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No win no fee, explained
Is Accident Management No Win No Fee?
No win no fee is a phrase from the world of solicitors and Conditional Fee Agreements. Non-fault accident management is something different and arguably better: it is already no upfront cost, because your recovery, storage, repair and replacement-vehicle costs are recovered from the at-fault driver's insurer, not charged to you.
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Is accident management no win no fee, and what does that actually mean for a non-fault UK driver?
Strictly, no: non-fault accident management is not run on a no win no fee agreement, because a no win no fee agreement (a Conditional Fee Agreement, or CFA) is a litigation and personal-injury arrangement under the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990, reshaped by LASPO 2012. Non-fault accident management works on a different and, for many drivers, better footing. Your recovery, storage, independent engineer's inspection, accredited repairs and like-for-like replacement vehicle are recovered from the at-fault driver's insurer under the ordinary law of damages, the principle of restitutio in integrum, so you pay nothing up front and carry no policy excess. The everyday no win no fee feeling (you are not out of pocket) is real; the legal mechanism is the law of damages, not a CFA. Where you have also been injured, that part is referred, only with your written consent, to an authorised claims-management company or SRA-regulated solicitor who may act under a CFA. CityGrip is an accident management business, not a solicitor or an FCA-regulated claims-management company, and it keeps fees low and transparent rather than following the inflated-charge model.
The honest answer
Same outcome, different mechanism
People search for “no win no fee accident management” because they want one simple assurance: that sorting out a crash that was not their fault will not cost them money they do not have. That assurance is genuine. The wording, though, mixes up two different legal worlds, and the difference is worth understanding before you sign anything.
“No win no fee” is the everyday name for a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA), a way a solicitor can run a court case or a personal-injury claim without charging you if the case is lost. It belongs to litigation and to personal-injury claims after a car accident. Non-fault accident management is not a CFA and does not need to be, because it never charges the non-fault driver in the first place. The reasonable cost of recovery, storage, engineering, repair and a like-for-like replacement vehicle is recovered directly from the insurer of the driver who caused the crash. The result feels like no win no fee, but the engine underneath is the ordinary law of damages, which says a wrongdoer must put the innocent party back where they were before the collision.
So the precise answer is: non-fault accident management is no upfront cost to you, recovered from the at-fault insurer, and your injury claim (if you have one) can be run separately by a solicitor on a true no win no fee CFA. The rest of this page sets out exactly what a CFA is, what is and is not at risk for you, and how CityGrip keeps the whole thing transparent instead of expensive.
The Conditional Fee Agreement, properly defined
A Conditional Fee Agreement is the formal legal instrument behind the phrase “no win no fee”. It is permitted by section 58 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 and lets a solicitor agree that if the claim fails, no fee is payable for the work done, and if it succeeds, a base fee plus a percentage uplift called a success fee is charged. The success fee reflects the risk the lawyer took in running a case they might have lost for nothing.
The rules changed significantly with the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO), which came into force on 1 April 2013. Before LASPO, a winning claimant could recover the success fee (and any after-the-event insurance premium) from the losing defendant on top of damages. After LASPO, that is no longer the case for most claims: the success fee is no longer recoverable from the losing party and instead comes out of the successful client’s own damages. To protect claimants, the success fee in a personal-injury claim is capped at 25 percent of general damages and past pecuniary loss (broadly, damages for the injury itself and losses already incurred, excluding damages for future care and future loss).
Two things follow from this. First, a CFA is a creature of litigation and regulated legal services: it is the tool a solicitor or an authorised claims-management firm uses to fund an injury or court claim, not the tool used to recover the cost of fixing a car. Second, on a genuine no win no fee injury claim today, the client can still end up giving up a slice of their compensation to the success fee, within the LASPO cap. That is materially different from non-fault accident management, where there is no compensation pot to dip into because the costs are paid by the at-fault insurer directly. Our no win no fee accident claim guide goes deeper on how CFAs work in practice.
