Terms and Conditions

1. About these terms

These terms set out the basis on which we provide accident-management services. They apply when you report an accident to us, ask us to coordinate a repair, or accept assistance we arrange.

Submitting an accident report does not create a contract, and it does not commit you to anything. It asks us to review your situation. A contract for our services is formed when we have spoken to you, explained what we can and cannot arrange, and you ask us to go ahead. At that point these terms apply, and we will confirm in writing what we are arranging on your behalf.

If we change these terms, the version that applies to your claim is the one in force when you asked us to act. We will not change the terms of a live claim without telling you and explaining why.

Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

2. The service we provide

Sterling Accident coordinates accident support and claims administration. Depending on your circumstances, that can mean we:

• take and review your accident report;
• arrange vehicle recovery and storage;
• allocate the repair to a suitable network repairer;
• arrange and coordinate the damage assessment;
• obtain and manage repair authorisation, including variations;
• arrange replacement-vehicle assistance;
• correspond with insurers, engineers, repairers and third parties about your claim;
• keep you updated and coordinate handover.

We are not:

• an insurer — we do not underwrite policies and we do not decide claims;
• a law firm — we do not provide legal advice or legal representation;
• a provider of financial or insurance advice;
• an emergency service.

Whether liability is accepted, whether an insurer authorises a particular cost, and any settlement figure on a total loss are decisions for the relevant insurer or third party. We can present your case and chase a decision; we cannot make one.

We do not offer any "no win, no fee" arrangement. If you have been injured and want to pursue an injury claim, take independent legal advice.

We will carry out our services with reasonable care and skill. Where a timescale depends on someone else — an insurer's authorisation, a parts lead time, an engineer's availability — we will tell you what we are waiting for rather than give you a date we cannot control.

3. Eligibility

To use our services you must be at least 18, hold a valid licence for the vehicle where relevant, and be entitled to act in respect of the vehicle concerned — as its owner, its registered keeper, or with their authority.

What we can then put in place depends on the circumstances of the accident, liability, the route the claim takes, availability at the time, and your own circumstances. Nothing on this website, and nothing said in an initial conversation, guarantees that a particular service will be provided.

We may decline to act, or stop acting, where:

• the information given to us is materially inaccurate or incomplete;
• we cannot verify your entitlement to act in respect of the vehicle;
• we reasonably suspect the claim is fraudulent;
• the claim falls outside the services we provide;
• you ask another party to handle the same matter at the same time;
• continuing would place us in breach of a legal or regulatory obligation.

If we decline or stop acting, we will tell you why, and we will tell you what stage anything already arranged has reached.

4. Your responsibilities

• Give us accurate and complete information, and tell us promptly if something changes.
• Cooperate with reasonable requests for information or documents needed to progress the claim.
• Allow access to the vehicle for assessment, recovery or repair as arranged.
• Notify your own insurer of the accident where your policy requires it. Most policies do, even if you are not claiming on them.
• Do not authorise or carry out repairs to a vehicle we are coordinating without telling us first.
• Comply with the terms of any replacement-vehicle agreement you enter into.
• Tell us if you instruct anyone else in connection with the same accident.
• Pass on to us, promptly, any correspondence you receive about the accident.

Giving deliberately false or misleading information may end our involvement immediately, may make you responsible for costs already incurred, and may have consequences with insurers or other parties beyond our control.

5. Authority to act and contact third parties

To do this work we need your authority to deal with other people on your behalf. When you ask us to act, you authorise us to:

• contact your insurer, the other party's insurer, brokers and claims handlers about the accident;
• instruct and liaise with repairers, engineers, assessors, recovery operators and vehicle suppliers;
• share the information those parties need in order to do their part;
• obtain and pass on documents, estimates, reports and photographs relating to the claim;
• ask a third party to authorise a repair or a cost, and put your position to them.

What this authority does not include:

• We do not settle, compromise or withdraw a claim on your behalf.
• We do not accept or admit liability on your behalf.
• We do not sign documents in your name.
• We do not commit you to a cost without telling you first.
• We do not give legal advice, and we do not act as your legal representative.

