UK cities
45+
Direct coverage
Honest by design
Transparent Accident Management With No Hidden Fees
Exactly what happens after a non-fault accident, who pays for what and why, no hidden commissions or pressure referrals - in plain English, and honest about what we are and are not regulated to do.
- No upfront cost
- No hidden commissions
- Consent-based injury referral
- Plain-English terms
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 makes an accident management company transparent, and how do you know there are no hidden fees?
A transparent accident management company tells you in writing, before you sign, who pays for each part of the service. After a non-fault accident the reasonable cost of recovery, storage, repair and a like-for-like replacement vehicle is recovered from the at-fault driver's insurer under the law of damages, so there is no upfront cost to you - and an honest provider also explains what happens if liability is disputed. It caps credit hire to your reasonable need (Dimond v Lovell and Lagden v O'Connor), states the daily storage rate, refers any personal injury claim only with your written consent to a named SRA-regulated solicitor or FCA-authorised firm, discloses any referral arrangement, and gives you a real complaints route. CityGrip is not FCA regulated for claims management and does not handle injury claims directly - we are upfront about that perimeter.
Why transparency matters here
A sector with a trust problem, and how an honest provider fixes it
Accident management has a reputation problem, and it is largely deserved. For years some operators have sold claimant details on, routed work to whoever pays the highest introduction fee, pushed people into long or upgraded hire cars, and hidden how they are paid. The fix is not a slogan - it is disclosure. A genuinely transparent provider lets you see, in writing and before you commit, exactly what happens, who pays for what and why, and what it is and is not regulated to do.
That is the standard this page sets out. After a non-fault collision the law of damages - restitutio in integrum, the principle that the wrongdoer should put you back in the position you were in before the crash - means the reasonable cost of recovery, secure storage, repair coordination, an independent engineer’s inspection and a like-for-like replacement vehicle is recovered from the at-fault driver’s insurer. You do not pay upfront because the bill is presented to the party who caused the loss. An honest provider says that plainly, and is equally clear about the conditions: if liability is disputed or split, or if hire or storage runs on beyond what is reasonable, some charges may not be recovered in full. The point of transparency is that none of this is a surprise.
Below you will find the eight things a transparent accident management company should disclose, the red flags of an opaque “claims farm”, and exactly how CityGrip’s own terms work. Where money changes hands, who is paid, and which regulator covers what, it is written down. For a head-by-head breakdown of the figures, see who pays for what after a non-fault accident.
The transparency checklist
Eight things an honest accident management company discloses
Use this as a checklist when you choose a provider. Each entry names what should be disclosed, the plain-English promise behind it, and how it works in practice under UK law. If a provider cannot show you these, in writing, before you sign - keep looking.
Disclosure 01
Who actually pays
The at-fault insurer pays - not you, and not by a hidden charge on your own policy.
Genuine non-fault accident management is funded by recovering reasonable costs from the at-fault driver's insurer under the ordinary law of damages, the principle of restitutio in integrum. Recovery, storage, repair and a like-for-like replacement vehicle are provided to you at no upfront cost because the bill is presented to the party who caused the loss. A transparent provider says this plainly, in writing, before you sign anything - and is equally clear that 'no upfront cost' is not the same as 'free in all circumstances'. If liability is disputed or split, or if you act unreasonably (for example by keeping a hire car far longer than the repair needs), some charges may not be recovered in full, and the terms must spell out what happens then.
Disclosure 02
How the replacement vehicle is funded
Credit hire is explained, evidenced and capped to what you reasonably need.
If you need a car while yours is off the road and cannot fund a hire up front, a credit hire agreement lets a hire company provide a like-for-like vehicle and pursue the at-fault insurer for the charges. The recoverable rate is set by case law: Dimond v Lovell [2002] 1 AC 384 confined a non-impecunious claimant to the Basic Hire Rate, while Lagden v O'Connor [2003] UKHL 64 allowed an impecunious claimant the full credit hire rate because they had no realistic alternative. A transparent provider tells you that credit hire is a credit agreement in your name, that the duration must match the engineer-justified repair window, and that 'need', period and rate each have to be evidenced. It does not push a needlessly long or upgraded hire.
Disclosure 03
The reasonable-need test for hire
You only take a replacement car if you genuinely need one, for as long as you need it.
Courts will not allow hire charges that fail the reasonable-need test. You have a duty to mitigate your loss (the principle in The Liesbosch and applied throughout motor claims), which means hiring only when you actually need a vehicle, hiring like-for-like rather than an upgrade, and ending the hire once your own car is repaired or replaced. A transparent provider screens for need honestly at the outset - if a household second car or a short repair makes hire hard to justify, it says so, and may suggest a modest loss-of-use claim instead. Quietly running hire to inflate the bill against the at-fault insurer is exactly the behaviour that gets charges cut at settlement.
