Car Interior spillages - Should I claim on my insurance?

Gary Wray has dealt with car spillages of every kind over the years -- paint, milk, diesel, you name it. He has also been dealing with insurance companies for thirty years. His advice on whether to claim is more nuanced than most people expect.

Spillages in cars raise the same question almost every time: should I claim on my insurance? The honest answer is -- it depends, and the first thing to do is find out what you are actually dealing with before you decide.

Paint is a good example. A tin goes over in the boot, hits the back seat, gets into the carpet. Initially it looks like a clean-up job. But lift the seat out and there is a computer module underneath with paint on it that needs replacing. What looked like a shampoo job is now a different conversation. Gary had a call from someone whose paint tin hit the brakes, flew forward, and covered the dashboard, the headrests, the seats and the grille -- and it was already drying by the time he found us. You really do not know the full extent until you get into it.

Our advice: call your insurance company straight away, but do not make a claim yet. Tell them you have had a spillage, you are not sure of the extent, you want to try to handle it and you will call back if you need to. Most insurers will make a note and leave the option open. That way you have not triggered a claim -- and you have not lost the option either.

Then bring the car to us. Cover the spillage with wet towels to slow any drying (our blog post Help! I spilled paint in my car has the full emergency first-response advice), drop the car off, and we will get straight into it. We will video what we find and show you exactly what you are dealing with. If it is within a range you are happy to pay for privately, great -- no claim, no excess, no record on your policy. If we lift the carpet and find it has gone further than expected, you call the insurer back and make the claim at that point.

One thing worth checking before you decide: whether your policy includes a courtesy car. If you claim and it does not, the insurance process can hold things up while the job sits waiting for authorisation. Sometimes it is quicker and simpler to handle it privately. We can help you work out which way makes more sense once we know what we are looking at.