Car Insurance - Hit by Third Party insured by Aviva

tmb70

Hi there, I need to briefly explain, nearly 3 weeks ago I was stationery at traffice lights when a car hit my rear end. The imoact appears to have been taken on the tow bar of my 4x4.

The third party admitted full responsibilty.

I insisted my car to be checked for any chassis, structural damage. Lights then came on the dash.

The incident happened late morning and later on that same day Aviva called me (insurer to the third party), to offer assistance and in essence stating they would prefer to deal direct with me for any repair and/or personal injury, to avoid any escalting legal costs - I think the example they gave was why pay £4000.00 in legal fees for £2000.00 claim (total being £6000.00)

My car was taken away to an Aviva repair centre and my wass duly replaced.

On Sunday, 2 days after, I had horrible pains in my neck, chest and across my stomach, and collapsed aginst the door. I thought I was having a heart attack or stroke.

On Monday I went to my GP explained the symptoms and was asked of any unusual occurrances, explained the rear end. The out come was muscle spacisms (whiplash).

In the meantime Aviva physio representative had contacted me and to cut a long story had arranged an visit to a local Physio for an assessment, where I was diagnosed with Grade 2 whiplash. The knotted muscle, clicking neck, stiffness etc all apparent. Aviva agreed a course of treatment (total of 5 or 7 sessions).

Today I receive a letter from Aviva, the third party insurer who called me at the outset to 'work'with them saying:

- We do not accept the force of impact was sufficient to cause personal injury

- The damage to our vehicle was minimal

What I want to know is has anyone else shared a similar experience whereby the third party insurer sends a generic response to wriggle out.

This is not made up.

Thanks in advance.

InsideInsurance

Low Velocity Impacts are an increasingly touchy subject and one that is renowned for spurious injury claims and one insurers are being increasingly encouraged to dispute.

As ultimately you clearly feel that it is related to the accident it is probably time to now part ways from dealing directly with Aviva for the injury aspect (they can continue dealing with the damage to your car) and instruct a solicitor to deal with it for you.

If you have legal expenses on your car insurance your insurers will appoint a solicitor for you, otherwise find your own solicitor (you can find ones that will give you cashback for giving them the case) and obviously explain the situation that the TPI is disputing liability on the basis of it being a LVI

Quentin

Get your own solicitor on the case.

Aviva have a massive conflict of interest here!

InsideInsurance

Quentin wrote: »

Aviva have a massive conflict of interest here!

They have an interesting conflict of interest, and one that the insurers -v- solicitors/ accident management companies have argued endlessly with neither being able to land a knockout blow to the other.

Obviously the solicitors argument is that the claimants dont know what their injury is worth and so the insurers will low ball it to mitigate the costs.

The insurers on the flip side normally argue that they actually typically offer more to direct claimants to avoid a solicitor subsequently becoming involved as a typical claim isnt far off £2,000 to the claimant and £3,000 to the solicitor and so if you give the claimant £2,500-£3,000 you are still saving yourself at least £2,000 but blocking a solicitor coming involved as an immediate Part 36 offer can be made meaning the solicitor can make no claims for costs beyond that point unless they can get the courts to agree the offer was too low.

Evidently I sit on the side of the insurer in most cases but then I dont claim to be unbaised.

In this case it is time to get a solicitor involved but not due to conflicts of interest but the fact LVIs are complex things to argue and experience is necessary.

tmb70

In brief from 3 hours of calls!

Well interestingly this afternoon I called and left messages, got a call back and was told the Fraud Unit had new evidence!! I queried whether they had the reports - simply put you are a fraudster go away.

I was so fed up I called my insurer and during the call I received a call from Aviva (0141 in Scotland), the manager had now overruled the previous decision and made me an offer!!!

£1700 whiplash
£300 towards future physio costs
£100 aggro

What about the 2 weeks off work as per my doctors sick note, what about this disgraceful episode . . . .

I have taken the £300 towards physio.

It sounds a right racket if you are genuine.

[Deleted User]

tmb70 wrote: »

In brief from 3 hours of calls!

Well interestingly this afternoon I called and left messages, got a call back and was told the Fraud Unit had new evidence!! I queried whether they had the reports - simply put you are a fraudster go away.

I was so fed up I called my insurer and during the call I received a call from Aviva (0141 in Scotland), the manager had now overruled the previous decision and made me an offer!!!

£1700 whiplash
£300 towards future physio costs
£100 aggro

What about the 2 weeks off work as per my doctors sick note, what about this disgraceful episode . . . .

I have taken the £300 towards physio.