Disclosure 04
Storage rates
Storage is daily-logged at a stated rate and stopped as soon as it is reasonable to do so.
When a vehicle is recovered to a secure compound, storage accrues daily while the engineer inspects and the insurer authorises the next step. A transparent provider gives you the daily storage rate, logs the in and out dates, and stops the clock once liability is accepted and collection is offered - because storage that runs on unreasonably is unlikely to be recovered. Hidden, open-ended or undisclosed storage rates are a classic way an opaque operator builds a charge you never agreed to. You are entitled to know the rate, the running total and why the vehicle is still in storage at any point.
Disclosure 05
Where injury claims go (and that it needs your consent)
Personal injury is referred only with your written consent, and we name who we refer to.
CityGrip is not a solicitor and not an FCA-regulated claims management company, so we do not handle personal injury claims or give legal advice. If you have been hurt, your injury claim is a separate matter that is referred - only with your explicit, recorded consent - to an authorised partner: an SRA-regulated solicitor firm or an FCA-authorised CMC that holds the relevant permissions. A transparent provider tells you who the referral partner is, that any referral arrangement exists, and that you are free to instruct your own solicitor instead. Low-value soft-tissue injuries may instead run through the government's Official Injury Claim portal under the Civil Liability Act 2018 tariff.
Disclosure 06
Referral arrangements and commissions
Any referral fee or arrangement is disclosed - your handling is never steered by who pays us most.
The single biggest trust problem in this sector is the hidden referral economy: leads sold on, work routed to whoever pays the highest introduction fee, and claimants pressured toward a particular solicitor, hire firm or repairer without being told why. A transparent provider discloses referral arrangements and does not let an introduction fee override your best interest. You will be told if a partner pays for referrals, you can decline a referral, and your accident management service does not change based on whether you accept one. Our terms of business set out exactly how we are paid and by whom.
Disclosure 07
Repair standards
Repairs are coordinated to a recognised standard, with an independent engineer first.
Before any repair is authorised we arrange an independent engineer's inspection to record pre-accident value, salvage category and whether the car is economical to repair. Repairs are then coordinated through a network working to the recognised PAS 125 / BS 10125 body-repair standard. A transparent provider does not authorise work before the inspection, does not steer you to the at-fault insurer's own approved repairer by default, and shows you the engineer's findings. That protects both the quality of your repair and the credibility of the costs presented to the at-fault insurer.
Disclosure 08
Complaints and escalation
You get a plain complaints route and the independent bodies you can escalate to.
If something goes wrong you are entitled to a clear complaints process and an honest account of where you can take an unresolved complaint. Our complaints framework voluntarily mirrors the FCA Handbook DISP 1.6 timetable (a five-working-day acknowledgement and an eight-week final response) as a quality standard, even though, as a business outside the FCA claims-management perimeter, we are not bound by it. We are also honest that the Financial Ombudsman Service has no jurisdiction over CityGrip itself; where a complaint concerns an authorised partner we introduced you to, that partner's own regulator (the SRA and Legal Ombudsman, or the FCA and Financial Ombudsman Service) provides the onward route, and data complaints can always go to the ICO.
How credit hire and credit repair are funded - and why the rate is capped
The most misunderstood part of accident management is how the replacement vehicle is paid for. It is not a courtesy car from your own insurer and it is not free in the loose sense. It is credit hire: a hire agreement, in your name, where the hire company provides a like-for-like vehicle now and pursues the at-fault insurer for the charges later. The same logic applies to credit repair, where repair costs are carried and then recovered. A transparent provider makes sure you understand that these are credit arrangements with real consequences if charges are not recovered - and then works to make sure they are recovered by keeping everything reasonable and evidenced.
Two House of Lords decisions cap what can be recovered, and an honest provider works within them rather than against them. Dimond v Lovell [2002] 1 AC 384 held that a claimant who could have afforded to hire a car on an ordinary spot-rate basis recovers only the Basic Hire Rate - the rate a high-street rental firm would have charged for an equivalent car locally - stripped of the additional credit and claims-handling services bundled into a credit hire rate. Lagden v O’Connor [2003] UKHL 64 then held that an impecunious claimant - someone with no realistic means of funding a hire up front - recovers the full credit hire rate, because they had no reasonable alternative. The burden of proving impecuniosity sits with the claimant.
In practice every credit hire claim turns on three honest questions: did you genuinely need a replacement vehicle; was the period of hire proportionate to the engineer-justified repair or replacement window; and is the rate the Basic Hire Rate or has impecuniosity been evidenced. A transparent provider screens these at the outset and tells you the answer, even when the answer is “hire is hard to justify here”. An opaque one runs the hire regardless and hopes the bill sticks. For the detail, see how credit hire works and non-fault car accident claims.
