HASTING DIRECT sold my car off

notahappymark

HI Guys,

Has anyone ever come across this situation, Please read the email below and advice where necessary

Hi,
I am not sure if you can still remember this case, but i am now really going to issue Hastings direct with a court proceedings, if i do not get full price of my car of what is worth when i had the accident. if you recall, they didn't pay out because they insisted i was using the car for trading which i denied wasn't true but because Insurance company have away of manipulating the law to suit them when they are paying out.Well I called Copart salvage to ask for my car back to sell off only to be told that the car has been sold under the authorisation of Hasting Direct in December 2010:eek::eek::eek:, I told them , i was never contacted neither did i recieve any payout as i was chasing it through the 3rd party insurance company since HD refused to pay out, The copart staff said it has nothing to do with them and they only acted under HD direction. I was shocked as to what kind of business HD were playing so I immediately called the total loss department and gave the old claim ref number and was told someone will contact me on Monday , no one contacted me and i called an 0870 number and was in the queue for 22 minutes thereby incurring more cost. I have had it with your absolutely for a lack of better words 'sham' company and i am definitely taking legal action against Hastings Direct. I have been messed about since 2009 and fed up with HAstings Direct. Now all i want is the full value of the car that was awarded before the whole saga of whether am using the car for trading or not started which i believe was around £3500. I eagerly await your response.

Regards
:mad::mad::mad::mad:

transgenic

Usually insurers will only sell on the vehicle once the PAV has been paid. As you have not been paid they have no legal position to sell the vehicle. I'd get onto them if I were you. I'd be happy to draft a letter if you wish - I do it daily anyway (claims handler)!!

dacouch

Have a read of this from the Ombudsman (Hastings are bound by this).

But what if the policyholder complains that the insurer (or its agent) disposed of the salvage before paying the full market-value? At this stage, the vehicle still belongs to the policyholder, and we take the view that the insurer should not have disposed of it without first obtaining the policyholder’s consent to the settlement of the claim – even if the insurer said it was only acting in the public interest by keeping a badly-damaged vehicle off the roads. In such circumstances, and unless the insurer returns the salvage, we usually award the policyholder compensation for inconvenience.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html#13

and have a read of 66/03 http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/66/66-vehicle_valuation_disputes.html

raskazz

According to your previous posts, you knew that Hastings were rejecting your claim a very long time ago. Why did you leave it so long to ascertain the whereabouts of the car/begin recovering the salvage?

vaio

and equally (if not more) to the point, if they are rejecting the claim on what basis did they dispose of the car?

raskazz

vaio wrote: »

and equally (if not more) to the point, if they are rejecting the claim on what basis did they dispose of the car?

Well the OP's posts state that the claim was repudiated in June 2009. So the car was in storage for 18 months prior to the disposal. Seems odd that the OP didn't go and collect it? Or even didn't ask as to the location of the car after a year had elapsed?

If the insurer did state in the repudiation correspondence the location of the car then I do not know how long they are expected to keep it in storage. Obviously the insurer cannot be expected to dispose of it if the owner makes known their intention to collect it but, conversely, if they did make efforts to alert the owner that the car would not be kept in storage by them indefinitely then what else are they to do other than dispose of it after a certain period of time? The alternative would be for them to bill the OP for 18 months storage (which at the steep rates that salvage yards charge could easily outweigh the £3500 figure mooted as the vehicle value)!

vaio

maybe my post should have read "and equally (if not more) to the point, if they are rejecting the claim on what basis did they dispose of the car without notifying the op?"

