Do I have to use my own insurer's approved repairer after a non-fault accident in London?

No. If the accident was not your fault you are generally entitled to have your vehicle repaired properly and to choose who does it, rather than being routed to whichever network your insurer has a commercial arrangement with. That matters if you have a manufacturer warranty to protect, a leased vehicle with return conditions, or a licensed private hire vehicle that has to pass a TfL inspection afterwards. We arrange repair at an approved bodyshop and deal with the third party insurer on the cost. You should still notify your own insurer that an incident occurred, because almost every policy requires it, but notifying is not the same as claiming on your own cover.

Will the replacement vehicle be ULEZ compliant?

That is the standard we work to. The ULEZ has covered every London borough since 29 August 2023 and a non-compliant car or van costs £12.50 for each day it is driven inside the zone, 24 hours a day, every day except Christmas Day. Handing a London driver an older diesel would simply move a cost onto them, which defeats the point of a like-for-like replacement. We check the emissions position against the specific registration before the vehicle comes to you and tell you the answer. What can be provided always depends on liability, eligibility and availability, and we will tell you where you stand at the outset.

Does my Congestion Charge residents' discount transfer to the replacement vehicle?

Not automatically, because the discount attaches to a vehicle registration rather than to you. The residents' 90 per cent discount is held against a registered vehicle, and the electric vehicle discounts (25 per cent for electric cars, 50 per cent for electric vans, HGVs and quadricycles) apply only where that registration is signed up to TfL Auto Pay. Put a different registration on the road and you are exposed to the full daily rate of £18, or £21 if paid late. If you live in or drive through the central zone, raise it on the first call so it is dealt with rather than discovered later.

What does a non-fault claim with CityGrip cost me?

Where liability is accepted, the intention is that it costs you nothing. Recovery, storage, the engineer's inspection, the repair and the replacement vehicle are presented to the at-fault driver's insurer and recovered from them. You do not pay your excess and you do not use your no claims discount. The replacement is supplied on credit terms and the bill goes to the insurer responsible, not to you. We cannot promise an outcome, because liability is sometimes disputed or split, but we will explain our fees and what any of it could mean for you plainly, before you sign anything.

Do I report the accident to the Metropolitan Police or the City of London Police?

It depends on exactly where it happened. The Metropolitan Police cover the whole of Greater London except the City of London, the historic Square Mile, which has its own separate force, the City of London Police, under the City of London Corporation. If your collision was on Bishopsgate, Cheapside, Threadneedle Street or elsewhere in the Square Mile, report it to the City of London Police. Anywhere else in London, report it to the Met. Both accept online reports and both run 101 for non-emergencies. If details were not exchanged at the scene, you must report it yourself within 24 hours.

Can I get a replacement vehicle if I drive private hire or PCO in London?

Yes, that is a large part of what we do, subject to liability and eligibility. The complication is licensing: a vehicle used for bookings has to be licensed and plated in its own right, which means a replacement PHV licence and licence disc from TfL and an inspection appointment at a licensing centre. That takes coordination, so the sooner you call the sooner you are back earning. We also check the replacement is ULEZ compliant, since a private hire driver paying £12.50 a day to go to work is worse off than before. We do not handle hackney carriage or black cab work.

Do you handle personal injury claims?

Not in-house. CityGrip is an accident management company: recovery, secure storage, replacement vehicles, repair coordination, engineer inspection and correspondence with the third party insurer. If you or a passenger were injured, we can refer the injury element to an authorised legal partner, and we only do that with your separate written consent. Nothing happens with your details unless you have agreed to it in writing. You are equally free to instruct a firm of your own choosing, and the vehicle side of your claim runs perfectly well alongside whoever handles the injury element. We will tell you clearly which part we are dealing with.

How do I get hold of CCTV footage of the collision?

Move quickly, because retention periods are short and TfL specifically warns against delay. The first question is which authority holds it. TfL manages around 580 kilometres of strategic roads and its own cameras, while the rest of London's streets belong to one of the 32 borough councils or the City of London Corporation, each with its own policy. Access to TfL footage runs through a subject access request with the exact date, time and location. Borough policies vary: some release only to police, some only to insurers or solicitors, some charge a search fee. Tell us early and we will pursue what is available.

Do you cover the whole of London, and what vehicles do you take?

