Solicitor advice

gazfocus

It sounds like the OP went through his own insurer to claim against the other party.

I had a no fault accident just over a year ago and my insurance wanted me to pay my excess. They said, I pay my excess, they get my car fixed (or write it off), then they claim the costs back from the other parties insurers. I said I wasn't happy with this as I hadn't got £500 to pay my excess so I told the insurers that I would deal with the claim myself.

I then phoned the other parties insurer, told them I wanted to deal with them direct and my car was back with me fully repaired within 3 weeks, I got a courtesy car while I waited, and I didn't have to pay out a penny.

OnanTheBarbarian

arcon5 wrote: »

If that's the case, then op has not made a claim against a third party - so the TP are unlikely to pay out on a PI claim if they haven't paid out for the car.

Clarity is needed op

There probably has been a claim initiated against the tp insurer, but they operate at a glacial pace and even when the UK handling agents are identified. The UK agents often have little in the way of delegated authority and simply act as a messenger boy between the foreign insurer and the UK claimant.

When this happens, if somebody the UK "victim" is jumping up and down about getting their vehicle repaired or has been put in a credit hire vehicle, the claim almost always will be redirected to their own insurer to deal with the repairs or write off, otherwise the victim is still riding around in a credit hire car 3 months later if you have to wait for the fools overseas to wake up and deal.

Chantilou89

arcon5 wrote: »

Agree with above. If the TP insurer paid out for repairs there is no excess payable.
You would either make a claim on your insurance paying the excess, the TP then reimburse the insurer for all their costs, net result being no claim on your insurers therefore no excess payable.
Or the TP would have dealt with the claim, thus your insurer have no part in this and certainly can't ask for the excess.

They've screwed you over. You need to get back on to them and insist they return the excess paid as no claim was made on your policy. If they refuse i'd firstly consider taking legal action.

As for the compo claim, sounds like you used one of these sleezy claims management companies.Write giving them an opportunity to fulfill their engagement before going elsewhere. Keep proof you tried to resolve your complain with them (including logs of phone calls made) in case they try to hold you to the agreement, then seek a local solicitor who will do it on a conditional fee basis

Just to clarify, my car was written off. I have since purchased a new car out of my own money.

I have been paid the value of the written off car, minus the excess amount. The excess is a non-insurable amount, which insurers don't pay you for, they simply give you the cheque minus this figure and it's up to you to reclaim it.

The original question was regarding the solicitor and how to get them to pull their finger out as I signed and sent paperwork over 2 months ago and have not heard since.

I'm not using a claims management company, the claim has been settled promptly by my own insurer within 3 weeks. I have to claim the excess off the third party.

I did have a hire car organised by my insurer and this is now being claimed back from the third party. The issue here is with the solicitors regarding the excess and personal injury claim.

OnanTheBarbarian

Just sack the solicitors and find some others.- but read the terms of your conditional fee agreement first. It may be worth a formal complaint beforehand.

if you then want to appoint alternative sols, speak with the hire co, they probably use a law firm for recovery of their hire charges, they will be more than happy to have a PI claim to accompany it and it makes sense to keep everything with one firm.

Do you know the name of the foreign third party insurers?

Chantilou89

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

Just sack the solicitors and find some others.- but read the terms of your conditional fee agreement first. It may be worth a formal complaint beforehand.

if you then want to appoint alternative sols, speak with the hire co, they probably use a law firm for recovery of their hire charges, they will be more than happy to have a PI claim to accompany it and it makes sense to keep everything with one firm.

Do you know the name of the foreign third party insurers?

I'm tempted to. Funny though as the Solicitors I'm using are owned by the same company who issued the credit hire vehicle, and this company are used by my insurers.

Good for the initial situation, rubbish when it comes to the excess and personal injury.

Yes I have contact details for the insurers, the name of the guy, where he lives, where he works, green card info. Don't know what more I can do to help the law firm move ahead. It seems to me like they have received my contract and just left it to sit in a pile of others for a couple of months.

OnanTheBarbarian

Can you name the third party insurers?

I'll take a guess at the name of the sols, does it begin with a G?

arcon5

Chantilou89 wrote: »

Just to clarify, my car was written off. I have since purchased a new car out of my own money.

I have been paid the value of the written off car, minus the excess amount. The excess is a non-insurable amount, which insurers don't pay you for, they simply give you the cheque minus this figure and it's up to you to reclaim it.

The original question was regarding the solicitor and how to get them to pull their finger out as I signed and sent paperwork over 2 months ago and have not heard since.

I'm not using a claims management company, the claim has been settled promptly by my own insurer within 3 weeks. I have to claim the excess off the third party.

I did have a hire car organised by my insurer and this is now being claimed back from the third party. The issue here is with the solicitors regarding the excess and personal injury claim.

So why did you claim off your own insurance policy ? Why haven't you pursued the third party to pay costs ?
It's likely any compo will be subject to your policies terms & conditions and limits. These claims management companies dealing with PI claims are used to pursuing the TP insurers where the other party has admitted liability.

If the TP insurers pay out, they should not be paying your excess, they should be reimbursing your insurer for the WHOLE sum for the write off who will then restore your NCB if applicable and return the excess paid.

Chantilou89

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

Can you name the third party insurers?

I'll take a guess at the name of the sols, does it begin with a G?

Endsleigh, Quindell were the guys who organised the car write off and hire car. Quindell own Silverbeck Rymer, their legal team.

OnanTheBarbarian

arcon5 wrote: »

So why did you claim off your own insurance policy ? Why haven't you pursued the third party to pay costs ?
It's likely any compo will be subject to your policies terms & conditions and limits. These claims management companies dealing with PI claims are used to pursuing the TP insurers where the other party has admitted liability.

If the TP insurers pay out, they should not be paying your excess, they should be reimbursing your insurer for the WHOLE sum for the write off who will then restore your NCB if applicable and return the excess paid.

Sorry I don't mean to be rude, but claims with foreign insured vehicles are a different league.

They are SLOW, they take months and months to confirm indemnity and liability. So even a hit in rear from a foreign HGV can take upto 3-6 months before the forign insurers accept liability and agree to deal

A claimant has a duty to mitigate their losses. Now, if I was a hairy bottomed Lithuanian HGV driver that hit you and it took my insurers 6 months to react to the claim, you can't ride about in a credit hire car at £50+ per day for 180 days when it would cost say £2k to repair your car.

You have to revert to your own insurance cover to reduce the losses.

This is what happened to the OP, they got hit by a foreign vehicle, the foreign insurers are retards and uber slow and can't confirm their position for many weeks or months, so she got ushered to use her own cover to mitigate the losses, resulting in her having to pay her excess which now needs to be recovered.

Spicy_McHaggis

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

Sorry I don't mean to be rude, but claims with foreign insured vehicles are a different league.

They are SLOW, they take months and months to confirm indemnity and liability. So even a hit in rear from a foreign HGV can take upto 3-6 months before the forign insurers accept liability and agree to deal

A claimant has a duty to mitigate their losses. Now, if I was a hairy bottomed Lithuanian HGV driver that hit you and it took my insurers 6 months to react to the claim, you can't ride about in a credit hire car at £50+ per day for 180 days when it would cost say £2k to repair your car.

You have to revert to your own insurance cover to reduce the losses.

This is what happened to the OP, they got hit by a foreign vehicle, the foreign insurers are retards and uber slow and can't confirm their position for many weeks or months, so she got ushered to use her own cover to mitigate the losses, resulting in her having to pay her excess which now needs to be recovered.

So if you had third party only you maybe cattle trucked?