LV car insurance advice please?
hairypitz
Posts: 78 Forumite
An insured vehicle hit my car (while it was parked and I was elsewhere) back in mid- October. Luckily I was parked outside a police station so the person who hit me was stopped by two police officers who took his details, ascertained he had insurance and left a note on my windscreen with all the necessary details on.
I passed this to my insurer, LV, who I'm afraid to say have been incredibly inactive and at times rude and unhelpful too.
They first suggested I should get my car repaired, but wanted to charge me my £500 excess until the claim came through from the 3rd party insurer. I wasn't happy to do that because I'm a student and don't have £500 spare to fix my own car when I'm not at fault. So my car has had a big dent in it since October.
When I asked about timeframes, one of the call centre staff at LV spoke to me in a rude and condescending manner. I had to tell him I found his tone unacceptable and not what I expected from my insurer, who I paid money to for a service. Was given profuse apology.
I then heard nothing from LV regarding progress with my claim so I contacted them early in November. They had 2 possible insurance companies to contact but when 1st turned out not to be the insurer they hadn't bothered to contact the second! So I had to ask them could they do so.
I contacted them again in mid November to find out if they'd had any luck with the 2nd insurance company. They had ascertained that the van that hit mine was insured with Aviva. Aviva now had 2 weeks to investigate the claim. If at the end of 2 weeks they hadn't got back to LV to settle, LV assured me they would send off for a police report. Aviva had until 26/11/12.
I contacted LV again this morning 24/12/12 as you do on Christmas Eve. They didn't bother putting in the police report until 21/12/12. They told me it would take 4-5 weeks to process and if Aviva did not admit liability by then LV would be able to send the report over and force them to admit liability.
My phonecall also prompted them to contact Aviva again about why they haven't yet admitted liability. However they were fobbed off by Aviva wanting more time for the bloke who drove his van into my car to respond to their letter. According to LV, Aviva must admit liability if they don't hear anything within 21 days of sending him the letter. Avila refused to tell LV the date they sent the letter out though.
So is there anything I can do? I've made a complaint to LV about their lack of timeliness and how I've had to chase them on 0845 numbers to get them to do their job. Apparently they're going to get back to me by the end of the week. My car still has a dent in it that needs repairing and I'm considering contacting the FSA about LV's 'service'. Should I also include Aviva in my correspondence to the FSA?
On top of all of this I had to renew my car insurance through LV at the end of November as the case was still ongoing. I also had to admit on my renewal that I had a claim ongoing so I've lost 4 years NCB, despite being completely not at fault. I am reasonably incensed by now and any advice would be appreciated.
Happy Chrimbo!
I passed this to my insurer, LV, who I'm afraid to say have been incredibly inactive and at times rude and unhelpful too.
They first suggested I should get my car repaired, but wanted to charge me my £500 excess until the claim came through from the 3rd party insurer. I wasn't happy to do that because I'm a student and don't have £500 spare to fix my own car when I'm not at fault. So my car has had a big dent in it since October.
When I asked about timeframes, one of the call centre staff at LV spoke to me in a rude and condescending manner. I had to tell him I found his tone unacceptable and not what I expected from my insurer, who I paid money to for a service. Was given profuse apology.
I then heard nothing from LV regarding progress with my claim so I contacted them early in November. They had 2 possible insurance companies to contact but when 1st turned out not to be the insurer they hadn't bothered to contact the second! So I had to ask them could they do so.
I contacted them again in mid November to find out if they'd had any luck with the 2nd insurance company. They had ascertained that the van that hit mine was insured with Aviva. Aviva now had 2 weeks to investigate the claim. If at the end of 2 weeks they hadn't got back to LV to settle, LV assured me they would send off for a police report. Aviva had until 26/11/12.
I contacted LV again this morning 24/12/12 as you do on Christmas Eve. They didn't bother putting in the police report until 21/12/12. They told me it would take 4-5 weeks to process and if Aviva did not admit liability by then LV would be able to send the report over and force them to admit liability.
My phonecall also prompted them to contact Aviva again about why they haven't yet admitted liability. However they were fobbed off by Aviva wanting more time for the bloke who drove his van into my car to respond to their letter. According to LV, Aviva must admit liability if they don't hear anything within 21 days of sending him the letter. Avila refused to tell LV the date they sent the letter out though.
