If someone else caused the accident, do I have to pay the excess?
Not necessarily. The excess is the part of the loss you bear yourself when you use your own damage cover. If someone else was at fault, you can claim the whole loss from the insurer of the person at fault, which cannot deduct any excess in a road traffic accident. If you have the repair done under your own policy to speed things up, your insurer will apply the excess. But you can claim it yourself from the person at fault or their insurer, or ask your own insurer to claim it together with what it paid and refund it to you.
Alburquerque Abogados
José Manuel AlburquerqueThe two ways of getting paid
- Claiming from the insurer of the person at fault. It pays the whole loss, with no excess, although it may take longer if it disputes who was at fault.
- Using your own damage cover. It is quicker, but the excess is applied. Your insurer then recovers what it paid from the insurer of the person at fault.
How to recover the excess
- Ask your insurer in writing to include your excess when it claims from the insurer of the person at fault and to refund it to you. The law says that whatever is recovered is shared between the two of you according to what each lost.
- If it does not, you can claim the excess directly from the person at fault or their insurer. It is part of your loss.
- The agreements insurers have among themselves for sharing out claims are not binding on you. Do not sign documents assigning all your rights against the person at fault to your insurer without reserving your claim to the excess.
- Do not let time slip by. In road traffic accidents, in Catalonia too, you have one year from the accident to claim from the insurer of the person at fault. That time limit is interrupted by a written claim to that insurer.
If fault was shared
If both drivers were partly to blame, the other driver's insurer only pays the part of the loss corresponding to its insured's share of the blame. The rest falls on your own policy, if it covers it, with your excess.
This answer is provided for educational purposes and offers initial guidance on the question raised. Every matter has its own circumstances and nuances that require individual assessment. For that reason, before taking decisions with significant consequences, it is advisable to consult a professional and not to rely solely on this information. Personalised advice makes it possible to apply these explanations to the specific case and to assess the options available with greater certainty.