Car Damaged While Being Repaired - Help Please!!

Wewyl

Unknown person damaged my car in supermarket car park. (I am due to sell it privately this month having declined garage trade in offer last year). Claimed on my insurance. Insurance company arranged repairs with their approved garage (nationwide chain of repairers). They quoted £200 MORE than my garage (BMW) but insurance company were too late to stop the work. Car was returned (in the dark) and I rejected the work on handover. Rang insurance company next morning to advise I had rejected work and also report new dent to my car (evidenced by check-in sheet).
Heard nothing over Christmas so rang again. Finally took car into BMW garage and asked for full report. It appears there has been a bodge bodywork job done on the original area and a large amount of "new" bodged bodywork on another area of the car next to the new dent. Following another phone call, a flurry of independent engineers inspected with a view to bodywork being re-done by BMW garage as per their estimate, but to date I have received no reply from either insurance company or repairers to my written letter requesting
a) explanation of what had happened to the car
b) an apology
c) whether the insurance company will be reviewing their approved repairer
d) what they (insurance co and repairer) intend to do to resolve situation

My question: In my letter I have stated that I no longer feel confident selling the car privately as for the 48 hours it was in the repairer's care, I do not know what happened to it and do not know potentially what the ramifications are mechanically as a result of it's "accident" (insurance company only dealing with visible bodywork). Because I don't know what happened, I can't instruct/inform my garage what to look for. I now want to accept the garage trade-in price - some £2000 less than I can sell privately. (NB This is price quoted before the accident)
Am I legally entitled to recover this difference in cost from the insurance company in view of the fact that no one has admitted to anything either verbally or in writing, yet it is clear they are intending to authorise some work at least.

Help/advice would be appreciated - has anyone else had similar problem?

colcut_2

Hi,
I imagine things have now been resolved since your message was posted, however here goes.

This sort of problem is a nightmare both for the policyholder and the insurer.
Some insurers guarantee the work of their recommended repairer and some don't.

If the insurer does provide a guarantee they will pay to put right the defective work usually, at the original garage. If there is an increased cost because of your insistance to have the rectification carried out elsewhere they might ask you to pay the difference - argue and negotiate.

If the Insurer does not provide a guarantee then they will attempt to put pressure on the original garage but usually this takes a lot of time and a lot of arguement about what is and is not defective repair and the costs involved. Continue to hold the insurer responsible on the grounds they insisted you take the car to 'their' garage.

As far as damage occasioned whilst in the hands of the recommended repairer is concerned this would be a separate claim against the garage arising out of their negligence. Your insurer would not be bound to deal with this other than as a new claim. They in turn would then seek recovery of their outlay from their negligent recommended repairer. Any policy excess would be applied and you would have right of recovery from the garage as in th case of any negilgent third party.

In order to decide exactly what is now wrong with the vehicle you could pay for a report from the AA. On completion a second report could be obtained in order to satisfy yourself and a potential buyer as to the car's condition.

If the vehicle has suffered serious depreciation as the result of defective repair it is possible to raise a claim against the recommended repairer but often the courts will hold that a proper repair should returned the vehicle to its pre-accident condition and therefore there should be no depreciation. Not very satisfactory and the cost of pursueing this action would be more than the potential lose from alleged depreciation; with a poor chance of success.

Don't deal with the repairer. Deal with the insurer.

Don't waste time with staff in the claims department. Get the name of the Claims Manager at the company's Head Office write to him and to the Chief Exeutive of the company. In the ultimate if you do not get a satifactory result refer the case to the Ombudsdman; the company will give you leaflet explaining how this course of action should be carried out.

Hope this helps you understand the complexity of the problem. If you are in a hurry to sell the car then the quickest and most stress free solution will be to cut your losses and sell to the garage. My suggestion that this is taken to the Chief Executive of the company might produce a cash offer of some sort. You'll have to make a good case, argue well and hope you are with a company which values customer goodwill.
Regards,
Colin

Wewyl

Thanks for the reply. I rang FSA who put me in contact with senior person in insurance company. As you rightly said, and so did the FSA - deal with the insurance company not the garage - (even though the garage tried to take over and negotiate with me direct).

Following telephone call to senior person's PA, I received phone call and subsequent email from their Quality Assurance Manager accepting damage was done to car while not in my possession and they will rectify damage at no cost to myself. I agreed to discuss with original garage their proposals to rectify (in order to help insurance compay to mitigate their losses as wouldn't cost them anything if repairers did rectification) and if I was unhappy with repairers solution then the insurance company stated they would allow me to get repairs done at a garage of my choice.

Following visit to garage and discussion with regional manager, I have rejected the garages offer (wasn't convinced that their proposals would have left the car looking any better as they weren't prepared to paint far enough up before they started to blend/lacquer) I had also by this time got a third opinion from another independent body shop as to what had happened and what should be proposed to put it right. I am satisfied that whatever happened to my car resulted in bodywork damage alone rather than anything mechanical so all I want to do now is get the car back to its original condition.

