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Non-fault drivers in East London
Courtesy Car and Replacement Vehicle in East London After a Non-Fault Accident
If somebody else caused your accident anywhere across the E and EC postcodes, Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge or Newham, losing your mobility should not be part of the punishment. CityGrip arranges a like-for-like replacement vehicle with nothing for you to pay upfront, matched to the tunnels, red routes and charging zones you actually drive through, and licensed and plated if you work private hire.
- No cost to you
- ULEZ-compliant replacement
- Plated PHV where needed
- Costs go to the at-fault insurer
24/7
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Recovery dispatch and live claim handlers, 365 days a year.
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Cost
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Upfront to driver
Can I get a courtesy car in East London after a non-fault accident?
Yes. If another driver was at fault, CityGrip can arrange a replacement vehicle across the E and EC postcodes, Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Newham with nothing for you to pay upfront. The at-fault insurer is billed through credit hire, not you. A replacement is always subject to liability being established and to a genuine, reasonable need for a vehicle. If you hold a TfL private hire licence you need a licensed, plated replacement insured for hire and reward, because an ordinary courtesy car cannot lawfully carry private hire bookings.
Key points
- The Silvertown Tunnel opened on 7 April 2025 and TfL introduced a user charge at both Silvertown and Blackwall on the same day. Blackwall had carried no toll since it first opened in 1897.
- The tunnels charge applies 06:00 to 22:00, seven days a week, in both directions, with nothing payable 22:00 to 06:00. Cars and small vans pay £1.50 off-peak and £4.00 at peak on Auto Pay; large vans pay £2.50 and £6.50. Rates rise on 21 September 2026.
- Residents on eligible benefits in Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Waltham Forest, Havering and the City of London can claim a 50% tunnels discount. Licensed taxis are exempt; ordinary private hire vehicles are not.
- The Rotherhithe Tunnel bars vehicles more than two metres wide or two metres high, and goods vehicles over two tonnes gross weight, with camera enforcement and a physical width restriction at the portals.
- The Blackwall Tunnel northbound bore is limited to four metres in the nearside lane and 2.8 metres in the offside lane; southbound allows 4.72 metres. TfL reported unplanned Blackwall closures falling 39% after Silvertown opened.
- ULEZ has covered every London borough since 29 August 2023. It runs 24 hours a day, every day except Christmas Day, at £12.50 a day for a non-compliant vehicle.
- The Congestion Charge rose to £18 a day on 2 January 2026 (£21 if paid by midnight of the third day after travel), applying 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays. Private hire vehicles lost their exemption in April 2019.
- The A12, A13 and A1261 Aspen Way are Transport for London red routes. Double red lines mean no stopping at any time on any day, and a red route contravention carries a £160 penalty charge, usually halved if paid within 14 days.
- On London Stadium and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park event days, Newham extends parking controls to 08:00 until 21:00 across the Stratford Central, Stratford North West, Stratford South West, Stratford South East and West Ham resident zones.
- TfL Auto Pay is registered against a specific number plate and covers the Congestion Charge, ULEZ, LEZ and the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels charge. Adding a replacement vehicle is free, and up to five vehicles can sit on a standard account.
Who Actually Pays for Your Replacement Vehicle
Take the money question first, because it is the one people in Bow, Ilford and Barking ask before anything else. When somebody else causes the collision, the aim of the law is to put you back in the position you were in beforehand, and staying mobile is part of that. You are not renting a car, you are not handing over a deposit and you are not being quoted a daily rate. The mechanism is credit hire: the replacement vehicle is supplied to you on credit and the charges are pursued from the at-fault driver's insurer as part of your claim. You sign for the vehicle, you drive it, and the invoice follows the party who caused the damage.
Two qualifications matter and we will not pretend otherwise, because a firm that hides them is setting you up for a shock later. First, liability has to be established. If the other side denies fault, or the circumstances at a junction like Bow Interchange or the Beckton roundabout are genuinely contested, a replacement may not be appropriate until the position is clearer. Second, the courts expect reasonable need. A vehicle you rely on for a shift at Barking Riverside, for a trade run off the A13, or for the school run in Seven Kings before work is a plain and obvious need. A second car sitting unused on a Wanstead driveway is a much harder case, and we will say so.