Why there is nothing to pay up front
The law of damages does the work a CFA cannot
Non-fault accident management does not need a no win no fee agreement, because the legal principle it relies on already guarantees the non-fault driver is not left out of pocket. That principle is restitutio in integrum: restoration to the original position.
When another driver negligently damages your car, the law treats every reasonable consequence of that wrong as a recoverable loss, a “head of loss”, payable by the party at fault (in practice, their insurer). That is why the repair or the pre-accident market value of a write-off, the recovery from the scene, the secure storage, the independent engineer’s fee and a like-for-like replacement vehicle can all be pursued against the at-fault insurer rather than charged to you. For a full breakdown of each item and who pays it, see who pays for what.
The authority
Lagden v O’Connor and Dimond v Lovell
The replacement-vehicle side rests on two House of Lords decisions. Dimond v Lovell [2002] 1 AC 384 set the recoverable hire rate where a claimant could have afforded to hire themselves (the basic hire rate). Lagden v O’Connor [2003] UKHL 64 held that an impecunious claimant, one with no realistic means of funding a hire up front, recovers the full credit-hire rate. Need, period and rate must each be evidenced.
The effect
No excess, no fault marker
Because the claim is run directly against the at-fault insurer, you do not pay your policy excess and you do not put a fault claim on your own record. You should still notify your own insurer that the accident happened, because nearly every policy requires it, but notifying for information is not the same as making a fault claim.
In short, a CFA exists to remove the cost barrier from a claim the client would otherwise have to fund. Non-fault accident management removes that barrier a different way: the cost never lands on the customer to begin with. That is why “is accident management no win no fee?” is best answered as “it is better than that, because there is no fee to win or lose against your own pocket”, with the important exception of any separate injury claim.
The honest risk map for a non-fault claim
No reputable firm should tell you there is zero risk in every situation, because that is not true and the regulators dislike it. Here is the honest position, kept separate for the two halves of a typical claim: the property-damage side (run by accident management) and the personal-injury side (run by a solicitor or CMC, often on a CFA).
On the property-damage side. On a clear non-fault claim, where you have been honest, evidenced your losses and followed reasonable advice, you should not be left personally liable for the reasonable cost of recovery, storage, engineering or a like-for-like replacement vehicle. Those are pursued against the at-fault insurer. Risk rises in three situations: where liability is genuinely disputed and the at-fault insurer fights it; where a replacement vehicle is kept longer than the engineer-justified repair or replacement period; and where impecuniosity is asserted to support a full credit-hire rate but is not properly evidenced. A good accident management company explains these scenarios in writing before you sign and manages the file so they do not arise.
On the personal-injury side. If you have been injured and a solicitor runs that claim under a CFA, the no win no fee promise means you pay no legal fee if the injury claim fails. If it succeeds, the success fee comes out of your damages within the LASPO 25 percent cap, and there may be other deductions the solicitor must disclose, such as an after-the-event insurance premium. This is why the injury claim is handled by a regulated partner who gives you the formal cost information, not by an accident management company. We explain the handover on our injury claim referral page.
The single most important risk-reducer is evidence gathered early. The pre-accident condition of your car, scene photographs, witness details, a police reference where one applies, the independent engineer’s report and a daily-logged hire and storage record are what keep every head of loss recoverable and keep you out of any later argument about what was reasonable.
When a solicitor and a CFA come in
Where the no win no fee agreement actually applies
A CFA is the right tool for one specific part of the picture: the injury claim. Knowing where the line falls keeps everyone’s role clear and your protections intact.
Stage 01
Property damage, run by accident management
Recovery, storage, the independent engineer’s inspection, accredited repair and a like-for-like replacement vehicle are coordinated by CityGrip and recovered from the at-fault insurer under the law of damages. No CFA is involved, because no fee is charged to you. This is the core of a non-fault accident management service.
Stage 02
Injury, referred to an authorised partner
If you have been hurt, your personal-injury claim is referred, only with your explicit written consent, to an SRA-regulated solicitor or an FCA-authorised claims-management company. They may run it on a no win no fee CFA and must give you the formal cost and success-fee information before you sign. CityGrip does not give legal advice and does not run injury claims in-house.
