How Much Is My Non-Fault Accident Claim Worth?
There is no single figure, because a claim is made of separate parts. Here is what each one covers, and where money is most often left behind.
A claim is not one number. It is several separate heads - vehicle damage, replacement vehicle, storage, recovery, your excess, injury and any loss of earnings.
Most people lose money by forgetting the smaller heads, not by getting the big one wrong.
The parts of a claim
Vehicle damage
Repair cost, or pre-accident value less salvage where it is written off.
Replacement vehicle
Hire for as long as you reasonably needed one.
Recovery and storage
Getting the vehicle from the scene and keeping it somewhere secure.
Policy excess
Recoverable in full on a genuine non-fault claim.
Injury
Assessed on medical evidence, not on how you felt on the day.
Loss of earnings
Time off work, and reduced earning capacity afterwards.
The bits people forget
The vehicle and the injury get the attention. These are the ones routinely left on the table:
Your excess. If you claimed on your own policy, the excess is recoverable from the at-fault insurer. People forget it constantly.
Travel costs. Taxis, buses and lifts while you had no vehicle, and travel to medical appointments.
Personal property. Child seats must be replaced after any impact. Phones, glasses, laptops and clothing are all claimable.
Care and assistance. If family had to help you wash, dress, shop or drive while you recovered, that has a value even though nobody was paid.
Not sure what you can claim?
Most people under-claim because they simply do not know a head exists. Tell us what happened and we will go through all of it.
Keep receipts and a diary. Every taxi, prescription and day off is a line in your claim. Reconstructed six months later they are far harder to recover.
Why a first offer is usually low
It covers one head only
Frequently just the vehicle, leaving hire, storage, excess and injury unaddressed.
It comes before the medical evidence
An injury cannot be valued sensibly until a medical report says how long recovery will take.
It is made early on purpose
Settle quickly, settle cheaply. An early offer is an opening position, not a valuation.
Common questions
Not an accurate one, and anyone who does is guessing. Vehicle damage can be estimated quickly; injury cannot be valued properly until there is medical evidence.
By reference to published judicial guidelines and comparable cases, based on a medical report covering severity and recovery time. Low-value whiplash claims follow a separate tariff.
Yes, on a genuine non-fault claim it is recoverable from the at-fault driver’s insurer.
You recover a proportion. On a 75/25 split you would recover 75 per cent of your losses.
Not usually. The heads are pursued together and the timing is generally driven by liability and by medical evidence, not by the number of items claimed.
Terms and conditions apply to all services described on this page. Free recovery, storage and replacement vehicles are provided on the basis that the charges are recovered from the at-fault party’s insurer. We will explain the terms in plain English before anything is arranged.
Before we act for you we are required to verify your identity and to carry out fraud and anti-money laundering checks. This may include checks with credit reference and fraud prevention agencies, which will leave a record on your file.
Where fraud is suspected, information may be shared with fraud prevention agencies, insurers and law enforcement. Providing false or misleading information in support of a claim may mean your claim is refused, and can be a criminal offence.