The period matters as much as the principle. A credit hire claim covers a reasonable period tied to the repair, or on a total loss to the point where you are put in funds to replace the vehicle. That is precisely why we chase the engineer's inspection and the repair booking rather than letting a file drift for weeks. An unnecessarily long period is the first thing an at-fault insurer attacks, and every week of drift is a week of argument later. In practice that means getting your damaged car off a red route or a tunnel approach quickly, into secure storage, and inspected, so the replacement period stays short, defensible and paid.
Our own position is deliberately plain. Some parts of this market are built on volume, on stacking charges and on quietly clipping the claimant's settlement, and drivers in this part of London have heard the stories. We keep our fees low and visible, we tell you what is being claimed and on what basis, and we would rather you finished the process better paid and knowing exactly what happened than signed up fast and confused. If a replacement vehicle is not the right answer for your circumstances, we will tell you that too, rather than putting you in one because there is a margin in it.
The Tunnel Charges Your East London Replacement Will Meet
On 7 April 2025 the Silvertown Tunnel opened between Newham and the Greenwich Peninsula, and on the same day TfL introduced a user charge at both Silvertown and the existing Blackwall Tunnel. For an East London driver that is the single biggest change to the running cost of a cross-river commute in living memory, because Blackwall had carried no toll since it first opened in 1897. Charges apply from 06:00 to 22:00, seven days a week, in both directions, with nothing payable overnight between 22:00 and 06:00. If your normal week takes you from E14, E16 or Canning Town to the south side and back, a replacement vehicle carries that cost exactly as your own car did.
The rates are worth knowing before you take the keys, not after the first statement lands. For cars and small vans, TfL Auto Pay is £1.50 off-peak and £4.00 at peak, with peak applying 06:00 to 10:00 northbound and 16:00 to 19:00 southbound on weekdays only. Paying by phone or online instead of Auto Pay costs £4.00 whatever the time of day, which is why Auto Pay is worth having. Large vans pay £2.50 off-peak on Auto Pay and £6.50 otherwise. TfL has confirmed the rates rise on 21 September 2026, taking the car off-peak rate to £1.55 and the peak rate to £4.20. Two crossings a day, five days a week, is a real number to budget.
The discounts are unusually postcode-specific, and several of them apply directly to our area. There is a 50% tunnels discount for residents on eligible benefits in Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Waltham Forest, Havering and the City of London, among other boroughs. There is a £1 off-peak business discount for small businesses, sole traders and charities based in Newham, Tower Hamlets or Greenwich, capped at three vehicles registered on Auto Pay. Electric cars on Auto Pay receive 25% off and electric vans 50%. Blue badge holders can register for a full discount. Licensed taxis are exempt, and a wheelchair-accessible private hire vehicle is exempt while on a booking, but an ordinary private hire vehicle is not.
There is a trap in all of this that catches people with a replacement vehicle again and again. TfL Auto Pay is registered against a specific number plate, up to five vehicles on a standard personal account, with no fee to add one. Your account knows your own car. It does not know the replacement. Drive that replacement through Blackwall or Silvertown, or across the Congestion Charge boundary at Mansell Street, or under ULEZ in a non-compliant vehicle, and if the plate is not on your account you are exposed to a penalty for a charge you fully intended to pay. Adding the registration on day one takes two minutes and is the first thing we ask you to do at handover.
EAST LONDON
03
Section 3 of the walkthrough.
PCO and Private Hire Drivers Need a Licensed, Plated Replacement
TfL licenses more than 110,000 private hire drivers across London, and Tower Hamlets and Newham are among the boroughs where that population is at its densest. If you are one of them, the standard courtesy car a repairer offers is worthless to you, and taking it can be considerably worse than having nothing at all. A private hire vehicle must hold a TfL vehicle licence, display its licence discs front and rear, and carry hire or reward insurance that is in force at all times the vehicle is used as a PHV. TfL checks that documentation before the vehicle is licensed and again at inspection, and it must be produced to a compliance officer or to the police on request.