It sounds a right racket if you are genuine.

Hi tmb70,

Sorry to hear about the incident from 3 weeks ago.

I'm happy to have this looked into for you. If you're ok for me to do this I'd need the following information:

• Your full name
• Date of birth
• Full address
• Claim reference number or car registration number

My email address is [EMAIL="martin.banwell@aviva.co.uk"]martin.banwell@aviva.co.uk[/EMAIL]. Please cc it to [EMAIL="social@aviva.co.uk"]social@aviva.co.uk[/EMAIL] in case I'm out of the office in which case a colleague will pick it up.

Kind regards,

Martin

mikey72

tmb70 wrote: »

In brief from 3 hours of calls!

Well interestingly this afternoon I called and left messages, got a call back and was told the Fraud Unit had new evidence!! I queried whether they had the reports - simply put you are a fraudster go away.

I was so fed up I called my insurer and during the call I received a call from Aviva (0141 in Scotland), the manager had now overruled the previous decision and made me an offer!!!

£1700 whiplash
£300 towards future physio costs
£100 aggro

What about the 2 weeks off work as per my doctors sick note, what about this disgraceful episode . . . .

I have taken the £300 towards physio.

It sounds a right racket if you are genuine.

Sadly, if you deal direct for PI, you've no hope. I'd use a no win no fee comapny every time, otherwise as you've found, you won't get anything like a fair chance.

tmb70

Aviva_company_representative wrote: »

Hi tmb70,

Sorry to hear about the incident from 3 weeks ago.

I'm happy to have this looked into for you. If you're ok for me to do this I'd need the following information:

• Your full name
• Date of birth
• Full address
• Claim reference number or car registration number

My email address is [EMAIL="martin.banwell@aviva.co.uk"]martin.banwell@aviva.co.uk[/EMAIL]. Please cc it to [EMAIL="social@aviva.co.uk"]social@aviva.co.uk[/EMAIL] in case I'm out of the office in which case a colleague will pick it up.

Kind regards,

Martin

Aviva Martin,

I have sent you an email. I must emphasise how distressing it is to be labelled as a Fraudster, furthermore it seems to be taking alot of my time to address the 2 aspects - Injury and Vehicle.

Firstly, on the Injury it is now transparent Aviva had all the info (assessments, reports etc) and failed to read them or call me sinister as a major PLC are you thinking of Profit and shareholders foremost!!! Obviously I am unable to proof this and let me guess your response will be . . . something like . . . we look at each case individually and care for each and every person making a claim!

Secondly, I have constantly been in touch with the Aviva car repairer who insists they submit info and always have to wait for approval - this is taking far to long.

Belive it or not I am concious that I driving around in a vehicle that is costing Aviva £420.00 per week and it will be 4 weeks this coming Monday.

All I want is my vehicle inspected, the works approved and returned in a timely fashion.

Maybe there are massive advantages using a lawyer whi generates massive fees.

I sit here thinking about the silly Whiplash Fraudsters and then also the legal prostitutes - what has it all come to

Quentin

If they called you a "fraudster" you ought to consider this as a separate issue that you need some legal advice on!

But don't let them get you to settle with them on your PI in the way they are suggesting - (eg they should be awaiting the full cost of your physio, not suggesting you accept £300 towards the (unknown) final cost!)

You really have nothing to lose by getting your own legal adviser fighting your corner, especially in the circumstances of how this has progressed!

tmb70

Quentin,

Thanks for the guidance. I have made my complaint crystal clear with Martin from Aviva.

The £300.00 is to cover the remaing Physio, if more is required then Aviva will pay. That was stated on the phone and all calls are recorded.

I have requested all telephone transcripts, reports etc.

In my opinion once a rate is agreed (or proven) either per hour or per day, this then needs to be pro rata'd for my tim and effort.

Another point I enquired into the 2 weeks I was off and not driving, and Aviva say they the average person works 48 weeks per annum , I then asked how many weeks holiday Mr Aviva has, answer 7 weeks therefore he works 45 weeks. If you earn X amount per annum and then divide by the Mr Aviva then there is 3 weeks difference.

Well there you go . . .

Thank you all who have replied.

InsideInsurance

Not sure what head of claim you are talking about?

Are you talking about claiming loss of earnings? Are you self employed or an employee? If you are an employee then it is a simple case of looking and comparing payslips to see what you normally get -v- what you got during the period of absence.

If you are talking about your time and effort in dealing with your claim then your salary makes no difference at all and a nominal amount is used. If you are a call centre worker or a company CEO then your free time is considered equally valuable even though professionally one can earn 100 times the other.