Accordingly I have decined the garages offer and will request repairs to be done by my own garage. Let's see what insurance company say on monday.

What I find interesting about this is the way the garage chain tried to take over and railroad this to their own desirable outcome, and even remonstrated with me on friday as to why I didn't contact them direct.

My advice to anyone taking a car in for an insurance-authorised body repair is:
a) take photos of the car BEFORE you leave it for repair, and also make sure you inspect/walk all the way round the car with the repairers and mark everything on the check-in sheet. Note mileage/fuel etc as well
b) If you are not happy with the result take it immediately to an independent garage and press them to write a full report. STRAIGHT AWAY. Take photographs. This should then be sent with a complaint in writing to the insurance company who authorised the repair.
c) As Colin rightly says - don't deal with the monkeys - go straight to the organ grinder. If you don't know who that is, first port of call is a telephone call to the PA of the CEO/MD - they are normally very good at getting hold of the right person for you, and ensuring you get an answer
d) If the insurance company call in an independent inspector, MAKE SURE YOU ARE REPRESENTED at the inspection - (unfortunately this is where my own garage let me down as both the insurance company and the repairers were present - but no-one was there from my garage who performed the original inspection upon which my complaint/estimate was based to argue the toss)
e) be prepared to have to nag and push to get all reports/responses in writing - in this case no-one (not even my garage)seemed willing to put anything on paper (except estimates!)
f) log all phone calls and keep notes - and don't forget people can deny what they said on the phone but can't deny what they put in writing - if necessary send written letter confirming details of telephone call so you have paper trail

Will update this when I get a final result - keep your fingers crossed!!

colcut_2

Well done.

The advice you give from your own experience is excellent.

Particularly make notes of everything and always get names. Judges have made decisions based on contemporaneous notes before now. Odds are the other side will not keep such notes but you will show that everything is supported by your notes whereas they, perhaps months down the line, will be relying on memory.

I would insist on replies from th COE not his PA if writing.

Regards,
Colin

Secret_Lady

Wewyl wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. I rang FSA who put me in contact with senior person in insurance company. As you rightly said, and so did the FSA - deal with the insurance company not the garage - (even though the garage tried to take over and negotiate with me direct).

Following telephone call to senior person's PA, I received phone call and subsequent email from their Quality Assurance Manager accepting damage was done to car while not in my possession and they will rectify damage at no cost to myself. I agreed to discuss with original garage their proposals to rectify (in order to help insurance compay to mitigate their losses as wouldn't cost them anything if repairers did rectification) and if I was unhappy with repairers solution then the insurance company stated they would allow me to get repairs done at a garage of my choice.

Following visit to garage and discussion with regional manager, I have rejected the garages offer (wasn't convinced that their proposals would have left the car looking any better as they weren't prepared to paint far enough up before they started to blend/lacquer) I had also by this time got a third opinion from another independent body shop as to what had happened and what should be proposed to put it right. I am satisfied that whatever happened to my car resulted in bodywork damage alone rather than anything mechanical so all I want to do now is get the car back to its original condition.

Accordingly I have decined the garages offer and will request repairs to be done by my own garage. Let's see what insurance company say on monday.

What I find interesting about this is the way the garage chain tried to take over and railroad this to their own desirable outcome, and even remonstrated with me on friday as to why I didn't contact them direct.

My advice to anyone taking a car in for an insurance-authorised body repair is:
a) take photos of the car BEFORE you leave it for repair, and also make sure you inspect/walk all the way round the car with the repairers and mark everything on the check-in sheet. Note mileage/fuel etc as well
b) If you are not happy with the result take it immediately to an independent garage and press them to write a full report. STRAIGHT AWAY. Take photographs. This should then be sent with a complaint in writing to the insurance company who authorised the repair.
c) As Colin rightly says - don't deal with the monkeys - go straight to the organ grinder. If you don't know who that is, first port of call is a telephone call to the PA of the CEO/MD - they are normally very good at getting hold of the right person for you, and ensuring you get an answer
d) If the insurance company call in an independent inspector, MAKE SURE YOU ARE REPRESENTED at the inspection - (unfortunately this is where my own garage let me down as both the insurance company and the repairers were present - but no-one was there from my garage who performed the original inspection upon which my complaint/estimate was based to argue the toss)



e) be prepared to have to nag and push to get all reports/responses in writing - in this case no-one (not even my garage)seemed willing to put anything on paper (except estimates!)
f) log all phone calls and keep notes - and don't forget people can deny what they said on the phone but can't deny what they put in writing - if necessary send written letter confirming details of telephone call so you have paper trail

Will update this when I get a final result - keep your fingers crossed!!

What happened? Any update, I know it's a long time ago but would like to know the outcome. Thanks.