Insurance company not paying-up after no-fault car accident - any advice, any legal-eagles hereabouts?

[BoldonLad]

Not something I personally tend to buy, but, do you have a "Legal" add-on with your insurance. If yes, a call to them may yield useful advice, even action.

 

[Kingfisher101]

Insurers try to wriggle out of paying all the time. You need to see a Solicitor I'd say. Or try the CAB first as they have free legal advise.
I think you have to put in a complaint first to the actual insurer as well before you take legal action. Obviously you can get legal advice at any time.

 

[Mrs M]

Dears
3 months ago, late one bright clear night on an empty 4 lane motorway I got rear-ended at speed by an E-class Merc Taxi which wrote off our recently purchased and much loved VW Transporter camper. Absolutely no fault of mine - was doing 60mph on the inside lane minding my own business. The Police are prosecuting the driver for driving without due care and attention.

Police arrived and did all the necessary. Our insurance company (Via an accident Management Company) were very efficient at getting the vehicle to a compound and providing us with a hire car etc. We were quick in providing all requested details. between a week and 10 days an independent inspector assessed the damage and gave a valuation to both our and the TP insurance company.
Since then, they will not pay. They think the independent valuation is wrong/too high as they found a much cheaper 'similar vehicle' on ebay!
We have provided evidence from the market that the valuation is in the ball-park - from the sales website of the company who converted our van.
We have even submitted a copy of our purchase order - we'd not had it 3 months!
We are still waiting with very limited information on progress etc. despite constant emails and calls to the accident handling company and trying to escalate it within their organisation.
They inform me that all communication with the TP insurer is via a'Portal' and so they don't communicate man to man.

Am at a loss what to do. It's a simple case, we've had to sign an extended lease for the hire car (which TP insurer is paying for) which was ~£200 per day! That's £18 frickin grand (on paper - that may not be what's actually being paid). Even so, it's wasted money.
The hire car doesn't have a tow-bar so we haven't been able to go away in our caravan for 3 months either - no compensation for that.

This seems a stupid state of affairs. We in limbo and it could have been sorted weeks ago. I don't see who is benefitting here.

Where can I get advice? RAC/AA, Ombudsman, Citizens advice, any friendly CC lawyers, etc.

Thoughts?

Verypissedoff

Sorry you’re in this ridiculous situation.
Hope this is resolved in your favour xx

 

[Slick]

No, the Insurance company employ an accident management company to do the dirty work with the 3rd party Insurance company....

I've never heard of that before, but it must be 20 years or more since I've been involved with a claim like yours. I still think its all about negotiation though, but best of luck with it.

 

[Sharky]

I do remember my dad having a claim, and the other party being prosecuted by the police. The insurance company would not payout until the verdict from the courts had been established. This might be a factor in your situation?

 

[Beebo]

My aim would be to agree the value of the vehicle with your insurance company.

The value that the third party will reimburse them is of no concern to you. That’s their problem, not yours.

 

[Broadside]

I've never heard of that before, but it must be 20 years or more since I've been involved with a claim like yours. I still think its all about negotiation though, but best of luck with it.

We had a no fault write off in 2020, my insurers passed it out to Auxilus who are a big accident management company. Much of it was straight forward and they paid out in about 6 weeks, they came up with a reasonable valuation so I jumped at it and incidentally bought a VW Transporter.

It was not all plain sailing though. They provided a hire car at no cost to me, the rental was £150 per day. We got rear ended in that, again no fault so they gave us another. However while the damaged car was off the road we are liable for the loss of hire charges of 10 days plus costs. That bit is still going through the courts, I had legal cover so I’ve seen no bill yet but if it all goes to rats I will have to pay an undisclosed sum. It is a minefield for the uninitiated.

Best of luck @fabfoodie. They should provide a similar vehicle, a towbar was essential for me so I queried it and they gave me another vehicle with a towbar, it was a nice side benefit that all they could offer was a Range Rover Evoque which is a sort of car that I would never dream of owning.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Stick with it, they are hoping you'll give up negotiating so they can pay you less. They are all b4rst3erds. My partner had her garden wall demilished by a drunk driver. Home insurance took 6 weeks to say "it's not us, you need to go through the driver's car insurance". Another weeks of waiting, then the insurers said get a quote for the wall. She got 2 quotes which were 7.5k and 6.5k. Insurers said that was too much, insited on their own assessor, who said it would cost 9k. 1 year later the wall was repaired to a much lower standard and the insurers were out 9k. They do not know what they are doing half the time, and their only tactic is to offer rock bottom prices, delay delay delay, then hope you give up and settle for their measly offer. It's all a con, and the innocent party ends up significantly out of pocket.