How to spot an opaque operator
Red flags of a “claims farm”
These are the behaviours that should make you stop and ask questions. None of them is automatically unlawful, but each one signals a provider that is hiding part of the deal - usually the part about who is paid and what it costs you if things do not go to plan.
“It's completely free” with no explanation of who pays
Non-fault accident management is funded by recovering costs from the at-fault insurer, not by magic. A provider that says 'free' without explaining the funding, or without telling you what happens if liability is disputed or split, is hiding the part of the deal that matters.
Pressure to sign a credit hire agreement on the spot
Credit hire is a credit agreement in your name with real consequences if charges are not recovered. Anyone rushing you past the need, period and rate questions - or pushing an upgrade you did not ask for - is building a bill, not protecting you.
Your injury claim is 'sorted' without a named, regulated solicitor
Personal injury work must be done by an authorised firm. If nobody will tell you which SRA-regulated solicitor or FCA-authorised CMC is handling your injury claim, or you never gave written consent to a referral, that is a regulated-perimeter red flag.
No written terms of business, or terms you only see after signing
Plain-English terms that set out who pays for what, how the provider is paid, and your cancellation rights should come before you commit - not buried in small print or sent afterwards. Missing terms usually means undisclosed charges.
Undisclosed referral fees and 'we'll handle everything' steering
Being routed to a particular hire firm, repairer or solicitor because they pay the highest introduction fee - without that arrangement being disclosed - is the hidden-commission problem this sector is known for. You are entitled to know, and to say no.
Open-ended storage and hire with no stated rate or stop date
Storage and hire that run on with no disclosed daily rate and no end point inflate the claim and risk charges being cut at settlement - sometimes leaving you exposed. A transparent operator logs both, states the rate, and stops the clock when it is reasonable to.
What we are, what we are not, and why the difference matters
Transparency includes being honest about the limits of what we do. CityGrip Accident Claims is a UK accident claim management business. Recovery, secure storage, repair coordination, independent engineer inspection, like-for-like credit hire and direct correspondence with the at-fault driver’s insurer all sit outside the Financial Conduct Authority’s claims-management regulated perimeter, so they do not require FCA authorisation. That is a deliberate, lawful position - not a loophole - and we state it plainly rather than implying a regulated status we do not hold.
What we are not is equally important. We are not a solicitor and we are not an FCA-regulated claims management company. We do not handle personal injury claims and we do not give legal advice. If you have been injured, that claim is a separate, regulated activity. We refer it - only with your explicit, recorded consent - to an authorised partner: an SRA-regulated solicitor firm or an FCA-authorised CMC that holds the relevant permissions. You are told who that partner is, any referral arrangement is disclosed, and you are always free to instruct your own solicitor instead. Low value soft-tissue injuries may instead be run through the government’s Official Injury Claim portal under the Civil Liability Act 2018 tariff.
Why labour the point? Because the gap between “accident management” and “regulated claims handling” is exactly where opaque operators blur the truth - implying they will “run your injury claim” when they are neither authorised nor insured to do so. Being clear about the perimeter protects you. The detail of how injury referral works, and the consent it requires, is set out on our injury claim referral page.
OUR TRANSPARENT TERMS
03
Section 3 of the walkthrough.
Exactly how CityGrip works - in plain English
Here is the deal, written the way it should be written. After a non-fault accident we arrange recovery from the scene to a place of safety, secure storage while matters are assessed, an independent engineer’s inspection before any repair is authorised, repair coordination through a network working to the recognised PAS 125 / BS 10125 body-repair standard, and a like-for-like replacement vehicle where you reasonably need one. The reasonable cost of all of this is recovered from the at-fault driver’s insurer under the law of damages, which is why there is no upfront cost to you.
- Who pays: the at-fault insurer, recovered under restitutio in integrum. We tell you upfront what happens if liability is disputed or split, so “no upfront cost” is never mistaken for “free in every circumstance”.
- Replacement vehicle: credit hire is a credit agreement in your name, like-for-like, capped to your reasonable need and to the engineer-justified repair window under Dimond v Lovell and Lagden v O’Connor. We do not push an upgrade or an over-long hire.
- Storage: daily-logged at a stated rate, with the clock stopped once liability is accepted and collection is offered.
- Injury claims: referred only with your written consent to a named SRA-regulated solicitor or FCA-authorised CMC. You can decline and instruct your own solicitor.
- How we are paid: any referral arrangement is disclosed in our terms of business. Your service is never steered by who pays us the most.
- If something goes wrong: a plain complaints route mirroring the DISP 1.6 timetable, with honest signposting to the SRA / Legal Ombudsman, FCA / Financial Ombudsman Service (for an authorised partner, not CityGrip) or the ICO.
All of this lives in our terms of business, with the escalation detail in our complaints policy. If you want to talk it through before committing to anything, our accident recovery team can explain the next step, or you can contact us and ask any question you like first.
