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Insurance payout reduced if overtaking


Blodwyn

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A friend recently had an accident: empty road, good conditions, overtook a tractor which suddenly turned  into her car and caused a lot of damage.

She was shocked to find the insurance company will only pay half the repair bill - because she was overtaking. Her husband insured the car from new and she thinks he must have made a mistake in taking a policy that was not fully comp. but a middle level. He would have gone for fully comp, This clause was not explained to him. Has anyone every heard of this?
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More detailed info is needed, both about the accident and the insurance cover. I suspect that you have not got the full story.

Comprehensive Insurance will pay out for own damage regardless of fault. Third party insurance will not pay for own damage at all.

The amount of damages paid can be reduced due to contributory negligence, ie the accident was partly the fault of the claimant. This could have happened if your friend was third party only (and her own insurer would not therefor be involved ) and the payment was made by the other side. In which case she would have received lots of correspondence regarding their proposals and decisions.
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[quote user="Pfeffel"]More detailed info is needed, both about the accident and the insurance cover. I suspect that you have not got the full story.

Comprehensive Insurance will pay out for own damage regardless of fault. Third party insurance will not pay for own damage at all.

The amount of damages paid can be reduced due to contributory negligence, ie the accident was partly the fault of the claimant. This could have happened if your friend was third party only (and her own insurer would not therefor be involved ) and the payment was made by the other side. In which case she would have received lots of correspondence regarding their proposals and decisions.[/quote]

During an insurance claim for an accident last July where the accident was considered to be 100% the fault of the other driver, another tractor, my insurance company insisted that it was them not the other driver’s insurance company who would be picking up the bill. I was told this by my local agent and, in writing, by someone much farther up the tree. It was particularly confusing because as a direct result of the claim I moved two other vehicles to a different insurer and they were surprised about the outcome of the claim.

To put the incident into numbers, my car was insured fully comprehensively, the other driver was considered to be 100% at fault yet I ended up paying several thousand euros towards the repairs.
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Yes, I put it badly, the tractor driver did indeed turn left into my friend's car and badly damaged the passenger door (luckily no passenger). My friend is dealing with her insurance company. I have recently changed car insurers and am beginning to wonder if I would have the same problem. So I can avoid it, which company were you with BritinBretagne?
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