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Zurich saga - as a 3rd party claim
girlintheshadow
Posts: 5 Forumite
One of many emails (this one triggered a response!)
Dear Sir
Re: Claim Ref **** Your Insured **** Accident 2/10/10.
I wish to lodge complaint regarding your Company’s handling of my claim against you for which you have admitted liability. I have consulted the Insurance Ombudsman and have been advised that that I should, in the first instance, address my complaint to you for consideration and response.
I would like to detail the sequence of events in Zurich’s handling of the above claim:-
Accident occurred 2/10 the circumstances being that your insured’s vehicle rolled down a hill and hit my vehicle whilst parked. On 4/10 your client reported the accident to Zurich.
It took until 24/11 some 7 weeks, for Zurich to finally admit liability, despite the accident circumstances.
On 6/12 Zurich offered £**** but this amount to be reduced by salvage valuation of 27%. The same day Zurich was advised that I did not have the means to dispose of the salvage and in any event the salvage valuation seemed high.
My comments regarding salvage were ignored by Zurich & I received a cheque in full and final settlement for **** (excluding Zurich's salvage value) – without explanation. Fortunately this cheque was not cashed as I was concerned you would then wash your hands of the matter..
On 9/12 Zurich were advised that the cheque received was not accepted and that in any event there were additional items to include within the claim which were itemised.
On 18/1 (6 weeks) Zurich responded by advising they were reviewing the case.
On 7/2 Zurich advised they had transferred the case to another Zurich team.
On 17/2 the Trading Standards Office advised me that Zurich cannot force me to accept salvage in lieu of payment.
On 18/2 Zurich advised “someone senior” would review the case with an engineer. Zurich then advised that receipts would be required for the additional items and I should approach a company called Co Part in respect of the salvage, despite my stating categorically that I had no wish to get involved in salvage disposal and bearing in mind the comments of the Trading Standards Office.
On 1/3 Zurich advised that they would not provide recompense for any shortfall in salvage value realisation and that evidence should be submitted with regards to the value of the additional items being claimed for.
15/3 Zurich were e mailed reiterating that the sale adverts I had supplied suggested the valuation of the vehicle was too low and requested a compromise offer. Your engineers were requested to reconsider. I also requested recompense for the additional items.
Zurich were then chased for response to the e mail of 15/3 on the following dates:-
24/3, 8/4, 18/4, 2/5, 16/5, 30/5, 16/6, 24/6 and 1/7.
On 6/7 Zurich requested receipts for the additional items. The ads originally e mailed to Zurich were re mailed with request for settlement.
Zurich were chased for response on the following dates:-
18/7, 27/7, 5/8, 17/8 and 19/8.
8/9 Zurich responded that you won’t increase the vehicle & required purchase receipts for the additional items. There was no mention of the salvage disposal issue.
On 14/9 Zurich were advised that, after extensive searching, I was unable to trace the original purchase receipts however the items being claimed for remained with the vehicle and could be inspected . Claim for additional items was reiterated. Request that settlement include salvage was reiterated.
All I want is fair settlement, to be put back into the same position I was in before the accident occurred
I believe you have delayed and prevaricated throughout this matter following an accident – the fault for which you have admitted.
I shall have no hesitation in referring this matter to the Ombudsman if I do not receive satisfactory response
Yours faithfully
Reply from Zurich 19/9
Good Afternoon,
I have been passed the below email and claim to review. I apologise for the length of time it took Zurich to accept liability. This policy is for a large global corporate company - it takes longer for them to speak to the drivers etc to get reports of claims.
With regards to the salvage as we are not your insurers we cannot take responsibility for the salvage of your vehicle. What I can do is call Coparts (salvage agents we normally use) to contact you to arrange this - they will pay the quoted salvage value of '27%' to yourself for the vehicle.
Our engineer has reviewed all the evidence provided and has advised that the value is fair for the vehicle. The engineer advised the most of the evidence sent was for different vehicle models and the milage of the vehicles was lower then your vehicle. In light of this we cannot increase the amount paid for this.
As we have previously advised without receipt of any purchase information for the items lost it is difficult for us to make payment for these.
