Churchill reluctant to pay out on car insurance

val29661

In May, someone drove into the back of my son while he was stopped at a red traffic light, my son was at the time insured with NIG, the other lad was with Churchill. My sons car, after examination was written off, we were told he would receive a payment of £1297 for his car, an engineers report was sent to Churchill on 6th August, which they claim they didnt receive, another report has been faxed to them, we still have not heard anything regards payout. We have had a few letters from a company called Helphire who are trying to get the money from Churchill, what is a reasonable time to expect payment, bearing in mind that my son (because of the location of his work) needs a car so I have had to lend him the money to buy another one, so until I get the money back from my son I am losing interest on that money as well. Is there anything we can to to finally get the money owed to him from Churchill.

Purposemaker

The only thing I can think of is that the other party has disputed your son's allegations. Churchill will delay settlement until investigations are done. As your son was hit in the rear, things are weighted heavily in his favour in terms of fault. The only possible allegation that the other driver could make is that your son broke too heavily when the lights were not red or something along those lines.

Even if the other party admitted fault, they could still dispute quantum, that is, the amount of damage caused by the accident. This would also delay settlement while Churchill investigated with their engineers.

It may have been better to have claimed through NIG, as then you have a contractual relationship with them. They are heavily motivated to provide a good service and you have the right of referral to the FOS if they don't, which you do not have against Churchill as a 3rd party complainant. The other thing is that NIG would probably issue proceedings if Churchill dragged their feet in terms of reimbursing their outlay (including your son's excess).

adamc260

Purposemaker wrote: »

The only possible allegation that the other driver could make is that your son broke too heavily when the lights were not red or something along those lines.

Even if the other party admitted fault, they could still dispute quantum, that is, the amount of damage caused by the accident. This would also delay settlement while Churchill investigated with their engineers.

If her son has no history of 'stopping suddenly... ie: slamming on' then it would be up to them to prove he did, without a witness or independent evidence that isn't really possible

And I can't see how they can dispute quantum if they've been sent an IE report clearly stating the repairs exceed the value of the car.

NIG Insurance are also owned by RBS... who own you guessed it... Churchill Insurance.

dacouch

I don't suppose Helphire are upset about the delay in the settlement as I'm guessing the OP is in a credit hire car

joanne_d_3

dacouch wrote: »

I don't suppose Helphire are upset about the delay in the settlement as I'm guessing the OP is in a credit hire car

What you mean the op has a hire car at the minute ?

No , from the original post Dacouch , it states that the op's mum loaned him the money to buy a new car....the settlement cheque when it appears now belongs to good old mum lol

PNPSUKNET

if help hire were used, are the disputing the car hire costs?

val29661

Thanks for your replies, my son bought himself another car (with the help from me) as we have never claimed on car insurance before we were uncertain as to what we could claim for, he did have a letter from a company linked to his insurance company about a hire car but he was told that because his car was still driveable (it hadn't at that point been assessed) then he would have to pay for the hire car if he wanted one, as far as we were concerned the only damage was that his boot wouldnt lock so we were amazed when we got the call saying that they were writing his car off, but when they came to pick his car up they pointed out where the back-end had been shoved forward, we were told that they had picked up several that day with similar damage but that my sons was the worst, my son, was completely stopped at the traffic lights, the bloke who went into him said that he had been waving to a friend over the road and hadn;t seen the traffic lights on red so it was completely the other persons fault, and also being only 19 my son only has 3rd Party, Fire and Theft Insurance which is why he couldn't claim through his own insurance.