So is there anything I can do? I've made a complaint to LV about their lack of timeliness and how I've had to chase them on 0845 numbers to get them to do their job. Apparently they're going to get back to me by the end of the week. My car still has a dent in it that needs repairing and I'm considering contacting the FSA about LV's 'service'. Should I also include Aviva in my correspondence to the FSA?
On top of all of this I had to renew my car insurance through LV at the end of November as the case was still ongoing. I also had to admit on my renewal that I had a claim ongoing so I've lost 4 years NCB, despite being completely not at fault. I am reasonably incensed by now and any advice would be appreciated.
Happy Chrimbo!
0
Comments
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If you have the other drivers details Why are you claiming on YOUR insurance.
Totally baffled.Be happy...;)0 -
The police told me to contact my insurance company to sort out the claim. I was given the name, address, DOB and registration number of the guy who hit me. They didn't give me the name of the insurer and it's a work van that went into me, so he was insured by his employer.
I've never experienced having to claim for damages from another drivers insurance company before so I just did what the police told me to do.
Was this the wrong thing to do given the fact it was his works insurer? I do have the claim number and contact details for Aviva now, should I contact them too? I assumed my insurance company did this.
Oh and I'm not claiming on my insurance but when I went to renew LV made me say that I had an ongoing claim because they 'weren't able to guarantee that it wouln't be settled 50/50', despite my protestations that it was no such thing. because The claim is open and Aviva haven't admitted liability I could only either close the claim and lose hope of getting my car repaired or lose my NCB until it is proven that I am not at fault and the liability is solely with Aviva's client.0 -
You dont claim from the other drivers insurance, you claim from the other driver, it is up to the other driver to then claim on his insurance.
Unfortunately until you have been through this mill once, you dont know the ropes and pitfalls of claiming on your insurance for someone else's damage.
It is often a very expensive lesson.Be happy...;)0 -
An insured vehicle hit my car (while it was parked and I was elsewhere) back in mid- October. Luckily I was parked outside a police station so the person who hit me was stopped by two police officers who took his details, ascertained he had insurance and left a note on my windscreen with all the necessary details on.
I passed this to my insurer, LV, who I'm afraid to say have been incredibly inactive and at times rude and unhelpful too.
They first suggested I should get my car repaired, but wanted to charge me my £500 excess until the claim came through from the 3rd party insurer. I wasn't happy to do that because I'm a student and don't have £500 spare to fix my own car when I'm not at fault. So my car has had a big dent in it since October.
When I asked about timeframes, one of the call centre staff at LV spoke to me in a rude and condescending manner. I had to tell him I found his tone unacceptable and not what I expected from my insurer, who I paid money to for a service. Was given profuse apology.
I then heard nothing from LV regarding progress with my claim so I contacted them early in November. They had 2 possible insurance companies to contact but when 1st turned out not to be the insurer they hadn't bothered to contact the second! So I had to ask them could they do so.
I contacted them again in mid November to find out if they'd had any luck with the 2nd insurance company. They had ascertained that the van that hit mine was insured with Aviva. Aviva now had 2 weeks to investigate the claim. If at the end of 2 weeks they hadn't got back to LV to settle, LV assured me they would send off for a police report. Aviva had until 26/11/12.
I contacted LV again this morning 24/12/12 as you do on Christmas Eve. They didn't bother putting in the police report until 21/12/12. They told me it would take 4-5 weeks to process and if Aviva did not admit liability by then LV would be able to send the report over and force them to admit liability.
My phonecall also prompted them to contact Aviva again about why they haven't yet admitted liability. However they were fobbed off by Aviva wanting more time for the bloke who drove his van into my car to respond to their letter. According to LV, Aviva must admit liability if they don't hear anything within 21 days of sending him the letter. Avila refused to tell LV the date they sent the letter out though.
So is there anything I can do? I've made a complaint to LV about their lack of timeliness and how I've had to chase them on 0845 numbers to get them to do their job. Apparently they're going to get back to me by the end of the week. My car still has a dent in it that needs repairing and I'm considering contacting the FSA about LV's 'service'. Should I also include Aviva in my correspondence to the FSA?
