Aviva refusing to pay finance gap

swainson08

Hi
Basically a van decided to go into the back of my van and write it off. Both me and the him are with Aviva, beacause of this they are trying to pay out as little as possible. After offering me top market value i am still £1200 short on the finance agreement and they are refusing to pay out. I am sure if it was a different insurance company they would be pushing for full settlement but insurance being insurance all the are interested in is themselves! I dont see why i should loose out because if some ideot that doesnt pay attention to what he is doing.


Any advice would be great please.

BertTheRaccoon

They have no obligation to settle your finance gap I'm afraid.

it is no different to if you had a separate bank loan for the van, you could not expect the insurer to settle a bank loan, so same rules apply. The vehicle depreciates quicker than the amount due on the finance.

The cheque will be sent to the finance co not you

WestonDave

Let's say the van is worth £5000 and that's what you've been offered, and have found a replacement which will cost you £5000. Take two scenarios.

No accident - you have a van worth £5k and you have £1200 of finance to pay off.

After accident - you have a van worth £5k and you have £1200 of finance to pay off.

In other words their offer has correctly put you back in the position you were in before the accident, so you haven't lost anything. If on the other hand they are only offering £3800 net of the finance then yes they should pay the total value (unless they are settling the finance direct) but you shouldn't get the full cash price of a replacement van and the finance paid off.

InsideInsurance

The GAP is nothing to do with the TP/ TPI as they are only responsible for paying the value of the vehicle. As others have said, its exactly the same no matter who the TPI is.

In future if you are buying on finance then it may be sensible to buy financial gap insurance to avoid such issues in the future

swainson08

Ok thanks guys, when you put it like that i can see that i have no chance in claiming it. I hope the money is paid to me and not the finance company or i am screwed as my credit rating has took a blow recently.

BertTheRaccoon

If the vehicle is subject to a hire purchase agreement, the insurers will discover this when they do a HPI and MIAFR check before raising the settlement cheque.

As the finance co are technically the owners, it is quite likely they will be sent the payment

InsideInsurance

If it is secured against the vehicle finance then yes it goes to the finance company. If it is a personal loan or business loan that just happened to be used for the purchase of the vehicle then it goes to you not the finance company.

They will check the HPI register to find out