UK cities
45+
Direct coverage
Independent, not insurer-owned
Independent Accident Management Company for UK Non-Fault Drivers
An independent accident management company works for you, the non-fault driver - not for the at-fault insurer and not for a single repair group. Keep your excess, choose your own repairer, protect your no-claims discount.
- 24/7 UK dispatch
- £0 upfront cost
- Independent engineer
- Like-for-like replacement
24/7
UK response
Recovery dispatch and live claim handlers, 365 days a year.
Response
<60m
First contact SLA
Cost
£0
Upfront to driver
What does an independent accident management company do for a non-fault driver?
An independent accident management company manages the practical side of a non-fault accident - recovery, secure storage, repair coordination, an independent engineer's inspection and a like-for-like replacement vehicle - and corresponds with the at-fault driver's insurer to recover the cost. Independent means it is not owned by an insurer and not tied to one approved-repairer network, so it acts solely for you. You do not have to claim through your own insurer for a non-fault accident: claiming directly against the at-fault insurer means no excess to pay and no fault-marker on your renewal while liability is settled. CityGrip is an accident management business, not an FCA-regulated claims-management company or a solicitor.
What independence actually means
Whose side is your accident manager really on?
After someone else hits your car, the single most important question is who the people handling the aftermath actually work for. The word independent is used loosely in this industry, so it is worth being precise. An independent accident management company has no ownership link to an insurer and no exclusive contract with one repair group - which means nobody is quietly steering your claim towards the outcome that costs the at-fault insurer the least.
That distinction matters because the motor-claims market is full of arrangements that look neutral but are not. When you call your own insurer, you are often passed to a captive accident management arm or a panel supplier whose commercial relationship is with the insurer, not with you. When the at-fault insurer offers to fix your car, they direct it into their approved network, chosen to keep their repair bill down. In both cases your interests are being balanced against someone else's cost base. The independent model removes that tension by working for one party only: the non-fault driver.
Not owned by an insurer
An insurer-owned or insurer-panel accident manager has a commercial incentive to keep costs down for the paying insurer. An independent manager has no shareholding link to any insurance company and no obligation to steer you into a cheaper outcome. The duty runs the other way - to recover everything you are entitled to from the driver who hit you.
Not tied to one repair group
Approved-repairer networks exist to control the insurer's repair bill, not to give you the best repair. An independent manager is not contracted to a single bodyshop chain, so the car can be repaired at a PAS 125 or BS 10125 accredited workshop chosen for quality and proximity to you - including, where it matters, the manufacturer-approved dealer.
You keep your excess and NCD
Routing a clear non-fault claim through your own comprehensive policy means paying your own excess up front and risking your no-claims discount until the recovery completes. Handling it independently against the at-fault insurer means there is no excess to find and no fault-step sitting on your renewal in the meantime.
One side only - yours
We correspond with the at-fault driver's insurer on your behalf, but we never act for them. There is no dual role, no shared panel, no conflict. The independent manager's only client is the non-fault driver, which is the whole point of the model and the reason your interests are not traded against anyone else's.
You do not have to claim through your own insurer
There is a widespread assumption that a car accident always means phoning your own insurer and opening a claim on your policy. For a non-fault accident, that is simply not the only route, and it is often the worst one for you. When another driver is responsible, English law allows you to recover your losses directly from the person who caused them - in practice, from their insurer, who is liable under section 151 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 even where the at-fault driver was in breach of their own policy terms at the moment of the collision.
The principle underneath this is restitutio in integrum: the wrongdoer must put you back, so far as money can, in the position you were in before the crash. That covers the repair or pre-accident market value of your vehicle, the cost of recovering and storing it, a replacement vehicle while yours is off the road, and your reasonable out-of-pocket expenses. None of that depends on your own comprehensive policy. You are exercising a direct right against the at-fault insurer, and an independent manager exists precisely to pursue that right for you.
