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Non-fault drivers in North London
Courtesy Car and Replacement Vehicle After a Non-Fault Accident in North London
If another driver caused the damage, you should not be off the road and you should not be out of pocket. We put north London drivers back behind the wheel in a like-for-like replacement vehicle with nothing to pay upfront, and we plan delivery around the things that actually stop a handover here: Wembley event day restrictions, controlled parking zones in Islington and Camden, and red routes on the A1, A5 and North Circular. Private hire and PCO drivers get a licensed, plated vehicle insured for hire and reward. Subject to liability being established and to reasonable need.
- No cost to you
- ULEZ-compliant replacement
- Plated PHV where needed
- Costs go to the at-fault insurer
24/7
UK response
Recovery dispatch and live claim handlers, 365 days a year.
Response
<60m
First contact SLA
Cost
£0
Upfront to driver
Can I get a courtesy car in North London after a non-fault accident?
Yes. If another driver was at fault, you can be put back on the road in a like-for-like replacement vehicle with nothing to pay upfront. The at-fault insurer is billed for the cost, not you. A replacement is subject to liability being established and to genuine, reasonable need. We cover every N and NW postcode plus Enfield, Barnet, Harrow and Brent, and we plan around Wembley event day parking restrictions and controlled bays. Private hire and PCO drivers can be supplied with a licensed, plated vehicle insured for hire and reward, so their earnings do not stop.
Key points
- Every N and NW postcode, plus the whole of Enfield, Barnet, Harrow and Brent, is inside the Ultra Low Emission Zone. The zone went London-wide on 29 August 2023, runs 24 hours a day every day except Christmas Day, and charges £12.50 a day for a non-compliant car or van up to 3.5 tonnes. The M25 itself is not in the zone.
- The Congestion Charge is £18 for a day if you pay on the day or in advance, or £21 if you pay 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.
- The Congestion Charge zone's northern boundary follows Marylebone Road, Euston Road and Pentonville Road. Driving along the boundary road itself is not charged; turning south into the zone is.
- Private hire vehicles are not exempt from the Congestion Charge. Only wheelchair accessible private hire vehicles are exempt, and only while carrying out a private hire booking.
- Brent's Wembley event day parking restrictions apply regardless of the normal controlled parking zone timetable: typically 8am to midnight where a controlled parking zone already exists, and 10am to midnight in residential streets inside the event zone but outside one. A standard Brent resident permit does not cover them.
- Wembley Stadium seats 90,000 and OVO Arena Wembley holds 12,500, and the two sit a few hundred metres apart at Wembley Park in Brent.
- Staples Corner is junction 1 of the M1, where the motorway meets the A406 North Circular and the A5 Edgware Road across two linked roundabouts and flyovers. The M1 was extended to it in 1977.
- A red route penalty charge notice is £160, reduced to £80 if paid within 14 days. TfL red routes are about 5 per cent of London's roads but carry around 30 per cent of its traffic, and include the main north London arteries.
- The London Lorry Control Scheme restricts goods vehicles over 18 tonnes maximum gross weight outside the excluded route network from 21:00 to 07:00 Monday to Friday and from 13:00 Saturday to 07:00 Monday, with penalties of £550 for the operator and £130 for the driver.
N and NW postcodes, plus Enfield, Barnet, Harrow and Brent
North London is not one place and it does not behave like one. The N postcodes run from Islington and Holloway out through Finsbury Park, Wood Green and Palmers Green to Winchmore Hill and Enfield. The NW postcodes take in Camden and Kentish Town, then Hampstead, Golders Green, Hendon, Colindale, Kilburn and Edgware. Around and above that sit the outer boroughs of Barnet, Enfield, Harrow and Brent, where the streets are wider, the driveways are real and the housing stock changes completely. A replacement vehicle job in Southgate and a replacement vehicle job in Kentish Town are the same claim on paper and two entirely different logistics problems on the ground.
The road network here is dominated by four arteries. The A1 climbs out of the city through Holloway and Archway, cuts through Highgate, runs on through Mill Hill and Barnet and keeps its last at-grade roundabout at Stirling Corner before it becomes motorway near South Mimms. The A406 North Circular crosses the whole area from west to east, taking in Staples Corner, Brent Cross, Henlys Corner in Finchley, the notorious pinch point at Bounds Green where the carriageway narrows and turns through traffic lights, and the Great Cambridge Roundabout at the top of the A10. The A5 Edgware Road runs dead straight from Kilburn through Cricklewood and Colindale to Edgware. Staples Corner ties three of them together at junction 1 of the M1, the point where the motorway simply stops and becomes London.