We work across all 32 London boroughs and the City of London, and our borough coverage pages set out where we operate in detail. On vehicles, we look after cars and vans, including private hire, PCO and minicab drivers. We do not act for HGV, lorry, bus or coach operators, and we do not handle hackney carriage or black cab work. A replacement vehicle from us means a car or a van. If your vehicle is over 3.5 tonnes gross weight it falls under the Low Emission Zone rules and outside our scope, and we will tell you that straight away.

London drivers · all 33 boroughs

Non-Fault Accident Claim in London

If another driver hit you in London and the accident was not your fault, you should not be left out of pocket and you should not be waiting weeks for a vehicle. CityGrip handles recovery, secure storage, engineer inspection, repair and a like-for-like replacement car or van, and where liability is accepted those costs are recovered from the at-fault insurer rather than from you. Everything on this page is written for London specifically: the London-wide ULEZ, the Congestion Charge, red routes on the TfL network, 32 boroughs plus the City, and the licensed private hire trade.

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

24/7

UK response

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

UK cities

45+

Direct coverage

Response

<60m

First contact SLA

Cost

£0

Upfront to driver

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

What happens after a non-fault accident in London?

Exchange details at the scene. If details were not exchanged, report the collision yourself to the Metropolitan Police, or to the City of London Police inside the Square Mile, within 24 hours. Get the vehicle recovered quickly, because a damaged car sitting on a red route can still attract a penalty charge notice. An accident management company then arranges secure storage, an engineer inspection, the repair and a like-for-like replacement car or van. Where liability is accepted, those costs are recovered from the at-fault insurer, so you pay no excess and your no claims discount stays intact.

Had a non-fault accident in London?

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Key points

The ULEZ has covered every London borough since 29 August 2023. A non-compliant car or van costs £12.50 a day, 24 hours a day, every day except Christmas Day, so a replacement vehicle has to be compliant or it costs you money.
The Congestion Charge is £18 a day if paid on the day or in advance, and £21 if paid by midnight on the third day after travel. It runs 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays.
Congestion Charge discounts attach to a vehicle registration signed up to TfL Auto Pay, not to you as a driver, so they do not follow you into a replacement vehicle.
Red routes are only about 5 per cent of London's roads but carry up to 30 per cent of its traffic. A red route penalty charge notice is £160, reduced to £80 if paid within the discount window, and breakdown is not a listed exemption.
If details were not exchanged at the scene, section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 requires the driver to report the collision personally, as soon as is reasonably practicable and in any case within 24 hours.
The Metropolitan Police cover all of Greater London except the Square Mile, which is policed separately by the City of London Police under the City of London Corporation.
CCTV of your collision may be held by TfL, by any of the 32 borough councils, or by the City of London Corporation. TfL warns that footage is kept for a very limited time, so requests should not be delayed.
The Low Emission Zone applies to vans and specialist heavy vehicles over 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight and to buses, minibuses and coaches over 5 tonnes. Most working vans sit below that line and fall under the ULEZ instead.
TfL licenses more than 100,000 private hire drivers in London. A replacement vehicle used for bookings must itself be licensed and plated, which takes a TfL inspection appointment.
Where liability is accepted, recovery, storage, inspection, repair and the replacement vehicle are recovered from the at-fault insurer. You pay no excess and your no claims discount is not used.

01LONDON DRIVERS

What should you do straight after a non-fault accident in London?

The legal duties come first, and they are the same everywhere in Greater London. Under section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 you must stop, and you must give your name and address, the name and address of the vehicle's owner and the vehicle's identifying marks to anyone with reasonable grounds to ask for them. If details were not exchanged at the scene, the collision has to be reported to the police as soon as is reasonably practicable and in any event within 24 hours. The Metropolitan Police are explicit that the driver has to do this personally and that nobody can report on your behalf. In London that duty bites often, because a great many collisions happen in stop-start traffic where one party pulls away before anything is written down.

London is policed by two separate forces for this purpose, and getting that right the first time saves you a wasted week. The Metropolitan Police cover the whole of Greater London with one exception: the City of London, the historic Square Mile, has its own force, the City of London Police, which sits under the City of London Corporation rather than the Mayor's office. A shunt on Bishopsgate, Cheapside or Threadneedle Street therefore goes to a different force from one on Whitechapel Road barely a mile east. Both take reports online and both operate the 101 non-emergency line. Note the reference number you are given, because the other side's insurer will often ask for it before they accept anything.

