3rd party & insurance payout problems

riders77

In August 2013 we were at a traffic light when a German-insured BMW hit a van that was stationary behind us. The BMW pushed the van into the back of our car. There was no one in front of us. The police was not involved. The German driver accepted liability on scene and apologized. A cab driver also on scene volunteered his details as a witness. Our car was written off and the claim is being handled by an independent claims handler assigned, I am guessing, by our insurance company. The following information, at times contradictory, has been given to us and retracted on various occasions:

1. 3rd party has accepted liability. Payment should follow. This never happened although we were told this at least twice.

2. You should go through your own insurance as 3rd party is taking too long to pay. It can take up to 9 months.

3. Yesterday on contacting the claims handler we were told that 3rd party is denying liability and we should go through our own insurance. We were also told that the third party is not gonna rush through our claim now that they are not losing any money.

I think our claims handler is not being completely truthful and is forcing us to go through our own insurance so they can close the file and get their commission or whatever. We have already lost our car. If we go through our own insurance, we stand to lose £400 in voluntary excess and our 10-year no claims discount, which we explicitly told we wouldn't lose.

Where can we go from here? Should we directly contact 3rd party insurance? Should we contact a lawyer? Is there an independent body that can help? A European body? Really desperate

InsideInsurance

International claims are a pain in the !!!!. The german insurer will have a UK representative and it is these that your representatives have to deal with. Different insurers delegate different levels of authority to their overseas reps but the vast majority delegate almost nothing and so the company is little more than a messaging service with a bit of advice on what the UK law is.

Messages tend to all be done by post so your guys write a letter to the guys in the UK, works it way through their post system and backlog. Its then posted internationally to the german company, works its way through their post system and backlog. The post a reply back to the uk rep and it works it way through their post system and backlog. Finally they write to your representatives saying they couldnt understand the letter, please clarify (or something similarly useless after a couple of months of waiting).

You have the choice of sticking with the claims management company and know at least once its sorted it'll be done in one hit. Alternatively if you want most the cash quickly then go back to your insurers, allow them to deal with it and the excess and NCD should be reinstated once its all storted.

Given its you and the van drivers insurers against the rear vehicle its always worth your reps and the vans reps keeping in contact to see how each other is getting on etc

[Deleted User]

Have you actually contacted your insurance company? If you have fully comp insurance with legal cover they should take up the case for you. As long as you make it clear that it isn't your fault it shouldn't affect your NCD or anything like that.

Best not to deal with it yourself if your insurance company can do it for you.

Quentin

DELETED USER wrote:

Have you actually contacted your insurance company? If you have fully comp insurance with legal cover they should take up the case for you. As long as you make it clear that it isn't your fault it shouldn't affect your NCD or anything like that.

Best not to deal with it yourself if your insurance company can do it for you.

You don't need "legal cover" before a claim will be taken up by your insurer (assuming the cover is comprehensive).

If you do have "legal cover" then all they will do is pursue the third party to reimburse uninsured losses (including the excess).

If you don't have "legal cover" then you will have to DIY (or use a solicitor) to get your uninsured losses back

InsideInsurance

DELETED USER wrote:

As long as you make it clear that it isn't your fault it shouldn't affect your NCD or anything like that.

Best not to deal with it yourself if your insurance company can do it for you.

Most claims impact your NCD whilst its open and being processed. Once its resolved it should be reinstated and its impact reversed but given claims can go on your years it could be a fair while of paying extra premiums.

As above, LE cover is only about your uninsured losses. Your insurers will deal with your insured losses and pursuing any TPs irrespective of if you have LE cover or not.

The OP isnt dealing with it themselves, they have an accident management company dealing with it but just arent pleased with the service/ timescale

vaio

I thought the MIB were charged with dealing with incidents involving foreign registered vehicles

InsideInsurance

vaio wrote: »

I thought the MIB were charged with dealing with incidents involving foreign registered vehicles

Unless it has changed, no, they are there to help identify the foreign insurer and their UK representative but then the MIB back out of the process.

OnanTheBarbarian

Correct, MIB only deal if there is no UK handling agent for the foreign domiciled insurer.

dacouch

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Unless it has changed, no, they are there to help identify the foreign insurer and their UK representative but then the MIB back out of the process.

I often found it easier to ring the foreign Insurer up directly, many of the European Insurers are very efficient.

You find their number or ring the haulage company if it was a lorry who hit you. You start the call politely and ask "Do you speak English". The majority speak English or will find someone in the office to speak to you.

Going direct can be a lot easier if there's no dispute over liability and is even easier if you both completed the European Accident Report Form the foreign driver ask you to complete

InsideInsurance

dacouch wrote: »

many of the European Insurers are very efficient.

I would say they are as variable as they are here but thankfully I never had that many cases - disputes in liability seemed rarer and obv for PI cases our clients are at fault and so we arent trying to contact the TPI

OnanTheBarbarian

The common problem with incidents involving say foreign HGV's in the UK is the delay in the driver reporting the incident and the claim form filtering all the way back to the insurer.

Insurers generally won't get off their backsides and do anything until they have had a claim form, the notion of calling their policyholder to say "we've had a third party allege you hit them on xxx date, what do you know about this?" seems an alien concept to them. Then they squeal when the credit hire invoice lands.....