That geography decides more about a claim than most people expect. A shunt on the North Circular at Bounds Green or on the A406 approach to Staples Corner happens on a road where stopping is not an option and where a damaged car left in a live lane quickly becomes a second incident. A collision on the A1 at Archway or on the A5 through Cricklewood puts you on a red route where the recovery truck has minutes rather than hours to work in. A low-speed hit in a residential street in Winchmore Hill or Kenton is straightforward to recover but can be awkward to deliver into, because the bay you need may be permit-only or suspended for works.
We work that entire footprint: every N and NW postcode, plus Enfield, Barnet, Harrow and Brent, including the awkward edges where north London bleeds into Hertfordshire at Potters Bar and Borehamwood and where it meets the M25 at junctions 23 to 25. The service is for car and van drivers, private and commercial, including private hire and PCO drivers. We do not take HGV, lorry, bus or coach work, and we do not handle hackney carriage or black cab work. If your vehicle is a car or a van and somebody else caused the damage, you are in the right place and there is nothing for you to pay.
Wembley Stadium and OVO Arena days rewrite the map for 24 hours
Nowhere else in London has a single postcode that can shut down vehicle movement for a whole day the way HA9 can. Wembley Stadium seats 90,000. OVO Arena Wembley, a few hundred metres away on Arena Square, holds 12,500. When the stadium is busy, Brent Council runs its Wembley event day parking scheme, a protective controlled parking zone that is switched on only for events and that overrides the normal timetable. Where a controlled parking zone already exists, event day restrictions typically run from 8am to midnight. In residential streets that sit inside the event day zone but outside any normal controlled parking zone, they typically run from 10am to midnight. The exact streets and hours vary with the size and timing of the event and are published in advance.
The detail that catches residents out is that an ordinary Brent resident permit does not exempt you on an event day. Brent issues separate event day permits in resident, visitor, business and place of worship or school categories, and enforcement on those days is not casual. For us that creates two practical problems. First, delivering a replacement vehicle into a Wembley street on a match or concert day can leave it standing in a bay it is not entitled to occupy, which converts a free replacement into a penalty charge notice you then have to argue about. Second, getting a recovery truck to a damaged car parked inside the ring can be physically impossible for hours while crowds are moving and stewarded closures are in place.
So we plan around it rather than pretend it is not there. If your damaged car sits inside the event day footprint and there is a fixture that day, the sensible sequence is usually to recover the vehicle early in the morning before the zone activates, or to hold the collection until the following morning and keep the car secure overnight. For delivery of your replacement, we will often hand over at an address just outside the affected streets, or at a driveway in Sudbury, Preston Road, Alperton or Kingsbury, and let you cover the short distance yourself. That is a small inconvenience compared with a ticket landing three weeks later.
The knock-on effect reaches well beyond Wembley itself. Event traffic loads the A406 between Hanger Lane and Staples Corner, backs up the A404 Harrow Road and the A4088 Great Central Way, and spills onto the A5 and the southern end of the M1. If your accident happened on one of those roads on an event day, expect the wait before recovery to be longer than usual and expect any independent witness to be far harder to trace in a moving crowd. Taking names, registration numbers and photographs at the scene matters more here than almost anywhere else in north London, because the usual sources of corroboration disappear within the hour.
NORTH LONDON
03
Section 3 of the walkthrough.
An Enfield driveway and an Islington permit bay are two different jobs
The single biggest operational difference between outer and inner north London is where a vehicle can lawfully stand. In Enfield, Barnet and Harrow a large share of homes have off-street parking: a driveway, a hardstanding, a garage block or an unrestricted stretch of residential road. That makes a replacement vehicle easy to place. We can deliver to the address, complete the paperwork on the doorstep, hand over the keys and collect the damaged car on the same visit without anybody worrying about a bay. In Southgate, Cockfosters, Oakwood, Whetstone, Totteridge, Mill Hill, Stanmore, Pinner, Harrow Weald and Hatch End that is normally exactly how it goes, and it is why outer north London jobs tend to complete faster than inner ones.
Inner north London is the opposite. In Islington and Camden a controlled parking zone means every street in that area is subject to parking controls, with days and hours varying zone by zone. Camden codes its zones CA- followed by a letter. Islington has extended some of its zones to round-the-clock control, with parts of the borough restricted 24 hours a day. Double yellow lines, footways and kerb crossing areas are controlled 24 hours a day regardless of the zone timetable. In practice that means a replacement delivered to a flat in Highbury, Tufnell Park, Kentish Town or Archway has nowhere to sit legally unless you hold a visitor permit or a resident bay you can use, and the delivery driver cannot simply leave it at the kerb and walk away.
