Car insurance advice needed - driver killed in accident

Creckless

My mum was recently killed outright in a car accident, with a man arrested on the scene. Mum was on the correct side of the road and a criminal investigation is in place, thus the car is impounded (as with all others involved).

The insurance company have been terrible in dealing with the case. Insurance was with M&S, fully comprehensive, with her partner as named driver and a courtesy car and legal assistance included as part of the package.

It took well over a week for the insurance people to help us with legal advice (the solicitor appointed was quite shocked about how long it had taken!). It also took a week of phone calls to get a courtesy car.

Her partner was told at the time of being granted a courtesy car, that he would be entitled to it until the insured car could be recovered from police car forensic department and evaluated by the insurers. However, today he was told by the car rental company to return the car straight away as the insurance company were ceasing to pay for the lease of the car. Her partner contacted the insurance company, and they said that as they couldn't inspect the car (due to it being retained by the police for their investigations) they were not willing to continue paying for the courtesy car beyond Friday of this week.

He's only had the courtesy car for just over a week, and with multiple cars involved and many witness statements to compile, as well as CCTV footage etc, the investigation is likely to take many weeks/months. However, post mortum confirms that she died of multiple injuries at the scene and that she was on the correct side of the road, so highly unlikely to be at fault.

I need to do something. It seems so unfair that they say one thing one week and another the next. Her partner needs to get around for the sake of his own sanity AND to see to the needs of his 91 year old mother.

Does anybody have any advice as to where we stand?

InsideInsurance

First of all, sorry for your loss.

Secondly, what level of cover did they have? The standard or premier? If it is the standard did they add on the guaranteed replacement vehicle cover? Who supplied the car you had for a while?

Thirdly, have the police given you the details of the third party being blamed for the accident? Do you at least have their registration plate?


With a traditional courtesy car it is provided by the garage that is doing the repairs to you. If there are no repairs then there is no courtesy car.

The guaranteed courtesy car they offer (inc for 28 days in the Premier version, optional extra on the standard for variable lengths) you would get and be entitled to now if you have it but it is only for a finite period (max 28 days)

The other two options in non-fault accidents are either:

1) Contact the third party insurers and ask them to provide one

2) Go through credit hire

The problem with both of these is that sorting out your car isnt progressing due to the police investigation. For (2) this may be a show stopper but (1) is more likely to be sympathetic to the situation

These really are questions that should be directed to your solicitors however.

forgotmyname

Terrible situation.

Just because she was not in the wrong does not mean it wont be an at fault claim from what i have read on here. If the other party was not insured or claims she did something wrong will delay the issue.
If he doesnt have insurance then it will be considered at fault because they cant claim fom his insurance.

As the policy was in her name you need to check to see if he will be covered to drive

Creckless

Many thanks for your response.

The courtesy car is probably not in the traditional sense - it's a hire car from Enterprise, so a longer term hire. Perhaps I used 'courtesy car' where I should have used the term 'replacement car'.

I don't have the car insurance documents at home with me as I live a good distance away, unfortunately.

I will contact the solicitor tomorrow to inquire as to our options. With him only having discussed the inquest, criminal case and compensation on his visit, I didn't really think that this was his situation to deal with (more about replacement car and therefore direct with the insurance company), but I suppose that any car hire costs would form part of the compensation payments, should need arise.

I just don't understand why they can't be more reasonable or straightforward, given the situation. But then I'm also having to argue with BT about 'cancellation charges' on my mums contract with them (in her name only!), so I'm writing my own s'hit'-list to blast at when the 'anger' part of grief should hit me.

Thanks again for your helpful advice. It's much appreciated when all around me seems to make little sense! _pale_

Creckless

BTW, we were not able to provide a name for the third party, but the police DID provide us with a registration number, which allowed a replacement car to be provided in the first place.

InsideInsurance

You need to see whats going on, whos provided what etc.

At a guess from what you are saying Enterprise were providing a credit hire car to you and have gotten cold feet due to the lack of progress in dealing with the repair/ total loss of the vehicle.

Do you know if it is likely that the vehicle is a total loss? In accidents sufficient to cause a fatality they normally are but of cause it can just be exceptionally bad luck

Assuming the TP was insured, there are no indemnity issues and they have accepted liability to their insurers it may be that if they were approached then they'd happily deal with the claim for the property damage/ replacement vehicle directly but there are a number of factors to take into consideration for them.

Certainly in my day we did total loss some third party vehicles without inspecting them because there was no point paying £50 a day for months in car hire waiting to be able to inspect the vehicle when the difference between good condition and poor condition was only going to be £500

rev_henry

Sorry to hear this. Your solicitor should be able to sort this. Get him to liaise with third party insurers about a hire car. Reg number is all he (or anyone) needs to get the third party insurer's details from the MIB, and he'll probably have done this already. He probably just rightfully prioritised sorting things out with regards your mother on the first visit.

paddedjohn

With your Mum being the main driver, would the policy still exist? what i mean is would the named driver still be covered since he now becomes the main driver by default.

BertTheRaccoon

Very sad news.

Does your mum's partner have his own vehicle, or was her vehicle that was involved in the collision the only vehicle in the household? Presumably he was a named driver on her policy too?

Creckless

An update to my previous posts and replies to those who have offered help so far:

The Enterprise 'log term hire' car that my mum's partner was given 'until we can repair or pay out' on the vehicle had to be returned on Friday, or he would have been deemed to be keeping the car without consent and police would have been involved. This is despite the insurance company having initially said that he could have the car until the situation could be resolved.

We discussed the situation with the solicitor appointed, who said it was an issue for the insurance company to deal with....so we went back to them (trying to access their complaints department) only to be passed straight back to the solicitor's company (on several attempts of explanation!). We can't even access the COMPLAINTS department!

He was named driver on my mum's policy, however, the policy is still 'live' as they haven't paid out anything (even the death/injury payment), nor have they either written the car off nor deemed it capable of being repaired. As the car is in forensics, and they say they have tried EVERY day to have it inspected....they say the claim is in limbo....nothing can be done, so they have to withdraw their offer of a 'long-term' car loan. He only had the car for 8 or 9 days. My friend's mum had a minor accident and has had hers for 2 weeks!

We have been told that we can't offer a complaint to the financial ombudsman until 8 weeks have elapsed, which seems to render the whole process somewhat useless. And, as I have said, they will not allow us access to their own complaints department, but would rather just forward all of our calls to the 'no-win no-fee solicitor' who THEY appointed as legal cover, who simply passes everything back the the insurance company.

Sick of being on an unsympathetic, uncaring roundabout of people passing the buck without being given air to vent my discontent with the whole situation.

It seems mad to be worrying about car-rental, given that we've lost my lovely mum. But we need to make sure that her partner can get around, take on his duties as a carer and actually bridge the gap between the loss of his partner and the building of his 'new future' without this additional stress. I'm sure that, given the situation of my mum's death, her being 'not at fault'...that the insurance company could be assured that they'll be able to recoup the costs. It's just heartless the way they are treating us!:mad:

hillcats

Sorry for your loss in such tragic circumstances, it sounds that you are being treated very badly at the moment - all the best sorting this out !