An ordinary courtesy car satisfies none of that. It is not TfL licensed, it carries no plates, and its policy is written for social, domestic and pleasure use with commuting. Accept a booking in it and you are working an unlicensed vehicle on a policy that does not cover the activity you are carrying out. The exposure is not theoretical and it is not small: it reaches your licence, your income, and in the event of another collision it can leave a claim effectively uninsured. What a working driver needs is a licensed, plated replacement insured on hire and reward, so you can log into your operator's app and take your first booking the day you take the keys.
The lost earnings point follows directly. If you drive for an operator out of Whitechapel, Poplar or Stratford, every day without a plated vehicle is a day of income you will not get back, and that loss sits inside your claim against the at-fault party in the same way the damage to the bodywork does. Keep your trip statements, your operator payment summaries and your fuel or charging receipts from the weeks before the accident. The stronger the evidence of what you were genuinely earning, the stronger that head of claim, and the sooner we can get you back to work the shorter and more defensible the replacement period becomes.
The charging regime bites working drivers hardest, which is another reason the right vehicle matters. Private hire vehicles lost their Congestion Charge exemption in April 2019, so a PCO driver crossing the boundary at Commercial Street or Mansell Street into EC2 or EC3 pays like any other motorist. The charge rose to £18 a day on 2 January 2026 if paid on the day or in advance, or £21 if paid by midnight of the third day after travel, and it runs 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays. Layer on the tunnels charge for a cross-river shift and £12.50 of ULEZ for a non-compliant car, and a compliant, correctly licensed replacement is a financial argument as much as a legal one.
Delivering a Replacement Where There Is Nowhere to Stop
East London is unusually hostile to the simple act of handing a car to somebody. The A12, the A13 and the A1261 Aspen Way all form part of Transport for London's road network and are marked with red lines. Double red lines mean no stopping at any time, on any day of the year, and single red lines apply during the hours shown on the sign at the kerb. There are narrow exceptions for blue badge holders and for licensed taxis and certain private hire vehicles setting down or picking up passengers, but none of them help somebody trying to unload a vehicle from a transporter. A red route contravention carries a £160 penalty charge, usually halved if it is paid within 14 days.
Canary Wharf is a category of its own. Most of the estate is privately owned, and although the roads look like ordinary public highway they are not: they are largely double yellow lined and enforcement is carried out by private ANPR operators rather than by Tower Hamlets, so the usual council appeal route and the usual blue badge concessions do not apply in the same way. Handover therefore happens off the estate, on Tower Hamlets controlled streets elsewhere on the Isle of Dogs, or at your home address. Similar thinking applies in the City: on-street bays across EC1 to EC4 typically carry a four hour maximum stay during controlled hours, and suspended bays are enforced around the clock.
Tower Hamlets operates four controlled parking zones covering Bethnal Green, Bow and Poplar, Stepney and Wapping, and the Isle of Dogs, and the hours vary between mini-zones with Sunday control in some of them. Newham adds event day parking on top. When there is an event at the London Stadium or in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the Stratford Central, Stratford North West, Stratford South West, Stratford South East and West Ham resident zones switch to event day rules, with paid parking hours extended to 08:00 until 21:00. A West Ham home fixture is not the day to leave a freshly delivered replacement on a Stratford side street without reading the plate on the lamp post.
Further out, Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and the outer parts of Newham are more forgiving, but they are not free of traps. The Becontree estate streets, the terraces off Barking Road and East Ham High Street North, and the residential grid around Ilford, Goodmayes and Seven Kings are tight, heavily parked and largely permit controlled, and the roads feeding Gants Hill and Redbridge roundabout are busy at almost any hour. We agree the delivery address, the time window and the parking arrangement with you before anything is dispatched, rather than discovering the problem at the kerb, and we will meet you somewhere that works for you rather than somewhere convenient for us.
