely at it before, it says for other designated drivers "Neant"! Cold hand griping heart as I read that as Jackie drives the car a lot! However on questioning the agent she said that it was quite all right for Jackie to drive. "Really are you sure" says I, "But yes monsieur" says she. Well this struck me as odd so I put it to her a couple of more times to make sure I had not misunderstood. They did say we should bring the bill for the repair and Jackie's driving licence to their office to Regularise things, whatever that means. Maybe it is the car that is insured and not the driver in France, think we have met this before somewhere...................John in 79