CO-OP Car Insurance + Albany Assistance - Non-Fault Claim Help Pls

123sonny123
123sonny123 Posts: 118
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edited 14 January 2011 at 5:03PM in Insurance & life assurance
Hi all,

I will try to keep this as concise as possible. Your constructive help is massively appreciated. My dad was hit from behind in October 2009. The other person admitted liability.

Coop asked "Albany Assistance" to take over' our claim. They sent out a courtesy car. What I now know is that my dad misunderstandingly signed a 'Vehicle Hire Agreement'.

We rang Albany Assistance over the next few months to get back £150 we had paid (excess, I assume). They said they were still chasing up the Thirdy Party Insurer (TPI).

A few months ago, just before he was going away for treatment for his health, my dad received a letter from Scott Rees & Co Solicitors asking him to sign and send the form back. It asked whether he wants to claim back hire charges OR Hire charges + any other charges. He ticked only hire charges.

Yesterday Scott Rees and Co, sent us a big .pdf file containing details of a court appearance in 2 weeks time, 20 mins down the road from where we live. They've included 20 bullit points as MY Statement of Truth. Some are just utter tosh. They want a strong statement so that "we" can win.This Statement counts as "our" evidence. For example...

. I am informed the Defendant was offered a reduction on the Daily Rate of Hire on the strict proviso that payment ws made within 3 months of being invoiced. The Defendent chose not to take advantage of this offer

--> I have no idea if this is true or not.

. At the time of hiring, I beleived the daily rate of hire to be reasonable

. I can confirm that the T&Cs of Hire were verbally explained to me over the phone and during this convoersation, the right to cancel was explained to me. I was happy with the T&Cs of Hire and a contract was verbally agreed with the hire company at this point. There was no trader present, or employee of the hire company with me when this intiial conversation took place.

. This documentation was released to me ...I signed it and returned it to the hire company - essentially executing an already agreed contract.

. At the time of entering the hire agreement I fully understood that I was personally liable for the cost of hire . I fully expect the negligent Defendent to meet these expenses.

and many more points..

--> We did not understand this at all!


They also want means testing done if we could not have afforded car hire at the time (which I couldn't).This includes A/c details, debt details and much, much more.

They also say my dad will be cross-examined by the TPI in court! My dad's english is not that good :(

If the TPI, the Insurance Giant AXA, didn't believe they have a good chance of winning, why would they take it to court? Or are they just bluffing? We are so confused and more importantly, worried.


I phoned the COOP and asked why i just didn't get a COURTESY car (and not a hire car) at the time. They (twice - 2 different people) fobbed me off by saying CO OP legal services decided to use Albany as this is what the coop does.

They told me to just "go with the flow and not to worry"

I phoned Albany and they said I won't be charged for anything as long as i don't tell them anything false. Apparently, I fall under their Credit Protection Insurance.


We know my dad shouldn't have signed the vehicle hire form, but he honestly didn't know. He has been driving for 30 years and has never come across anything like this. 2 years ago we had a similar claim with More Than, who did the "usual" thing of supplying the courtesy car and then we returned it once our car was fixed. Nothing to pay. So, he assumed it would be similar this time. We have learnt our lesson.

My mom's disabled and this is stressing her out a lot. I rang the Financial Ombudsman today and they said they will send out a letter of complaint to the CO OP saying I wasn't happy with their service. I will probably get a call saying the same thing: "to go with the flow".


It seems both the CO OP and Albany are looking to make a quick buck out of me. If I pull out now, I may be liable to pay Albany. Therefore, it seems as though I have to go along with these 2 pirates and let them have their treasure.

Should my dad be worried?


Thank you




Sonny


ps. I may need to ask Albany for a copy of their T&Cs for their Vehicle Hire Agreement, as we don't trus them all. Their service and website is absolutely useless.
:beer:

Comments

  • Anybody, please?
    :beer:
  • Sorry, Can't offer advise but you are not the only one. A work collegue has been summonsed to appear at Brighton Crown Court in 2 weeks becouse a third party insurer is claiming £5,000 of hire fees against him although he was in a no fault accident where the third party admitted liability.

    This was Admiral Insurance and Albany Car Hire.

    Like your father he signed the hire agreement in good faith and thought nothing of it.

    This is a self perpetuating insurance scam.

    Just make sure you have a good solicitor.

    I had a claim against me from Avis for damaging a hire car. They lost becouse I photographed the damage to the hire car before I took possession.

    My advise. Read the small print. There is normally a 2 week hire period . If you don't ask the insurer if you can continue the hire then you are subject to charges...or

    as my wife did last year, get the garage doing the repairs to sign the hire agreement. They then become liable should the repairs take longer, after all they are an approved repairer selected by the insurance company.
  • Quentin
    Quentin Posts: 40,405 Forumite
    It won't be the third party insurance company bringing this case.

    It will be them being summonsed over not paying the bill. But you do need to co-operate over this (and will have agreed to do so when taking out the insurance policy originally).

    As long as you do, then there should be no need to worry. If you are unhappy with the statement as they have prepared it, then correct it and ask them to change it in line with your corrections.
  • adamc260
    adamc260 Posts: 2,055 Forumite
    My post won't be overly helpful but its very sad that your insurer palm you off to these companies who then have you go through all this hassle ... I do hope it gets sorted though
  • Thanks to your post (and other Albany complaints on this forum), I've just avoided using these guys. They'd been in touch saying they were acting on behalf of my insurers the Co-operative, offering me a hire car, ran through the terms & conditions etc, being quite pushy, insisting I agree to the T's & C's about being liable for the costs if 3rd party didnt pay out, saying I had to pay my £300 excess first then claim back later etc etc.... when my alarm bells started ringing that this cannot be right as I'm non-fault and see no need to pay first and claim later. I googled Albany Assistance and found so many customers being taken to court and horror stories such as yours that I rang back immediately and said no thanks I'm contacting the 3rd party insurer direct and sorting it myself. Thank you MSE! The 3rd party are picking mine up, dropping a courtesy car off and hopefully things go smoothly *touch wood*
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