What you are always entitled to
Your rights when you instruct any accident management company
Whoever you choose, these rights travel with you. A transparent provider treats them as the starting point, not as concessions.
To see the terms before you sign
Plain-English terms of business that state who pays for what, how the provider is paid, and your cancellation rights - given to you before you commit, not after.
To consent to any injury referral
Your personal injury claim cannot be referred to a solicitor or CMC without your explicit, recorded consent - and you can always choose your own solicitor instead.
To know about referral fees
Any introduction fee or referral arrangement should be disclosed to you, and your handling must never be steered by which partner pays the provider the most.
To decline hire you do not need
You are never obliged to take a replacement vehicle. Where need is limited, a modest loss-of-use claim may suit you better than credit hire - and an honest provider will say so.
To a clear complaint route
A defined complaints process with realistic timescales, and honest signposting to the independent bodies (SRA, Legal Ombudsman, FCA, Financial Ombudsman Service, ICO) that may apply.
To honest regulatory status
A provider should tell you exactly what it is and is not authorised to do, rather than implying an FCA or solicitor status it does not hold.
Frequently asked questions
- What does a transparent accident management company actually disclose?
- An honest provider tells you, in writing and before you sign: who pays for each part of the service (the at-fault insurer, recovered under the law of damages) and what happens if liability is disputed; that credit hire is a credit agreement in your name, capped to your reasonable need; the daily storage rate and when it stops; who any injury claim is referred to and that the referral needs your written consent; whether any referral fee or arrangement exists; the repair standard used; and your complaints and escalation routes. CityGrip sets all of this out in plain-English terms of business.
- Is non-fault accident management really free, with no hidden fees?
- There is no upfront cost to you because the reasonable cost of recovery, storage, repair and a like-for-like replacement vehicle is recovered from the at-fault driver's insurer under the principle of restitutio in integrum. That is not the same as 'free in every circumstance'. If liability is disputed or shared, or if hire or storage runs on unreasonably, some charges may not be recovered in full. A transparent provider explains this honestly rather than promising a blanket 'free' with no conditions.
- Who pays for the credit hire car, and how is the rate decided?
- The at-fault insurer pays. The recoverable rate is set by case law: Dimond v Lovell [2002] 1 AC 384 limited a claimant who could afford to hire to the Basic Hire Rate, while Lagden v O'Connor [2003] UKHL 64 allowed an impecunious claimant the full credit hire rate. The hire must pass the reasonable-need test, be like-for-like rather than an upgrade, and last only as long as the engineer-justified repair window. A transparent provider evidences need, period and rate rather than maximising the bill.
- Are you FCA regulated, and who handles my injury claim?
- CityGrip is a UK accident claim management business. Recovery, storage, repair coordination, engineer inspection, credit hire and dealing with the at-fault insurer sit outside the FCA's claims-management regulated perimeter, so they do not require FCA authorisation. We are not a solicitor and do not handle personal injury claims or give legal advice. Injury claims are referred, only with your written consent, to an SRA-regulated solicitor or an FCA-authorised claims management company that holds the relevant permissions, and we tell you who that partner is.
- Do you charge referral fees or earn hidden commissions?
- We disclose any referral arrangement up front in our terms of business, and your accident management service is never steered by who pays us the most. You can decline any referral, and you are always free to instruct your own solicitor. Hidden referral fees, lead-selling and pressure steering are the practices that have damaged trust in this sector, which is exactly why we put how we are paid, and by whom, in writing.
- What if I am not happy - can I complain and escalate?
- Yes. Our complaints framework voluntarily mirrors the FCA Handbook DISP 1.6 timetable (acknowledgement within five working days, a final response within eight weeks) as a quality standard, although as a business outside the FCA claims-management perimeter we are not bound by it. The Financial Ombudsman Service has no jurisdiction over CityGrip itself; where your complaint concerns an authorised partner we referred you to, that partner's regulator (the SRA and Legal Ombudsman, or the FCA and Financial Ombudsman Service) provides the onward route, and data-handling complaints can always go to the Information Commissioner's Office.
- How is this different from a claims farm?
- A claims farm typically sells your details on, routes work to whoever pays the highest introduction fee, pressures you into hire or a particular solicitor, and hides how it is paid. Transparent accident management does the opposite: it explains who pays for what and why, caps hire to your reasonable need, refers injury only with your consent and to a named regulated firm, discloses any referral arrangement, and gives you plain-English terms and a real complaints route. The test is simple - can you see, in writing and before you sign, exactly what happens and who is paid.
Talk to a real person
Accident management you can actually readWe handle it end-to-end.
No upfront cost, no hidden commissions, no pressure referrals - just a plain account of what happens and who pays. Personal injury claims are referred only with your written consent to an authorised partner.
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.