It was my fault and I’m pretty gutted. Hit a parked car when pulling in. Caused a fair amount of damage to a 64 plate Mercedes. Pulled bumper off and damaged wing. Car was parked stupidly but it’s totally my fault.
My question is - I now have a limited company and liability insurance. Do I claim on this or do the company claim on vehicle insurance? I was sick of paying £13/week to get paid so started a company.
Spoke to my agency who suggested “we” offer to pay for damage as it won’t be worth them claiming on insurance due to excess. I don’t have a couple of grand lying about and I don’t want to ask my partner.
Feel free to ridicule etc but if one of the agency drivers on here can answer my question it would be appreciated.
I don’t know how to deal with your particular problem (I’ve not seen the fine print of your contract), but I do know that you won’t be in business very long.
I can’t answer your question and I’m certainly not going to ridicule you, but I do wish more people would give serious consideration to possible situations like this before going self employed.
sammym:
It was my fault and I’m pretty gutted. Hit a parked car when pulling in. Caused a fair amount of damage to a 64 plate Mercedes. Pulled bumper off and damaged wing. Car was parked stupidly but it’s totally my fault.
My question is - I now have a limited company and liability insurance. Do I claim on this or do the company claim on vehicle insurance? I was sick of paying £13/week to get paid so started a company.
Spoke to my agency who suggested “we” offer to pay for damage as it won’t be worth them claiming on insurance due to excess. I don’t have a couple of grand lying about and I don’t want to ask my partner.
Feel free to ridicule etc but if one of the agency drivers on here can answer my question it would be appreciated.
What do the terms of business of your Limited Company which you got the agency to sign say about your liability? You do have terms of business and you did get your client the agency to sign them? My terms of business I used as a self employed driver which I have posted on this forum and which many people have used had a clause stating that the company and its representitives (my employees) were not liable for any damage or losses so in my case it would mean I paid nothing and it would be done on the vehicle’s insurers with them also paying the excess.
This is what I had in mine:
Whilst every effort is made by the Employment Business to give satisfaction to the Client by ensuring reasonable standard of skills, integrity and reliability from Temporary Workers and further to provide them in accordance with the Client’s booking details, the Employment Business is not liable for any loss, expense, damage or delay arising from any failure to provide any Temporary Worker for all or part of the period of booking or from the negligence, dishonesty, misconduct or lack of skill of the Temporary Worker. For the avoidance of doubt, the Employment Business does not exclude liability for death or personal injury arising from its own negligence.
And
6 a) Temporary Workers are engaged by the Employment Business under Terms of Engagement. They are deemed to be under the supervision, direction and control of the Client from the time they report to take up duties and for the duration of the Assignment. The Client agrees to be responsible for all acts, errors or omissions of the Temporary Worker, whether willful, negligent or otherwise as though he was on the payroll of the Client.
Black and white, I nor anyone I employ are liable for any damage and the client is responsible for any damage just the same as if I were on their payroll. If you don’t have such a clause in your terms of business that you got the agency to sign then expect your limited company to be billed anything from the excess to the full payout. You can pass the bill onto your insurer but if your insurance is for public liability it is likely that they won’t cover a vehicle accident.
Here is the link to my full terms and conditions. Use these, change the name as required. Make sure every customer you take on, and that includes employment agencies, signs a copy. This sets out how many days they have to pay an invoice with a penalty set out if they pay late, a minimum payment if they cancel at short notice, the fact they’re required to make sure the vehicle is fully insured and that you’re not liable for any costs, damage or loss of profit for anything you do or any driver you send in does. I suggest you use them to create your own and get the agency to sign them and any other client you have in the future and then it is clear who is liable for what. Without any terms of business you don’t even have anything saying when you have to be paid so technically they don’t have to pay you at all until a time that suits them.
Tell the agency they can claim on the vehicles insurance, which is what should happen anyway… or they can try to bill the ltd company for the damage and get ■■■■ all as the company has no assets, and no vehicle insurance cover, they might do this anyway. My advice… dissolve the company ASAP, and tell whatever agency you’re going with you want paid PAYE on the books, or they can ■■■■ off.
From the damages you’ve described 2k won’t cover the paint work let alone the actual replacement of parts if it’s done through a Mercedes approved repair centre.
Think carefully about what you agree to before making your next decision,if the “injured” party has a like for like replacement whilst their car is off the road that will also add a cpl of grand to the bill.