Please contact me on **** if you wish to discuss this further. Or please reply by email if you wish for me to arrange for Coparts to deal with the salvage.
Regards,
My reply 20/9
Good afternoon
Although I am still not impressed with the length of time it has taken for you to react to all of the correspondence from both myself and ****, especially since the fault was admitted within less than a week from your insured party, I am happy for you to arrange the disposal of my car which was my original request at the time of the crash.
I also accept the value of the car as £****, removing the 27% salvage which I expect to receive in full within 5 working days I will be owed £**** from Zurich, again I expect to receive this in full within the next 5 working days.
Their response
Good Afternoon,
As discussed we have no obligation to do anything with the salvage of your vehicle; we are doing this as a goodwill gesture. We also have no obligation to make any payments for your damaged items without purchase receipts - the Ombudsman or a Judge in Court would support this.
We will also be disputing the length you have been using a credit hire vehicle and we will take up with the hire company when their invoice is submitted. You could have claimed through your own insurance company at any point which would have mitigated the losses for this claim.
Regards,
Again my reply - 22/9
As this saga has been going on for almost a year now and I would like to put the incompetence of Zurich behind me, I will reluctantly accept the offer , however I will still be logging an official complaint about the handling of this claim.
With regards to the salvage of the vehicle, I declared the instant that I knew the car was a total loss that I did not want to have the vehicle returned nor did I have the means of disposing of the vehicle, as I was the not at fault party, I would expect the Ombudsman would agree that full payment should have been sent within 90 days of the incident and for you, as the insured party’s insurance company, to deal with the paperwork of removing and disposing of the vehicle.
For your third point below, I had the use of a hire vehicle for less time than it took for yourselves to send through the first cheque! Please feel free to take this matter up with ****, I hope that they have more success than myself in obtaining money that is rightfully theirs.
For your final comment, it does not matter to yourselves who I used to help settle my non fault claim, I have the right to choose who I wish to and I did not claim through my own insurance company at the time as it was clear that at no point was I at fault and my policy only included hire for a maximum of 2 weeks, at which point I would again have been out of pocket for a further 8 weeks hiring another vehicle until Zurich decided to admit fault and pay out.
Regards
No more replies so I had to follow up with this email today (only 1 cheque received so far in 368 days!)
Good afternoon
I received a phone call last week from Coparts regarding the collection of my car, I informed them of the vehicle location and authorised the collection. Since then I have not had any more contact, I yet again had to chase to find out what is happening to be told that they are unable to collect the vehicle until funding has been authorised by Zurich!
To say that I am yet again disappointed to be let down by Zurich would be a understatement, this claim has now been dragging on for more than a year since the date of the accident. Are you able to offer an explanation as to what Zurich requires in order to release the money?
Now my question (if you have not fallen asleep) is there anything else I should be doing here? Yes I know that going through my own insurance company would have spared me lots of pain... I didn't at the time as I needed a hire vehicle that Monday and my own insurance were not open at the weekends!!
Dear Sir
Re: Claim Ref **** Your Insured **** Accident 2/10/10.
I wish to lodge complaint regarding your Company’s handling of my claim against you for which you have admitted liability. I have consulted the Insurance Ombudsman and have been advised that that I should, in the first instance, address my complaint to you for consideration and response.
I would like to detail the sequence of events in Zurich’s handling of the above claim:-
Accident occurred 2/10 the circumstances being that your insured’s vehicle rolled down a hill and hit my vehicle whilst parked. On 4/10 your client reported the accident to Zurich.
It took until 24/11 some 7 weeks, for Zurich to finally admit liability, despite the accident circumstances.
On 6/12 Zurich offered £**** but this amount to be reduced by salvage valuation of 27%. The same day Zurich was advised that I did not have the means to dispose of the salvage and in any event the salvage valuation seemed high.
My comments regarding salvage were ignored by Zurich & I received a cheque in full and final settlement for **** (excluding Zurich's salvage value) – without explanation. Fortunately this cheque was not cashed as I was concerned you would then wash your hands of the matter..
On 9/12 Zurich were advised that the cheque received was not accepted and that in any event there were additional items to include within the claim which were itemised.
