Is Aviva bodging up my previously mint car?

caterhamsuper7

Thanks adamc260 and mikey72. I've been thinking of doing both things, Just paying the extra for the bumper, then the small claims court to recover costs from Aviva. Maybe there is an ombudsman or someone I could sound out first.

caterhamsuper7

Thanks hcb42, I tried my own insurer (fully comp with Advantage, a Hastings Direct subsidary) and was on hold for 45 minutes while they spoke to Aviva) long story short Aviva won't budge. They have their engineers report and are happy to do a repair on the cheap instead of the decent thing and returnining the car in it's original mint condition. My insurers say that I can take the car to the Mazda approved workshop and have a new bumper but they will not be able to recover costs from Aviva so that will leave me paying the extra, and then attempting to recover costs in court from Aviva myself.

vaio

ombudsman will only deal with disputes between you and your insurer, won't be interested in a dispute between you and the third party insurer

caterhamsuper7

Thanks vaio, it was just a thought. I'm really furious with Aviva and will find a way to have my car returned as it was.

mikey72

caterhamsuper7 wrote: »

Thanks adamc260 and mikey72. I've been thinking of doing both things, Just paying the extra for the bumper, then the small claims court to recover costs from Aviva. Maybe there is an ombudsman or someone I could sound out first.

Not for third party claims. Court is the only option.
A claim management company might well like the thought of it, as if it goes to court and you win (and no reason why not, if a Mazda approved grage would replace it, and it wasn't full of plastic padding before), they would be on a nice little earner.

caterhamsuper7

Thank you everyone for all your help. My Mazda MX5 is my pride and joy and will be passed down the family in due course. I really don't want Aviva to mess about with it and bodge up the front bumper on the cheap. It was their policy holder that damaged it and I believe they have a responsibility to make it as it was last week with a mint condition front bumper. I have to go to work now but will log in tomorrow morning. Thanks again for all of your ideas, any more help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Paul.

rs65

caterhamsuper7 wrote: »

so that will leave me paying the extra, and then attempting to recover costs in court from Aviva myself.

I'm sorry to say that the court may agree with them that a repair is appropriate.

mikey72

rs65 wrote: »

I'm sorry to say that the court may agree with them that a repair is appropriate.

Why?

Based on the Mazda bodyshop recomendation, and the description of the damage.

rs65

mikey72 wrote: »

Why?

I think a court would support a repair if its possible and more economic. Would they support a replacement door if it was possible to use filler and paint to repair? I don't know, just my feeling that repair would be the first option.

Plus there is a common law duty to mitigate a loss.

vaio

yep, but the duty to mitigate doesn't extend to ending up with something worse than you started with particularly (as I'm certain will be the case) the manufacturers confirm that the safety/structural integrity will be compromised by a repair to the mounting points