Car Insurers forcing me to settle my claim, what can i do?

Quentin

debred86 wrote: »

I have recently written off my car, my own fault and i had 5 yrs no claims, it went down to two according to my insurance. Not sure how they work it out.....

If you have unprotected NCD, then it is normally worked out by no NCD being added for the year of the claim, and you lose 2 years from whatever you had at the start of the policy year.

So if you had 4 years at the start of the year, and one fault claim during the year you should have 2 years NCD at renewal.

sk76

OK just to update, Have rec'd a letter from my insurance saying they are still going for a 50/50 settlement but have now added an extra bit to their initial response which mentions that another firm (Helphire) "will be ale to recover 50% of my outlay including excess, any travelling costs as well as other out of pocket expenses I may have incurred" if i forward evidence.

I can easily get a letter from the local taxi company which will mention how frequently I have used taxi's over the last 6 months (usually at least once a wk, if not more - average cost is £6/one way), I obviously did not keep bus receipts but still had to go into town (once per wk) and visiting family for B'Days/Aniversary celebrations whereby travelled by coach to save me money, so am assuming that just giving them printout of fares should be OK?? or I could get testimonials from family/friends re their B'days etc...
They mention other out-of-pocket expenses - what does this mean??? You cant measure inconvenience in monetary terms!!

Any help appreciated, as to be honest I would think this route would cost them more than simply saying "our fault, keep your NClaims". Dont get the logic...

sk76

I have already emailed my insurers complaint dept, thanking them for their final response letter but told them that i would still be complaining to the the ombudsman as i really do feel they have not been working in my favor but they keep sending letters from another company asking me to send details of incurred costs that i wish to claim for!!

They already have my email and i have spoken to them on the phone also - is this harrassment?
Surely, the matter remains unresolved until the ombudsman decides...no??

Quentin

sk76 wrote: »

OK just to update, Have rec'd a letter from my insurance saying they are still going for a 50/50 settlement but have now added an extra bit to their initial response which mentions that another firm (Helphire) "will be ale to recover 50% of my outlay including excess, any travelling costs as well as other out of pocket expenses I may have incurred" if i forward evidence.

I can easily get a letter from the local taxi company which will mention how frequently I have used taxi's over the last 6 months (usually at least once a wk, if not more - average cost is £6/one way), I obviously did not keep bus receipts but still had to go into town (once per wk) and visiting family for B'Days/Aniversary celebrations whereby travelled by coach to save me money, so am assuming that just giving them printout of fares should be OK?? or I could get testimonials from family/friends re their B'days etc...
They mention other out-of-pocket expenses - what does this mean??? You cant measure inconvenience in monetary terms!!

Any help appreciated, as to be honest I would think this route would cost them more than simply saying "our fault, keep your NClaims". Dont get the logic...

This is the norm when a split liability is decided.

As posted earlier (#9), a 50/50 liability split does mean you can recover 50% of your uninsured losses (eg excess/necessary hire car/fares/loss of earnings etc).

If helphire are prepared to pursue this for you (on no win no fee basis), then they should assist you by letting you know what evidence you need, and what different headings you can claim under.

property.advert

This should be so easy to resolve.

The cost of the other party defending any action the OP cares to instigate would be greater than paying 100% of his claim. Thus, the bean counters should simply write a cheque out to your insurer.

The reason your insurer does not want to fight this 50/50 fob off is simply because the amounts are so small.

Fight this every which way you can. Surely you can cause them more political and embarrassment than the other 50% and as soon as they see that, they should see sense. A letter to their CEO might work wonders.

sk76

Property.advert,

Thnx for the advice, that's the way I see it too. The 50% of uninsured losses would amount to approx. the cost of my little car!

You suggest a letter to their CEO but i have already had a final response letter from Southern Rock stating 50/50 is only option they are prepared to give me and if I dont like it then i can go to the ombudsman and it's signed by the Head of Eldon insurance Claims. Do you think I should still write a letter to the CEO (if i can find their name) and what would you put.

Apologies for all the questions but never had to do anything like this or complain so at a loss:(

Quentin

Now they sent you the deadlock letter, the CEO is unlikely to overrule it! (Would be a dangerous business precedent for him/her to make!)

But you can now move up to using the FOS (which won't cost you anything) if you don't accept their "resolution" of your complaint.

Wig

Are there any pictures of the accident damaged car in situ? or CCTV cameras, when did the accident happen?

You've been using a taxi service & buses and hope to get recompensed without getting & keeping any receipts? NO WAY.

"Other out of pocket expenses" is any other service you have had to use or cost you have incurred as a direct result of not having a car that you can drive and not being able to replace that car due to lack of funds.... If you have £500 available to you you will be expected to have bought yourself a new car not keep on taking taxis and buses. You will need evidence of these out of pocket expenses and that means receipts, very unlikely you will get any of it back without legitimate dated receipts.

DaveF327

The location of the crash and spilled debris should make it clear whether you were in a "parked position" or not. The fact that he hit a stationary vehicle regardless of it's position proves negligence on his part as on realising what you did (as he said he did), he still had a duty of care to stop until you've moved out of harm's way.

Hammyman wrote: »

Could it be that you ended up in this situation because you pulled into his braking zone so the only place he had to go was alongside you?

Even if that were true, the lorry driver would have made a conscious decision to steer around the obstruction, so would have been aware of the car and known the danger in proceeding to steer left. He should have remained stationary until the way was clear, or made a substantial effort to steer wide around the obstruction if safe and necessary.

It wouldn't surprise me if the lorry driver were oblivious to the car's presence until after the crunch, then on hearing the response to "where did you appear from?", made up an excuse along the lines of "shouldn't have done that". The number of lorry and van drivers I see steering away from a delivery while still typing into the satnav / texting / still putting on seatbelt with one hand beggars belief. Half of them don't even realise their hazard lights are still flashing until miles into their journey, making their turn indicators useless.

Wig

Plus on approaching a STOP sign the lorry driver would surely have been going slowly to begin with, and not at a speed that they were unable to stop 6 feet before the stop line, had the car pulled out directly infront.

Photographs would probably have greatly helped here, lack of photographs and it is your word against theirs.