Matching the Replacement to the Roads You Actually Drive
Like for like means comparable to what you lost, but in East London it also has to mean usable on your actual routes, and that takes a conversation rather than a tick box. The Rotherhithe Tunnel is the clearest example anywhere in the capital. Vehicles more than two metres wide or more than two metres high are not permitted through it, and goods vehicles over two tonnes gross weight are prohibited, with camera enforcement and a physical width restriction at the portals. That rules out a great many vans outright. If your damaged vehicle was a car that regularly used Rotherhithe, handing you a tall replacement van quietly deletes a free crossing from your map and pushes you into the charged tunnels instead.
The Blackwall Tunnel has its own awkward geometry. Northbound is limited to four metres in the nearside lane and just 2.8 metres in the offside lane, while southbound allows up to 4.72 metres. Over-height vehicles have historically been the single largest cause of unplanned Blackwall closures, and TfL reported those closures falling by 39% after Silvertown opened and gave taller vehicles a proper route with a dedicated bus and HGV lane. If you drive a Luton, a high-top or anything with a roof rack or a beacon, the height of the replacement is not a footnote. It decides which crossings you can use and whether you become the driver who shuts the tunnel in the evening peak.
The Limehouse Link is a reminder of a different risk. It is the 1.1 mile A1203 tunnel running from The Highway to Aspen Way, with a grade-separated junction built inside it, and like the other urban bores in this part of London there is nowhere to pull in. A breakdown or a shunt blocks a running lane immediately and backs traffic up towards Wapping or Poplar within minutes. That is one of the reasons we care that a replacement is genuinely roadworthy, recently serviced and reliable rather than simply available on a forecourt. The same reasoning applies to the Lower Lea Crossing, the A102 approach and the Aspen Way slip roads at peak.
Emissions compliance is not optional here. The ULEZ has covered every London borough since 29 August 2023, operates 24 hours a day every day except Christmas Day, and costs £12.50 a day for a non-compliant vehicle, so a replacement that is not compliant would cost you money simply by sitting on your street and being driven. Every replacement we arrange across the E and EC postcodes, Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Newham should be ULEZ compliant. If your own vehicle was not compliant, tell us, because that genuinely changes what comparable means. And if your work takes you out to the Dartford Crossing, remember the Dart Charge runs 06:00 to 22:00 daily and has to be paid by midnight on the day after you cross.
06EAST LONDONKey takeaway
Recovery, Storage and Inspection Come First
A replacement vehicle is the second thing that happens after a non-fault accident, not the first. If your car is disabled on the A13 at Newham Way, on the A12 approach to Blackwall, inside the Limehouse Link or on the Aspen Way, the immediate job is getting you and the vehicle off a live red route with no refuge and no safe place to stand. Recovery in these locations is a safety operation before it is a claims operation. The order of events that protects you is recovery first, then secure storage, then an independent engineer's inspection, and only then repair and a replacement vehicle. Doing it in that order protects your safety and your evidence at the same time.
Secure storage matters far more than people expect. A damaged vehicle left on a Newham or Redbridge street with a broken window, a sprung boot or a hanging bumper invites a second loss, and once the damage has been disturbed by weather or by somebody else, the engineer's report becomes much harder to defend. We move the vehicle into secure storage, photograph it as recovered rather than as tidied up, and get an independent engineer to it. That report is the document that supports both the cost of repair and the length of time you legitimately needed a replacement, which is exactly the ground the at-fault insurer will contest.
Then there is the correspondence, which is the part most people dread. We deal with the third party's insurer on your behalf, so you are not fielding calls from an adjuster while you are trying to work a shift or run a business. We handle the vehicle side of the claim: recovery, storage, the replacement vehicle, the engineer, the repair coordination and the arguments about all of it. We do not handle personal injury in-house. If you have been hurt, we can refer you to an authorised legal partner, and only ever with your separate written consent. Keeping those two things apart is deliberate, because the vehicle side should never be held up by an injury discussion you did not ask for.