Then there is the vehicle itself, and this is where London differs sharply from the rest of the country. A damaged car left on a red route is not treated as parked, it is treated as stopped where stopping is prohibited, and the enforcement cameras cannot tell the difference between a breakdown and a driver nipping into a shop. Breakdown does not appear on Transport for London's published list of red route exemptions, which covers Blue Badge holders, motorcycles, and licensed taxis and private hire vehicles picking up or setting down. A red route penalty charge notice is £160, reduced to £80 if you pay within the discount window printed on the notice. You can challenge on the basis that the vehicle genuinely could not be moved, but you will need evidence, and a time-stamped recovery record is the kind that tends to carry weight. The practical lesson is simple: start recovery immediately rather than leaving the car overnight.

02LONDON DRIVERS

Will your replacement vehicle be ULEZ compliant?

It has to be, and this is the single most London-specific thing about a claim here. The Ultra Low Emission Zone expanded to cover every London borough on 29 August 2023, so there is no longer an outer suburb where the question does not arise. The zone operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year except Christmas Day, and it does not include the M25 itself. A car or van that does not meet the standard costs £12.50 for each day it is driven inside the zone. The thresholds are Euro 4 for petrol cars and vans, broadly meaning models from around 2006 onwards, and Euro 6 for diesel, broadly meaning models from around 2015 onwards. The daily charge has to be paid by midnight on the third day after travel, and a missed charge attracts a penalty charge notice of £180, reduced to £90 if paid within 14 days.

Now apply that to a replacement vehicle. If you are given something older or a diesel from the wrong side of the Euro 6 line, you are handed a running cost of £12.50 for every day you drive it, which over a repair period of several weeks becomes a real sum of money that nobody warned you about. Worse, the daily charge is easy to forget when you are driving an unfamiliar registration that is not on any of your usual payment arrangements, and the first you hear of it is a penalty notice arriving weeks later. A replacement vehicle that quietly costs you money is not a like-for-like replacement in any meaningful sense, whatever the paperwork says.

We treat ULEZ compliance as a baseline requirement on every London file rather than a nice-to-have. When we source a replacement car or van we check the emissions position against the registration before it comes to you, and we tell you the answer rather than leaving you to look it up. If your own vehicle was compliant, your replacement should be compliant too, because that is what like-for-like means in a city where non-compliance carries a daily price. Availability, liability and eligibility always qualify what can be provided, and we will be straight with you about that from the first call rather than promising something we cannot deliver.

LONDON DRIVERS

Section 3 of the walkthrough.

Do your Congestion Charge discounts follow you into a replacement vehicle?

No, and this catches out more London drivers than any other detail on this page. The Congestion Charge covers roughly the area bounded by the Inner Ring Road in central London and runs from 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and from 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays, with a break between Christmas Day and the New Year's Day bank holiday. It is £18 a day if you pay on the day of travel or in advance, or £21 if you pay by midnight on the third day after travel. The rate rose from £15 on 2 January 2026, the first increase since 2020. That is the headline. The detail that matters after an accident is what happens to your discounts.

Congestion Charge discounts and exemptions attach to a vehicle registration, not to you as a person. The residents' discount is granted against a registered vehicle. The electric vehicle discounts introduced in January 2026, which replaced the old 100 per cent Cleaner Vehicle Discount, are worth 25 per cent for electric cars and 50 per cent for electric vans, HGVs and quadricycles, and they only apply where that specific registration is signed up to TfL Auto Pay. None of that travels with you. Put a different registration on the road and, unless it is registered in its own right, you are paying the full daily rate from day one. Existing residents' discount holders keep their 90 per cent reduction, and from 1 March 2027 new applicants will generally need an electric vehicle to qualify, with exceptions for people receiving certain low-income benefits.

So if you live inside or beside the zone, or you drive through it for work, the replacement vehicle question is not just about emissions, it is about who is paying £18 a day while your own car is in the body shop. We flag this at the outset on any central London claim, we tell you what the replacement's registration status actually is, and where the charge is a direct and evidenced consequence of a non-fault collision it forms part of what we present to the at-fault insurer. Whether any particular head of loss is recovered depends on liability and on the evidence, and we will not pretend otherwise, but the worst outcome is finding out about it from a penalty notice three weeks later.

04LONDON DRIVERS

Why is recovery and storage harder in inner London?