You can withdraw this authority at any time by telling us in writing. We will confirm what we have already done and stop acting, though we cannot undo instructions already carried out by a third party.

6. Recovery and storage

Where your vehicle cannot safely or lawfully be driven, we may arrange recovery and storage. Recovery is subject to eligibility, liability, availability and the applicable terms, and is carried out by independent third-party operators rather than by us.

Please remove valuables and personal documents from the vehicle before it is collected, if you are able to. We ask operators and storage sites to take reasonable care, but we cannot accept responsibility for personal items left in a vehicle.

Storage charges accrue for as long as a vehicle is held. Where liability is accepted, those costs are normally recovered from the party at fault or their insurer. Where liability is denied, disputed or cannot be established, they may not be. We will tell you the position before recovery is arranged, and we will keep you informed if it changes, so that you can decide whether to move the vehicle elsewhere.

If you ask us to arrange recovery and then instruct someone else to move the vehicle, please tell us, so that two operators are not sent to the same place.

7. Replacement vehicles

Replacement-vehicle assistance is not automatic and is not offered on every claim. It depends on eligibility, liability, availability and the applicable terms.

Where a vehicle is arranged, it is supplied under a separate written agreement between you and the supplier. You will have the opportunity to read that agreement before you accept the vehicle, and we will go through anything you are unsure about. The agreement, not this page, governs the vehicle itself — including insurance, permitted drivers, mileage, fuel or charging, damage liability and how long you may keep it.

We aim to match reasonable need: broadly similar size and type, with the practical features you rely on. A specific make, model or specification cannot be guaranteed.

Before you accept a vehicle we will tell you, in writing, what you may be responsible for and in what circumstances. Please do not assume there is no cost to you. If liability is later disputed or the claim does not proceed as expected, the position on hire charges can change, and we will tell you as soon as we know.

You must tell us promptly if the vehicle is damaged, breaks down, or is involved in an incident, and you must return it when asked.

8. Repair coordination

Repairs are carried out by independent repairers in our network, not by Sterling Accident. We coordinate allocation, assessment, authorisation and communication, and we manage the repair against the standards we publish for partners.

The repairer is responsible for the repair work itself and for any workmanship guarantee they give. We will tell you what that guarantee is before work starts, and we will pass on the repairer's documentation at handover.

If you are not satisfied with a repair, tell us rather than going back to the repairer alone. We will raise it, get the vehicle re-inspected where appropriate, and press for it to be put right. Our obligation is to coordinate that properly and diligently; we are not the repairer, and we do not warrant their work as our own.

Repair timescales depend on the extent of damage, how quickly authorisation comes back and parts availability. We do not guarantee a completion date. We will give you the repairer's expected date once the vehicle is booked in, and tell you if it moves.

9. Charges

We do not take payment through this website, and we will never ask for your card details by email or telephone.

Our commitment on costs is straightforward: before you incur any cost through us, we will tell you in writing what it is, what it is for, and in what circumstances you would have to pay it. If we have not told you about a charge in advance, we will not ask you to pay it.

In practice, the costs of recovery, storage, repair and any replacement vehicle are normally recovered from the party responsible for the accident, or from their insurer, where liability is accepted. Where liability is denied, disputed, apportioned, or cannot be established, some of those costs may fall to you or to your own insurer. That is why we go through the position with you before anything is arranged rather than afterwards.

You remain responsible for anything that was always yours to pay — for example your policy excess, the cost of work you asked for that is not accident-related, fuel or charging for a replacement vehicle, and any parking or traffic penalties you incur.

We may receive a fee or commission from repairers, hire providers, suppliers or insurers in connection with services we arrange. Where that applies to your claim you may ask us about it, and we will tell you.

10. Our liability

We do not exclude or limit our liability in any way where it would be unlawful to do so. That includes liability for:

• death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
• fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
• any matter for which it would be illegal to exclude or limit liability.

