Elephant Car insurance are delaying car theft claim

brajauk

Elephant car insurance is delaying our car theft claim. Our car was stolen last year in September in which I was stabbed and fractured my shoulder. The car was recovered by the police few weeks later but they were not able to identify the car due to all the vin/chassis numbers were scrapped off. The insurance company later told us that since the car is now recovered they will not progress with the claim until the car is release so the damage can be assessed. As the car was not identified by the Forensic team the police had to send the car to a specialist car unit to do some more tests. In the meantime while the car was being identified by the police, the culprit was arrested. Now the situation is that the car has been finally identified as ours (Not sure how) and will not be release for more than a year as it is part of the evidence. The insurance company have now told us that they will not be able to proceed with the claim until the car is released as they might be able to repair the damage and be able to put back all the chassis/vin numbers back on the car. I have read Elephant’s insurance policy and cannot find anything which says that the car has to be released to them before the claim can be progressed even thought the car is a part of the evidence.
My question here is that if the police never release the car as it is part of the evidence, what right as a consumer I have? Can I take them to court as it has been almost 5 months? Is there any law in this country which is in on consumer’s side instead of protecting insurance companies?

dogbot

Ultimatly you could sue them if you feel they have breached their contract, but there are many steps before you go down that route which is good for you.

They are allowed to take over and handle a claim as they see fit, however, they must also treat their customers fairly.

In this instance, I would say that they are not treating you fairly. They should be able to get an engineer to see the vehicle even though it is being held as evidence, once it has been examined - he could at least look it over without having to touch it!

I would start by submitting a formal complaint in writing stating that you are unable to find any reason for them to not continue with the claim on a total loss basis and you expect them to do so immediatly or explain their position with reference to their contract. Police can hold onto the vehicle for a long time and technicaly the insurer only has to repair the car - the delay caused by the criminal case is not their problem and is a consequential loss that is not insured, but given the length of time there could be an argument it is not really TCF...

Best to complaint and see how you get on. If you don't get on with the internal proceedure you can then move on to FOS and it won't cost you anything.

raskazz

It's not the insurer's fault.

If they cannot inspect the vehicle then they cannot assess whether it has even been damaged let alone whether it is repairable or a total loss.

Until it is inspected and the damage is assessed the only loss you can confirm that you have suffered is loss of use, which will not be covered under your policy.

brajauk

dogbot wrote: »

Ultimatly you could sue them if you feel they have breached their contract, but there are many steps before you go down that route which is good for you.

They are allowed to take over and handle a claim as they see fit, however, they must also treat their customers fairly.

In this instance, I would say that they are not treating you fairly. They should be able to get an engineer to see the vehicle even though it is being held as evidence, once it has been examined - he could at least look it over without having to touch it!

I would start by submitting a formal complaint in writing stating that you are unable to find any reason for them to not continue with the claim on a total loss basis and you expect them to do so immediatly or explain their position with reference to their contract. Police can hold onto the vehicle for a long time and technicaly the insurer only has to repair the car - the delay caused by the criminal case is not their problem and is a consequential loss that is not insured, but given the length of time there could be an argument it is not really TCF...

Best to complaint and see how you get on. If you don't get on with the internal proceedure you can then move on to FOS and it won't cost you anything.

Thanks dogbot

I am sorry but as this is my first time on the forums I thought I would get an email but anyway my story still continues....

Following to above note from myself, on 10th Feb, I found out from case handler at Elephant that they have been contacting the wrong police officer to arrange assessment, therefore I sent them another email asking why the case handler contacting the wrong police officer when clearly I have provided them the name and number of the police officer who is in charge of the stolen car unit.

I also asked the case handler that I have gone through with their policy and was not able to find any details showing that your company will have to wait for the vehicle to be released. so my question to them was
"What part of your terms and conditions are you relying on in this incessant delay of processing our claim?"

On the 12th I received a reply from the case handler saying

"I have instructed their Assessor and they will make arrangements to inspect the vehicle. The aim of the inspection is to confirm the vehicle is in fact repairable, and to provide details of costs.

With reference to our Policy Booklet, we do state we will repair your vehicle if we are able to. We are not refusing to do this. We simply do not have the facility to do so whilst it is being held by the police. As you are aware, the vehicle would need to go to a BMW garage for replacement locks.