E and EC Postcodes, Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Newham
The E postcodes we cover run from Whitechapel, Stepney and Wapping in E1 and E1W, out through Bethnal Green, Bow, Poplar, the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf in E14, on to Stratford and the Olympic Park in E15 and E20, and across to Canning Town, Custom House, Silvertown, Beckton and the Royal Docks in E16. North of that we cover Clapton, Homerton, Leyton, Leytonstone, Forest Gate, Manor Park, Plaistow, East Ham, Walthamstow and South Woodford. The EC postcodes take in Clerkenwell and Farringdon, Moorgate and Liverpool Street, Aldgate and Tower Hill, and Fleet Street and Blackfriars, where the parking and access rules are tighter than almost anywhere else in the country.
Barking and Dagenham brings its own pattern of driving. The A13 runs the full width of the borough as Alfred's Way and Newham Way, feeding Barking, Creekmouth and Rainham, with the A406 North Circular tying into it at the eastern end and the Dartford Crossing not far beyond. It is a borough of van drivers, trade vehicles and long commutes on fast dual carriageway, which means recovery has to be quick and safe and a replacement has to be genuinely comparable in load space rather than a token small car. Becontree's estate streets and the terraces around Barking town centre then make delivery and parking the awkward part of the job.
Redbridge is different again. Ilford, Goodmayes, Seven Kings, Gants Hill, Barkingside, Woodford and Wanstead sit around the A12 Eastern Avenue and the A406, with the Gants Hill and Redbridge roundabouts among the busiest interchanges in outer east London. There is a large working driver population here too, along with a lot of household second cars and school-run mileage, so the reasonable need conversation is usually straightforward and the practical question is size, compliance and how quickly we can get the damaged vehicle recovered and inspected. Newham sits between the two extremes, combining the density and enforcement of inner London with the fast roads and the tunnel approaches that define driving in this part of the city.
Step by step
How to get your replacement vehicle
- 1Make the scene safe and get clear of the red route. If you are on the A12, the A13, the Aspen Way or inside the Limehouse Link, there is no hard shoulder and nowhere safe to stand. Get the hazards on, get yourself and any passengers behind a barrier or off the carriageway if it is safe to do so, and call the emergency services if anyone is hurt or the road is blocked. Do not attempt to inspect damage while standing in a live lane. Then call us so recovery can be arranged from a location we can actually reach.
- 2Capture the evidence before the vehicles move. Photograph both vehicles where they stopped, the damage on each, the road markings, the signs and the junction layout, and take a wide shot showing the whole scene. Note the other driver's name, address, registration, insurer and policy number, and take a picture of their documents if they will show you. Look for dashcam footage, bus cameras, shop CCTV or TfL cameras nearby and note the time. On contested junctions in East London this evidence is often what settles liability, and liability is what unlocks the replacement vehicle.
- 3Speak to CityGrip before the other side's insurer calls you. The at-fault insurer will often ring quickly and offer to deal with everything, including a car. Their interest is in keeping the cost of your claim down, not in keeping you mobile in a vehicle that suits your work. Talk to us first so you understand what you are entitled to, what a like-for-like replacement actually means for your circumstances, and what any offer really is. You are never obliged to accept a repairer, a settlement figure or a vehicle chosen by the party who caused the damage.
- 4Establish liability and confirm your genuine need. A replacement vehicle is subject to liability being established and to a reasonable need for a vehicle. We assess the evidence, notify the third party's insurer and set out the position. At the same time we go through what you actually use the vehicle for: work, caring responsibilities, trade access, the school run, whether you cross the river daily. Both parts have to be honest, because both will be examined later. If the case is not strong enough for a replacement yet, we tell you before anything is delivered rather than afterwards.