On top of all of this I had to renew my car insurance through LV at the end of November as the case was still ongoing. I also had to admit on my renewal that I had a claim ongoing so I've lost 4 years NCB, despite being completely not at fault. I am reasonably incensed by now and any advice would be appreciated.
Happy Chrimbo!
Hi Hairypitz
I'm sorry to see your post. If you can send me the below information to social@aviva.co.uk I can pass this to our claims team to see if we can help speed up the process for you.
Can you please email me the following details:
Your full name
Date of birth
Vehicle registration
The registration of our insured
Your MSE username so we can link your email to this post
As soon as I have the details I'll have this looked into for you.
Many thanks,
Dave Hyam
Aviva UK Social Media Support0 -
Ok so I have the drivers name, address, DOB and the vehicle reg of his works van. Is it still worth me writing a letter to him or knocking on his door and asking him to admit liability with his insurer and respond to the letter they have sent him?
Aviva are now part way through dealing with this and I have a claim number. I think they either have to admit liability in 3 weeks time or failing that once LV send them the police report in 4-5 weeks.
I've been told that once liability is admitted I will have my NCB reinstated and I'll get a refund from LV of the extra it's cost me to reinsure with only 5 yrs NCB rather than 9+. Knowing LV I'll have to chase them for it.
Cheers for letting me know about claiming from the driver. The police gave me instructions otherwise, to contact my insurer and have them find out who his van was insured with. Not to contact him direct. Oh well.0 -
spacey2012 wrote: »You dont claim from the other drivers insurance, you claim from the other driver, it is up to the other driver to then claim on his insurance.
Unfortunately until you have been through this mill once, you dont know the ropes and pitfalls of claiming on your insurance for someone else's damage.
It is often a very expensive lesson.
You can claim from the other drivers insurance.0 -
Hi Dave (Aviva company representative)
I've just seen your post. Will email the details now.
Cheers.0 -
No you are to far down the dance now.
On hindsight, obtaining 3 quotes and invoicing the other driver for the damage was the way forward and informing your insurer for record purposes only was the way.
Insurance companies can not be trusted, they love this 50/50 agreement they appear to have going on where both parties get screwed over for years.Be happy...;)0 -
Thanks for letting me know that. Hopefully this won't happen again (it's been an absolute nightmare) ... But if it does I'll go straight for 3 quotes and an invoice.
Totally with you wrt insurance companies. I thought LV would be reasonably OK but I really haven't enjoyed my interactions with them one bit.
Would you recommend going to the FSA about their handling of this. If it gets things changed for others I'm more than happy. Nobody should have to put up with this kind of shoddy service.0 -
.........They first suggested I should get my car repaired, but wanted to charge me my £500 excess until the claim came through from the 3rd party insurer. I wasn't happy to do that because I'm a student and don't have £500 spare to fix my own car when I'm not at fault. So my car has had a big dent in it since October...........
Your excess is not covered by your policy, and is always payable if you make a claim off your policy irrespective of who is to blame.
(If you have a third party who is responsible, then you claim back your uninsured losses including your excess from them)
(If you can't afford your voluntary excess, then take a lower one next time you renew!) If your car was badly damaged, you might have no choice but to get it repaired immediately and the garage wouldn't give it back till you paid the excess.
As you haven't actually made a claim off your policy yet (ie your insurer has not had to pay out for your repairs), then your insurer has little reason or incentive to pursue the third party - next time either get repairs done straightaway or see if the responsible third party insurer has an "innocent third party claims department".
If so they will deal with everything, supply a replacement car if needed, no excess to pay, no (temporary) loss of NCD, no multiple quotes to get (you can take your car to your choice of dealer) etc.
You haven't had shoddy service if you have decided not to claim! It takes months to conclude a claim between insurers even when there is no argument about liability!
You have caused the delay by refusing to pay your excess and proceed with repairs.
Before you can involve the FOS (FSA can't take your complaint), you need to complain first to your insurer using their complaints procedure. If unhappy with their response then escalate to the FOS.0
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