Van Claims FAQs

If your vehicle can be repaired and the damage is covered by your policy, our approved repairers will give you a courtesy vehicle once the repairs have started.

If your vehicle isn't driveable, our approved repairer will provide you with a courtesy vehicle when your vehicle has been declared repairable and the repairs have started.

We cannot guarantee the courtesy vehicle will be adapted to any special needs or disability. If a vehicle is given it can only be used within the territorial limits. The courtesy vehicle is not intended to be a like for like replacement for your vehicle.

Van drivers will get a car-derived van

Your courtesy vehicle will also:

• Last for the duration of repairs
• Be covered under your insurance policy on the same terms and conditions as your vehicle (Comprehensive cover only)
• Comes with five litres of fuel

If your vehicle has been damaged beyond repair, you will not be given a courtesy vehicle, however if you have Hire Vehicle Cover, you may be entitled to a hire vehicle. The claims team will be in touch if this applies.

You are entitled to use your own repairer, however if the garage is not on our network:

• You will not be given a courtesy car
• You may be asked to provide more than 1 estimate
• Repairs are not guaranteed
• We may not be able to intervene if there are issues with your repairs.
• Additional excess may apply.

If you need to use your own garage for warranty or other reasons, many of our networks are manufacturer approved. Please let us know and we will look to if this is a possibility for you.

Unfortunately, we are unable to give an exact timescale on how long the repairs will take to complete as this depends on what repairs are needed and parts availability. The repairer will provide you with an estimated completion date and will keep you updated through the repair of your vehicle.

If you are looking for an update on repair progress, it's best to contact your repairer directly. Their information can be found on correspondence we sent you when we instructed them.

If your vehicle can be repaired and the damage is covered by your insurance, your car will be repaired by one of our approved repairers.

Any repairs carried out by our approved repairers are guaranteed while you own the vehicle. Any parts used during the repair will be covered under the manufacturer's guarantee.

If you have Third Party Fire and Theft cover, please still contact us to see if we can help.

As you are not at fault for the accident your no claims bonus will not be affected by this incident. You now have two options for your vehicle repairs.

You can use the non-fault credit service which is provided by a separate company called Auxillis. Auxillis are a leading provider of accident services to motorists and would look to arrange repairs to your vehicle at one of their approved repairers.

In the unlikely event you make a complaint, not all can be escalated to the Financial Ombudsman Service but instead to an alternative dispute resolution scheme. If you choose to use the non-fault credit service through Auxillis, there would be no excess for you to pay and you are not committed until you have confirmed that you are happy after speaking with them.

Alternatively, you can make a claim on your own policy where your excess would be payable. If at a later stage, the Third-Party Insurer accepts liability and we make a recovery of our costs, your excess can be claimed back.

An excess is the amount you're required to pay when you make a claim.

If your vehicle is repairable, the excess is paid to the garage when the repairs are completed. If your vehicle is damaged beyond repair, the excess will be deducted from the payment we make to you.

Your excess details are recorded on your Policy Schedule.

If there's any possibility that the vehicle may be a total loss, or there is damage, which the garage wishes us to take a closer look at, they will submit an estimate for authority. This means that it may take slightly longer but we will review as soon as we can.

Yes! Courtesy vehicles provided by our approved repairers will be covered under your insurance policy on the same terms and conditions as your vehicle.

If your vehicle is damaged beyond repair, our Claims team will contact you to discuss the next steps of your claim. We'll instruct a salvage agent to collect your car and take it to a salvage yard. Please make sure all your personal belongings are removed.

Your policy will be cancelled including the Driving Other Cars extension (if applicable). If you have a MultiCar policy, we'll simply remove the vehicle in question. The claims team will advise you in more detail.

We then make payment for the market value of the vehicle, which is not necessarily the price paid. The amount spent on restoring or improving a vehicle may not necessarily increase its value, particularly where the work carried out is general maintenance. The market value is the price you could reasonably expect to pay on the open market, on the date of the incident to replace the car with one of a similar make, model, mileage and condition, using industry-recognised guides. Excess will be deducted from the payment where applicable.

If your vehicle is a total loss, you will not be provided with a courtesy vehicle. This is because the courtesy vehicle is provided by the garage, not Gladiator.

If you have Hire Vehicle Cover, you may be entitled to a hire vehicle. The claims team will be in touch if this applies.

You can notify the DVLA by filling in your V5c logbook with the salvage company details (we will provide these). Only the registered keeper signature is required and leave the Motor trade signature blank. If you have a private plate and wish to retain it, please do not send the V5c logbook back to the DVLA until this has been done. You can do this online at https://www.gov.uk/sold-bought-vehicle.