On 18/1 (6 weeks) Zurich responded by advising they were reviewing the case.
On 7/2 Zurich advised they had transferred the case to another Zurich team.
On 17/2 the Trading Standards Office advised me that Zurich cannot force me to accept salvage in lieu of payment.
On 18/2 Zurich advised “someone senior” would review the case with an engineer. Zurich then advised that receipts would be required for the additional items and I should approach a company called Co Part in respect of the salvage, despite my stating categorically that I had no wish to get involved in salvage disposal and bearing in mind the comments of the Trading Standards Office.
On 1/3 Zurich advised that they would not provide recompense for any shortfall in salvage value realisation and that evidence should be submitted with regards to the value of the additional items being claimed for.
15/3 Zurich were e mailed reiterating that the sale adverts I had supplied suggested the valuation of the vehicle was too low and requested a compromise offer. Your engineers were requested to reconsider. I also requested recompense for the additional items.
Zurich were then chased for response to the e mail of 15/3 on the following dates:-
24/3, 8/4, 18/4, 2/5, 16/5, 30/5, 16/6, 24/6 and 1/7.
On 6/7 Zurich requested receipts for the additional items. The ads originally e mailed to Zurich were re mailed with request for settlement.
Zurich were chased for response on the following dates:-
18/7, 27/7, 5/8, 17/8 and 19/8.
8/9 Zurich responded that you won’t increase the vehicle & required purchase receipts for the additional items. There was no mention of the salvage disposal issue.
On 14/9 Zurich were advised that, after extensive searching, I was unable to trace the original purchase receipts however the items being claimed for remained with the vehicle and could be inspected . Claim for additional items was reiterated. Request that settlement include salvage was reiterated.
All I want is fair settlement, to be put back into the same position I was in before the accident occurred
I believe you have delayed and prevaricated throughout this matter following an accident – the fault for which you have admitted.
I shall have no hesitation in referring this matter to the Ombudsman if I do not receive satisfactory response
Yours faithfully
Reply from Zurich 19/9
Good Afternoon,
I have been passed the below email and claim to review. I apologise for the length of time it took Zurich to accept liability. This policy is for a large global corporate company - it takes longer for them to speak to the drivers etc to get reports of claims.
With regards to the salvage as we are not your insurers we cannot take responsibility for the salvage of your vehicle. What I can do is call Coparts (salvage agents we normally use) to contact you to arrange this - they will pay the quoted salvage value of '27%' to yourself for the vehicle.
Our engineer has reviewed all the evidence provided and has advised that the value is fair for the vehicle. The engineer advised the most of the evidence sent was for different vehicle models and the milage of the vehicles was lower then your vehicle. In light of this we cannot increase the amount paid for this.
As we have previously advised without receipt of any purchase information for the items lost it is difficult for us to make payment for these.
Please contact me on **** if you wish to discuss this further. Or please reply by email if you wish for me to arrange for Coparts to deal with the salvage.
Regards,
My reply 20/9
Good afternoon
Although I am still not impressed with the length of time it has taken for you to react to all of the correspondence from both myself and ****, especially since the fault was admitted within less than a week from your insured party, I am happy for you to arrange the disposal of my car which was my original request at the time of the crash.
I also accept the value of the car as £****, removing the 27% salvage which I expect to receive in full within 5 working days I will be owed £**** from Zurich, again I expect to receive this in full within the next 5 working days.
Their response
Good Afternoon,
As discussed we have no obligation to do anything with the salvage of your vehicle; we are doing this as a goodwill gesture. We also have no obligation to make any payments for your damaged items without purchase receipts - the Ombudsman or a Judge in Court would support this.
We will also be disputing the length you have been using a credit hire vehicle and we will take up with the hire company when their invoice is submitted. You could have claimed through your own insurance company at any point which would have mitigated the losses for this claim.
Regards,
Again my reply - 22/9
As this saga has been going on for almost a year now and I would like to put the incompetence of Zurich behind me, I will reluctantly accept the offer , however I will still be logging an official complaint about the handling of this claim.
