Advice needed re: car insurance and claim

marluc

Just want to ask advice of any experts on this forum as to what my next best plan of action should be.
In the early hours of saturday morning a vehicle crashed into my car which was parked on the road. The i9mpact shunted my car into next door neighbour's car. A neighbour saw the vehicle speed off and actually got the registration number. We all gave statements to the police, who informed us to wait till Sunday morning to contact insurance companies.
I rang One Call Insurance on Sunday morning at 9.15am to be told no garage etc is open on Sunday and they would contact me on Monday morning. I have fully comprehensive insurance by the way.
BY 12.30 pm no phone call, so telephoned again and guy said he would look into it and chivvy it along. At 2.10pm I received a call from a company called Conversion Broker Assistance who were going to be dealing with my case. i was told that as it was after 1pm I would not get a replacement vehicle till some time tomorrow, even though I need a car to get to work. he did say that it could be delivered to my place of work after 1pm tomorrow. Shortly after I received another call from the company saying that they might not be able to get me a relacement car, unless I could provide them with the contact details of the witness, as they needed a verbal statement from him. i told him that I didn't know the information. I then rang the police to ask if they had any further information. He informed me that it wasn't up to me to find out information for the Insurance Company. I rang up the Broker Assistance company to inform them of this to be told that the guy who is in charge of my case was on his break. This was at 3pm. It is now 5.30pm - a long break! I rerang One Call to see if they could tell me when I was going to get my courtesy car and get my car removed. She said that she would ring me back and she hasn't.
Sorry this has been very long but I didn't want to leave anything out.
I have now been without a vehicle for 2 days (including Sunday) and it looks like another day as well.
My questions are: a) What should I do now? I can't waste another day waiting for the phone to ring
b) Who can I complain to re: the shoddy treatment so far ( the neighbour whose car was also damaged has had his car removed and courtesy car dropped off)
c) My insurance with One Call ends on 25th October - will this affect my no claims bonus in any way and what do I tell perspective insurance companies about NCB or accidents etc which they always ask.
Thanks in advance.

Quentin

a) Don't wait for it to ring - start making some noise! Get the issue escalated.

b) Read up in your policy documents where there will be a section on their complaints procedure. Put it in writing, head the letter "Complaint", keep a copy and send it recorded delivery

c) Your NCD could well be affected (maybe temporarily). Your insurer will need to get full recompense from the third party of all their costs. Until this is agreed by the third party (or their insurer), then your NCD could be affected if not protected.

You need to tell any other insurer you approach about the claim, and that it is ongoing. Ask that if the matter is resolved with you getting your NCD reinstated that they will amend the premium and refund any difference to you.

marluc

Thanks Quentin for your very prompt reply.
Will do what you have suggested:beer:

dacouch

The chances are it's not a "Courtesy car" but a credit hire vehicle, try googling "Credit Hire complaint" for more information

property.advert

The correct way to deal with this is to get the offender's registration, get onto his insurers and get them to pay for everything, thus leaving your insurance nice and clean.

charliepoddley

I sympathise so much with the op.

If you look on one calls website there is a complaints procedure, its lengthy but you have to follow it and be able to show that you've followed it before you can report to ombudsman. Im in the process but as I said it is lengthy, hopefully though the more people that pursue complaints against them the better!

I am with One Call, the name is a joke for a start, I too am trying to sort a claim. I had a non fault accident over 6 weeks ago and one call have passed me from pillar to post in that time. I have only been offered a courtesy car a week ago (5 weeks without a vehicle), I have spoken to Commercial Legal and Broker Assistance and neither seems to have done anything with my claim. Ive even tried to temporarily claim on my own insurance and have been told I cant do that as it wasnt my fault.

With regards to your insurance ending I had the same problem. You have to report the accident as temporary fault to any new insurer which escalates your premium. But I am told you can claim this back from the third party.

The claim is now in the hands of a solicitor and all I can do is pray that they sort it!

Foxy-Stoat_3

Its all standard now;

Fault accident - you get your car dumped at an approved repairer who give you a free courtesy car - some thing small and rubbish but still useable wheels.

Non fault accident - the "claims handling company" are contacted by YOUR insurers to sell you a like for like credit car hire and do their best to talk you into claiming personal injury but only if all the information is to hand and the third party admits liability thereby giving the "claims handling company" a blank cheque that turns a £300 repair into £2000 bill including the car hire and injury claims thus making car insurance more expensive for the rest of us suckers....I suspect they tried to include whiplash, pain and suffering even tho you weren't in the car at the time.....maybe claim for w*nk*r's whiplash !!! LOL

I dont know what happens with hit and run accidents and the uninsured loss fund, I hope they catch them and throw the book and any other heavy object at them, in reality they wont pursue the offender and just continue to ring the cash register on the other 10 million motorists that currently use the roads legally!

marluc

property.advert wrote: »

The correct way to deal with this is to get the offender's registration, get onto his insurers and get them to pay for everything, thus leaving your insurance nice and clean.

Hi Just wondered how this actually happens, as one week on and I am still no nearer to getting my car removed from outside the house or a replacement car. I do have the hire car's registration number and Insurance company (Aviva), but the person who hired the caris saying that the vehicle was stolen. My insurance with Onecall runs out on Wednesday, so what do you think I should do? I have been on loads of websites does anyone have a template letter to send to their complaints department that sounds authoritative / legal? My mind is getting so confused now. I have been without a vehicle for a full week now - which doesn't sit with their policy document - where a replacement vehicle will be given within 3 days.
Any advice will be truly appreciated. Thanks

Quentin

You need action now (making an official "complaint" via their complaints procedure will take weeks to get resolved).

Demand to speak to a manager, and keep at them till you get action.

marluc

thanks Quentin
i have always asked to speak to a Manager, but a different one deals with my complaint each time and I have to go through the whole story again and again. The latest senior advisor said that she will investigate my problems on Monday, with only 2 days to go before my insurance expires. I want to be able to post (recorded de
livery) my formal legally worded complaint to One Call, so that they have that before Wednesday. how do I contact Aviva the third party's car insurance - even though it was a hire car, that he now states was stolen? I am so at my wits end with all of this, as I have never been in this position before.
many thanks for your help.

Quentin

Ring aviva and ask if they have an "innocent third party claim department" who can help you. (Though if your contact with them is the first they know about the incident, then they will need to get hold of their insured to hear their side of the story before doing anything).