Liverpool Victoria car insurance problem

tennismenace

I have been a customer of LV for the past 10 years and my wife for the last 3 years.

On December 19, my wife's car was driven into whilst parked (no-one in the car). The car was taken to a Peugeot accredited repairer the following day for an insurance estimate. Meanwhile the driver of the offending car's insurance company, Highway, rang me to accept full responsibilty.

Nothing then happened until 3 weeks later when on Jan 7 I received a call from Hoopers who are engineers instructed by LV to tell me that they have decided to write off my wife's car, and offered me £1000 (10%) less than Autotrader retail prices. I refused this offer and wrote to LV. I have rung LV on several occasions since then and their attitude has been rude and arrogant. They told me that I will have to accept an interim payment which will be made "soon" and they will consider increasing their offer.

I have now written to LV's CEO at his home address and made my feelings known to their "community forum". As I have legal insurance, I have also written to the offending driver to let him know that I will be commencing legal proceedings this Friday. My solicitor is happy to start legal action as he will be reimbursed by my insurer.

I will update this post later in the week.

smitchy73

This is just normal for insurance companies, hence how they can sell GAP insurance etc.

I think you've done the right thing and haivng the legal cover, lets you sue the other driver for uninsurable losses, ie, the difference, hence no actual need for GAP insurance.

Hope you get on okay and manage to remedy, although shouldn't it be the other guys insurance company who decided if it's a write off or repairable?

I just joined LV with my car insurance so hopefully they're not all like that.

dacouch

An offer of 10% less than Autotrader average prices would typically be the correct value for a car, this is because adverts in Autotrader are generally regarded as being the starting price at which the seller is prepared to negotiate from.

vaio

the other way is the CAP/Glasses/Parkers retail average the FOS suggest

adamc260

tennismenace wrote: »

Meanwhile the driver of the offending car's insurance company, Highway, rang me to accept full responsibilty.

Also known as LV since... they're owned by them!

tennismenace wrote: »

offered me £1000 (10%) less than Autotrader retail prices. I refused this offer and wrote to LV.

Send in proof of adverts to LV showing that the car is worth more and you wouldnt be able to replace it with something similar for what they're offering. They will then have to re-think their offer.

dacouch

adamc260 wrote: »

Send in proof of adverts to LV showing that the car is worth more and you wouldnt be able to replace it with something similar for what they're offering. They will then have to re-think their offer.

Not necessarily, the Ombudsman is quite clear on Autotrader Adverts, although some Insurers do go by them, they are not obliged.

"We do not usually find advertisements for similar vehicles very persuasive. A vehicle may often be sold for less than the advertised price. And small differences in mileage, year of registration, model type etc - can significantly affect the value".

I think Vaio's advice is spot on