Because the geography fights you at every step. Inner London recovery means narrow Victorian side streets with parked cars on both sides, bus lanes that a recovery truck cannot legally sit in, red routes where stopping is prohibited outright, controlled parking zones with their own hours, low bridges, width restrictions and height barriers on the entrances to most multi-storey car parks. A recovery operator who is comfortable on a dual carriageway in Kent has a different job entirely on a Tuesday afternoon in Islington or Southwark. Traffic itself is the other constraint: red routes are only about 5 per cent of London's roads yet carry up to 30 per cent of its traffic, which means the roads most likely to host your collision are also the ones where an obstruction causes the most trouble and draws the fastest enforcement response.

Storage is the second half of the problem. Secure compound space in inner London is scarce and it is expensive, for exactly the reason that all land in inner London is expensive, and storage accrues day by day for as long as the vehicle sits there. That is fine while it is necessary and properly evidenced. It stops being fine when nobody is driving the file forward and the vehicle simply sits, because an insurer looking at the eventual bill will scrutinise every day of it and will push back hard on anything that looks like drift. Storage charges have to be reasonable, they have to be documented, and above all they have to be short, which means the engineer inspection needs to happen quickly rather than whenever somebody gets round to it.

Our approach is to compress that timeline deliberately. We arrange recovery from the roadside or from a police pound, move the vehicle into secure storage rather than leaving it on a street where it can be hit again or broken into, get an independent engineer to inspect it promptly, and either put it into repair or agree a total loss position without letting it sit. We then present recovery and storage as evidenced heads of loss to the third party insurer. If your collision happened outside the centre, the mechanics are the same but the constraints are gentler, and our borough coverage pages set out where we operate across Greater London.

05LONDON DRIVERS

Who holds the CCTV of your London collision?

London has more cameras pointed at its roads than almost anywhere, and yet getting hold of footage is harder than people expect, because there is no single owner. Transport for London manages the Transport for London Road Network, around 580 kilometres of the busiest strategic roads, and holds traffic monitoring cameras across it. Everything else, which is the overwhelming majority of London's street mileage, belongs to one of the 32 borough councils or to the City of London Corporation, each of which runs its own camera estate under its own policy. So the first question after a disputed London collision is not what the footage shows, it is which authority is holding it, and the answer depends on the precise stretch of road you were on.

The second problem is time. TfL states plainly that CCTV footage is kept only for a very limited period and advises people not to delay in making a request. Access runs through a subject access request to TfL's privacy and data protection team, and you need the specific date, time and location. Borough policies vary considerably. Some councils will only release footage to the police as part of a criminal investigation. Some will only consider requests from insurers or solicitors rather than from individuals. Some charge a fee for a search. The realistic position is that if you wait a month to think about CCTV, the footage you needed has very often already gone.

That is why evidence gathering on a London claim has to start on day one, and why it is worth handing it to someone whose job it is. Alongside authority-held CCTV there is dashcam footage, yours and other drivers', cameras on buses and commercial vehicles, and privately operated cameras on shopfronts, garage forecourts and office entrances, which in a dense city street is often the most productive source of all. Photograph the scene yourself before anything moves: the final resting positions, the damage on both vehicles, the road markings, the traffic signals, the street name plate and the other driver's registration, insurance details and licence. In a liability argument six months later, that set of photographs is frequently worth more than everything else combined.

06LONDON DRIVERSKey takeaway

How does a non-fault claim work if you drive private hire in London?

It works differently, because your vehicle is your licence to earn and a generic replacement does not solve your problem. TfL licenses more than 100,000 private hire drivers in London, and a vehicle used to carry out bookings has to be licensed and plated in its own right. When a PHV is taken off the road, obtaining a replacement PHV licence and licence disc involves contacting TfL's vehicle licensing service and presenting the replacement at a licensing inspection centre by appointment, and the licence plate and approved notices must not be removed, concealed or altered. In other words, a car turning up on your driveway is not the end of the process, it is the middle of it. Every day between the collision and a properly licensed replacement is a day you are not working.

Stack the London charges on top and the pressure gets worse. A private hire vehicle working central London during charging hours is not exempt from the Congestion Charge and pays the daily rate, with a limited exemption retained only for wheelchair accessible PHVs while carrying out a booking. Licensed taxis remain exempt, but that is a different licensing category and not one we work in. The electric vehicle discount for cars, including PHVs, is 25 per cent and only where the registration is on Auto Pay. Add ULEZ if the replacement is not compliant and a driver can find themselves paying to go to work in a vehicle they did not ask for and did not damage.

