By taking out Comprehensive Cover, people in the United Kingdom are not only covered for third party claims after an incident, they are also covered for damage caused to their own vehicle or building (examples include: fire, fallen trees, flooding).
[citation needed] Depending on the policy there would be different excess payments made to the garage that repairs the vehicle, and insurers normally need to authorise the estimate before repairs can proceed.
[1] Once the authorised garage has completed the repairs, the policyholder would then pay that garage their excess payment and the insurers would pay the remainder.
In some cases, they could be unsuccessful, or due to the lack of evidence only manage to agree 50/50 split and get half their losses back.
In some cases the insured would have legal cover to help them recover their own financial un-insured losses, the excess would be included on that.