Car insurance claim

big_pimple_0000

In mid december i was involved in an accident whereby another car entered a large round about (quite quickly) without looking and went into the side of me. He was very appologetic and clearly admitted it was "his fault". It was a great inpact leavin me on the grass round about after spinning through 180 degrees. There is also a witness to him saying it was his fault.

I contacted my insurance (less/more than) and their engineers have declared the car written off, and have paid out for the car. Although i sruggle to replace it at that offer, but ah well.

Now, the first lot of correspondance i had from more than has been the cheque recieved over christmas and the second a demand for the return of the certificate of insurance. Are they all this hard faced.

During the telephone calls to more than , of what i understood, it is up to me to persue the liability, how do i go about this?

I find it strange that that it is up to me to ascertain who is at fault when i would assume this is the job of the insurers. As i understand there is currently a claim against my insurance for paying out on my car, how is this dealt with. They are very unco-operative, and give as little information as possible.

I have contacted the third party insurers directly and have addresses for which to write, however i would assume that it would be correct for a legal professional to do this and charge accordingly?

I am confused about the whole process and am waffling now. If anyone could help with best possible next steps it would be very much appreciated.

Kind regards,

LadyIndecisive

Hi pimple.

Sounds like an inept (or 'morethan' one - lol - get me) claim handler at your insurer has confused a simple situation.

There are two parts of the claim: the insured loss and the uninsured loss(es). The first is the total loss value of your vehicle (less excess) which has been paid by your insurer, less salvage value. This is claimed by morethan from the 'fault' parties insurance company. To enable this part of the claim to proceed your insurer simply needs to be in receipt of your account (sometimes written) of the accident and the details of the other party. Assuming they agree you were not to blame they will seek a full recovery.

The uninsured losses is your excess, any injury sustained (if applicable) and generally other misc losses. You need to ask your check your motor policy first to see if you paid for legal cover on top of your Comp cover. If so your uninsured losses will be claimed for you under this policy, but you will need to instigate a separate claim.

If you don't have legal cover this is a separate issue, so write back.

lisyloo

During the telephone calls to more than , of what i understood, it is up to me to persue the liability, how do i go about this?

Sounds to me like they are fobbing you off.
If you have an independent witness (not one of your own passengers) then your insurance company should pursue you insured losses from the 3rd party and once they have recouped the cost then this should change from a "fault" claim to a "non-fault" claim which means it doesn't count against you.

If they won't do anything then start an official complaint (make sure you follow their complaints procedure which you'll find in your policy booklet or on their website).
Often getting the complaints department involved gets things moving, but if not then eventually you will have recourse to the independent ombudsman.

Your uninsured losses (excess, person injury, time off etc.) are not covered by your insurer so you either need to use your legal insurance or if you don't have it then you will need to either do it yourself through the courts or get a claims handler involved. They will do it for you and claim their fees from the third party.

big_pimple_0000

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I have had a really busy time running all over the country to job interviews and then finally getting a job. Which reminds me - I should tell the car insurer really soon.

Right then. Thanks for the replies - this makes it far easier to understand.

Insurerd losses for which they have paid out on. I will be in touch with them but can't see why they wouldn't chase this as I assume they want to reclaim this money for themselves from the other insurer. Although some correspondance from them would be nice. Will phone them later next week to check on this.

Uninsured losses - no legal protection taken. Never do this again, didn't really understand why they were there until now. I like the sound of the claims handler route. They total a taxi to get home after accident, a few days car hire (about 6 or 7 days to get around and well before cheque recieved) and the excess of £250. What is the best action to take on this.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Pimple

big_pimple_0000

Oh and the witness to the other driver admitting it was his fault is indepent - a passer by who stopped.

LadyIndecisive

Hi bigpimple

You probably don't need an external claims management firm to help you on this, and in any event they generally fund themselves by selling personal injury claims to solicitors and/or receiving kick-backs from credit hire companies. Thus, I doubt your minimal claim will interest them. If you contact one the issue of injury will raise it's head I'm sure & you may find it suggested that you claim for this.

If you were not injured then it seems your uninsured loss claim is fairly simple and you have mitigated your losses. You can write to the third party insurers yourself with documentary evidence of your losses and detail why you hold their driver responsible. Send them the taxi receipt, the hire agreement and invoice and something that confirms the excess deducted (this may be on the remittance advice attached to the total loss cheque). Point out that you hired a comparative vehicle (assume you did) for the lowest number of days possible (again, assuming you did) and explain why you needed a hire car & the date you received the total loss cheque. The third party insurer will probably contact your insurer to verify the last point. Tell your insurer you are claiming these items so they do not agree any liability settlement which may prejudice your claim.

This is what I would do, and it's fairly simple even if you don't work in insurance.

That's it in a nutshell. HTH.