We therefore ask two questions before booking any north London delivery: what the parking situation is at the address, and whether a controlled zone or event day scheme is in force. If you have a driveway the job is simple. If you have a resident permit and a spare visitor voucher, we time the handover so the vehicle is covered from the moment it arrives. If you have neither, we will usually arrange collection from a nearby location with legitimate parking, or deliver to your workplace or to a relative's address in one of the outer boroughs. Five minutes on the phone at the start avoids a penalty charge notice arriving three weeks later.
Red routes tighten this further on the main roads. TfL red routes make up roughly 5 per cent of London's roads but carry around 30 per cent of its traffic, and the A1, A406, A5, A41 and A10 through north London are exactly the corridors they are used on. Double red lines mean no stopping at any time, and a red route penalty charge notice is £160, reduced to £80 if it is paid within 14 days. That is why we will not deliver a replacement onto the Archway Road, the Edgware Road at Cricklewood or the North Circular at Henlys Corner, and why a damaged vehicle left on one of those needs recovering promptly rather than being left overnight to accumulate charges.
PCO and private hire drivers need a licensed, plated replacement
North London has a very large population of drivers who earn their living behind the wheel. The corridor running from Wood Green and Tottenham up through Edmonton and Enfield, and the belt through Cricklewood, Neasden, Wembley and Harrow, are full of TfL-licensed private hire drivers working for app operators and local firms. For those drivers an ordinary courtesy car is close to useless. A private hire vehicle in London must be licensed and must display its vehicle licence discs, and TfL requires hire or reward insurance to be in place when the vehicle is licensed and to remain in place for the whole of that licence. The insurance details must be carried or displayed in the vehicle and produced to the police on request.
That is not a technicality. An unplated car on an ordinary private policy cannot lawfully be used to carry passengers on a private hire booking, and no operator will let you go online in a vehicle that is not on your account. If you accept a standard courtesy car from a garage after a non-fault accident, you have transport for the school run and nothing at all for work, and your earnings stop for as long as the repair runs. Every week of that is money you are unlikely to recover in full afterwards. The correct answer is a licensed, plated replacement insured for hire and reward, which you can put on the app and drive the day it arrives.
We treat working drivers as a distinct category from the first call. Tell us at the outset that you hold a PCO or private hire licence, which operator or operators you work through, and what your own vehicle is, because the replacement has to be plated with the same licensing authority and has to be a class of vehicle your operator will accept. Executive and larger-vehicle work needs matching accordingly. The claim should also record the loss of use in a way that reflects a working vehicle rather than a family car, because a private hire driver off the road is losing income daily, not merely convenience. Have your licence, operator details and recent booking history ready.
Note as well that private hire vehicles are not exempt from the Congestion Charge. Only wheelchair accessible private hire vehicles are exempt, and then only while actually carrying out a private hire booking. If your working pattern takes you into central London, down the A10 from Tottenham or down the A5 from Kilburn, the daily charge is a real running cost and any replacement needs to be set up correctly for it. We will check whether the vehicle supplied is registered for Auto Pay and whether any Cleaner Vehicle Discount applies, so that a charge you did not expect does not quietly eat into what you earn while your own car is being repaired.
Nothing upfront: how the at-fault insurer ends up paying
The commercial arrangement is straightforward once it is explained properly. You do not pay for the replacement vehicle. It is supplied on credit, which is why the legal mechanism is known as credit hire, and the charges are then pursued from the at-fault driver's insurer as part of your damages claim. You are not renting a car, you are not putting down a deposit and you are not being asked for a card. That is the entire point of the arrangement: a driver who did nothing wrong should not have to fund their own mobility while somebody else's insurer takes its time deciding what to do about a repair.
There are conditions, and it is fairer to state them plainly than to let you discover them later. A replacement is subject to liability being established, meaning the other side accepting fault or the evidence clearly showing it. It is also subject to reasonable need: if you have a second car on the drive that you could genuinely use, or you do not actually need a vehicle for the period in question, the at-fault insurer can and will argue the point. The vehicle supplied should be broadly comparable to the one you lost rather than an upgrade, the period should be tied to the repair or to settlement of a total loss, and the rate should be reasonable. Those three things are what the other side tests.
