Had an accident in car which resulted in some damage to the side of the car. The liability for this is currently disputed.
Had some hassle with the insurance company where they tried to force me to use their recommended repairer. Ended up they made a cash settlement (minus excess and minus VAT which they said they'd pay upon production of an invoice) to pay for the repairs.
They offered me £1250 for repairs, my quote was £1300, excess was £50
0 (yeh, I know!!), so they gave me £563 with the promise of £186 when I produced a VAT invoice.Car was booked into the garage to be done (I was going to be about £50 out of pocket with the cash settllement being less than the quote), when my wife was unfortunate enough to have an accident.
Subsequently, the car has been deemed a total loss with the insurance company making a cash settlement.
So now I've still got this £563. I will have to pay the garage I had the car booked in with some out of pocket expenses because they have to return the parts they'd already ordered but its bot going to be that much.
Of course, I wont be able to get a VAT receipt for the repairs now because they'll never happen, but theoretically if the disputed claim comes out my way, I could get my excess of £500 back !!!
The insurance companys engineer who inspected the car would have seen the side damage hadnt been repaired yet (Damage to car causing write off was rear shunt so all the damage was to front end not side).
What normally happens in this case? Where do I stand legally? As far as the insurance company is concerned is the first claim closed since they settled by cash? Wont they find it strange that I never claimed the VAT?
Not really in my interest to pay the money back voluntarily in an attempt to save my no claims from the 1st claim because the 3rd party will have claimed for damage to their vehicle anyway. So regardless of whether I add to this claim its all going to depend on how liability is decided.