What is the difference between an accident management company and my own insurer?

Your insurer manages your policy and decides what it will pay under that policy. An accident management company handles the practical side of a non-fault claim and pursues the at-fault driver's insurer instead, which is a different route with different consequences. The practical differences usually show up in the replacement vehicle, the choice of repairer, and whether the claim touches your own policy. It is worth asking your insurer what they would provide before deciding, then comparing that against what an accident management company offers, particularly on the type of replacement vehicle and how long you would keep it while repairs are carried out.

Will using an accident management company cost me anything?

In a non-fault claim the intention is that the costs of recovery, storage, repair and the replacement vehicle are recovered from the at-fault driver's insurer rather than paid by you. That said, the arrangement is not automatic and it does depend on liability being accepted and on you meeting the eligibility conditions. This is exactly why you should ask for the fee position in writing before signing: what is deducted from any settlement, whether there is an administration charge, and whether anything at all becomes payable by you if the claim does not succeed. A provider that answers this plainly by email is one you can hold to its word.

What happens if the other driver's insurer disputes liability?

Disputed liability is common and it is where the quality of a provider actually shows. Evidence becomes the whole argument: photographs from the scene, dashcam footage, witness accounts, the independent engineer's assessment of how the damage was caused, and any camera footage from the relevant authority. Because that footage has short retention periods, the work has to start early rather than after a denial arrives. Ask any provider what its process is at that point, whether the replacement vehicle continues or is withdrawn and on what notice, and who carries the cost. Nobody can guarantee an outcome on a disputed claim, and you should be wary of anyone who suggests otherwise.

Will the replacement vehicle be ULEZ-compliant?

It should be, and you should ask for confirmation against the specific registration before the vehicle is delivered rather than afterwards. The Ultra Low Emission Zone covers every London borough and runs twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year except Christmas Day, charging £12.50 a day for a non-compliant vehicle. For cars and vans up to 3.5 tonnes the standard is Euro 4 for petrol and Euro 6 for diesel. The charge runs midnight to midnight, so a non-compliant vehicle kept overnight across two calendar days attracts two charges. Any provider that regularly serves London should treat compliant sourcing as routine, not as a special request.

I am a PCO or private hire driver. Can I get a plated replacement vehicle?

That depends on availability and on your claim qualifying, but it is the right question to ask up front because a car you cannot work in does not solve your problem. To be used for private hire work the vehicle must itself be licensed as a private hire vehicle, display its licence discs, and be covered by hire or reward insurance valid at all times it is used for private hire. Vehicles licensed as PHVs for the first time since 1 January 2023 must also be zero emission capable, which limits the pool. Ask the provider directly whether it can source a plated vehicle and roughly how long that usually takes.

Does my Congestion Charge residents' discount apply to a replacement vehicle?

Not automatically, and this catches a lot of London drivers out. Congestion Charge discounts are registered with TfL against a specific vehicle registration rather than against you as a person, so the 90 per cent residents' discount and the Cleaner Vehicle Discount do not simply follow you into a replacement car. The charge itself is £18 a day if paid on the day or in advance, or £21 if paid by midnight of the third day after travel, and it applies 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and bank holidays. Ask your provider how it handles this before the vehicle arrives.

How do I check that an accident management company is genuine?

Ask for the full registered company name and its Companies House number, then check the free public register yourself rather than taking the answer on trust. Look at the registered address, the incorporation date, whether accounts are filed and up to date, and whether the trading name you were given matches the registered company. Then ask for the fee structure and the replacement vehicle terms in writing. A genuine business supplies all of this without fuss and confirms it by email. Hesitation, a trading name that does not match anything on the register, or an unwillingness to put figures in writing are all reasons to pause before signing.

Do I have to report the collision to the police in London?

Under section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 you must stop and give your name and address, and the vehicle owner's details, to anyone with reasonable grounds for asking. If you did not exchange details at the scene, you must report the collision to the police as soon as is reasonably practicable and in any case within twenty-four hours. In London the force depends on location: the Metropolitan Police covers Greater London, while the City of London Police is a separate force covering the Square Mile with its own online reporting form and reference numbers. Call 999 if anyone is injured, and 101 if the other driver leaves without giving details.

Do you handle personal injury claims?