If your windscreen or windows have been smashed, damaged or chipped we can organise a repair or replacement.

Windscreen cover is included with our Comprehensive cover and can be bought as an optional extra on Third Party, Fire & Theft, and Third Party Only policies.

Please note:

• Windscreen claims won't affect your No Claims Bonus
• Courtesy vehicles aren't provided for windscreen claims
• To make a claim, you can complete the Nationwide Windscreen Services online form or you can call them on 0333 234 0013.

You should report the theft to the police and get a Crime Reference Number immediately. Then, contact us and we'll start the claims process.

Once our enquiries are finished, we'll settle your claim.

There is currently a high demand on the repair industry nationally caused by staff shortages and parts availability. This is something that is impacting all insurers and repair garages. In the event of an accident, you may experience some delays. We are working closely with our repairers to reduce delays and minimise this impact as much as possible. To help speed up the process our claims agents may ask you to provide images of your vehicle to obtain a virtual estimate of the damage caused in the accident.

If you have Comprehensive cover, we'll:

• Arrange to get your vehicle repaired or start the total loss process.
• Contact anybody else involved and deal with their claim.
• Please tell anyone else involved in the accident to contact us as we may be able to help with the damage to their vehicle.

To help us process the claim as quickly as possible, please ask them to have your policy number and vehicle registration.

If you receive any correspondence from the other driver or their reps, please forward it to us immediately and we'll respond on your behalf.

You're required to pay the excess whenever you make a claim. If the incident wasn't your fault you might be able to reclaim your excess back from the person responsible or their insurance company. Admiral Law also may be able to help you pursue losses not covered under your policy, such as excess, even if you don't have legal cover on your policy. Please contact us if this is something you want to consider and we can instruct them for you.

Depending on the type of dispute, we may be able to make a quick decision based on previous claims of this nature. If it is more complex, we will gather any evidence that is available including damage images, witness statements etc. if necessary we may ask an investigator to contact you to take a formal statement. We then review all evidence and discuss with you what we feel our position is. On some occasions we may need to accept a shared responsibility for the accident.

Our primary duty is to you and we will support your position as far as possible on the basis of the evidence we hold. However, we must also consider the likely view of the Courts in respect of liability for the accident, and the viability/economics of settling the third-party claim out of Court, as opposed to incurring additional legal costs and expenses by allowing the matter to proceed to litigation.

Evidence is key! In order to successfully prove you were not involved, we would require you to send as much evidence as possible. This would include, but not limited to, any dash cam footage, clear photos of all sides of your vehicle and any evidence of where you were on the day/time of the incident in question. We may undertake further investigations to your vehicle and with the third party to establish why they believe we caused their damage. If we can confirm that you/your vehicle were not involved in the alleged incident, we will remove the case from your claim history.

If liability is settled on a split basis, both parties are entitled to recover their losses based on the % split that is agreed. i.e. if it was a 50/50 split, each party can recover 50% of their losses. We will arrange the losses covered under the policy and your legal cover (if applicable) will deal with everything else for you. If you do not have legal cover, our representatives still may be able to help you.

At times damage caused may not be evident in the aftermath of an accident. While there may be no visible damage, there is likely to be damage under the bumper/bodywork. Different areas of a vehicle behave differently to impacts. If you have any concerns over the level or consistency of the damage, please make sure to tell us, and we will investigate these concerns. Our handlers are experienced in understanding areas and some consistency issues. If the claim handler is not satisfied, then they may ask for an engineer, either to review the claim for damage or potentially inspect the Third-party vehicle. Your handler will discuss the outcome of the investigations with you. It remains their decision how best to deal with the claim to ensure fair settlement.

On some occasions, legal proceedings are required to settle a claim which involves a third party and you may be asked to attend to give evidence of what happened in the accident. We will discuss this with you in advance if we think this is necessary. If you do not feel comfortable in attending court just let us know in these discussions. If you receive any court documentation it is important you send these to us as soon as possible via the contact details on our correspondence.

Most insurers will ask for your claim history. This includes any incident regardless of fault or if a claim was made. They will also ask for the total claim costs, if the No Claims Bonus was affected or not and if the claim has been settled or remains open.

Don't worry, we will still continue dealing with the claim for you. You would need to inform your new insurer of the ongoing claim. Once the matter has been settled, we will let you know so you can pass this information onto them.

• If this is your first claim, you will receive one strike against your No Claims Bonus protection.
• If you make two claims within three consecutive insurance terms, we will remove the protection.
• If you make three claims within three consecutive insurance terms, you will lose your protection and your No Claims Bonus will be reduced.
• If you have Guaranteed No Claims Bonus, you can make unlimited fault claims with no affect to your bonus.