We build private hire and PCO files around the earnings problem rather than around the paperwork. That means understanding the licensing route on the replacement, checking emissions compliance before the vehicle is offered, and moving quickly, because a claim that takes a fortnight to organise has already cost you a fortnight of fares. To be clear about scope: we look after cars and vans, including private hire, PCO and minicab drivers. We do not handle hackney carriage or black cab work, and we do not handle HGVs, lorries, buses or coaches. Provision of a replacement always depends on liability and eligibility, and we would rather tell you that at the start than after you have made plans around it.

07LONDON DRIVERS

What does a non-fault claim in London actually cost you?

Where the accident was not your fault and liability is accepted, the intended answer is nothing. The costs of recovery, storage, the engineer's inspection, the repair and the replacement vehicle are presented to the at-fault driver's insurer and recovered from them. You do not pay your policy excess, you do not use your no claims discount, and you do not fund a replacement out of your own pocket while you wait. The replacement is supplied on credit terms and the bill goes to the insurer responsible for the damage. You may see this called credit hire in the trade. It is simply the mechanism by which the person who caused the damage pays for the consequences of it, rather than the person who did nothing wrong.

Compare that with going through your own comprehensive policy. You pay the excess up front and hope to get it back later. The claim appears on your record. Your no claims discount is affected until and unless your insurer recovers everything, which takes time and is not always complete. Any courtesy car provided is whatever the policy specifies, which in London routinely means something smaller than your own car, and for a private hire driver often means something that cannot be used for work at all. None of that is a scandal, it is just what a comprehensive policy is designed to do. It is not designed to put a non-fault driver back exactly where they were.

We are also straight about the limits of this. Liability is not always accepted immediately, it is sometimes split, and there are cases where the other driver was uninsured or left the scene, which changes the route entirely. Nobody can honestly promise an outcome before the evidence is in, and any firm that does should worry you. What we do commit to is telling you plainly what we charge, what is recovered from the third party and what any of it could mean for you, before you sign anything. Our position on fees is deliberately low and transparent, because the point of a non-fault claim is that the claimant ends up properly compensated, not that the claim itself becomes the product. If you want the general national picture rather than the London one, our main non-fault car accident claims guide covers it.

08LONDON DRIVERS

What if the damaged vehicle is a van you work from?

Then the emissions rules need reading carefully, because London runs two zones and the dividing line is weight. The Low Emission Zone applies to lorries, vans and specialist heavy vehicles over 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight, and to buses, minibuses and coaches over 5 tonnes, and its boundary is the same as the London-wide ULEZ. Vehicles caught by the LEZ must meet the Euro VI standard or pay daily charges of £100 or £300 depending on how far short they fall. Almost every car-derived van, panel van and crew van used by a London trade sits under 3.5 tonnes, which means the LEZ does not apply and the ULEZ does, at £12.50 a day if the van does not meet Euro 4 petrol or Euro 6 diesel. Knowing which of the two zones your van sits in is the difference between a modest daily charge and a very large one.

Like-for-like means something more demanding for a working van than it does for a family car. A replacement that cannot take your payload, will not fit your racking, has the wrong load length or the wrong roof height is not a replacement, it is a compromise that costs you jobs. The same is true of ply lining, tow bars and anything else that made your van fit for the work you do. When we take a van claim in London we ask what the vehicle actually does before we source anything, because getting a plumber a small car and calling the problem solved helps nobody. Where a business is losing work because the vehicle is off the road, that loss can also form part of what is presented to the at-fault insurer, subject to evidence and to liability.

Our scope on commercial vehicles is deliberately narrow and we would rather state it clearly than waste your time. We look after cars and vans. We do not act for HGV, lorry, bus or coach operators, and a replacement vehicle from us means a car or a van. If your vehicle is over 3.5 tonnes you need a specialist in that category, and we will say so on the first call rather than opening a file we cannot properly service. For car and van drivers across all 32 boroughs and the City of London, the process is the one set out above: recovery, secure storage, prompt inspection, repair, a like-for-like replacement, and the costs pursued from the insurer of the driver who caused it.

