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What a Third-Party Claim Is
A third-party claim is one where someone else is responsible for the damage and you, or your insurer on your behalf, recover the cost from them. The 'third party' is the at-fault driver: you are the first party, your insurer the second, and the person who caused the damage the third.
The route the claim takes depends on two things — whether you hold comprehensive cover, and whether the at-fault driver is insured. Those two facts between them decide whether you claim through your own insurer, chase the other driver directly, or both.
When the At-Fault Driver Is Insured
If the other driver is clearly to blame and carries cover, their insurer is liable for your repair, your excess and reasonable associated costs such as car hire. The key is leaving the scene with their full insurance details — insurer name and policy number, alongside their personal and vehicle details.
This is the cleanest scenario, but it can be slow, because the other insurer will investigate fault before paying. If you have comprehensive cover, you usually do not have to wait for them — your own insurer steps in first, as the next section explains.
Subrogation — Your Insurer Pays First
With comprehensive cover, your own insurer repairs your car promptly and then pursues the at-fault driver's insurer to recover what it paid. This recovery process is called subrogation, and it is the fastest way to get your vehicle back on the road.
You pay your excess up front, and it is refunded to you once the recovery succeeds and fault is confirmed against the other party. So a not-at-fault claim should ultimately cost you nothing, provided the evidence supports your account.
When the Other Driver Is Uninsured
A large share of South African drivers carry no insurance at all, so being hit by an uninsured driver is a real risk. If you have comprehensive cover, your own insurer still repairs your car — the absence of the other party's insurer does not leave you stranded.
What changes is recovery: there is no other insurer to subrogate against, so your insurer cannot reclaim its outlay, and your excess is not automatically refunded. You can, however, pursue the uninsured driver personally for your excess and uninsured losses, which the next section covers.
Recovering Directly From an Uninsured Driver
Where the at-fault driver has no insurer, you can claim against them personally — through the small claims court for amounts within its limit, or by ordinary civil action for larger sums. The small claims route is cheap and needs no lawyer, which suits recovering an excess and modest losses.
Success depends on having identified the driver properly and on solid evidence of fault: their full details, your photographs, witness statements and the police case number. Without those, a direct claim is very hard to pursue, which is why the scene discipline matters so much.
The Road Accident Fund for Injuries
Vehicle damage and bodily injury are handled separately. The Road Accident Fund compensates people injured in motor accidents — for medical costs, lost income and general damages — regardless of which driver was at fault, and it is funded by the fuel levy rather than by either driver's insurer.
RAF claims are strictly time-bound: broadly three years from the accident where the responsible driver is identified, and two years in a hit-and-run. Because the fund is separate from motor insurance, you can run an RAF injury claim and a motor third-party claim for the car at the same time.
How to Maximise Your Recovery
Recovery lives or dies on evidence gathered at the scene. Collect the third party's full details — name, ID, address, phone, vehicle registration, insurer and policy number — photograph everything, take witness contacts, and open a police case for the reference number.
Then submit the full evidence pack to your insurer promptly. A complete, well-documented file is what lets a subrogation succeed and your excess come back; a thin one is what leaves a recovery stalled and the excess unrefunded.