- 5Tell us exactly what you drive and where you drive it. This is the step most providers skip. Are you a licensed private hire driver who needs a plated vehicle insured for hire and reward? Do you need van load space, and does your route include the Rotherhithe Tunnel with its two metre width and height limits? Do you cross at Blackwall or Silvertown in the charged hours? Is your own vehicle ULEZ compliant? Do you have a Blue Badge or a residents' tunnels discount? Each answer changes which vehicle is genuinely comparable and what your weekly running cost will be.
- 6Agree delivery, then add the plate to your TfL Auto Pay. We agree a delivery address, a time window and a realistic parking arrangement before dispatch, avoiding red routes, the private roads of the Canary Wharf estate and any Newham event day zone on a match day. At handover, check the vehicle over with the driver and photograph its condition. Then add the replacement's registration to your TfL Auto Pay account. Auto Pay is registered per number plate, it costs nothing to add a vehicle, and it covers the Congestion Charge, ULEZ, LEZ and the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels charge.
- 7Keep it only as long as you genuinely need it. Return the replacement when your own vehicle is repaired and back with you, or when you have been put in funds to replace it after a total loss. Keeping a vehicle beyond genuine need weakens the claim and invites a dispute over the whole period. We push the engineer's inspection and the repair booking specifically to keep that window short, and we keep you updated on where the repair has got to so there are no surprises. Report any damage, warning light or breakdown on the replacement to us straight away.
Courtesy car support in other London areas
Courtesy car in London →
Replacement vehicle support for non-fault drivers across London.
Courtesy car in North London →Replacement vehicle support for non-fault drivers across North London.
Courtesy car in South London →Replacement vehicle support for non-fault drivers across South London.
Courtesy car in West London →Replacement vehicle support for non-fault drivers across West London.
Credit hire vs courtesy car →What the difference means for who pays.
Courtesy car after an accident (UK) →The national guide to replacement vehicles.
PCO courtesy car →Why a standard courtesy car cannot be worked in.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I have to pay anything for a courtesy car after a non-fault accident in East London?
- No. There is nothing for you to pay upfront and no deposit or daily rate charged to you. The legal mechanism is credit hire: the replacement vehicle is provided on credit and the charges are pursued from the at-fault driver's insurer as part of your claim, because the aim is to put you back in the position you were in before somebody else damaged your car. Two conditions apply. Liability must be established, and you must have a genuine, reasonable need for a vehicle. We assess both openly at the start and tell you where you stand before anything is delivered, rather than putting you in a vehicle and explaining the conditions later.
- I am a PCO driver in Tower Hamlets. Can I work in an ordinary courtesy car?
- No, and you should not be offered one. A private hire vehicle must hold a TfL vehicle licence, display its licence discs, and carry hire or reward insurance in force at all times the vehicle is used as a PHV. TfL checks that documentation at licensing and at inspection and it must be produced to a compliance officer or the police on request. An ordinary courtesy car has no TfL licence, no plates, and a policy written for social, domestic and pleasure use. Taking a booking in one puts your licence, your income and your insurance cover at risk. What you need is a licensed, plated replacement insured on hire and reward so you can work from day one.
- Who pays the Blackwall and Silvertown Tunnel charges while I have the replacement?
- The tunnel charges are a running cost of driving, in the same way fuel is, so they sit with you rather than being recoverable as part of the vehicle claim. Since 7 April 2025, when the Silvertown Tunnel opened and TfL introduced charging at both crossings, cars and small vans pay £1.50 off-peak and £4.00 at peak on Auto Pay, with charges applying 06:00 to 22:00 seven days a week in both directions. Rates rise on 21 September 2026. Check whether you qualify for the 50% east London residents' discount or the £1 business discount for Newham, Tower Hamlets and Greenwich, and remember to add the replacement's registration to your Auto Pay account.
- Will the replacement vehicle be ULEZ compliant?
- It should be, and you should ask us directly if you are unsure. The Ultra Low Emission Zone has covered every London borough since 29 August 2023, operates 24 hours a day every day except Christmas Day, and charges £12.50 a day for a non-compliant vehicle. Since every address in the E and EC postcodes, Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Newham sits inside the zone, a non-compliant replacement would cost you money every single day you drove it. If your own damaged vehicle was not compliant, tell us, because that affects what genuinely comparable means and it changes what you should expect to spend while your car is off the road.