Step by step

What to do next

1Make the scene safe and check for injuries. Stop, switch on hazard lights and check everyone in both vehicles. Call 999 if anyone is injured or the road is blocked in a way that puts others at risk, which on a busy London route can happen within seconds. If it is safe and the vehicle is driveable, move off the carriageway before you start swapping details, because standing between two cars on a red route in moving traffic is genuinely dangerous. If the vehicle cannot be moved, stay clear of it and behind a barrier where one exists.
2Exchange details, or report to the police within 24 hours. Take the other driver's name, address, registration, insurer and policy number, and give yours. If details are not exchanged, section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 requires the collision to be reported as soon as is reasonably practicable and in any case within 24 hours, and the Metropolitan Police require the driver to do this personally. Use the Met's online reporting service or 101 for anywhere in Greater London, and the City of London Police for the Square Mile. Keep the reference number safe.
3Photograph the scene while the London context is still visible. Before anything moves, photograph both vehicles where they came to rest, the damage on each, the road markings, the traffic signals and their state, the street name plate and the other vehicle's registration plate. Capture anything that shows the layout: box junctions, bus lanes, cycle lanes, the red lines themselves. Look up and note any camera housings on buildings or poles nearby, and any bus or lorry with a visible camera. Get names and numbers from witnesses on the spot, because pedestrians in London do not wait around.
4Get the vehicle recovered before it earns a penalty. A damaged vehicle on a red route can attract a penalty charge notice of £160, reduced to £80 if paid within the discount window on the notice, and breakdown is not one of TfL's published red route exemptions. It can also be hit again, or broken into. Arrange recovery immediately rather than leaving it overnight, and keep the recovery paperwork with its time stamp, because that is the evidence that supports a challenge if a notice does arrive. Do not let it be moved to an unknown yard whose daily rate nobody has told you.
5Call CityGrip before you speak to the other side's insurer. The at-fault insurer will often ring quickly and offer to sort everything out, which sounds helpful and is not neutral. Call us first. We will take the details, tell you honestly what the position looks like, explain what is recoverable and what is not, and set the file up so recovery, storage, inspection, repair and the replacement vehicle all run together rather than as five separate arguments. Nothing is signed until you have been told plainly what it means and what, if anything, it could cost you.
6Tell us if you drive private hire, PCO or a working van. This changes what a replacement has to be. A private hire driver needs a vehicle that is licensed and plated so bookings can continue, which involves TfL licensing and an inspection appointment, and it needs to be ULEZ compliant so you are not paying £12.50 a day to go to work. A tradesperson needs the right payload, load length and roof height. Say so at the first call, because sourcing the right vehicle at the start is far faster than swapping the wrong one afterwards.
7Let the claim run: inspection, repair, replacement, recovery of costs. An independent engineer inspects the vehicle promptly so it is not sitting in storage accruing charges. The vehicle goes into repair at an approved bodyshop, or a total loss valuation is agreed. You keep a like-for-like replacement car or van while that happens, subject to liability and eligibility. We correspond with the third party insurer and present the evidenced heads of loss. If anyone was injured, we will refer that separately to an authorised legal partner, only with your written consent, because we do not handle injury work in-house.

Related London pages

Accident management company London →

How to choose a provider, and what to ask before you sign.

Courtesy car in London →

ULEZ-compliant and plated replacements across all 33 boroughs.

London borough coverage →

All 33 boroughs, postcode by postcode.

PCO and private hire drivers →

Licensed plated replacement so you keep earning.