notahappymark

Thanks for your reply, regardless of whatever the situation is, HD had no right to sell a car that does not belong to them, i am not dead or did i give them any hint that i am no longer interested in the car? Like i said their excuse for not paying out in the 1st place was biased, they misinterpreted my words to suit their cause and am not going to accept anything less than what i deserve. Insurance companies get away with so much crime but because they always have the small print which most of us never bother to read which makes them think they high and mighty. I am only after whats is fair, they sold it without my consent . To show how bad HD company is, they lost all the documents i mailed in when i put in the cliam. ( logbook, V5, full Service History, Car Manuals and various reciepts) when i asked for it back, they couldn't give me a straight forward answer, I kept getting transferred to various department who couldn't figure their way out of a one way street. The other problem is my solicitor is still chasing the other 3rd party for the damage the car sustain, now that the car has been sold off, what prove do i have now? So i can only hold the people who took my car away from me and failed to return it to me responsible

notahappymark

dacouch wrote: »

Have a read of this from the Ombudsman (Hastings are bound by this).

But what if the policyholder complains that the insurer (or its agent) disposed of the salvage before paying the full market-value? At this stage, the vehicle still belongs to the policyholder, and we take the view that the insurer should not have disposed of it without first obtaining the policyholder’s consent to the settlement of the claim – even if the insurer said it was only acting in the public interest by keeping a badly-damaged vehicle off the roads. In such circumstances, and unless the insurer returns the salvage, we usually award the policyholder compensation for inconvenience.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html#13

and have a read of 66/03 http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/66/66-vehicle_valuation_disputes.html

Thank you very much, i feel a bit of relief now. :beer:

raskazz

notahappymark wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, regardless of whatever the situation is, HD had no right to sell a car that does not belong to them, i am not dead or did i give them any hint that i am no longer interested in the car? Like i said their excuse for not paying out in the 1st place was biased, they misinterpreted my words to suit their cause and am not going to accept anything less than what i deserve. Insurance companies get away with so much crime but because they always have the small print which most of us never bother to read which makes them think they high and mighty. I am only after whats is fair, they sold it without my consent . To show how bad HD company is, they lost all the documents i mailed in when i put in the cliam. ( logbook, V5, full Service History, Car Manuals and various reciepts) when i asked for it back, they couldn't give me a straight forward answer, I kept getting transferred to various department who couldn't figure their way out of a one way street. The other problem is my solicitor is still chasing the other 3rd party for the damage the car sustain, now that the car has been sold off, what prove do i have now? So i can only hold the people who took my car away from me and failed to return it to me responsible

Re-reading the thread, in the original post, you say you called Copart salvage with no mention of whether you called Hastings first. This could perhaps imply that you knew that the car was in storage with Copart already, in which case why had you left it over 18 months to contact them to ask for the return of the vehicle? Have you checked all your documents from Hastings and anywhere in those documents do they advise that the vehicle is in Copart's storage awaiting collection by yourself?

These are important points to address; as I have already pointed out, if Hastings had advised you of the vehicle location and that you should collect it (I appreciate that this is an 'if') then actually they have acted in your best interests in disposing of the vehicle. If they had not, it would still be sitting in storage attracting storage costs which YOU would be liable for due to not collecting it.

notahappymark

The car was left in the yard because it was still being reviewed by the 3rd party through an independent solicitor, which i explained in earlier post. The car has been deemed as a total loss by Hastings, They never at one point contacted me to come and collect the car infact they were not very customer freindly anytime i called them and its contsant hanging on. When i spoke to Copart a few months back they advised they were waiting for HD direction. So HD had ample opportunity to have returned the car, I think they have forgotten the car was still there because they lost all the car documents and copart called them about the storage charges and they adviced Copart to sell it off to cover the cost without contacting me. So Raskazz please explain how they have acted in my best interest when i have lost over £3500? I am not laible for the storage charges as i was told by Copart and HD in the past as this will be claimed through the 3rd party, the car was taken there by HD and not me. I did not ask them to store it there neither did i ask them to sell it. its an agreement bewteen HD and copart whcih they should resolve amongst themselves. All i want is the value of my car back. Again at this point no one has called me from HD after i was told this morning i was going to get a call. I will wait till friday if not am contacting the FOS and my solicitor.