Stage 03
Two tracks, one coordinated file
The two tracks run in parallel. The property-damage recovery does not wait for the injury claim, and the injury claim has its own three-year limitation period and its own regulated process. You get one reference number with us and a clear handover to the regulated partner, with the difference between the two clearly explained. See accident management versus a claims-management company for where each one sits.
Low and transparent, not inflated and hidden
Why “costs recovered from the insurer” must not mean a blank cheque
Because the bill is sent to the at-fault insurer rather than the customer, a minority of operators treat non-fault work as a chance to inflate. We describe that practice generically and name no firms. The point is to show you what good looks like so you can tell the difference.
Reasonable, evidenced rates
Hire and storage are charged at reasonable rates and evidenced against the engineer-justified period, not stretched to maximise the bill. A charge that is later disallowed as unreasonable is a charge that can come back to bite the claimant, so keeping it reasonable protects you.
Fees and referrals in writing
Any fee or referral arrangement is disclosed to you in writing before you instruct. Hidden commissions and vague answers about money are exactly the warning signs that mark out the inflated-charge model.
Independent engineering
An independent engineer’s inspection, not the at-fault insurer’s assessor, sets your valuation and repair-or-write-off decision. Independence protects the figure your whole claim is built on.
Mitigation built in
You carry a legal duty to mitigate, so storage and hire cannot run on indefinitely once liability is accepted and collection is offered. A firm that lets the clock run is exposing you, not just the insurer.
Honest scope and referrals
Personal-injury work goes to an authorised CMC or SRA-regulated solicitor with your consent, rather than being run in-house by a firm without the right permissions. Beware anyone promising fabricated payouts or pressuring you to sign on the spot.
A real complaints route
There is a clear, written way to reach a real person and a published complaints procedure. No invented star ratings, no spurious figures, no pressure.
WHY CITYGRIP
03
Section 3 of the walkthrough.
No upfront cost on the car, a true CFA referral for the injury
CityGrip Accident Claims is a UK accident management business built around one job: getting non-fault drivers back on the road with nothing to pay up front and their own policy protected. We dispatch recovery around the clock, hold your vehicle in secure storage, commission an independent engineer, coordinate an accredited repair, arrange a like-for-like replacement where you genuinely need one, and deal directly with the at-fault driver’s insurer so you do not have to. Those costs are recovered from the party who caused the crash, which is why there is no upfront cost to you on a genuine non-fault claim.
We are deliberately clear about what we are. We are not an insurer and we are not a solicitor. We are an accident management company, which means our property-damage work sits outside the FCA’s claims-management regulated perimeter and does not run on a Conditional Fee Agreement. We do not give legal advice, and we do not run personal-injury claims in-house. If you have been injured, we refer that part of your claim, only with your explicit written consent, to an FCA-regulated claims-management company or an SRA-regulated solicitor who can act on a true no win no fee CFA and who must explain the success fee and any deduction before you sign. Any fee arrangement on our side is disclosed in writing before you instruct.
Our promise is the opposite of the inflated-charge, hidden-commission model: reasonable evidenced rates, transparent fees, an honest file and regulated work sent to regulated partners, so that the non-fault driver ends up better off rather than quietly paying for someone else’s margin. You can reach us 24/7 on 0330 043 3409, start your file through the online accident form, or get in touch and a real person will pick it up.
Frequently asked questions
- Is accident management no win no fee?
- Not in the strict legal sense, because non-fault accident management does not run on a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). A CFA, the formal name for a no win no fee agreement, governs litigation and personal-injury claims under the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 as amended by LASPO 2012. Non-fault accident management works differently: recovery, storage, repair, engineering and like-for-like hire are recovered from the at-fault driver's insurer under the ordinary law of damages, so the non-fault driver already pays nothing up front. The everyday phrase no win no fee captures the feel of it (you are not out of pocket), but the legal mechanism is the law of damages and restitutio in integrum, not a CFA.
