Pre-Accident Value v Cheque Received

meshel04

I was involved in a car accident where I was hit from behind causing my vehicle to be a write-off. I ageed a figure for the pre-accident value from the insurance consulting engineers. This was agreed in writing to myself which I agreed to, signed and sent back.

The third party insurance company accepted liability and I received the cheque for my vehicle minus £50. I rang Help Hire which had been dealing with the claim to be informed that the third party insurance company "Tesco" and the underwriters "RBOS" had a dispute with Help Hire and had deducted the fee of £50 from my pre-accident value as RBOS charge a fee which Help Hire are currently in dispute with.

I agreed on a set figure which was in writing and now because Help Hire and RBOS are arguing about a set £50 deduction per vehicle write-off which they charge I am now £50 out of pocket due to their in house arguments which is nothing to do with me.

Where do I stand here?

dogbot

It sounds like the dispute is between Help Hire - who are agents acting on your behalf - and the third party insurer from whome you are claiming. If so this is not an in house argument, it is that the people you have appointed to take your claim to the third party's insurers and those insurers do not agree as to the true quantum of the claim.

Who sent the engineer out, helphire or Tesco insurance? If it was Helphire that was their engineer not Tesco's then tesco might be arguing the quantum (value) of the claim - probably saying that they won't pay the engineers fee.

Call helphire and seek clarification of what is going on. Unfortunalty, this is the trap you find yourself in when you go to a credit hire company.

meshel04

The engineer was sent out by Help Hire.

Unfortunately I was only Third Party Fire & Theft at the time and they stated I had to go through them as I was not Fully Comp. Learnt my lesson now tho, the new car I had to buy is fully comp insured.

Is it not worth a solicitors letter as surely one company can't tell you a figure, tell the owner, take the car away and retract the value they said they were offering.

I have rang Help Hire who say they are still in dispute with RBOS and hope to solve the argument shortly. It sounds to me like they just do this with every claim regardless of the insurance company they are retrieving monies from and deduct £50 hoping that the recipient will not cause a fuss! A quick way of making money from unfortunate people who are involved in accidents which were not their fault.

Thanks for your help! :-)

meshel04

Yes the value they offered was £950. They called it pre-accident value but the vehicle was to be scrapped. The cheque that arrived was £900. I have sent them all the documents.

Does this mean "their inhouse argument" is just an excuse then and that it is the norm to deduct a £50 fee from the pre-agreed value from a write-off vehicle which was due to be scrapped?

I do not understand a CAT C or D write off sorry, can you please explain?

Thanks

dacouch

Often when a third party Insurer settle the claim they deduct the scrap value and allow you to scrap the car. It could be worth checking to see if this is what they have done.

dogbot

As DA said. Where is the vehicle? To explain, your damaged vehicle still has a value to the scrap and salvage industry so they typicaly buy them from the insurer or whoever scraps them... this can be large amounts of money for high value vehicles. For your car, is will be a fairly low amount and £50 might have been the arbitary figure attached.

I still think it is the helphire engineers fee though.

dacouch

I think Dogbot is probably right thats its the engineer fee, I would guess this is a valid cost you can claim off the other Insurer, whether Helphire do it or you claim it back yourself.

Either that or it is the salvage value

meshel04

Thanks for all your replies. My car was taken away on the instructions of the Ins. Co. after I had accepted the £950 write off value 3 days after the accident. (end of July). I have only now just received the cheque £900.

I have spoken with a solicitor who said they wouldn't persue the claim for the £50 at this time because I "could" get it back if Help Hire & RBOS settle their argument. This could be a waiting game for months, even years.

It is so wrong that you can agree a sum both verbally and in writing and then have to accept a deduction because people are so-called arguing about the difference. If this was any industry other than the insurance industry people wouldn't get away with it.