Policy Booklet reference.
This can be found in:
Section 2: Fire and Theft, subsection 2.What we will pay:
2. What we will pay
We will decide how we settle your claim.
We will pay either:
• to repair your car, subject to any necessary contribution, or
• a cash sum to replace the lost or damaged car or item, not exceeding the market value of your car or item at the time of the damage occurring.

I will update you when the Independent Assessor has sent the report to me. However, I must stress again, if it is confirmed the vehicle is repairable then we wont be able to deal with these repairs until the vehicle is released. This is not in any way an attempt to delay the claim. We simply do not have the facility to repair it whilst in policy custody. "

On the same day the case handler provided us with the details company in Bedford who was assigned to assess the vehicle.
When we contacted the company, they advised us that the insurance company is fully aware that we do not cover London where the vehicle is so we have declined it.

We again email the Case handler on the 26th Feb saying...

“Further to your last email of 12 Feb where you said that you will be sending the assessor we subsequently last week called “Impact Assessors” to find out the status of the case.

They said they notified you on 16th Feb that they declined the request to assess the vehicle since it does not lie in the geographical area they cover since the car is in North London and they mentioned that the insurance company should have been aware of this.

Again there has been an unnecessary delay from your side by incompetence in appointing the wrong assessors. Have you rearranged for the correct company to assess the car yet or not? Again I point out that on Monday we are at the start of March and I can assume that you have not rearranged this as there has been no further correspondence from your side informing us so.
Again I am incredibly unhappy at the rate and the importance you give our claim process. Once again evidence that you have absolutely no regard or respect for your customers once the onus to pay is on you.”
The case handler from Elephant finally replied on yesterday 11th March with the following:

“I can confirm we have now received the Independent Assessor Report, which confirms your vehicle is repairable.

As your vehicle is still in police custody we are unable to repair it. Once the vehicle is released we are happy to arrange repairs.

As explained previously we will not look to pay you a total loss settlement as the vehicle can be repaired. Unfortunately we cannot control when the Police will release the vehicle but will continue to monitor this. Once the vehicle has been released we will contact you to arrange repairs.”


I have now contacting the police and have asked them to release the car if they can as the insurance company will process my claim until the car is released, Police officer was surprised and said that the insurance company should paid you out as they are fully aware why we keep the car for evidence purpose.
I am now putting together stuff for FOS and the CEO of Elephant. Is there any legal action I can take? or is there anything else I do?
Should I contact the papers?

raskazz

That is a long post but this stood out for me:

brajauk wrote: »

Police officer was surprised and said that the insurance company should paid you out as they are fully aware why we keep the car for evidence purpose.

Why do you think that a Police officer would know anything about the contract law of insurance? Most of them don't even know much about the criminal law of motor insurance.

What would the insurer pay you? The only losses that you have suffered are (a) the damage to the vehicle (which clearly cannot be repaired until the vehicle is released) and (b) loss of use of the vehicle, which is not covered by the policy - see:

"General Exceptions to your cover

3. Loss of use of your car and for any indirect losses which result from the incident which caused you to claim"

It's an unfortunate situation, to say the least, but it's not elephant's fault that the Police have impounded the vehicle.

brajauk

I agree that it is not Elephant's fault that the car is with the police but still don't they have any time frame of closing the claim after some time, in my case it has been already almost 6 months.

Lets say if the car is not released for a year and in the meantime the company gets closed, what will happen to my claim?

What is the point of having comprehensive insurance.... when you need them they mess you around and also why don't they add in their insurance policy that they will not be able to process the claim until the car is released?

raskazz

brajauk wrote: »

I agree that it is not Elephant's fault that the car is with the police but still don't they have any time frame of closing the claim after some time, in my case it has been already almost 6 months.

No they don't have a time frame, but how can they? It is entirely down to the Police to determine when the vehicle will be released. If the Police don't know, then how can Elephant?

brajauk wrote: »

Lets say if the car is not released for a year and in the meantime the company gets closed, what will happen to my claim?

It is highly unlikely that Elephant will close in the next year. Admiral Group (their parent company) recently announced record profits. They will have set aside an amount to deal with the claim, and even in the (highly) unlikely event that they did go bust, you would be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

brajauk wrote: »

What is the point of having comprehensive insurance.... when you need them they mess you around and also why don't they add in their insurance policy that they will not be able to process the claim until the car is released?

With respect, adding a term to explain that they cannot repair a vehicle whilst it is impounded would be like adding a term to explain that they cannot turn water into wine. What you are experiencing now is loss of use of the vehicle, which is not covered.