With regards to the salvage of the vehicle, I declared the instant that I knew the car was a total loss that I did not want to have the vehicle returned nor did I have the means of disposing of the vehicle, as I was the not at fault party, I would expect the Ombudsman would agree that full payment should have been sent within 90 days of the incident and for you, as the insured party’s insurance company, to deal with the paperwork of removing and disposing of the vehicle.
For your third point below, I had the use of a hire vehicle for less time than it took for yourselves to send through the first cheque! Please feel free to take this matter up with ****, I hope that they have more success than myself in obtaining money that is rightfully theirs.
For your final comment, it does not matter to yourselves who I used to help settle my non fault claim, I have the right to choose who I wish to and I did not claim through my own insurance company at the time as it was clear that at no point was I at fault and my policy only included hire for a maximum of 2 weeks, at which point I would again have been out of pocket for a further 8 weeks hiring another vehicle until Zurich decided to admit fault and pay out.
Regards
No more replies so I had to follow up with this email today (only 1 cheque received so far in 368 days!)
Good afternoon
I received a phone call last week from Coparts regarding the collection of my car, I informed them of the vehicle location and authorised the collection. Since then I have not had any more contact, I yet again had to chase to find out what is happening to be told that they are unable to collect the vehicle until funding has been authorised by Zurich!
To say that I am yet again disappointed to be let down by Zurich would be a understatement, this claim has now been dragging on for more than a year since the date of the accident. Are you able to offer an explanation as to what Zurich requires in order to release the money?
Now my question (if you have not fallen asleep) is there anything else I should be doing here? Yes I know that going through my own insurance company would have spared me lots of pain... I didn't at the time as I needed a hire vehicle that Monday and my own insurance were not open at the weekends!!
0
Comments
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If you are making a claim against the 3rd party Insurer directly, I don't think you can make any complaint to the FOS. Apparently they only accept complaints that you have with your own Insurers. You can phone the FOS to check that this is the case.
Suggest that you get legal advice about this, as you might have to issue a court claim against the 3rd party driver to get Zurich to come to an arrangement with you.The comments I post are personal opinion. Always refer to official information sources before relying on internet forums. If you have a problem with any organisation, enter into their official complaints process at the earliest opportunity, as sometimes complaints have to be started within a certain time frame.0 -
I would have though Official Complaints from third parties would be filed in file 130
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I would have though Official Complaints from third parties would be filed in file 13
File 13= The ones they file away and ignore.The comments I post are personal opinion. Always refer to official information sources before relying on internet forums. If you have a problem with any organisation, enter into their official complaints process at the earliest opportunity, as sometimes complaints have to be started within a certain time frame.0 -
If you are making a claim against the 3rd party Insurer directly, I don't think you can make any complaint to the FOS. Apparently they only accept complaints that you have with your own Insurers. You can phone the FOS to check that this is the case.
You are correct.Suggest that you get legal advice about this, as you might have to issue a court claim against the 3rd party driver to get Zurich to come to an arrangement with you.
That is the next step for the OP to take if he's not happy with the way Zurich have dealt with his claim.0 -
how long did you have a credit hire car for?Don't put your trust into an Experian score - it is not a number any bank will ever use & it is generally a waste of money to purchase it. They are also selling you insurance you dont need.0
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If you are making a claim against the 3rd party Insurer directly, I don't think you can make any complaint to the FOS. Apparently they only accept complaints that you have with your own Insurers. You can phone the FOS to check that this is the case.
Suggest that you get legal advice about this, as you might have to issue a court claim against the 3rd party driver to get Zurich to come to an arrangement with you.
I now know that I cannot go through the FOS but I am going to approach the 3rd party insured driver and see if they can log the complaint for me as I know them personally.0 -
how long did you have a credit hire car for?
Just under 9 weeks - I also needed to use an external company as I needed a vehicle with a towbar, my own insurance only offered a 2 week hire period in a basic model... OK the payment would have been sooner, but I would have been unable to tow for a period of time.0 -
so they are talking about £4k just for a hire car, can see why they are going to query it.Don't put your trust into an Experian score - it is not a number any bank will ever use & it is generally a waste of money to purchase it. They are also selling you insurance you dont need.0
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