Insurance prices are based on many statistics, and this includes claims statistics. This means regardless of who was at fault or if any claim is made, there is still a chance the premium may be affected based on what the data shows. We will always try to ensure our rates are fair and reasonable.

Unless you have been advised differently by your claim's handler, if you are not held responsible for the accident, your No Claims Bonus will be reinstated once the Third Party insurers have accepted full liability. You will be advised of your No Claims Bonus position once this is available by your claim's handler.

Yes. However, we don't recommend this if there is a Third Party involved. A claim that you feel is non-fault could result in a dispute that may result in you paying the Third Party claim. If you still need to discuss this option just contact us.

As every claim is different, it's difficult to give an exact time frame. We'll make sure your claims experience is as quick and stress free as possible. Once the incident is reported, we'll be able to give you a better idea of how long the process will be.

You can find our contact methods and details on our claims page. Alternatively you will have our contact information on any correspondence we have sent you.

If the accident was your fault and you've suffered losses that aren't covered by your insurance, you can't claim for them unless they're covered by alternative insurance.

If the accident was somebody else's fault you can claim your losses back directly from their insurer yourself.

Admiral Law also may be able to help you pursue losses not covered under your policy, such as excess, even if you don't have legal cover on your policy. Please contact us if this is something you want to consider and we can instruct them for you.

If the other person accepts responsibility for the incident, then their insurance company should reimburse your excess. If there's a disagreement over who was at fault and we have to accept some responsibility, you may only be able to recover part of your excess. Admiral Law also may be able to help you pursue losses not covered under your policy, such as excess, even if you don't have legal cover on your policy. Please contact us if this is something you want to consider and we can instruct them for you.

It's simple and convenient to register your claim online, and one of our dedicated claim handlers will get back to you.

To help us process your claim as quickly as possible, it would be helpful if you had the following to hand:

• Your policy number or vehicle registration
• Details of anybody else involved in the incident
• Any emergency services and/or witness details

Alternatively you can find our contact details on the claims page

If you are unhappy with the service, you can contact us to make a complaint. Please see our complaints page for your contact options. When we receive your complaint, we will identify your concerns, investigate them and provide an outcome. We will endeavour to deal with your complaint as quickly as possible, but some situations require more investigation.

You still need to report the claim to us as normal. The claim will then be given to a specialist team who will be in touch with you about next steps. If your vehicle is driveable, you can continue your journey and repairs will be arranged when you return to the UK with the vehicle. If it is not driveable, we may arrange the vehicles safe return for you, but unfortunately we will be unable to provide a repair service or courtesy vehicle while you are abroad.

Our main aim is to make sure our customers are back on the road as soon as possible. However, we know insurance fraud is a reality and that a very small number of people give false details to fabricate (or exaggerate) car insurance claims.

We believe it's important to identify these people and avoid paying such claims as they affect the cost of motor insurance for everybody.

We use a number of insurance industry databases to share information with other companies about claims and known fraudsters. We also share some information about car insurance fraud with other financial companies, the police and other bodies where the law allows us to do so.

You can read our full Privacy Statement to understand how we collect, use and protect your personal data.

If you are injured in an accident and you are not fully to blame, you are entitled to claim for your losses including injury from the fault party. If you have legal cover you can do this through our legal representatives. If you don't have legal cover they still may be able to help you. You may also be covered for your injury if you have the PI ancillary. Check your policydocuments to see if you have this cover.

Admiral Law may deal with any injuries or uninsured losses for you and any passengers. Alternatively, You can find your own legal representation or choose to pursue the claim on your own via the Official Injury Claim Homepage

You will need to forward this onto us immediately. Our contact information will be found on any emails or letters we have sent you.

Yes. If you or your vehicle are involved in any type of claim, accident or loss regardless of fault, you must tell us about it within 48 hours. Please refer to Section 2 of General Conditions of Your Cover in your policy booklet if you need any more information.

Failure to comply with the above could result in the claim being refused and/or your policy being cancelled.

If there is no Third Party involved we can close the claim. If there is a Third Party involved, you can choose not to claim for your own damage, but we would keep the claim open while our own investigations into the other party continued.

You need to report the incident to the police in the following circumstances:

• If the vehicle's stolen
• If the vehicle's been broken into
• If the vehicle's been maliciously damaged
• If the vehicle's been involved in an arson attack
• If someone's injured as a result of the incident
• If a crime's taken place, you need to get a Crime Reference Number from the police.

Customers with Comprehensive cover can contact our roadside emergency helpline 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on 0800 362 435.

If you need to be towed after a breakdown, you'll need to pay the recovery charges if you're not covered by our breakdown service.

If you need to check if you have breakdown cover, or want details of how to purchase our breakdown service, please contact us.