- Can I have a van as a replacement, and will it fit through the Rotherhithe Tunnel?
- Yes, we arrange van replacements for car and van drivers, including trade and delivery use, subject to liability and reasonable need. Rotherhithe is the catch. Vehicles more than two metres wide or more than two metres high are not permitted through the tunnel, and goods vehicles over two tonnes gross weight are prohibited, with camera enforcement and a physical width restriction at the portals. That excludes a great many vans. If Rotherhithe is part of your normal route, tell us at the outset, because a van that cannot use it will push you into the charged Blackwall or Silvertown crossings instead. The Blackwall northbound bore is also restricted to four metres nearside and 2.8 metres offside.
- What happens if the other driver denies the accident was their fault?
- A replacement vehicle is always subject to liability being established, so a genuine dispute can delay or prevent one. That is not us being unhelpful, it is us being straight with you, because a credit hire agreement entered into on a case that later fails leaves you in a far worse position than having no vehicle at all. Where liability is contested we concentrate on the evidence: your photographs, independent witnesses, dashcam or CCTV footage, the road markings and the damage pattern, and the third party's own account. East London junctions are heavily covered by cameras. If we can turn a disputed case into a clear one, the replacement follows. If we cannot, we will say so plainly.
- How long can I keep the replacement vehicle?
- For as long as you genuinely need it, which normally means until your own vehicle is repaired and returned to you, or until you have been put in funds to replace it if it is written off. There is no arbitrary limit, but there is a real one: the period has to be reasonable, and an at-fault insurer will scrutinise every week of it. That is why we push hard on the engineer's inspection and the repair booking instead of letting the file sit. Keeping the vehicle after your own car is back, or after settlement, weakens the whole claim, so please return it promptly and tell us straight away if the repair timetable slips.
- Can you deliver a replacement vehicle to Canary Wharf or the City?
- We deliver across E14 and the EC postcodes, but rarely onto the Canary Wharf estate itself. Most of that estate is privately owned. The roads look like public highway but are not, they are largely double yellow lined, and enforcement is by private ANPR operators rather than by Tower Hamlets, so a delivery vehicle has nowhere legitimate to stand. In the City, on-street bays across EC1 to EC4 typically carry a four hour maximum stay during controlled hours and suspended bays are enforced around the clock. In practice we hand over at your home address, or at an agreed spot on Tower Hamlets controlled streets nearby, and we sort that out before dispatch.
- Do you handle personal injury claims as well?
- No, we do not handle personal injury in-house. CityGrip is an accident management company: we deal with recovery, secure storage, the replacement vehicle, engineer inspection, repair coordination and correspondence with the third party's insurer. If you have been injured, we can refer you to an authorised legal partner, and we will only ever do that with your separate written consent. We will not pass your details to anyone because it suits us. Keeping the two strands apart is deliberate and it works in your favour, because your vehicle, your mobility and your ability to earn should not be held up while an injury discussion you may not even want gets under way.
- Do you cover HGVs, buses or black cabs?
- No. CityGrip works with car and van drivers only, including private hire, PCO and minicab drivers who hold a TfL licence. We do not handle HGVs, lorries, buses or coaches, and we do not take on hackney carriage or black cab work. If you drive one of those, you will be better served by a specialist in that vehicle class and we would rather tell you that at the first call than waste your time. If you drive a car or a van anywhere across the E and EC postcodes, Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge or Newham and somebody else caused the damage, we can help.
Important notice
A replacement vehicle is subject to liability being established, to your eligibility and to reasonable need. Recovery, storage, repair and replacement vehicle costs are recovered from the at-fault driver's insurer rather than paid by you, but that depends on the evidential record and on liability being accepted or proven. 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, the Congestion Charge, tunnel charges and parking regimes is general guidance and can change; check the current position for your own journey and vehicle.
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