Albany Assistance Court Case

caela_2

Right guys, I hope everyone with any knowledge can help me here as quickly as possible as I am desperate to resolve a case with Albany. Grr.
Basically, way back in 2006, I was hit by a third party who admitted liability (he simply drove into my parked car). As I was only third party fire and theft insured, I used my legal protection cover, issued by Albany Assistance, to pursue the third party.
Albany's efforts were very poor and I believe their neglect led to me losing out on the cost of repairs to my car (nearly £1,000), not to mention all the stress and effort endured.
Basically, I'm not sure Albany even did a DVLA search to find the third party. However, they obtained an 'incomplete' address and wrote to that, 'hoping a neighbour would pass on corrspondence if the third party did not live at that address' (quote). Their entire efforts consisted of sending letters to an address they knew was wrong and telling me (over a year) that they were waiting for his insurance details (whilst having already discovered that he was uninsured).
They told me to use the Motor Insurer's Bureau to handle my claim since they could not find the third party. They already, however, knew the MIB could not take the claim so were trying to fob me off in my opinion.
Anyway, in short, I am trying to take them to court. I was wondering if anyone knows how to do this. I have already undergone the Financial Ombudsman route, but did not manage to get their form back in time as I suffer from mental health problems and there were extensive file notes to cover. So now I am looking to use a small claims court, however, I will be issuing Albany a letter first to give them one last chance to fix things and also letting them know I plan to pursue them in court if they fail to come to some arrangements.
If anyone has any input I would greatly appreciate it, especially on the process of making a small claim.

SolicitorMidlands

Was a solicitor's firm dealing with this?

caela_2

I am not sure what you mean, but I don't have a solicitor. Albany is a legal protection team. The Financial Ombudsman was unable to take the case also, as it was submitted too late.

lisyloo

If you don't know exactly what they have done, then how do you know they have been negligent?
It's not reasonable to expect a team of private investigators for a £1000 claim.
What is it you are expecting them to do?

mattymoo

What Solicitormidlands is getting at is whether or not Albany passed your claim to a firm of solicitors to deal with. If so, there is a complaint route via the Law Society iirc.

Did all correspondance have an Albany letterhead or a solicitors?

m.smith14

I recently had a claim for a similar amount, this was dealt with by Albany on behalf of Elephant. They were absolutely useless, staff seemed abrupt, untrained and gave conflicting information. Good luck!

caela_2

lisyloo wrote: »

If you don't know exactly what they have done, then how do you know they have been negligent?
It's not reasonable to expect a team of private investigators for a £1000 claim.
What is it you are expecting them to do?

If you are referring to where I said I wasn't sure if they'd done a dvla search, this is as I have requested their file notes and there is no evidence of a search, however, they managed to get an address from somewhere for the third part, although it was not a complete address. I know they have been negligent as it is not so much what they did do as what they didn't. Basically, they didn't really do anything. They wrote letters to the wrong address. That was their entire effort.
I cannot give out too many details as it will go to court.
I expected them to do their job. You don't need a team of investigators to do a dvla trace. They could have started with that.

caela_2

mattymoo wrote: »

What Solicitormidlands is getting at is whether or not Albany passed your claim to a firm of solicitors to deal with. If so, there is a complaint route via the Law Society iirc.

Did all correspondance have an Albany letterhead or a solicitors?

Oh, sorry. Yeah, all correspondence was from Albany.

caela_2

m.smith14 wrote: »

I recently had a claim for a similar amount, this was dealt with by Albany on behalf of Elephant. They were absolutely useless, staff seemed abrupt, untrained and gave conflicting information. Good luck!

I have found so many similar statements about people using Albany and it's really annoying to see they have got away with it. I literally can't find one good review for them. Do you mind me asking if you're claim was finally resolved and how long ago it was? The reason I eventually requested my claim file from them was, like you, they were giving me conflicting information. I can completely understand.

ColHam

we've got ongoing problems with albany from a no-fault accident in june 2010. has anyone got the correct address / department to write to to get the phonetranscripts? and who do you make the cheque payable to?