The industry has a framework for keeping this orderly. Many insurers and replacement vehicle providers are signed up to the Association of British Insurers General Terms of Agreement, which sets out agreed rates and timescales and exists to keep disputes out of court. Where a claim runs inside that framework the process is usually quiet and the driver never hears about it. Where the other insurer disputes liability or the length of the period, the claim can take longer, and that is precisely when you want the groundwork to have been done properly from day one: photographs, a clear account of the collision, third party details, and a record of why you needed a vehicle and for how long.
Our own position on fees is deliberately plain. Accident management has a reputation problem in this country because some operators treat a non-fault driver as a lead to be sold on, take a large slice out of the middle and leave the claimant worse off than they should have been. We keep our charges low and transparent so that more of what is recovered stays with the person who was actually hit. You will be told what is happening to your claim, who is handling each part of it, and what we are paid for doing it. If you would rather go directly through your own insurer, we will say so honestly rather than talk you out of it.
06NORTH LONDONKey takeaway
ULEZ, the Congestion Charge and the crossings your replacement has to cope with
Every N and NW postcode, and every street in Enfield, Barnet, Harrow and Brent, sits inside the Ultra Low Emission Zone. The zone was extended London-wide on 29 August 2023 and now covers all London boroughs and the City of London. It runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year except Christmas Day, and a non-compliant car or van up to 3.5 tonnes is charged £12.50 a day. The M25 itself is not in the zone, which matters if you live in Enfield or Barnet and use junctions 23 to 25. The practical consequence is simple: a replacement vehicle delivered to you in north London must be ULEZ compliant, otherwise you are being handed a daily bill for driving a car you never asked for.
The Congestion Charge is a separate scheme with a much smaller footprint, and its boundary sits closer to north London than people realise. The northern edge follows Marylebone Road, Euston Road and Pentonville Road, so a run down the A1 through Holloway or down through Camden reaches it quickly. Driving along the boundary road itself does not trigger the charge; turning south into the zone does. The charge is £18 for a day if you pay on the day or in advance, or £21 if you pay 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.
Two further charging schemes matter to north London drivers who range beyond the area. If you cross the river in the east, the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels both carry a user charge. Silvertown opened on 7 April 2025 and charging began at both tunnels from that date, applying between 06:00 and 22:00 every day including weekends and bank holidays, with no charge overnight. If you head out towards Essex or Kent, the Dartford Crossing charge for a car is £3.50 per crossing, or £2.80 with a Dart Charge account, payable by midnight the day after you cross, with crossings between 22:00 and 06:00 free. Neither scheme touches most north London journeys, but both regularly catch out working drivers taking airport and out-of-town runs.
One more is worth knowing if a vehicle ever has to be moved south through the older river crossings. The Rotherhithe Tunnel, which dates from 1908, bans vehicles more than 2 metres high or 2 metres wide and goods vehicles over 2 tonnes gross weight, with penalties of up to £130. A recovery truck cannot use it and neither can a tall van. That is why a north London car being taken to a repairer south of the river will normally be routed via Blackwall or Silvertown, and why the route is planned before the truck is dispatched rather than improvised at the tunnel mouth with a damaged vehicle already on the bed.
Recovery, secure storage and the record that supports your claim
Getting the damaged vehicle off the road is the first job, and in north London it is often the hardest part. On the A406 and the A1 there is nowhere lawful to stand, so the priority is a quick, safe lift rather than a tidy one. Once the car is on the truck it goes into secure storage rather than back onto a permit street where it would accrue tickets or be exposed to further damage. Storage matters more than people assume, because a vehicle sitting on a controlled street in Camden or Islington while an insurer decides what to do is a vehicle collecting penalty charge notices, and those are far harder to recover afterwards than they are to avoid in the first place.
There is a scheduling constraint here that is specific to London. The London Lorry Control Scheme restricts goods vehicles over 18 tonnes maximum gross weight on roads outside the excluded route network from 21:00 to 07:00 Monday to Friday, and from 13:00 on Saturday through to 07:00 on Monday, with bank holidays treated the same way. Penalties run to £550 for the operator and £130 for the driver. A single-car recovery truck normally sits well under that threshold, but a loaded multi-vehicle transporter can exceed it, so overnight and weekend collections deep in residential Enfield, Barnet or Harrow are routed via the main arterial network rather than the shortest line on the map.