Not in-house. CityGrip is an accident management company, which means our work is recovery, secure storage, independent engineer inspection, repair coordination, replacement vehicles and correspondence with the third-party insurer. If you have been injured in the collision, we can refer that part of your enquiry to an authorised legal partner, and we only do so with your separate written consent. You are never obliged to accept a referral, and your vehicle claim does not depend on it. We think it is better to be clear about where our remit ends than to imply we do everything and then quietly pass the work elsewhere.

Do you cover HGVs, lorries, buses or black cabs?

No. Our service covers cars and vans only, which includes private hire, PCO and minicab vehicles, but does not extend to HGVs, lorries, buses or coaches, and does not cover hackney carriage or black cab work. A replacement vehicle from us means a car or a van. We would rather tell you this at the first enquiry than take details and disappoint you later. If your vehicle falls outside our scope, a specialist commercial vehicle provider will be better placed to help, and the same questions in this guide about written fees and disputed liability apply just as well to them.

Do I have to use the repairer my insurer recommends?

Generally, in a non-fault claim pursued against the at-fault driver's insurer, there is more flexibility over the choice of repairer than many drivers assume, though the position depends on your own policy terms and on the route the claim takes. What matters most is that the repair is properly estimated, carried out to the correct standard and evidenced, because that documentation supports the claim against the third party. Ask any provider which bodyshops it uses, whether they are approved and where they are located, and what warranty comes with the work. Convenience matters in London, where a repairer on the wrong side of the city costs you time on every visit.

London drivers · all 33 boroughs

Accident Management Company in London

Choosing who handles your non-fault claim matters more than most London drivers realise. This page explains what an accident management company actually does, from the roadside to the final settlement, how to tell a careful provider from a volume operation, and the questions worth asking before you sign anything. CityGrip covers cars and vans across London, including private hire, on transparent low fees.

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ULEZ-compliant replacements
TfL + borough CCTV literate
Met & City of London Police
Costs to the at-fault insurer

24/7

UK response

Recovery dispatch and live claim handlers, 365 days a year.

UK cities

45+

Direct coverage

Response

<60m

First contact SLA

Cost

£0

Upfront to driver

Reviewed: 3 August 2026Written & reviewed by: CityGrip Editorial Team (City Grip Ltd)Applies to: car and van drivers across Greater London

What does an accident management company in London do, and how do I choose the right one?

An accident management company handles the practical side of a non-fault claim: recovering your vehicle, storing it securely, arranging an independent engineer inspection, coordinating repairs, providing a like-for-like replacement car or van, and dealing with the at-fault insurer on your behalf. In London it should also know which authority holds the CCTV for the road you crashed on, source a ULEZ-compliant replacement, and understand red route recovery. Choose on written fees, a named company with a Companies House number you can check, and a straight answer about what happens if liability is disputed.

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Key points

ULEZ covers every London borough and operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year except Christmas Day, at £12.50 per day for a non-compliant vehicle. The standard for cars and vans up to 3.5 tonnes is Euro 4 petrol or Euro 6 diesel, and the charge runs midnight to midnight.
The Congestion Charge is £18 per day if paid on the day of travel or in advance, or £21 if paid by midnight of the third day after travel. It applies 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays, with no charge between Christmas Day and the New Year's Day bank holiday inclusive.
Congestion Charge discounts attach to a vehicle rather than a person: the 90 per cent residents' discount and the Cleaner Vehicle Discount are registered with TfL against a specific registration number, so they do not transfer automatically to a replacement vehicle.
The Transport for London Road Network, including the red routes, makes up around five per cent of London's road length but carries up to thirty per cent of its traffic. The remainder is the responsibility of the thirty-two London boroughs and the City of London, each with its own camera estate and footage request process.
TfL deletes images from its traffic enforcement cameras after twenty-eight days where no penalty charge notice has been issued, so camera evidence must be requested from the correct authority quickly.
Under section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, where details were not exchanged at the scene the collision must be reported to the police as soon as is reasonably practicable and in any case within twenty-four hours.
London is policed by two separate forces for this purpose: the Metropolitan Police across Greater London and the City of London Police in the Square Mile, each with its own online collision reporting form and reference numbers to give your insurer.
The Low Emission Zone applies to heavier vehicles, generally those above 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight for lorries and vans and above 5 tonnes for buses and coaches, so for a standard car or van the relevant scheme is ULEZ rather than LEZ.
Private hire vehicles have paid the Congestion Charge since the PHV exemption was removed on 8 April 2019, and vehicles licensed as PHVs for the first time since 1 January 2023 must be zero emission capable.
CityGrip covers cars and vans only, including private hire and PCO vehicles, and does not cover HGVs, lorries, buses, coaches or hackney carriage work. Personal injury is not handled in-house and is referred to an authorised legal partner only with the customer's separate written consent.

