Fully Comp Insurance & Extreme Weather HELP

heckmondwike06

Hello there,

I have a fully comp. insurance with QuickFit. It seems like all insurers that they are quick to take your money and nothing sticks if you ever try to make a claim!

Because of weather, my car had frozen. I managed to start it but in case it broke down I called out AA to follow me to garage. The garage guy looks at the car and said there's engine cracks because of weather. They are new and because of cold.

I had two options
a) claim on my AA part cover includes engine - apparently I'm not covered because when I called out AA they said it was frozen (although engine did start). The guy towed me to garage, as a safety measure. So not worth paper written on.

b) my fully comp QuickFit insuance. I thought to myself surely because you can't exactly plan/anticipate extreme weather, it would be covered like you'd think you are covered if there was flood damage to your car?

Anyway, I have been told I'm NOT covered under my policy because it's mechanic failure? The woman did imply that if car had been stolen, burnt or involved in an accident it would be covered. What a nice suggestion to tell your customers to committ fraud, I told her.

Is there anything I can do apart from cancelling my policy?

Thanks.

esmerobbo

Unfortunately no one will cover this as the damage was caused by lack of care. The antifreeze must have been understrength or non existent. Fully comp insurance covers damage caused by accident.

Inactive

heckmondwike06 wrote: »

b) my fully comp QuickFit insuance. I thought to myself surely because you can't exactly plan/anticipate extreme weather, it would be covered like you'd think you are covered if there was flood damage to your car?
.

No insurance will cover lack of owner maintenance, clearly your anti freeze was not to the correct strength.

Fully comp insurance does not cover mechanical failure.

Read your insurance documents.

skiddlydiddly

All you had to do was have enough anti freeze in, that would have been planning enough for the extreme weather.Sorry if it seems harsh but thats all there is to it.

Quentin

heckmondwike06 wrote: »

Is there anything I can do apart from cancelling my policy?

As advised, there is nothing you can do regarding claiming off your policy, but why do you want to cancel?

No point unless you aren't going to repair or replace your car, as no other insurer would cover you for this, and cancelling will come at a cost to you (as well as you not getting any NCD added in respect of the part year you have been on cover).

heckmondwike06

I actually had the car serviced about 8 weeks ago. The anti freeze was topped up to full prior to this problem - even AA breakdown guy said anti freeze does not work under minus 6c.

It sounds like a case of writing off car without any fault of my own by looks of things.

Quentin

Breakdown man was probably trying to make you feel better or was a plonker. According to his great knowledge every single car in the country should be frozen up now!

You may have a case against your garage as clearly they didn't put the right amount in!!

Gene_Hunt_2

heckmondwike06 wrote: »

I actually had the car serviced about 8 weeks ago. The anti freeze was topped up to full prior to this problem - even AA breakdown guy said anti freeze does not work under minus 6c.

It sounds like a case of scpapping the car without any fault of my own by looks of things.

No write off as the insurance won't cover it.

tberry6686

A quick search online suggest that the correct mix of antifreeze should work down to -36 C. If it only worked down to -6 then there would be several hundred thousand cars needing new engines now (if not millions) in this country alone.

Sugest that you get the Coolant checked independently - sounds like the mix is wrong

heckmondwike06

thanks for the advice guys.

I will see if I can get the garage to mend the car for now and the auction it off. Use proceeds to buy next car.

Quentin

"Mending" will be a fortune which you won't get back when auctioning it. (Unless it is worth a lot - and if it is, get legal advice about the recent service).

Ebay it for spares/repair, pointing out it will need towing.