Why does going through your own insurer hurt? Because the moment you claim on your policy, the accident is logged as a fault claim until your insurer recovers the money from the other side. In the meantime you typically pay your own excess up front, your no-claims discount can be stepped back, and your renewal premium can rise. You also lose control of the repair, which is routed into your insurer's approved network. You may eventually get the excess refunded once your insurer succeeds in subrogated recovery against the at-fault insurer, but that can take many months - and if liability is disputed and settled on a split basis, you may only recover a proportion of it.
The cleaner route: claim directly against the third-party insurer with an independent manager handling the correspondence. See exactly who pays for what and how a non-fault car accident claim is coordinated end to end.
Your repair, your choice
Your legal right to choose your own repairer
One of the most valuable and least understood rights a non-fault driver has is the freedom to decide where their car is repaired. You are not obliged to use the at-fault insurer's approved bodyshop, and you are not obliged to use your own insurer's network either. The repair belongs to you, and the law treats the reasonable cost of a proper repair as a recoverable head of loss.
Approved-repairer networks are built around volume contracts. The insurer agrees discounted labour and parts rates with a chain of bodyshops in exchange for a steady flow of work. That can be efficient, but the commercial pressure runs towards the cheapest acceptable repair, the use of non-original parts where permitted, and turnaround times that suit the network's throughput rather than your convenience. None of that is in your interest as the innocent party who simply wants the car restored to the condition it was in before another driver damaged it.
An independent accident management company arranges repair at a workshop accredited to the recognised UK body-repair standards - PAS 125 and the BS 10125 kitemark - selected for quality and for being convenient to you, not because it sits on a particular insurer's panel. For many drivers that means the manufacturer-approved dealer, which protects warranty conditions and keeps the vehicle's service and repair history clean. The independent manager instructs the repairer, agrees the methodology against the engineer's report, and pursues the cost from the at-fault insurer.
Approved-network repair
- Chosen by the insurer to control their repair bill.
- Discounted labour and parts rates negotiated in advance.
- Turnaround driven by network throughput.
- Non-original parts where the contract permits.
Independent repair (your choice)
- Chosen by you for quality and convenience.
- PAS 125 / BS 10125 accredited workshop or approved dealer.
- Methodology agreed against the independent engineer's report.
- Cost recovered from the at-fault insurer.
Read more about how we run repair management and what an independent accident recovery looks like from the scene.
How independence protects your excess and no-claims discount
Two of the quiet costs of mishandling a non-fault claim are your policy excess and your no-claims discount. Both are entirely avoidable when the claim is run independently and directly against the at-fault insurer, yet both are routinely sacrificed by drivers who default to phoning their own insurer out of habit.
The excess is the amount you agree to pay towards any claim on your own policy. On a typical UK comprehensive policy that figure, once a voluntary excess is added to the compulsory excess, often sits somewhere in the few-hundred-pound range. If you claim on your own policy you pay it at the point of repair. You only get it back if and when your insurer recovers from the at-fault side under its subrogation rights, the principle settled in Castellain v Preston (1883) 11 QBD 380. Claim directly against the at-fault insurer instead and there is no excess to find in the first place, because it is not your policy that is responding.
The no-claims discount is the loyalty reduction you have built up for years without claiming. When you open a fault claim on your policy - and a non-fault accident is recorded as a fault claim until recovery completes - that discount can be stepped back at renewal even though you did nothing wrong. Protected no-claims add-ons help, but they do not always insulate the underlying premium, which insurers can still load to reflect the recorded incident. Keeping the claim off your own policy keeps your discount and your premium history clean.
An independent manager protects both by routing the claim to the party that is actually liable. The point is not a trick or a loophole; it is simply using the direct right the law already gives you, so the financial consequences land on the driver who caused the accident rather than on you.
LIKE-FOR-LIKE MOBILITY
03
Section 3 of the walkthrough.
Credit hire and Lagden v O'Connor - why independence matters
Losing the use of your car is not a minor inconvenience to be absorbed quietly. As the non-fault party you are entitled to stay mobile while your vehicle is repaired or replaced, and the law gives you a route to do that without dipping into your own pocket. That route is credit hire: a like-for-like replacement vehicle provided on credit, with the charges recovered from the at-fault insurer at the end of the claim.