Evidence is the other half of the job. Photograph the position of both vehicles before anything moves, the damage on each, the road markings and any signal or sign that is relevant, and take the other driver's name, address, registration and insurer. Note whether there is a bus lane camera or a private CCTV frontage nearby, because north London high streets such as Green Lanes, Ballards Lane, Station Road in Harrow and Ealing Road in Wembley are heavily covered. Green Lanes in particular has been rebuilt with kerb-segregated cycle lanes and reduced kerbside parking, which changes where vehicles could and could not have been. All of this feeds the liability decision that determines whether you keep your replacement without argument.
If anyone was hurt, get properly seen. North London's emergency departments include Barnet Hospital, the Royal Free in Hampstead, the Whittington at Archway, North Middlesex University Hospital in Edmonton and Northwick Park in Harrow. Barnet Hospital runs an adult and children's emergency department alongside an urgent treatment centre open from 8am to midnight. North Middlesex runs its emergency department 24 hours a day with an urgent care centre inside it. Chase Farm in Enfield operates an urgent care centre rather than a full emergency department, and Central Middlesex has an urgent treatment centre and no A&E, so neither is the place to go with a serious injury. We do not handle personal injury in-house; injury enquiries are referred to authorised legal partners only with your separate written consent.
Step by step
How to get your replacement vehicle
- 1Make the scene safe and capture it. Stop, switch on your hazards and get everyone away from live traffic, which on the A406 or the A1 means behind a barrier rather than standing on the verge. Photograph both vehicles in position, the damage to each, the road markings and any relevant signage. Take the other driver's name, address, vehicle registration and insurer, and note the police incident number if officers attended.
- 2Get the vehicle recovered rather than left where it stopped. Call us with the location and we will arrange recovery. On a red route such as the Archway Road, the Edgware Road at Cricklewood or the North Circular there is no lawful place to stand, so the vehicle needs lifting quickly. It then goes into secure storage rather than back onto a controlled street where it would collect penalty charge notices while liability is being sorted out.
- 3Tell us your postcode, your parking and your job. Three answers shape everything that follows: where you are, whether you have a driveway or only a permit bay, and whether you drive for a living. A Southgate driveway and a Kentish Town controlled zone need different plans, and a PCO driver needs a plated vehicle rather than a standard courtesy car. Say so on the first call and we build the job around it instead of discovering it on the doorstep.
- 4We establish liability with the at-fault insurer. We notify the other driver's insurer, put the claim on record and press for a liability decision. A replacement vehicle is subject to liability being established and to genuine, reasonable need, so this step unlocks everything else. Where fault is obvious from the evidence this can move quickly. Where it is disputed, the photographs and third party details you gathered at the scene do the heavy lifting for you.
- 5We match the replacement to what you actually lost. The vehicle supplied should be broadly comparable to yours rather than an upgrade: a van if you had a van, a seven-seater if you had a seven-seater, and a licensed, plated vehicle insured for hire and reward if you hold a private hire or PCO licence. It will be ULEZ compliant, because every north London postcode sits inside the zone and a non-compliant vehicle would cost you £12.50 a day.
- 6We schedule delivery around the local restrictions. We check whether a Wembley event day is in force, what the controlled parking zone hours are at your address, and whether the street is suspended for works. Where the bay situation is impossible we hand over at a nearby legal location or at a driveway address you nominate. You pay nothing on delivery, there is no deposit and no card is required at any point.
- 7Repair, inspection and handing the vehicle back. We coordinate the repair and, where it is needed, an independent engineer's inspection so the estimate is properly evidenced. You keep the replacement while your own vehicle is being repaired, or until a total loss is settled, provided the period remains reasonable. When your car is ready we collect the replacement from you, at your address where the parking allows or at an agreed handover point nearby.
Courtesy car support in other London areas
Courtesy car in London →
Replacement vehicle support for non-fault drivers across London.
Courtesy car in East London →Replacement vehicle support for non-fault drivers across East 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
- Does a courtesy car in north London cost me anything?
- No. You pay nothing upfront and there is no deposit and no card required. The replacement vehicle is supplied on credit and the charges are pursued from the at-fault driver's insurer as part of your damages claim, which is why the legal mechanism is called credit hire. You are not renting the vehicle and you are not the person being billed. A replacement is subject to liability being established and to genuine, reasonable need, and the vehicle should be broadly comparable to yours rather than an upgrade. If liability is disputed we will tell you exactly where the claim stands rather than leaving you guessing.
- I drive for an app on a PCO licence. Can I get a plated replacement?
