Albany / Admiral Hassle and Stress

pre9pms

Hey all. Sorry for the long post, but I’m stressed and coulddo with some advice.

I had a non-fault accident on the 9th March. A courier vandrove into the back of me at 40 mph when I was stationary at a roundabout, his brakesfailed. He admitted full responsibility and his insurer have admitted fullresponsibility too, so that’s all good.

My problems have been with the garage Albany chose to repairthe car. They recorded it as a “light impact” from the beginning and quoted forbody work damage only. This totalled to £4000 to repair on a car they valued at£5800, so it was very close to being a write off. Albany authorised the repair.

From the onset I’ve been asking what structural checks theywill do, chassis, wheel alignment etc. – but the garage said they were notneeded as it was only a “light impact”.

The garage then added on a full new exhaust system just overtwo weeks ago without Engineer’s Authorisation or Albany being informed. Thistook the costs well into the “write-off” category, again without any integritychecks.

My car was due to collect on the 19/4/13, but due to the no structuralintegrity checks, I arranged for an independent inspection on 22/4/13 for peaceof mind. Albany took my hire car back on the 20/4/13 as they said I was notallowed it while the independent inspection was being done. The independentreport came back last Wednesday saying that the garage had done achassis and wheel alignment checks and that the reports were available. It saidthat the car was ok to collect the car providing they gave me a copy of thereports for my records. I went to collect the car, but the garage informed me I couldn’t have the reports because they hadn’t done any of those checks.

I’m now stuck. I spoke to Albany last Wednesday who said it’snothing to do with them, and that I had to deal with the garage. I spoke toAdmiral too, who said they’ll follow it up, but so far they’ve done very little.In the meantime, I’m stuck with no car at all and no sign of any resolution.

Can anyone offer any advice please?

BertTheRaccoon

My guess is they were all desperate for the car to be classified as a repairable proposition so that they can do a "credit repair" and that way the garage make money from repairing bent metal and Albany get a cut of the repair costs (usually about 10%).

If the car had been a write off, nobody would have made anything (other than the share of the winnings from the hire car - no doubt provided by Albany/ Help Hire)

So is your repaired car still at the garage?

Did you personally instruct an independent engineer to inspect the repairs and any structural issues or were you relying on Albany to do that?

pre9pms

BertTheRaccoon wrote: »

My guess is they were all desperate for the car to be classified as a repairable proposition so that they can do a "credit repair" and that way the garage make money from repairing bent metal and Albany get a cut of the repair costs (usually about 10%).

If the car had been a write off, nobody would have made anything (other than the share of the winnings from the hire car - no doubt provided by Albany/ Help Hire)

So is your repaired car still at the garage?

Did you personally instruct an independent engineer to inspect the repairs and any structural issues or were you relying on Albany to do that?

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I guessed as much about the benefits to them about repairing it. And yes, the car is still sat at the garage.

I'm not sure I follow the last part. I personally arranged the independent inspector to look at the car. Though this was on Albany's advice when I issued my concerns last week.

BertTheRaccoon

So has the assessor reported back to you personally with a report?

BertTheRaccoon

have just re-read your post.

So if you have a report saying that these checks should be done, send a copy to Albany quick sharp. I'm guessing the garage have not don the alignment checks yet because Albany/ an engineer has not given them to go ahead/ authority.

VinnieJ

Hi OP

You can insist that Albany send you their file of papers. This will include the repair estimate, the engineers authority note, the engineer report and the repair invoice.

You are quite right to insist on a 4 wheel alignment check, this should be done as standard after an accident, but unfortunately insurers don't like paying for them so it's not standard. The 4 wheel alignment check will show if the chassis is bent.

You should also ask for your vehicle to have a full diagnostic check of the electrical and safety systems before the vehicle is repaired as these may have been compromised as well. You will need to have this done by either the manufacturer approved bodyshop or by the main dealer as insurance approved repairers are unlikely to have the necessary equipment.

What vehicle do you have and what repair shop did Albany send it too?

pre9pms

Thanks again. Yes Bert, I got the "court approved" written report from the independent inspector, I've sent it to both Albany and Admiral.

Thanks Vinnie, I'll call Albany now and request my file - I didn't know I could do that. I'll also ask about the electrical check. I thought the 4 wheel allignment would be standard, but they don't.

It's an Alfa 159. I should also add it was a large Mercedes sprinter courier van that hit me.