car insurance haven't paid up. Help!

NellyB_2

Hi all,
I'm very worried about a problem concerning my car insurance company.
Last June I was involved in a very small incident with another car. I claimed responsibility and filled in all the appropriate forms that my car insurance sent me. (there was no damage at all to the car, i was travelling at 5 miles an hour in crawling traffic, claimant was obviously a bit of a fraudster but anyway..)
About 3 weeks ago i received a County court claim from from the claimant saying that i owed them money. When i phoned the court i was told that my car insurance hadn't paid up or answered any of their correspondance and therefore they were putting a claim against me!
I was told that all i needed to do was phone my insurance company and chase them up.
I did this and my insurance company requested that i send all the forms to their office. I sent off the forms 2 weeks ago.
Today i have returned from work to find a Judgment for Claimant form demanding that i pay them the sum of money, an incredible and circumspect £2400!! It says clearly on the form that if i don't pay within 14 days, baliffs will be round! I am really scared and worried. I am a young teacher and don't want this going on my record.
Do they have any right to send the claim form to me when i have car insurance? Shouldn't it be against them?
I have tried to contact my car insurance but they close at 5pm.
Please can someone help me as i have no idea what my rights are or what to do!!
Thanks
xx

Quentin

The claim has been correctly made against you, but your insurers should be able to sort this out and get the judgement removed from your record.

Whatever the amount that has to be paid to the claimant, this will be sorted by your insurer. SO try not to worry, and get on to a manager tomorrow!

mutley74

Quentin wrote: »

The claim has been correctly made against you, but your insurers should be able to sort this out and get the judgement removed from your record.

Whatever the amount that has to be paid to the claimant, this will be sorted by your insurer. SO try not to worry, and get on to a manager tomorrow!

can you not get a fax number for your insurance company?

Please name and shame your insurance company as they sound like one to avoid

NellyB_2

Thanks Quentin, that's really put my mind at ease! I will get on to them first thing tomorrow, I can't believe how badly they've handled (or rather not handled) the whole thing. And car insurance isn't exactly cheap, what exactly have I paid for!
The company in question is a very well known international bank , whose name is made up of 4 Capital letters. "The world's local bank" That's why it's so surprising! I certainly won't be using them again!

pedro123456

Is it HSBC Nelly?

Z

dogbot

Are you actualy insured with HSBC or have they acted as broker?

This is a terrible thing to happen for a customer and most companies should and DO have processes to stop it happening. (For example, they should fast track any court papers and deal with that claim as soon as they know about it, either entering a defence or paying the claim). Unfortunatly if a case ends up with a lackluster handler or a bit of post gets lost, sometimes things fall through the cracks. Then again, the company may just not have a decent process firmed up.

Make sure you make a formal complaint about their lack of responsiveness since you have done nothing wrong and they have c*cked up bigtime. This complaint will make sure the issue gets to their head office and management should take steps to review what has gone wrong to improve things either in the process or staff training. (O.K. this is how it should work, and I am happy to say would work where I work, but I can't answere for HSBC!!).