If you were involved in accident that was not your fault; and your vehicle is un-roadworthy (meaning that you can not legally use it on public roads) you should be entitled to get a hire vehicle.
Insurance companies are offering free hire vehicle for time of repairs but usually client gets a small KA/C1 kind of car. Regardless of your vehicle, insurance company will provide you with the vehicle they have. It can be a problematic because if in daily basis you are using 7-seater (i.e. to drop you children to school) you will not be able to do it in a small car like C1/KA.
Insurance companies are keeping and maintaining large fleet of vehicles, and majority of insurance companies are trying to keep the cost generated by the fleet on a lower possible level. Easiest way of doing it is ordering a large amount of the same smallest possible cars (cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, cheap to insure)
Claims management companies are working slightly different; some of those companies are offering “like for like vehicle” which means that you will be provided with same vehicle that you own. Claims management company like Accident Specialists main target is to provide best possible service on market. To be able to do it in terms of providing hire vehicle, fleet of vehicles available for clients needs to be wider.
By providing “like for like” vehicle we know that your losses are minimised; if you are driving Range Rover we will provide you with a Range Rower, not a small KA.
To be able to get a free hire vehicle you can needs to be unroadworthy, which mean that without immediate repairs it can not be used on public roads. Usually when one of the lights isn’t working, sharp parts are visible or registration number is not visible vehicle can not be used without repairs.
Experienced claim consultant can tell straight away if client is entitled to get a hire vehicle. Accident Specialists are providing vehicle at the day of making a claim; by doing this we know that client’s losses are minimized.
Hire vehicle should be free of any charges. Client should get a clean and insured vehicle; Accident Specialists are also giving out vehicles with full tanks.
This shows again that most of insurance companies are working for their shareholders instead of clients. Costs of buying and maintaining a fleet of wide range cars is much more expensive but its an absolute necessity for top level customer service