01LONDON DRIVERS

What does an accident management company in London actually do?

The work starts at the roadside and does not finish until the at-fault insurer has settled. A genuine accident management company takes the call while your car or van is still where it stopped, arranges recovery, and gets the vehicle to a secure site rather than leaving it on a London street where it will collect penalty charges or worse. In a city where a damaged vehicle on a red route becomes an obstruction within minutes, that first hour is the part providers are most fairly judged on. Everything downstream, the inspection, the repair and the replacement vehicle, depends on the vehicle being somewhere sensible and properly documented from the very start.

Next comes the independent engineer inspection and the repair decision. An engineer examines the damage, produces a report, and establishes whether the vehicle is economically repairable or a total loss. That report is the spine of the claim: it fixes the cost of repair, the pre-accident value and the period the vehicle is genuinely off the road. A provider who books a proper inspection early gives the third-party insurer far less room to argue later. Repair coordination follows, which means placing the work with an approved bodyshop, agreeing the estimate, chasing parts, and telling you when a delivery date moves rather than letting you discover it by ringing round yourself.

Running alongside all of that is the replacement vehicle and the correspondence with the third-party insurer. If you were not at fault, the principle is that you should be put back in the position you were in before the collision, which in practice means a like-for-like car or van while yours is off the road. The cost of that vehicle is claimed from the at-fault insurer rather than charged to you, subject always to liability being accepted and to you meeting the usual eligibility conditions. Meanwhile somebody has to write the letters, answer queries, submit the engineer's report and the invoices, and keep the file moving when the other side goes quiet.

It is worth being clear about what an accident management company is not. It is not your insurer, and it does not decide liability. It is not a law firm either. CityGrip does not handle personal injury in-house: if you have been hurt, that enquiry is referred to an authorised legal partner, and only ever with your separate written consent. Our own scope is cars and vans, including private hire and PCO vehicles, and it does not extend to HGVs, lorries, buses, coaches or hackney carriage work. Knowing where a provider's remit stops is part of choosing well, because a provider who claims to do everything usually subcontracts most of it.

02LONDON DRIVERS

What separates a good accident management company from a claims farm?

The honest answer is that most of the difference shows up before you have signed anything, in how the first conversation is handled. A careful provider slows down, asks what happened, checks whether anyone was injured, establishes whether details were exchanged at the scene, and explains clearly what it can and cannot do for you. A volume operation does the opposite: it pushes for a signature while you are still shaken, talks in vague reassurances, and treats the paperwork as a formality to be got through rather than a document you are actually meant to read. If you feel rushed on that first call, that feeling is useful information.

The second tell is money. Parts of this industry make their margin on referral fees and deductions that only become visible when the settlement finally lands, by which point the customer has very little leverage left. The practice is not unlawful, but it is often poorly explained, and the result is a claimant who recovers less than they expected and never quite understands why. A provider that is comfortable with its own commercial model will put the numbers in writing before you commit: any deduction, any administration fee, and anything payable if the claim does not succeed. Reluctance to do that is the single most useful warning sign there is.

The third is what happens when a claim gets difficult. Any provider looks competent on a straightforward rear-end shunt with an early admission of liability. The real test is a disputed claim: an unwitnessed junction collision, a third party who changes their account, an insurer who takes months to respond. Ask directly what happens then, because the answer reveals the business model underneath. A provider that has planned for disputed liability will talk about evidence, engineer's reports, protecting your position and reviewing whether to continue. A provider that has not will change the subject, or will imply the outcome is certain. Nobody can promise a guaranteed result on a claim they have not yet investigated.

LONDON DRIVERS

Section 3 of the walkthrough.

Which questions should you ask before signing anything?

Start with fees, and ask for the answer in writing rather than over the phone. What exactly is deducted from the settlement, and is it a fixed sum or a percentage? Is there an administration or file-opening charge? Is anything payable by you if the claim is unsuccessful, or if liability is ultimately decided against you? Are recovery and storage charged separately, and what happens to those charges if the third-party insurer only pays part of them? A provider who deals with these questions plainly, in an email you can keep, is a provider you can hold to what was said. Verbal reassurance is worth very little six months into a claim.