The framework comes from the House of Lords. In Dimond v Lovell [2002] 1 AC 384 the court confirmed that the recoverable rate for a claimant who could have afforded to hire on a spot-rate basis is the basic hire rate. In Lagden v O'Connor [2003] UKHL 64 the court went further: where the non-fault driver is impecunious - meaning they have no realistic means of funding a hire up front from savings or a credit card - they recover the full credit-hire rate, including the additional service element, because they had no reasonable alternative. The burden of proving that need and that impecuniosity sits with the claimant.
This is exactly where independence earns its keep. An at-fault insurer, or a manager aligned with one, has every incentive to offer you a small courtesy car or to dispute the hire period and rate, because every pound of hire is a pound off their bottom line. An independent accident management company does the opposite: it provides a genuine like-for-like vehicle matched to yours, documents your need for it, logs the hire period against the engineer's repair timetable, and evidences the rate - so the recovery against the at-fault insurer stands up rather than collapsing on a technical challenge.
Learn how we arrange a like-for-like credit hire vehicle and what happens if you need recovery and storage first.
One client, one duty
How an independent manager works only for the non-fault driver
The clearest way to understand independence is to follow what actually happens after you call. Every step below is run for you and paid for - where liability is accepted - by the at-fault insurer, with no upfront cost to you and no second client whose interests compete with yours.
Step 01
Recovery and secure storage
If the car cannot be driven, we recover it from the scene to a secure compound, 24 hours a day, and log storage from the moment it arrives. Both are recoverable heads of loss against the at-fault insurer. We do not let storage run unreasonably, because your duty to mitigate is also part of protecting the claim.
Step 02
Independent engineer inspection
We commission an independent engineer to inspect the vehicle before any repair is authorised. The report fixes repair-versus-write-off, pre-accident market value and salvage category. It is an independent assessment, not the at-fault insurer's in-house view, which is what gives the rest of the claim its evidential backbone.
Step 03
Repair at a workshop you choose
We coordinate the repair at a PAS 125 or BS 10125 accredited workshop of your choosing - not a network forced on you by an insurer. The repair methodology is agreed against the engineer's report and the cost is pursued from the at-fault insurer.
Step 04
Like-for-like replacement vehicle
Where you need to stay mobile, we provide a like-for-like replacement on credit hire, matched to your vehicle and your need, with the hire period and rate documented so the recovery holds up under the Lagden v O'Connor principle.
Step 05
Correspondence with the at-fault insurer
We notify and correspond with the at-fault driver's insurer on your behalf and present the evidence file to recover every head of loss. We act for you alone. We never act for the at-fault insurer, and we never sit on their panel - that single-sided duty is what makes the service genuinely independent.
Independent accident management, not a claims farm
Being independent is not the same as being unregulated or doing everything in-house, and it is important to be straight about the boundary. CityGrip is a UK accident management business. The activities we carry out - recovery, secure storage, repair coordination, engineer inspection, replacement vehicle and correspondence with the third-party insurer - sit outside the Financial Conduct Authority's claims-management regulated perimeter and do not require FCA authorisation. We do not pretend otherwise, and we do not market ourselves as a law firm.
We do not provide legal advice and we do not handle personal injury claims directly. Where you have been injured and want to pursue compensation, that is a regulated legal activity. We refer it - only ever with your explicit written consent - to FCA-regulated claims-management companies or SRA-regulated solicitors who hold the right permissions. You are never passed on without your agreement, and the property side of your claim - the car, the recovery, the hire - is handled by us throughout.
That honesty is itself part of independence. A genuine independent manager is upfront about its remit, recovers its costs from the at-fault insurer rather than skimming your settlement, and does not exist to harvest your data for cold callers. If you want to understand the full scope before you instruct, the simplest step is to talk to our team or open the case directly through the online accident form.