Non-fault claims (UK) →

The national process, start to finish.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to use my own insurer's approved repairer after a non-fault accident in London?: No. If the accident was not your fault you are generally entitled to have your vehicle repaired properly and to choose who does it, rather than being routed to whichever network your insurer has a commercial arrangement with. That matters if you have a manufacturer warranty to protect, a leased vehicle with return conditions, or a licensed private hire vehicle that has to pass a TfL inspection afterwards. We arrange repair at an approved bodyshop and deal with the third party insurer on the cost. You should still notify your own insurer that an incident occurred, because almost every policy requires it, but notifying is not the same as claiming on your own cover.
Will the replacement vehicle be ULEZ compliant?: That is the standard we work to. The ULEZ has covered every London borough since 29 August 2023 and a non-compliant car or van costs £12.50 for each day it is driven inside the zone, 24 hours a day, every day except Christmas Day. Handing a London driver an older diesel would simply move a cost onto them, which defeats the point of a like-for-like replacement. We check the emissions position against the specific registration before the vehicle comes to you and tell you the answer. What can be provided always depends on liability, eligibility and availability, and we will tell you where you stand at the outset.
Does my Congestion Charge residents' discount transfer to the replacement vehicle?: Not automatically, because the discount attaches to a vehicle registration rather than to you. The residents' 90 per cent discount is held against a registered vehicle, and the electric vehicle discounts (25 per cent for electric cars, 50 per cent for electric vans, HGVs and quadricycles) apply only where that registration is signed up to TfL Auto Pay. Put a different registration on the road and you are exposed to the full daily rate of £18, or £21 if paid late. If you live in or drive through the central zone, raise it on the first call so it is dealt with rather than discovered later.
What does a non-fault claim with CityGrip cost me?: Where liability is accepted, the intention is that it costs you nothing. Recovery, storage, the engineer's inspection, the repair and the replacement vehicle are presented to the at-fault driver's insurer and recovered from them. You do not pay your excess and you do not use your no claims discount. The replacement is supplied on credit terms and the bill goes to the insurer responsible, not to you. We cannot promise an outcome, because liability is sometimes disputed or split, but we will explain our fees and what any of it could mean for you plainly, before you sign anything.
I got a red route penalty charge notice while my damaged car was waiting for recovery. What now?: Send it to us with the recovery paperwork. TfL's published red route exemptions cover Blue Badge holders, motorcycles and licensed taxis and private hire vehicles picking up or setting down, and vehicle breakdown is not on that list, so the notice is not automatically cancelled. A red route penalty charge notice is £160, reduced to £80 if paid within the discount period stated on it. A challenge on the basis that the vehicle could not lawfully or safely be moved needs supporting evidence, and a time-stamped recovery record is the most useful thing you can produce. Do not ignore it, because the charge escalates.
Do I report the accident to the Metropolitan Police or the City of London Police?: It depends on exactly where it happened. The Metropolitan Police cover the whole of Greater London except the City of London, the historic Square Mile, which has its own separate force, the City of London Police, under the City of London Corporation. If your collision was on Bishopsgate, Cheapside, Threadneedle Street or elsewhere in the Square Mile, report it to the City of London Police. Anywhere else in London, report it to the Met. Both accept online reports and both run 101 for non-emergencies. If details were not exchanged at the scene, you must report it yourself within 24 hours.
Can I get a replacement vehicle if I drive private hire or PCO in London?: Yes, that is a large part of what we do, subject to liability and eligibility. The complication is licensing: a vehicle used for bookings has to be licensed and plated in its own right, which means a replacement PHV licence and licence disc from TfL and an inspection appointment at a licensing centre. That takes coordination, so the sooner you call the sooner you are back earning. We also check the replacement is ULEZ compliant, since a private hire driver paying £12.50 a day to go to work is worse off than before. We do not handle hackney carriage or black cab work.
Do you handle personal injury claims?: Not in-house. CityGrip is an accident management company: recovery, secure storage, replacement vehicles, repair coordination, engineer inspection and correspondence with the third party insurer. If you or a passenger were injured, we can refer the injury element to an authorised legal partner, and we only do that with your separate written consent. Nothing happens with your details unless you have agreed to it in writing. You are equally free to instruct a firm of your own choosing, and the vehicle side of your claim runs perfectly well alongside whoever handles the injury element. We will tell you clearly which part we are dealing with.
How do I get hold of CCTV footage of the collision?: Move quickly, because retention periods are short and TfL specifically warns against delay. The first question is which authority holds it. TfL manages around 580 kilometres of strategic roads and its own cameras, while the rest of London's streets belong to one of the 32 borough councils or the City of London Corporation, each with its own policy. Access to TfL footage runs through a subject access request with the exact date, time and location. Borough policies vary: some release only to police, some only to insurers or solicitors, some charge a search fee. Tell us early and we will pursue what is available.
Do you cover the whole of London, and what vehicles do you take?: We work across all 32 London boroughs and the City of London, and our borough coverage pages set out where we operate in detail. On vehicles, we look after cars and vans, including private hire, PCO and minicab drivers. We do not act for HGV, lorry, bus or coach operators, and we do not handle hackney carriage or black cab work. A replacement vehicle from us means a car or a van. If your vehicle is over 3.5 tonnes gross weight it falls under the Low Emission Zone rules and outside our scope, and we will tell you that straight away.

Important notice

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

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124 City Road
London, EC1V 2NX

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