Then ask who owns the agreement you are being asked to sign, and read the replacement vehicle paperwork specifically. In a credit hire arrangement the cost of the replacement car or van is recovered from the at-fault insurer, but the agreement is still between you and the provider, and you should understand what it says about your own obligations: mileage, insurance, returning the vehicle when repairs finish, and what happens if the other side refuses to pay part of the cost. Ask what happens if liability is disputed halfway through, whether the vehicle is withdrawn, and on what notice. These are not awkward questions. They are the questions the paperwork already answers.

Finally, check that you are dealing with a real, identifiable business. Ask for the full registered company name and its Companies House number, then look it up yourself on the free public register. Check the registered address, how long the company has existed, whether accounts are filed and up to date, and whether the trading name you were given matches the registered entity. Ask who will actually be handling your file day to day and how to reach that person. A provider that answers all of this without hesitation, and confirms it by email, has told you a great deal about how the rest of the claim will be run.

04LONDON DRIVERS

Do they know who holds the CCTV for the road you crashed on?

London is not one road network, and a provider who does not know that will waste the only window you have. Transport for London is the highway authority for the Transport for London Road Network, the red routes and major arterial roads that make up around five per cent of London's road length but carry up to thirty per cent of its traffic. The other ninety-five per cent belongs to the thirty-two boroughs and the City of London, each with its own traffic control room, its own camera estate and its own request process. Some boroughs also operate red routes on their own roads. Asking the wrong authority for footage is not a small error: it costs weeks.

Camera footage is perishable, and retention periods are far shorter than most drivers assume. TfL deletes images from its traffic enforcement cameras after twenty-eight days where no penalty charge notice has been issued, keeping them longer only where a notice was issued and the case remains open. Footage from buses is typically held for a matter of days rather than weeks. Borough CCTV varies from authority to authority. Add the private sources, shop and forecourt cameras, bus and lorry dashcams, and the practical position is that anything not requested in the first few weeks is usually gone. A provider who starts gathering evidence only after liability is denied has already lost it.

Police reporting has a London wrinkle too. Greater London is the Metropolitan Police's area, but the Square Mile is policed by the City of London Police, a separate force with its own online collision reporting form and its own reference numbers to pass to insurers. Report to the wrong one and you will be redirected, which matters because the duty under section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 is to report as soon as is reasonably practicable and in any case within twenty-four hours where details were not exchanged at the scene. Call 999 if anyone is injured or the road is blocked, and 101 if the other driver leaves without giving details while you are still there.

05LONDON DRIVERS

Can they source a ULEZ-compliant and, if needed, TfL-plated replacement?

A replacement vehicle you cannot drive where you need to go is not really a replacement. The Ultra Low Emission Zone covers every London borough and operates twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year except Christmas Day, at a charge of £12.50 a day for a non-compliant vehicle. The standard for cars and vans up to 3.5 tonnes is Euro 4 for petrol and Euro 6 for diesel. The charge runs midnight to midnight, so a vehicle kept overnight across two calendar days attracts two separate charges. Any provider serving London should be sourcing compliant vehicles as a matter of routine and confirming compliance for the specific registration before it reaches you.

The Congestion Charge is a separate scheme and a separate trap. It is £18 a day if paid on the day of travel or in advance, or £21 if paid by midnight of the third day afterwards, and it applies from 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and from 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays, with no charge between Christmas Day and the New Year's Day bank holiday inclusive. The catch is that discounts attach to a vehicle, not to a person. The 90 per cent residents' discount and the Cleaner Vehicle Discount are registered against a specific registration number with TfL, so they do not automatically follow you into a replacement vehicle. Ask a prospective provider what they do about that, because over a repair running several weeks the difference between a good answer and a blank look is real money.

Private hire drivers have a further requirement that general providers routinely miss. If you drive for a TfL-licensed operator, a replacement car is only useful for work if it is itself licensed as a private hire vehicle, displaying its licence discs, and covered by hire or reward insurance valid at all times the vehicle is used for private hire. Vehicles licensed as PHVs for the first time since 1 January 2023 must also be zero emission capable, which narrows the pool of suitable cars considerably. A provider who cannot say clearly whether it can source a plated vehicle, and roughly how long that takes, is telling you your income is not something it has thought about.

06LONDON DRIVERSKey takeaway

Do they understand red route recovery and secure storage in London?