- Yes, and you should insist on one. A London private hire vehicle must be licensed, must display its vehicle licence discs, and must have hire or reward insurance in place for the whole of the licence, with the details carried or displayed in the vehicle and produced to the police on request. An ordinary courtesy car meets none of that, so it cannot lawfully be used for private hire bookings and no operator will let you go online in it. Tell us on the first call that you hold a private hire licence and which operator or operators you work through, and we will match the vehicle to your licensing authority.
- What happens if there is a Wembley event on the day of delivery?
- Brent operates an event day parking scheme around Wembley that is switched on only for events and overrides the usual timetable. Where a controlled parking zone already exists, restrictions typically run from 8am to midnight. In residential streets inside the event day zone but outside a normal controlled parking zone they typically run from 10am to midnight. A standard Brent resident permit does not exempt you, because separate event day permits exist for that purpose. We will either deliver early before the zone activates, hand over just outside the affected streets, or move the appointment to the following morning so your replacement is not ticketed the moment it arrives.
- Can you deliver to a flat in Islington or Camden where every bay is controlled?
- Yes, but it needs planning. In a controlled parking zone every street in that area is subject to parking controls, and the hours vary zone by zone. Camden codes its zones CA- plus a letter, and Islington has extended parts of the borough to round-the-clock control. Double yellow lines, footways and kerb crossings are controlled 24 hours a day regardless. If you have a resident bay or a visitor permit we time the handover so the vehicle is covered from arrival. If you have neither, we deliver to your workplace, a relative's address or a nearby location with legitimate parking and hand over there instead.
- Will the replacement vehicle be ULEZ compliant?
- Yes. Every N and NW postcode and the whole of Enfield, Barnet, Harrow and Brent sit inside the Ultra Low Emission Zone, which was extended London-wide on 29 August 2023 and covers all London boroughs and the City of London. It operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year except Christmas Day, and charges £12.50 a day for a non-compliant car or van up to 3.5 tonnes. Handing you a non-compliant vehicle would simply transfer a daily bill onto a driver who did nothing wrong, so the replacement we supply is compliant. Note that the M25 itself is not in the zone.
- How long can I keep the replacement vehicle?
- For as long as you genuinely need it, within reason. The period is normally tied to the repair of your own vehicle or, if it is written off, to settlement of the total loss. The at-fault insurer will scrutinise the length of the period as well as the rate, so avoidable delays work against the claim rather than for it. That is why we push the repair and any engineer's inspection along rather than letting a file drift. If the other side later disputes the period, a clear record of when parts were ordered and when work was actually carried out is what settles the argument.
- The other driver's insurer offered me a car directly. Should I take it?
- You are free to, and sometimes it is the simplest route. Be aware that a vehicle offered by the at-fault insurer is usually chosen to keep their own cost down, and it may not match what you lost: a small hatchback in place of an estate, or an unplated car if you drive for a living. Once you have accepted it, arguing that you needed something better becomes much harder. Ask what the vehicle is, how long you can keep it and what happens if the repair overruns, then decide. If their offer is genuinely reasonable for your situation, we will tell you so.
- My van is my business. Can I get a van rather than a car?
- Yes. The principle is that the replacement should be broadly comparable to the vehicle you lost, so a van should be replaced by a van of similar size and payload rather than by a car. If your van carries racking, a tail lift, tools or a specific type of load, tell us at the outset, because the replacement has to actually do the job you need doing. North London trade drivers working out of Cricklewood, Neasden, Park Royal or the Edmonton industrial belt lose money very quickly without the right vehicle, and the claim should reflect a working vehicle rather than a family runaround.
- I was injured in the accident. Do you handle that?
- Not in-house. We deal with recovery, secure storage, the replacement vehicle, repair coordination, engineer inspection and correspondence with the third party insurer. Injury enquiries are referred to authorised legal partners, and only with your separate written consent, which is a decision you make yourself and can decline without affecting anything else we do for you. If you were hurt, get properly assessed. North London's emergency departments include Barnet Hospital, the Royal Free, the Whittington, North Middlesex and Northwick Park. Chase Farm and Central Middlesex operate urgent care rather than a full A&E, so they are not the place to go with a serious injury.
- My car was hit on the North Circular and left in a live lane. What now?
- Get yourself and any passengers behind a barrier and away from traffic, then call for recovery. The A406 has no lawful place to stop, and at pinch points such as Bounds Green, Henlys Corner and the approach to Staples Corner a stationary vehicle is a genuine hazard to everyone behind it. Once we have the location we arrange the lift and take the vehicle into secure storage rather than returning it to a controlled street where it would collect tickets. Photograph what you can safely photograph before anything moves, but never at the cost of standing in a running lane to do it.
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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