Please help :-(

melsee

I don'y know if I am putting this in the right place, but I really need help.
5 years ago my husband was in a car accident, whilst driving my car. He believes he was not at fault but the 3rd party was disputing this. Anyway my insurance company was Diamond, so we contacted them, and the next thing we know, we are being dealt with by Albany Assistance ( we didnt think anything of it, as we thought it was part of Diamond ). So I was fully comp, and had courtesy car on my policy, which I had paid outright.
My car was getting fixed and I was given a courtesy car from Albany ( as far as I can remember I did not sign any hire agreement or anything. The only thing I signed was the vehicle check when it arrived ).
Anyway for 3 years Albany kept contacting us asking for the same information we had sent 4 times before !
We told them we had sent requested info 4 times now, and we were told that they could see that and they will sort it out, as far as we were concerned it was sorted and we heard nothing else.
We moved property after this, not needing to let them know as we thought it was all done and dusted ( 3 years it should have been )
So we have lived at our new property for 2 years now, and through the door, comes a debt collector letter saying we own Albany £10,612.02 !!! What on earth for ?
We had fully comp insurance with Diamond with Courtesy Car, why on earth do we owe money to Albany, and considering we moved out 2 years ago, from old property, we never had any demands for money until now 5 years after an accident !

We have no idea what this is about and we don't know how to handle it, we have never been in debt before.
Even if my husband was at fault ( which we dont think he was ) surely our insurance would have dealt with it, not out of our own pocket ?

And after 3 years, surely a claim would have been dealt with.
Help

fevlo

I think you need to write to the DCA and request a breakdown of the claimed money.
Just make sure you don't acknowledge the debt in any way

A quick look at Albany Assistance shows they are a some sort of claims management company, they where probably instructed by your original insurance company.
You need to find out why they haven't claimed the money from your insurers.

I could be wrong but 10K for car repairs seams somewhat excessive assuming the car wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

melsee

fevlo wrote: »

I think you need to write to the DCA and request a breakdown of the claimed money.
Just make sure you don't acknowledge the debt in any way

A quick look at Albany Assistance shows they are a some sort of claims management company, they where probably instructed by your original insurance company.
You need to find out why they haven't claimed the money from your insurers.

I could be wrong but 10K for car repairs seams somewhat excessive assuming the car wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

ha ha , yeah our car wasn't even worth that !
I am sending a letter with bold print at the top stating " this letter does not admit liability nor does it acknowledge the alleged debt "
Then asking for them to send evidence and a breakdown of the money owed with dates etc.

Funky_Bold_Ribena

melsee wrote: »

ha ha , yeah our car wasn't even worth that !
I am sending a letter with bold print at the top stating " this letter does not admit liability nor does it acknowledge the alleged debt "
Then asking for them to send evidence and a breakdown of the money owed with dates etc.

Do you not think it worth speaking to the insurance people before sending that?

melsee

There is also nothing showing on my credit report ?
I have good credit rating with no debts, surely this would be showing on there by now ?
I am so confused

melsee

Funky_Bold_Ribena wrote: »

Do you not think it worth speaking to the insurance people before sending that?

Yeah we are actually going to phone Diamond themselves tomorrow, asking why we owe money to Albany when we were fully insured with Diamond.
I don't want to contact Albany themselves as it is them that we apparantly owe. The letter was going to Regal Credit Consultants ( DCA)

poppasmurf_bewdley

You have to be very careful with these type of companies.

Some years ago, my son had an accident on his new scooter I had bought for him and it was off the road. One of these claims companies appeared on the scene (brought in by his insurance company) and provided a replacement scooter. Within a day, I found out that they were charging the insurance company something like £50 a day for the hire of the scooter.

I rang the claims company within a day of them delivering the scooter and told them to collect it immediately, as I felt they would want to charge my son for the hire if the insurance company didn't pay out. The scooter they provided was brand new, and I believe they bought it especially for this incident in the belief they could make a fortune out of the hire.

What did you sign when you got the replacement car?

melsee

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

You have to be very careful with these type of companies.

Some years ago, my son had an accident on his new scooter I had bought for him and it was off the road. One of these claims companies appeared on the scene (brought in by his insurance company) and provided a replacement scooter. Within a day, I found out that they were charging the insurance company something like £50 a day for the hire of the scooter.

I rang the claims company within a day of them delivering the scooter and told them to collect it immediately, as I felt they would want to charge my son for the hire if the insurance company didn't pay out. The scooter they provided was brand new, and I believe they bought it especially for this incident in the belief they could make a fortune out of the hire.

What did you sign when you got the replacement car?

As far as I can remember ( it was 5 years ago ) It was the vehicle check form, that basically they put what condition it is in when left with us, we sign it, then they do another check when they pick it up.

We were never made aware that we would have to pay anything, so surely they were misleading ?

poppasmurf_bewdley

My betting is that you signed an agreement which tied you into paying a very high car hire charge for the replacement car if the insurance company refuse to do so.

See:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/caradvice/honestjohn/8217522/Honest-Johns-2010-review.html

josiebabie

Can't help with what to do from here but a little advice on what they do/how they work - I use a claims management company regularly in my job.

What you signed would have been a form stating that if the claim was unsuccessful you accept possible liability for the repair costs and hire vehicle costs.

Reputable claim management companies accept the costs themselves if the claim doesn't go through, but as a result of that they will only take on claims that they are confident they will win costs back from the 3rd party.

Unfortunately it looks like you weren't explained all the T's & C's by the operative of the (not so reputable) claims management company.

melsee

This does sound like it :-(
But if we pay fully comp insurance and paid outright for Courtesy car surely our insurance should have paid it ?

Now I do not know what to do, we knew nothing about this, and now 5 years later are left with a massive debt that we can't pay