Red routes are where London punishes hesitation. Single and double red lines mean stopping is restricted or prohibited outright, cameras enforce them continuously, and a damaged vehicle sitting on one is both a hazard and a growing bill. The Transport for London Road Network carries a disproportionate share of the city's traffic across a small fraction of its road length, which is precisely why recovery there has to be quick and properly coordinated rather than improvised on the phone. A provider that understands this will ask exactly where the vehicle is, which carriageway and direction, and whether it is drivable, before saying anything at all about how long recovery will take.

Where the vehicle goes next matters more than most people expect. A secure, documented storage site protects the evidence held in the vehicle itself: the crush pattern, the paint transfer, the airbag data, all of which an engineer may need if the other side later disputes how the collision happened. It also stops the vehicle accruing penalty charges or being moved by an authority without your knowledge. Storage is chargeable, and those charges form part of what is recovered from the at-fault insurer, so ask how storage is billed, at what daily rate, and what happens to those charges if the claim does not succeed. Ask before the vehicle is collected, not afterwards.

Fleets and private hire operators are judging something slightly different: consistency across many vehicles rather than the handling of one bad day. The questions become how quickly a replacement can be put on the road, whether the provider can carry several open files without losing track of any of them, who the single point of contact is, and what reporting you receive. Off-road time is effectively the entire cost for a working vehicle, so a provider that is honest about typical timescales, including the parts of them that depend on parts availability or the third-party insurer's response, is far more useful than one that quotes an optimistic number to win the work and explains itself later.

07LONDON DRIVERS

Why does CityGrip keep its fees low and put them in writing?

CityGrip is built around a simple position: our fees are low, they are disclosed in writing before you commit to anything, and what remains of the settlement belongs to you. There is nothing unusual about a claims business earning a fee for the work it does. What we think is unreasonable is a claimant discovering the size of that fee only when the money finally arrives. So we put the figure in front of you at the outset, in an email you can keep and hold us to, and we would encourage you to demand exactly the same from every other provider you are considering. If one will not do it, the reason is rarely a good one.

Our remit is deliberately defined rather than open-ended. We handle recovery, secure storage, independent engineer inspection, repair coordination, like-for-like replacement cars and vans, and correspondence with the third-party insurer, for non-fault car and van drivers across London, including private hire and PCO drivers. We do not handle personal injury in-house: if you have been injured, that enquiry goes to an authorised legal partner and only with your separate written consent. We do not cover HGVs, lorries, buses, coaches or hackney carriage work. Replacement vehicle provision always depends on liability and eligibility, and we would rather say so plainly at the start than imply a certainty no honest provider can offer.

Use the same test on us that we have suggested you use on everybody else. Ask for our fees in writing. Ask what happens to your file if the third party denies liability. Ask whether the replacement vehicle will be ULEZ-compliant and, if you need it for work, TfL-plated. Ask for the registered company name and number, then check it yourself. If you want borough-level detail on where we operate, our London coverage pages set that out area by area, and if you want the mechanics of a non-fault claim itself rather than how to choose a provider, our non-fault claims guide covers that ground properly. Choosing carefully is the point, whoever you end up choosing.

