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Help Please - Insurance Claim Problem!
imranbashir_uk
Posts: 43 Forumite
Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone here can give me help or advice. Apologies but this is going to be a bit long as I need to let you in on the background.
A few weeks ago I was driving home after dropping my wife of at the shops and it started raining heavily, really heavily. Visibility got so poor that I decided to stop and wait out the rain. As I was looking for a safe place to park a small animal (cat / dog / fox) jumped out informant of me, I reacted instinctively by swerving to avoid hitting the animal, but I instead went into deep standing water (flash flood due to the rain).
The engine cut out, and died, I couldn’t start me engine, and I couldn’t get out as the water was over my door line so opening the door would have let water gush into the car.
After the rain stopped the water rescinded, and I was able to get out and arrange for the car to be towed home.
I wasn’t sure how much damage I had caused to the car, so I decided to do some investigative work. I took out the spark plugs (they were wet) drained the oil from the sump (also contained water) and removed the air filter (also wet).
Clearly I had got water into the engine, I left the car open over night, and the following day tried to rock the car in fifth gear, it wouldn’t move, a sign that the engine has seized. At that point I knew it would not be worth trying to fix the car myself, and decide that I would go through my car insurance as it is fully comprehensive.
I called my insurance company and informed them what had happened, they arranged for a local garage to collect the car and get it inspected. The garage called me a few days latter and asked me what had happened, I told them the same story. They said that it looks like the engine has seized and that an inspector from the insurance company would come by to look at the car the next day.
A few days latter I got a call from the insurance vehicle inspector, he said that he had looked at the spark plugs and they were dry, he looked at the oil and it did not contain water, and he looked into the sump and could see no water. As a result they believe that this is mechanical failure and not related to the car going into the water.
I told him that the spark plugs would have been dry because I had dried them, and changed the oil, as I was never intending on making an insurance claim, and besides oil and water react badly (turns into white thick paste) after a few days, so there was no way I would leave water sitting in the engine like that.
To cut this story short, the insurance company are refusing to repair the car, will still class this as a claim so my premiums go up. They will not open the engine to try and prove that the card was damaged by water as they are classing it as mechanical failure. They want me to find an independent engineer to do this and pay for it myself. Even after this there is no guarantee that they will accept my claim.
I don’t know what to do or who to turn to. I have been driving for 8 years accident free, with a full 8 year no-claims bonus until now.
Please help!
I was wondering if anyone here can give me help or advice. Apologies but this is going to be a bit long as I need to let you in on the background.
A few weeks ago I was driving home after dropping my wife of at the shops and it started raining heavily, really heavily. Visibility got so poor that I decided to stop and wait out the rain. As I was looking for a safe place to park a small animal (cat / dog / fox) jumped out informant of me, I reacted instinctively by swerving to avoid hitting the animal, but I instead went into deep standing water (flash flood due to the rain).
The engine cut out, and died, I couldn’t start me engine, and I couldn’t get out as the water was over my door line so opening the door would have let water gush into the car.
After the rain stopped the water rescinded, and I was able to get out and arrange for the car to be towed home.
I wasn’t sure how much damage I had caused to the car, so I decided to do some investigative work. I took out the spark plugs (they were wet) drained the oil from the sump (also contained water) and removed the air filter (also wet).
Clearly I had got water into the engine, I left the car open over night, and the following day tried to rock the car in fifth gear, it wouldn’t move, a sign that the engine has seized. At that point I knew it would not be worth trying to fix the car myself, and decide that I would go through my car insurance as it is fully comprehensive.
I called my insurance company and informed them what had happened, they arranged for a local garage to collect the car and get it inspected. The garage called me a few days latter and asked me what had happened, I told them the same story. They said that it looks like the engine has seized and that an inspector from the insurance company would come by to look at the car the next day.
A few days latter I got a call from the insurance vehicle inspector, he said that he had looked at the spark plugs and they were dry, he looked at the oil and it did not contain water, and he looked into the sump and could see no water. As a result they believe that this is mechanical failure and not related to the car going into the water.
I told him that the spark plugs would have been dry because I had dried them, and changed the oil, as I was never intending on making an insurance claim, and besides oil and water react badly (turns into white thick paste) after a few days, so there was no way I would leave water sitting in the engine like that.
To cut this story short, the insurance company are refusing to repair the car, will still class this as a claim so my premiums go up. They will not open the engine to try and prove that the card was damaged by water as they are classing it as mechanical failure. They want me to find an independent engineer to do this and pay for it myself. Even after this there is no guarantee that they will accept my claim.
I don’t know what to do or who to turn to. I have been driving for 8 years accident free, with a full 8 year no-claims bonus until now.
Please help!
Kind Regards,
Imran Bashir
Imran Bashir
0
Comments
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Its difficult to advise other than obtaining said ind engineers report. Do you have breakdown cover? see how much they may charge for a report but in my experience a hunder pounds or so.
I emphasise with you however the engineer will be proceeding as he sees fair and reasonable. Have you rung theough to the claims dept as opposed to the engineer and expressed your disatisfaction? You could go through their complaints procedure (which will take 8 weeks) and then go to the IOB but obv you will be without this car in the interim.
Keep us updated0 -
You had the car towed home. If you paid for this, you should have an invoice. If it was AA or RAC etc, they may have given you a copy of the job sheet.
Do these documents state the nature of the problem, i.e. engine waterlogged.
The document will also show the name of the mechanic who attended. They would be able to confirm the road conditions at the time.
Any pictures in the local press of the floods? Most papers can provide photos for a fee.0
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