Frequently asked questions
- What is an independent accident management company?
- It is a business that manages the practical aftermath of a non-fault accident - recovery, secure storage, repair coordination, an independent engineer's inspection and a like-for-like replacement vehicle - while corresponding with the at-fault driver's insurer to recover the costs. Independent means it is not owned by an insurer and not tied to a single approved-repairer network, so it acts solely for the non-fault driver. CityGrip is an accident management business, not an FCA-regulated claims-management company or a solicitor.
- Do I have to claim through my own insurer after a non-fault accident?
- No. If another driver was at fault you are entitled to recover your losses directly from their insurer, who is liable under section 151 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. You do not have to involve your own comprehensive policy at all. Claiming direct avoids paying your own excess up front and avoids a fault-marker affecting your renewal while liability is sorted out.
- Can I choose my own repairer, or must I use the insurer's approved garage?
- You can choose your own repairer. The at-fault insurer's approved network is there to control their repair bill, not to give you the best result. As the non-fault party you can have the vehicle repaired at any reputable PAS 125 or BS 10125 accredited bodyshop, including a manufacturer-approved dealer. An independent manager arranges this for you rather than steering you into a single contracted chain.
- Will claiming through my own insurer cost me my no-claims discount even though it was not my fault?
- It can, at least temporarily. When you claim on your own policy the accident is recorded as a fault claim until your insurer recovers the money from the at-fault side. During that window your no-claims discount can be stepped back and your renewal premium can rise. You usually have to pay your excess too, and only get it back once subrogated recovery completes - which can take months.
- Does an independent accident management company cost me anything up front?
- No. Where another driver is at fault and liability is accepted, the recoverable costs of recovery, storage, repair coordination and a like-for-like hire vehicle are pursued from the at-fault insurer, not from you. There is no upfront cost to the non-fault driver and no excess to pay when the claim is handled directly against the at-fault insurer.
- What is credit hire and why does independence matter for it?
- Credit hire is a like-for-like replacement vehicle provided on credit while yours is off the road, with the charges recovered from the at-fault insurer. Under Lagden v O'Connor [2003] UKHL 64 an impecunious non-fault driver can recover the full credit-hire rate. An independent manager evidences your need, the hire period and the rate to protect that recovery, rather than offering a smaller courtesy car that suits the at-fault insurer's costs.
- Is CityGrip a solicitor or a claims-management company?
- No. CityGrip is a UK accident management business. Accident management - recovery, storage, repair coordination, engineer inspection, replacement vehicle and third-party insurer correspondence - sits outside the FCA's claims-management regulated perimeter. We do not provide legal advice and we do not handle personal injury claims directly. Injury claims are referred only with your explicit written consent to FCA-regulated claims-management companies or SRA-regulated solicitors.
- What happens to my claim if the at-fault driver is uninsured or untraced?
- You are still protected. If the at-fault driver had no valid insurance the Motor Insurers' Bureau pays under the Uninsured Drivers' Agreement 2015. If they fled the scene and cannot be traced, the Untraced Drivers' Agreement 2017 applies, provided you reported the incident to the police. An independent manager builds the evidence file - scene photographs, an engineer's report and a crime reference - to support the MIB route.
Talk to a real person
Get an accident manager that works only for youWe handle it end-to-end.
We manage your non-fault claim independently - recovery, storage, an independent engineer, repair at a workshop you choose and a like-for-like replacement, with the cost recovered from the at-fault insurer. We do not provide legal advice; personal injury enquiries are referred only with your consent to authorised partners.
Calls may be recorded for quality and compliance. We do not provide legal advice. Personal injury enquiries are referred only with your consent to authorised partners.
Visit our team
London office
124 City Road
London, EC1V 2NX
Coverage
- Phone & accident form24 / 7
- Recovery dispatch24 / 7
- Repair coordinationMon-Sat 8:00 - 18:00
- SundaysEmergency only
45+UK cities
9vehicle types
GDPRcompliant
Tip: submit the accident form first - our team will call back with a reference and next steps.