Step by step

What to do next

1Make the scene safe and meet your legal duties. Stop, check whether anyone is injured, and call 999 if there are injuries or the road is blocked. Exchange names, addresses and vehicle registration details with everyone involved. If details were not exchanged at the scene, you must report the collision to the police as soon as is reasonably practicable and in any case within twenty-four hours: to the Metropolitan Police across Greater London, or to the City of London Police if it happened in the Square Mile. Use 101 while you are still at the scene if the other driver leaves without giving details.
2Capture the evidence before it disappears. Photograph the vehicles in position before they are moved, the damage from several angles, the road layout, signage, road markings and any debris. Note the exact road name and whether it is a red route or a borough road, because that decides which authority to approach for camera footage. Take witness names and numbers there and then. Save your dashcam file immediately rather than leaving it to be overwritten. TfL deletes traffic enforcement camera images after twenty-eight days where no penalty charge notice was issued, so the useful window is short.
3Check the provider is a real, identifiable company. Ask for the full registered company name and its Companies House number, then look it up yourself on the free public register. Confirm the registered address, how long the company has been trading, whether its accounts are filed and current, and whether the trading name you were given actually matches the registered entity. Ask who will handle your file and how to contact them directly. A provider that supplies all of this without hesitation, and confirms it by email, has already told you something useful about how it operates.
4Get the fee structure in writing before you sign. Ask for a written breakdown covering every deduction from the settlement, whether it is a fixed sum or a percentage, any administration or file-opening charge, and anything payable by you if the claim does not succeed. Ask separately how recovery and storage are charged, at what daily rate, and what happens if the third-party insurer pays only part of them. Keep the email. A provider comfortable with its own pricing will send this readily. Reluctance to put figures in writing is the clearest warning sign available to you.
5Ask directly what happens if liability is disputed. Put the difficult scenario to them before you sign: the third party changes their account, there are no independent witnesses, or the insurer denies liability outright. Ask what the provider does then, what evidence it gathers and when, whether the replacement vehicle is withdrawn, on what notice, and who bears the cost. A considered answer will cover evidence, engineer's reports and a review point. Treat any answer that implies the outcome is guaranteed with caution, because no provider can know that before investigating.
6Confirm the replacement vehicle fits your London driving. Ask for confirmation that the specific replacement vehicle is ULEZ-compliant, meaning Euro 4 petrol or Euro 6 diesel for a car or van up to 3.5 tonnes, before it is delivered. If you drive into the Congestion Charge zone, ask how the daily charge is handled and remember that residents' and Cleaner Vehicle discounts are registered against a specific vehicle with TfL, so they do not transfer automatically. If you are a private hire driver, confirm the vehicle can be supplied licensed and plated, and ask how long that typically takes.
7Keep your own copy of everything. Save the signed agreement, the written fee schedule, the engineer's report, the repair estimate, the recovery and storage invoices, and every email about your file. Keep your police reference number and any camera footage request references. If your claim is later queried or the file is passed between people, your own records are the fastest way to settle a disagreement about what was agreed. This costs nothing at the time and is worth a great deal months later when memories differ.

Related London pages

Non-fault accident claim in London →

What happens after a London crash that was not your fault.

Courtesy car in London →

ULEZ-compliant and plated replacements across all 33 boroughs.

London borough coverage →

All 33 boroughs, postcode by postcode.

PCO and private hire drivers →

Licensed plated replacement so you keep earning.

