Sainsbury (Esure) car Insurance problems

Deborah1970

Hi all,

My husband had an accident on the 5th Feb. The front passenger side was damaged. The bumper, light, grill & wing. It is a peugeot partner escapade 2006 Reg.

He was provided with a courtesy car but not until the evening of the 7th Feb, which meant he was 2 days without a car. Anyway the repairer said he thought it was repairable so all good. After just over a week we still hadn't heard anything so rang to be told it was only being assessed that day, didn't hear anything. Then on the 20th husband was rang to be told the cost of repairs were estimated at £4.5k!!! Apparently £2K of that is labour costs!! However they did not confirm that it will be written off despite saying our car is prob worth a max of £4K!! Husband has been chasing the Insurers & car repairers up all the time they do not ring him. They promise to ring back & don't etc. He chased them up again today & they still will not confirm that the car is being written off or not. Said confirmation not until next week. Surely this can not be acceptable?

Hubby paid our car tax end of Jan (full year) He says you cannot claim back part of a month of tax. Esure have said if don't hear anything from them to ring them Thursday. That will be the end of February!!!

Our Car Insurance is up for renewal on the 9th March. We were going to change to Nationwide for a much better deal & paid a deposit (before were told of possibility of car being written off) Hubby is saying we should cancel this Policy as he thinks it is almost certain car will be written off.

What would you do if you were us? This is causing a lot of stress & just want it dealt with!!!

Captain_Shambolic

I'd check with the insurer but the first thing to remember is that if you do get insurance elsewhere you'll need to declare this claim. My company works on 'Worst Case Scenario' (for the insurer) which means if a claim is still being settled we note it down as At Fault until it is resolved.

It's unfortunate that the car hasn't been sorted yet and I agree it's frustrating but it may well be that the garage has a backlog to deal with, if they haven't inspected it properly then they can't be expected to know if it'll be a write off yet. That's unfortunately the extent of my knowledge with claims so I won't know if it's worth it or not putting a complaint in but gut feeling is that it won't get very far if you do. (Someone feel free to correct me on that )

Deborah1970

Thanks.

Not long after I posted this hubby was rung & write off confirmed. Will get an offer in 5 working days. They also have said it will be the amount we would need to buy an equivalent car for around the same age. We have done some research & reckon should get around £4K.

Hubby told other Insurer about ongoing claim at time of enquiring & they were fine about it. He cancelled tonight with Nationwide & they are refunding the deposit & were really good about it.

Downside is courtesy car going back tomorrow morning so will be with no car for a bit. In the meantime we are researching cars we should be able to buy & dealers that are either in walking or bus distance.

Whilst not happy car written off we are happy we at least know where we stand now.

Thanks again

Captain_Shambolic

That's good to hear, one final thing. If you do a good search of equivalent cars and the same age then screenshot and get copies of all the prices you find. That way if the insurer doesn't make an offer that you think is acceptable you have the evidence to show it's not acceptable.

Deborah1970

Thanks. Hubby done that already :-)

Insurance co said they use Autotrader prices so he already has a draft e-mail with links to various cars of same type/age as ours from Autotrader to send off!

Captain_Shambolic

Good, sounds like you'll be protected against anything your insurer tries then

Deborah1970

Got one final thing

As said car Ins up for renewal on 9th March. We had already told Esure we are not renewing with them before they said car written off. If the claim drags on are they still liable to pay out for the written car as the accident happened whilst Insured with them on the 5th Feb & they only told us on Friday that car def being written off?

They have said they will come back in 5 working days with an offer i.e. by 1st March. How long after that we will receive it? Is still done by cheque or can they do a bank transfer?

Thanks for your help :-)

Captain_Shambolic

Hmm might be a little out of my range there as I work in a Customer Service role but they will be obliged to still pay out as the accident happened while your contract was still active with them. As far as the settlement goes I imagine they'll send a cheque, as it leaves a more visible audit trail for them, if you go on a month between getting the offer and cashing the cheque you probably won't go far wrong (maybe a little bit of an overestimate but it's probably best to just add a few days)

dacouch

Have a good read of this for how the Insurers should handle the write off and how they should value the car.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

Deborah1970

Okay thanks Captain Shambolic for all your help, is much appreciated :-)

Deborah1970

Thanks dacouch, very helpful :-)