- What is a no win no fee agreement (Conditional Fee Agreement)?
- A no win no fee agreement is a Conditional Fee Agreement under section 58 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. It lets a solicitor act without charging if the case is lost, and charge a base fee plus a success fee if it wins. Since LASPO 2012 came into force on 1 April 2013, that success fee is no longer recoverable from the losing party and is instead deducted from the client's damages, capped at 25 percent of certain heads of damages in personal-injury claims. CFAs apply to litigation and injury claims. They are not the mechanism behind property-damage accident management.
- Will I pay anything up front for non-fault accident management?
- On a genuine non-fault claim, no. There is no up-front cost to you for recovery, secure storage, the independent engineer's inspection, accredited repair coordination or a like-for-like replacement vehicle. Those reasonable costs are pursued against the at-fault driver's insurer under the principle that a wrongdoer must put the innocent party back in the position they were in before the collision. You do not pay your policy excess when the claim is run directly against the third party, and any fee arrangement is disclosed to you in writing before you instruct.
- What is at risk for me if the claim does not fully succeed?
- For the property-damage side run by an accident management company, you should not be left personally liable for reasonable recovery, storage, engineering or like-for-like hire on a clear non-fault claim, provided you acted honestly, evidenced your losses and followed reasonable advice. Risk increases where liability is genuinely disputed, where hire runs longer than reasonably necessary, or where impecuniosity is asserted but not evidenced. A reputable firm explains these scenarios in writing. For a personal-injury claim run under a CFA by a solicitor, the success fee and any shortfall come out of your damages within the LASPO cap, which the solicitor must explain before you sign.
- How is this different from a claims-management company or solicitor?
- A claims-management company (CMC) is FCA-authorised and follows the CMCOB rules; a solicitor is regulated by the SRA. Both can run personal-injury claims, often on a CFA. CityGrip is an accident management business, not a CMC or a solicitor, and it does not give legal advice or handle injury claims in-house. Where you have been injured, your injury claim is referred, only with your explicit written consent, to an authorised CMC or SRA-regulated solicitor who holds the right permissions. The property-damage work stays with accident management; the regulated injury work goes to a regulated partner.
- Does a success fee come out of my compensation?
- Only on the personal-injury side, and only where a solicitor runs that claim under a CFA. Since LASPO 2012, a success fee on a CFA is paid by the client from their damages rather than recovered from the losing party, and in personal-injury claims it is capped at 25 percent of general damages and past pecuniary loss (excluding future care and loss). It does not apply to the property-damage accident-management work, where costs are recovered from the at-fault insurer rather than deducted from a compensation award.
- Why do some firms inflate charges or hide commissions?
- Because the costs are recovered from the at-fault insurer rather than the customer, a minority of operators treat that as a licence to inflate hire rates, run storage longer than necessary, or take undisclosed referral commissions, which can leave the non-fault driver worse off if a charge is later disallowed and pursued against them. We describe this practice generically and do not name firms. CityGrip's answer is the opposite: charge reasonable, evidenced rates, disclose any fee or referral in writing, keep the file honest, and refer regulated work to authorised partners.
- What if the other driver was uninsured or untraced?
- You can still be helped. Where the at-fault driver is uninsured or cannot be traced, the claim is routed to the Motor Insurers' Bureau under the Uninsured Drivers' Agreement 2015 or the Untraced Drivers' Agreement 2017. Strict conditions apply, including reporting an untraced (hit-and-run) driver to the police within the time limit, so the scene file and prompt notification matter. The principle is the same: your losses are pursued against a paying party, not charged to you up front.
Talk to a real person
No upfront cost on the car, and a true no win no fee referral for any injuryWe handle it end-to-end.
We manage your non-fault claim end to end - recovery, storage, engineer, repair and a like-for-like replacement vehicle - at no upfront cost, recovered from the at-fault insurer. We are not a solicitor or an FCA-regulated claims-management company; personal injury claims are referred to authorised partners, who may act on a Conditional Fee Agreement, only with your written consent.
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.
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