Subject to that:

• We are responsible for carrying out our own services with reasonable care and skill. If we fail to do so and you suffer loss as a result, we are responsible for that loss.
• We are not responsible for the acts or omissions of independent third parties we introduce or instruct on your behalf — repairers, engineers, recovery operators, storage sites, vehicle suppliers or insurers. They are responsible for their own work, and you have rights directly against them. We will help you pursue a problem with any of them.
• We are not responsible for decisions that are not ours to make, including whether an insurer accepts liability, authorises a cost, or agrees a settlement figure.
• We are not responsible for loss caused by inaccurate or incomplete information given to us, or by a failure to tell us about something that affected the claim.
• We are not responsible for delays outside our reasonable control, including parts availability, third party response times, industrial action, extreme weather or events of a similar kind.
• We are not liable for business losses. Our services are provided to you as a consumer; if you use them for any commercial purpose we are not liable for loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption or loss of business opportunity.

Nothing in this section affects your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or any other consumer protection legislation.

11. Cancellation

Because our services are arranged at a distance, as a consumer you have a legal right to cancel within 14 days of the contract being formed, without giving a reason.

There is an important practical point. Accident claims usually need to start immediately, so you will often ask us to begin during that 14-day period. If you do, and you then cancel, you may be asked to pay for the services already provided up to the point you told us, in proportion to what has been done. Where a third party has already incurred a cost at your request — a recovery already carried out, a vehicle already supplied — that cost does not disappear on cancellation.

To cancel, tell us in writing at claims@sterlingaccident.co.uk and we will confirm it back to you in writing. You do not need to use a particular form of words.

Outside the 14-day period you can still ask us to stop acting at any time. Tell us in writing and we will confirm what stage the claim has reached, what happens to anything already arranged, and anything you need to deal with directly from that point.

We may stop acting for the reasons set out in section 3. If we do, we will give you reasonable notice where circumstances allow, and we will not leave you without an explanation of where the claim stands.

12. Complaints

If something has gone wrong, tell us. Email claims@sterlingaccident.co.uk with your vehicle registration and what has happened.

How we handle it:

• We acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days.
• We investigate and give you a written response within 20 working days. If it is complex and we need longer, we will tell you why and when to expect an answer.
• Our response will explain what we found, what we are doing about it, and what to do if you remain unhappy.
• If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you can ask for it to be reviewed by someone who was not involved the first time.

We are not a regulated financial services firm, so the Financial Ombudsman Service does not cover complaints about our accident-management services. Complaints about an insurer, or about a regulated product such as your motor policy, should go to that firm and, if unresolved, to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Your legal rights, including the right to take a matter to court, are unaffected by our complaints procedure.

13. Privacy

How we handle personal information is set out in our Privacy Policy, including what we collect, who we share it with and how long we keep it. How this website uses cookies and browser storage is set out in our Cookie Policy.

14. General

Subcontracting. We use independent repairers, engineers, recovery operators and vehicle suppliers to deliver parts of the service. That is how the service works, and it does not reduce our own obligations to you.

Transfer of this agreement. We may transfer our rights and obligations to another organisation, for example if the business is sold. We will tell you in writing if that happens, and it will not reduce your rights. You may transfer your rights to someone else only with our written agreement.

Third-party rights. This agreement is between you and us. Nobody else has the right to enforce any of its terms.

If a term is unenforceable. If any part of these terms turns out to be unlawful or unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.

Delay is not waiver. If we do not insist on something immediately, or delay taking a step we are entitled to take, that does not prevent us doing so later.

Events outside our control. We are not in breach of these terms where performance is prevented or delayed by something outside our reasonable control. We will tell you, and we will resume as soon as we reasonably can.

Notices. Written notice to us should go to claims@sterlingaccident.co.uk. We will use the email address or postal address you gave us. Please tell us if either changes.

Entire agreement. These terms, together with what we confirm to you in writing when you ask us to act, form the agreement between us. Nothing here excludes liability for anything said fraudulently.

15. Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction over any dispute.

If you live in Scotland, you may also bring proceedings in the Scottish courts, and Scots law may apply. If you live in Northern Ireland, you may also bring proceedings in the Northern Irish courts, and Northern Ireland law may apply. As a consumer you keep the protection of the law of the part of the UK where you live.

16. Contact