Car insurance - hit by a foreign lorry

Curly.louise

Hi all

I was hit by a foreign lorry driver on a dual carriage way a couple of months ago. I was overtaking him and he pulled into me and dragged me up the carriage way and back across the left side of the road. The police attended and collected the drivers name and insurance details on my behalf. My car was a write off and I sustained minor whiplash.

The difficulty I am now having is with my insurance company. They have been pretty rubbish from the start but are now saying they can not find the English counterpart to the drivers Belgium insurance company. They are saying they do not have detail of the drivers insurance as the police would charge them for it - even though I have passed all these details on to my insurance. Until the claim is settled it is regarded by my insurance as being my fault. They have offered me way below the trade value for my car (even though I am entitled to market value and have sent them examples of similar cars that are being sold for much more than they have offered) I have to pay an excess, my solictor won't send me for a medical or treatment until fault is admitted by the other driver. I have had to switch insurance companies because my premium went through the roof however my previous insurer won't release my no claims until they have admission from the other party.

I have googled the lorry drivers insurance company and the company that he works for and have been able to easily obtain phone numbers etc but my insurance company doesn't seem to want to move very quickly at all. This is becoming really frustrating for me as I keep having to leave my desk at work to make phone calls, I have suffered from headaches and neck pain due to the wiplash and my gp has suggested an osteopath but I can't afford this unless the solicitors are able to recoup it from the other driver. I really need some advice about how to get things moving. Can I ask to see my files from my insurance company to find out what they have been doing? Should I phone the driver's insurance company myself? Any advice would be extremely helpful. Thank you

Louise

Norman_Castle

They have been pretty rubbish from the start but are now saying they can not find the English counterpart to the drivers Belgium insurance company.

Contact the other insurer and ask them exactly how your insurer can contact them, then pass this onto your insurer.

dacouch

You can find the UK representatives of the foreign Insurers through this link http://www.mib.org.uk/Customer+Services/en/General+Cross+Border+Information/UK+Reps.htm

agrinnall

And if you can find the UK representative easily enough then let us know who your insurers are, because if they can't do that for themselves we'd all like to avoid them.

DCFC79

cathrinkate963 wrote: »

Keeping your car insured is one thing that should never be overlooked or ignored, it is as important as your own health. According to the Indian law's Motor Vehicles Act, no motor vehicle is allowed on Indian roads without it carrying the minimum insurance cover. The minimum insurance policy that the Indian law expects every vehicle on Indian roads to have is the third party liability insurance policy.

whats this all about

vaio

prelude to spam is my guess

Curly.louise

Thanks for your replies. It has been extremely helpful. Today I contacted the insurance company in Belgium and they were able to give me the third party insurer details for the lorry driver. I then used the link above which gave me the uk counterpart insurance details. All this took me less than 10 minutes. I passed this on to my insurance company and they said that they had got the letters in the drivers registration plate the wrong way round. I am considering putting in a complaint about this.

They have also made me a second offer for my written off car of £900. My policy states that they will pay market value for the car however the trade price is listed at £1200 and I have sent them details from auto trader of cars similar to mine that are around £1500 which is what I put the value at 6 months ago when I took out the policy. I really can't understand why their offers are so low.

Louise

Quentin

The figure you gave 6 months ago isn't too relevant.

The figure that you should be going for is its current market value.

Curly.louise

Totally get what you are saying and I'm not expecting the full £1500 but I have checked the current trade price which is £1200 and have sent them details of cars of the same make model mileage and condition that are being advertised at £1200 - £1600 so would definately be expecting something much closer to these figures

mikey72

The FOS are clear on how to set a fair price

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



"In most cases, we assess the market value as the retail price which the policyholder would have had to pay for a comparable vehicle at a reputable dealer, immediately before the date of the damage/theft.

• This may be lower than the price at which the vehicle is advertised, as the dealer may have built in a margin for negotiation.
• It is likely to be higher than the price payable in a private sale or at an auction, and higher than the trade value (which is the price a dealer would pay before adding its mark-up).

We are likely to award the policyholder the full retail value"



"We pay most attention to valuations given in motor-trade guides, such as Parker, Glass and CAP. These are based on extensive nationwide research. "

Curly.louise

I don't think my insurance company are adhering to this guidance!