Car insurance claim. Taking forever

firehawk87

Well here goes. I need some advice about a car insurnace claim that I have going if anyone would be kind enough to shed some light on my rights.

Back on the 13 August I was involved in a minor road accident. I was stopped in a queue of traffic when the car in front decided to reverse to allow a car out of a driveway. However they backed up too far and hit my car causing minor damage to the bumper and breaking the grill. We pulled over in a safe place and exchanged details. The driver was reluctant to give me his own details and asked his daughter (the car owner) to give hers. after questioning this he also eventually gave me his name and address too.

I got home and rang insurance etc etc as you do and was told I now needed to wait until they contacted theirs etc. I also mentioned about the driver being a bit odd. Maybe I should have phoned the police at the time looking back.

about a week or 2 later, I got a phonecall from my insurers to say that they had been in contact but were claiming that I rear ended them. I was told that my insurers would still pursue a non-fault claim but if they cant get other side to admit fault then it may be a 50/50.

well, I ring my insurers roughly every 1 or 2 weeks to check up on the claim. They have been sending the third party insurers letters every 2 weeks but they NEVER respond and refuse to take phonecalls from my insurers. The 3rd party insurers are A-Plan if that helps. I have been told that as it is, there is not much more that can be done. My insurance was renewed with another company on 1st Sept and because of the ongoing claim, I have lost 5 years of my NCB for now until they settle the claim, and that is only if the other side admit fault. So I am currently paying an extra £400 for something that is not my fault. This has been ongoing for 3 months now and I am getting fed up. What are the rules on claims? Is there a set time before further action is supposed to be taken if the 3rd party wont respond? What's worse is that tmy car was stolen and written off last week so now the claim is pointless especially since they obviously don't seem bothered about getting their car fixed, which rightfully should not be my/my insurers responsibility anyway but I am currently being penalised by loss of 5 years NCB. I had 8 before this.

Any advice on the matter would be much appreciated. Is it a case for the FOS to look into?

Thank you in advance

Jeff

forgotmyname

If you think this is taking forever what will you think in 2 years time when its still ongoing?

You should not have lost 5 years no claims, Probably 2 years..

You just need to keep contacting them and maybe push them towards taking it to court.
Or persue their insurance yourself, If you have the time.

To goto the FOS you have to complain to your insurers and fail ro reach a solution that can take 8 weeks. Then the FOS can take 8 months...

Nothing moves fast in insurance circles.

Quentin

You are going to have to be more patient (3 months isn't long for a claim where there is no disputed liability! In cases like this where liability is in dispute it can take much longer)

With no witnesses this looks a 50/50 at best.

hugoshavez

Quentin wrote: »

You are going to have to be more patient (3 months isn't long for a claim where there is no disputed liability!)

With no witnesses this looks a 50/50 at best.

With that in mind, I'd be knocking on the door of the person who was coming out of their driveway.

Such easy access to an independent witness is unusual.

firehawk87

forgotmyname wrote: »

You should not have lost 5 years no claims, Probably 2 years..

they said that it is to prevent fraud for now. if/when it eventually gets decided in my favour then I will get it back and just give it to my current insurers for a refund of the extra premium. not so sure that will ever happen if it takes so long

dacouch

A Plan are not an Insurer, they're an agent and it's unlikely they would be responsible for paying claims or accepting liability.

If you have the reg number you can find the Insurers name, Policy Number and their telephone number here for a small charge https://www.askmid.com

If your Insurers are ringing A Plan, then the chances are they're ringing the wrong people

shark_DB

I think this is a useful lesson inalways getting witnesses, a similar thing happened to me when anidiot reversed in to me. I had no damage but he did, I said don’tworry about it and left it at that, then a month later my insurance(Aviva) called to let me know he was making a claim. 9 months later Icalled back again only to find they had settled 50/50 with outletting me know. Annoyed was not the word for it.

magpiecottage

Amy_Winns wrote: »

If you are dissatisfied with the service provided by your insurer it may be an option to approach an ombudsman? Otherwise it may be a case of sitting tight and awaiting news.

You have to first go through the insurer's own complaints procedure.