But, get the right advice and you may claw back most of it. Be prepared to set a limit on your time, patience, and how much you are willing to lose financially.

You could involve the insurance ombudsman but if you google Insurance Ombudsman you will see a lot of negative reviews where they take months to even acknolwedge your claim, and often do little else to help. They have been described as a ghost organisation, a shambles, and a total joke (from the reviews I remember reading)

 

[Emanresu]

Or try the CAB first as they have free legal advise.

Just a heads up on this. CAB do not offer legal advice as it is a "reserved" profession for those who are qualified and ironically, insured. There are only a small number of CAB's with a Legal Aid contract can offer a very narrow range of qualified advice - usually domestic violence.

Back on subject. My car was rear ended on a country road and was referred to a Claims Management Company. After about 40 mins on the phone answering some detailed personal questions, suddenly realised the amount of information being requested was similar to most scam artists. Hung up and phoned the insurers direct. Luckily the other driver was with the same insurers so got a quick reasonable settlement. As car was a W/O, they arrange for the car to be taken away. Just purchased another one.

However ..... having given your data to the CMC you will be hounded by ambulance chasers who try to imply you should claim for whiplash etc. Suggest you extract yourself from the CMC as it might cost you money in the long run e.g. hire charges not covered insurance policy / fees not covered insurance policy etc.

 

[fossyant]

The only thing is to stick to your guns and send in lots of 'adverts' from auto trader for similar vehicles, rather than their one add off ebay. You aren't going to pick up a Transporter cheap anywhere, fact. Pester your insurers to get this resolved.

The third party won't want to pay out. The biggest scams are the hire cars. I have refused to take one in the past, as we can manage without one, as it adds another layer of complication and dispute (have they disputed hire costs yet - that's another common one).

The vehicle is written off, there are no repairs being done, no need to wait. This is stupidity as it's just cost them £££'s in hire charges. Had they resolved this straight away, there wouldn't be month's of hire costs, and it would probably be cheaper to have settled at a mutually agreed amount. Thing is, it will be one claim handler being an ass, then it will move to another as that person has moved on, and it starts again.

I had numerous 'claim handlers' whilst my Personal accident claim went through during the four years, and even my 'solicitor' changed (same company, solicitor got another job). Everything then starts again.

 

[Kingfisher101]

Just a heads up on this. CAB do not offer legal advice as it is a "reserved" profession for those who are qualified and ironically, insured. There are only a small number of CAB's with a Legal Aid contract can offer a very narrow range of qualified advice - usually domestic violence.

Back on subject. My car was rear ended on a country road and was referred to a Claims Management Company. After about 40 mins on the phone answering some detailed personal questions, suddenly realised the amount of information being requested was similar to most scam artists. Hung up and phoned the insurers direct. Luckily the other driver was with the same insurers so got a quick reasonable settlement. As car was a W/O, they arrange for the car to be taken away. Just purchased another one.

However ..... having given your data to the CMC you will be hounded by ambulance chasers who try to imply you should claim for whiplash etc. Suggest you extract yourself from the CMC as it might cost you money in the long run e.g. hire charges not covered insurance policy / fees not covered insurance policy etc.

Well they did offer free legal advise at the one I used to volunteer at a few years ago. It was mainly immigration issues then. There were qualified solicitors that came in from a Law Centre. Obviously things change over the years.

 

[Electric_Andy]

from auto trader for similar vehicles, rather than their one add off ebay

This is a good point. An ebay sale is not always indicative of market value. They might have sold it to a friend of a friend at mate's rates but wanted to utilize ebay for money management and security. Or as my wife has done a couple times, used ebay so she can use PayPal credit. Or the seller may have part-exed it for a staffy.

 

[presta]

was referred to a Claims Management Company

By who?
I've had 5 motor claims, and none of them were any less straightforward than just ringing my own insurance company.

The third party won't want to pay out.

That's the insurance company's problem, not the policyholder's (assuming fully comp).

The last prang I had was interesting: the traffic stopped, I stopped, the car behind didn't, and then the car behind her didn't either. The woman that ran into the back of me didn't have fully comp insurance, so she tried to get me to make a statement that the car at the back had pushed her car into mine. I don't think I made myself very popular by refusing, especially as she was the daughter of a guy at work.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Dears

Thanks for all your input here. It's been a torrid bloody process and we're near the end. Will update you with the final story, there are some learnings I think....

 

[Emanresu]

By who?
I've had 5 motor claims, and none of them were any less straightforward than just ringing my own insurance company.

Totally agree. Give them a swerve and deal directly. Someone (can't remember who) took advantage of my lack of accidents and knowledge of the process. After 5 accidents you must be an expert now. 😉