These stories from you are gradually getting more questionable. Stark resemblance to the M.O. of a certain wind up merchant on here. Pictures or it didn’t happen.
Whilst every effort is made by the Employment Business to give satisfaction to the Client by ensuring reasonable standard of skills, integrity and reliability from Temporary Workers and further to provide them in accordance with the Client’s booking details, the Employment Business is not liable for any loss, expense, damage or delay arising from any failure to provide any Temporary Worker for all or part of the period of booking or from the negligence, dishonesty, misconduct or lack of skill of the Temporary Worker. For the avoidance of doubt, the Employment Business does not exclude liability for death or personal injury arising from its own negligence.
And
6 a) Temporary Workers are engaged by the Employment Business under Terms of Engagement. They are deemed to be under the supervision, direction and control of the Client from the time they report to take up duties and for the duration of the Assignment. The Client agrees to be responsible for all acts, errors or omissions of the Temporary Worker, whether willful, negligent or otherwise as though he was on the payroll of the Client.
Black and white, I nor anyone I employ are liable for any damage and the client is responsible for any damage just the same as if I were on their payroll. If you don’t have such a clause in your terms of business that you got the agency to sign then expect your limited company to be billed anything from the excess to the full payout. You can pass the bill onto your insurer but if your insurance is for public liability it is likely that they won’t cover a vehicle accident.
Here is the link to my full terms and conditions. Use these, change the name as required. Make sure every customer you take on, and that includes employment agencies, signs a copy. This sets out how many days they have to pay an invoice with a penalty set out if they pay late, a minimum payment if they cancel at short notice, the fact they’re required to make sure the vehicle is fully insured and that you’re not liable for any costs, damage or loss of profit for anything you do or any driver you send in does. I suggest you use them to create your own and get the agency to sign them and any other client you have in the future and then it is clear who is liable for what. Without any terms of business you don’t even have anything saying when you have to be paid so technically they don’t have to pay you at all until a time that suits them.
I had a minor non fault accident in a battered 2000 plate landrover a few years ago. The other parties bill was over £20k, by the end of it.
The only damage was a light scratch and dent, but they replaced the whole rear quarter panel and paint. I also got a hire car for a week whilst the work was done, that was the majority of the cost actually.
For a new merc bumper and wing, I’m guessing headlight unit too, plus hire car for the owner for the duration, you will be looking at serious money.
To put the cost cost side in perspective someone rear ended me at the end of November. My car was deemed a write off a week later but took 6 further weeks for their insurer to pay out.
I got 6k ish for my car and they also had to pay the 14k bill for hire!
NickE92:
To put the cost cost side in perspective someone rear ended me at the end of November. My car was deemed a write off a week later but took 6 further weeks for their insurer to pay out.
I got 6k ish for my car and they also had to pay the 14k bill for hire!
£14k for a hire car? WTF was it - a Ferrari!
Some figures these insurers come up with are laughable ( or not ) depends on which side of them your on [emoji3]
NickE92:
To put the cost cost side in perspective someone rear ended me at the end of November. My car was deemed a write off a week later but took 6 further weeks for their insurer to pay out.
I got 6k ish for my car and they also had to pay the 14k bill for hire!
£14k for a hire car? WTF was it - a Ferrari!
Some figures these insurers come up with are laughable ( or not ) depends on which side of them your on [emoji3]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Which side we’re on?
We all pay insurance don’t we?
Excessive profits to repairers or hire companies are paid for by ALL of us in increased premiums
dcgpx:
£14k for a hire car? WTF was it - a Ferrari!
Some figures these insurers come up with are laughable ( or not ) depends on which side of them your on [emoji3]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Might have been. Though when I hit a Jaguar XJ several years ago, the guys policy had a like for like clause in it for a replacement
vehicle while his was repaired, bill came to £11,500 for it alone. I got £6,000 for the written off 406.
Time for submitting a DS-01 form, gov.uk/government/uploads/s … 1_V7.0.pdf
then the OP should start rethinking how he works for other people, and the possible consequences
Harry Monk:
This particular agency driver wouldn’t dream of working on anything other than a PAYE basis for numerous reasons, including the one you mention.
NickE92:
To put the cost cost side in perspective someone rear ended me at the end of November. My car was deemed a write off a week later but took 6 further weeks for their insurer to pay out.
I got 6k ish for my car and they also had to pay the 14k bill for hire!