Non-fault claims (UK) →

The national process, start to finish.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an accident management company and my own insurer?: Your insurer manages your policy and decides what it will pay under that policy. An accident management company handles the practical side of a non-fault claim and pursues the at-fault driver's insurer instead, which is a different route with different consequences. The practical differences usually show up in the replacement vehicle, the choice of repairer, and whether the claim touches your own policy. It is worth asking your insurer what they would provide before deciding, then comparing that against what an accident management company offers, particularly on the type of replacement vehicle and how long you would keep it while repairs are carried out.
Will using an accident management company cost me anything?: In a non-fault claim the intention is that the costs of recovery, storage, repair and the replacement vehicle are recovered from the at-fault driver's insurer rather than paid by you. That said, the arrangement is not automatic and it does depend on liability being accepted and on you meeting the eligibility conditions. This is exactly why you should ask for the fee position in writing before signing: what is deducted from any settlement, whether there is an administration charge, and whether anything at all becomes payable by you if the claim does not succeed. A provider that answers this plainly by email is one you can hold to its word.
What happens if the other driver's insurer disputes liability?: Disputed liability is common and it is where the quality of a provider actually shows. Evidence becomes the whole argument: photographs from the scene, dashcam footage, witness accounts, the independent engineer's assessment of how the damage was caused, and any camera footage from the relevant authority. Because that footage has short retention periods, the work has to start early rather than after a denial arrives. Ask any provider what its process is at that point, whether the replacement vehicle continues or is withdrawn and on what notice, and who carries the cost. Nobody can guarantee an outcome on a disputed claim, and you should be wary of anyone who suggests otherwise.
Will the replacement vehicle be ULEZ-compliant?: It should be, and you should ask for confirmation against the specific registration before the vehicle is delivered rather than afterwards. The Ultra Low Emission Zone covers every London borough and runs twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year except Christmas Day, charging £12.50 a day for a non-compliant vehicle. For cars and vans up to 3.5 tonnes the standard is Euro 4 for petrol and Euro 6 for diesel. The charge runs midnight to midnight, so a non-compliant vehicle kept overnight across two calendar days attracts two charges. Any provider that regularly serves London should treat compliant sourcing as routine, not as a special request.
I am a PCO or private hire driver. Can I get a plated replacement vehicle?: That depends on availability and on your claim qualifying, but it is the right question to ask up front because a car you cannot work in does not solve your problem. To be used for private hire work the vehicle must itself be licensed as a private hire vehicle, display its licence discs, and be covered by hire or reward insurance valid at all times it is used for private hire. Vehicles licensed as PHVs for the first time since 1 January 2023 must also be zero emission capable, which limits the pool. Ask the provider directly whether it can source a plated vehicle and roughly how long that usually takes.
Does my Congestion Charge residents' discount apply to a replacement vehicle?: Not automatically, and this catches a lot of London drivers out. Congestion Charge discounts are registered with TfL against a specific vehicle registration rather than against you as a person, so the 90 per cent residents' discount and the Cleaner Vehicle Discount do not simply follow you into a replacement car. The charge itself is £18 a day if paid on the day or in advance, or £21 if paid by midnight of the third day after travel, and it applies 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and bank holidays. Ask your provider how it handles this before the vehicle arrives.
How do I check that an accident management company is genuine?: Ask for the full registered company name and its Companies House number, then check the free public register yourself rather than taking the answer on trust. Look at the registered address, the incorporation date, whether accounts are filed and up to date, and whether the trading name you were given matches the registered company. Then ask for the fee structure and the replacement vehicle terms in writing. A genuine business supplies all of this without fuss and confirms it by email. Hesitation, a trading name that does not match anything on the register, or an unwillingness to put figures in writing are all reasons to pause before signing.
Do I have to report the collision to the police in London?: Under section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 you must stop and give your name and address, and the vehicle owner's details, to anyone with reasonable grounds for asking. If you did not exchange details at the scene, you must report the collision to the police as soon as is reasonably practicable and in any case within twenty-four hours. In London the force depends on location: the Metropolitan Police covers Greater London, while the City of London Police is a separate force covering the Square Mile with its own online reporting form and reference numbers. Call 999 if anyone is injured, and 101 if the other driver leaves without giving details.
Who holds the CCTV footage for the road where my collision happened?: It depends on the road. Transport for London is responsible for the Transport for London Road Network, the red routes and major arterial roads that make up roughly five per cent of London's road length but carry up to thirty per cent of the traffic. Everything else is the responsibility of the thirty-two boroughs and the City of London, each with its own control room and request process, and some boroughs run red routes on their own roads too. Retention is short: TfL deletes traffic enforcement camera images after twenty-eight days where no penalty charge notice was issued. Requests need to go to the right authority quickly.
Do you handle personal injury claims?: Not in-house. CityGrip is an accident management company, which means our work is recovery, secure storage, independent engineer inspection, repair coordination, replacement vehicles and correspondence with the third-party insurer. If you have been injured in the collision, we can refer that part of your enquiry to an authorised legal partner, and we only do so with your separate written consent. You are never obliged to accept a referral, and your vehicle claim does not depend on it. We think it is better to be clear about where our remit ends than to imply we do everything and then quietly pass the work elsewhere.
Do you cover HGVs, lorries, buses or black cabs?: No. Our service covers cars and vans only, which includes private hire, PCO and minicab vehicles, but does not extend to HGVs, lorries, buses or coaches, and does not cover hackney carriage or black cab work. A replacement vehicle from us means a car or a van. We would rather tell you this at the first enquiry than take details and disappoint you later. If your vehicle falls outside our scope, a specialist commercial vehicle provider will be better placed to help, and the same questions in this guide about written fees and disputed liability apply just as well to them.
Do I have to use the repairer my insurer recommends?: Generally, in a non-fault claim pursued against the at-fault driver's insurer, there is more flexibility over the choice of repairer than many drivers assume, though the position depends on your own policy terms and on the route the claim takes. What matters most is that the repair is properly estimated, carried out to the correct standard and evidenced, because that documentation supports the claim against the third party. Ask any provider which bodyshops it uses, whether they are approved and where they are located, and what warranty comes with the work. Convenience matters in London, where a repairer on the wrong side of the city costs you time on every visit.

Important notice

Liability for any road traffic collision remains subject to the at-fault driver's insurer's assessment and the available evidence. Replacement vehicle, credit hire, recovery, storage and repair support are subject to eligibility, the evidential record and reasonable need. We do not provide legal advice and we do not handle personal injury in-house: injury enquiries are referred only with your separate written consent to authorised legal or regulated partners. Information about the ULEZ, Congestion Charge, Low Emission Zone, red routes and police reporting is general guidance and the position at the date of your own collision will govern.

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124 City Road
London, EC1V 2NX

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