Sucussfully claiming back your excess?

[MissCalamity]

I claimed on my car insurance back at the start of July as some numpty drove into my parked car in my works car park & drove off. I luckily had a witness, plus cctv caught this.
I've just had my car repaired & been told I need to pay the excess even though I wasn't even in my car at the time. My insurers are still trying to get the third party to admit liability but they're so slow about it & there's been a few failings in communication with me & they've only just asked me to get the cctv footage, as they assured me the witness statement would be enough.
I am contesting this but don't know how long I can, so if you have paid your excess & claimed it back via legal or the third party insurance, was it quite straight forward or should I dig my heels in?
Thanks

Accident in Dec last year (basically run off road by small lorry going too fast on twisty road on wrong side. He didn't hit me as I drove off road to avoid him and ended up in the hedge). He denied all liability. My insurer paid for the repairs (£5.5k) but I had to pay the excess. Then their legal team started the process of claiming back from the other driver via solicitors. They served all the papers to take him to court. Eventually, pre court - hadn't had a date for the hearing, he admitted liability and my insurer was able to recover all their costs. At that point the excess was repaid to me. That was about 8 weeks ago.

Thanks for that ReedBunting what a horrible accident for you to be involved in. Did your insurers just pay you straight back as my insurers are saying I would have to claim for it via their legal dept, but as I didn't take out legal cover it would cost a percentage to get it back.
Just feeling so disheartened by the whole thing & have to find the excess money that I really wasn't expecting to pay

I think you’ve misunderstood how it works. Of your insurers are paying for the damage, you pay the excess. Doesn’t matter whose fault the accident was. If the third party’s insurance is paying, you don’t.

So in this case, you have to claim your uninsured loss back yourself.

Yes as Titty says.

You need to use a lawyer to get it back

I think you’ve misunderstood how it works. Of your insurers are paying for the damage, you pay the excess. Doesn’t matter whose fault the accident was. If the third party’s insurance is paying, you don’t.

erm no, thats not how it work - another driver hits you, (their fault) their insurer pays out, and you do not pay excess - unless you are unable to prove/they dont own up to it

i've been hit a couple of times and NEVER paid an excess out because it was not my fault

erm no, thats not how it work - another driver hits you, (their fault) their insurer pays out, and you do not pay excess - unless you are unable to prove/they dont own up to it

That’s what I said.

And the OP is claiming from their own insurance, not the third party’s.

But what do i, an ex-insurance claims handler know, eh?

I've never paid the excess on two previous claims I had, so this is why I've asked. My insurers haven't got the third party to admit liability, so on proof of the cctv (plus witness) it should really be straight forward but they've taken an age to do & like I said before the previous claims which weren't my fault were sorted so quickly one was with current insurer too

I had legal expenses on my insurance so everything was done by them and they passed it on to their firm of solicitors who were very efficient. Then once the solicitors recovered the claim costs from the other party's insurance company once they finally admitted liability, I got a cheque from the solicitors the next day including an allowance for sundry expenses and interest. Oh and then a month after that I contacted my insurer to check that the claim had been changed to no fault on my record, and then I managed to get a refund of the amount my insurance increased by when I renewed the policy a month after the accident as a result of having a fault claim on there which was no longer the case. All in all very happy but it took a while.

If you don't have motor legal expenses cover on your policy what % would you need to pay them to recover your excess should you manage to get the other party to admit liability?