Incompetent motor insurers

cortinamkIII

Dear all,
having recently had my parked car reversed into by my next door neighbour ( they knocked on my door to tell me, good of them), I made a claim, simple enough. My car was repaired and I had to pay the excess, which I claim back ( accident happened on the 4th june 2010). My car insurance came up for renewal and I found out my premium had gone up because the accident had come up as a fault to me because the other insurers had,nt admitted liability. On the 17th of July I got a letter from my insurers asking for details of the accident, which I sent.
I have just got off the phone to my insurers and they tell me they have only just begun to try and claim the money back off the other parties insurers, get this, the other parties insures new nothing about the accident! Am I missing something here, surely when I rang my insurers with the details of the accident and my neighbours details they get hold of the other insurers and tell them there has been an accident, but it appears not, what a stupid system, in the mean time I have paid out my excess, my car insurance has gone up and my motorcycle insurance has gone up, so I.m out of pocket waiting for who knows how long,....:mad::mad:

Judas

Maybe you should be a bit more patient? Not everyone is on ectasy and working at rocket speeds.

neilmcl

It does seem you jumped the gun a bit in getting it repaired and paying excess rather than waiting to see whether the other party's insurers accepted liability or not. FYI, your premium would have likely increased regardless.

Gordon_Hose

If the other parties insurers admitted liability then they would be responsible for paying your excess.

You obviously jumped the gun a bit.

Hintza

I would have just claimed straight from the other insurer and not involved mine at all.

So I have to agree with the others you have jumped the gun a bit.

vaio

The consensus seems to be that despite paying ever increasing premiums policy holders are better off doing the insurance companies job for them or driving round in a damaged car/catching busses whilst waiting for them to act.

I’m sure the insurance companies are pleased with this as it reduces their workload & costs, however, an alternative view is that you pay for a service and if they don’t provide that service in a reasonable manner then they should compensate you for your additional costs.

The latter is the approach I would take, if they don’t want to pay up then it’s off to the FOS who also take the view that insurers who fail to perform their obligations in a reasonable, fair and timely manner are liable to pay compensation.

Entertainingly any insurance company referred to the FOS has to pay a levy in the £500-£700 range whether they win or lose.

OP….once the claim is resolved in your favour your premiums should be adjusted downwards to reflect that both in terms of the actual claim and lost NCB.

Note that some companies still apply a loading even for non-fault claims, this loading can also be reclaimed from the at fault party along with any other uninsured losses.

Whether the amounts involved justify the hassle is another matter

motorguy

You should have claimed off his insurance, not your own. You've now done it the 'long way'.

You jumped the gun a bit.

cortinamkIII

Hi thanks for your replies, I here what you are saying, but this is not the first time I,ve been involved in this sort of claim and not had a problem before, so I thought I would not have a problem this time, as for the rocket speeds comment, well its not rocket science either, I,m more inclined to agree with "viao", cheers everyone

rev_henry

Hintza wrote: »

I would have just claimed straight from the other insurer and not involved mine at all.

So I have to agree with the others you have jumped the gun a bit.

vaio wrote: »

The consensus seems to be that despite paying ever increasing premiums policy holders are better off doing the insurance companies job for them or driving round in a damaged car/catching busses whilst waiting for them to act.

I’m sure the insurance companies are pleased with this as it reduces their workload & costs, however, an alternative view is that you pay for a service and if they don’t provide that service in a reasonable manner then they should compensate you for your additional costs.

The latter is the approach I would take, if they don’t want to pay up then it’s off to the FOS who also take the view that insurers who fail to perform their obligations in a reasonable, fair and timely manner are liable to pay compensation.

Entertainingly any insurance company referred to the FOS has to pay a levy in the £500-£700 range whether they win or lose.

OP….once the claim is resolved in your favour your premiums should be adjusted downwards to reflect that both in terms of the actual claim and lost NCB.

Note that some companies still apply a loading even for non-fault claims, this loading can also be reclaimed from the at fault party along with any other uninsured losses.

Whether the amounts involved justify the hassle is another matter

I know its a bit late now but I have to agree. Easiest to keep the bureaucracy to a minimum and go straight to the 3rd party insurers. I do quite agree with the OP though that in this day and age the 'service' many insurance companies provide, or fail to thereof, for all the money we give them is a joke.

I do hope it wasn't a cortina that was involved in this. :eek: