Albany Assistance - Obligations after credit cancellation (during cooling off)

MattTarquin

My car was insured with Admiral and I had a little bump, someone drove into me in a supermarket car park while I was stationary.

Admiral passed me onto Albany Assistance who offered me a temp hire car and to sort out the claim, all i had to do was agree to a credit agreement. I didn't fully understand what this entailed at the time, as I have never had any kind of credit apart from a recent student loan, so i said that was fine and agreed to it on their site while on the phone.

A day or two later the car and paperwork came through. I reviewed the paperwork and started to understand what this agreement actually consisted of, a few days after receiving the car and paperwork i cancelled the credit agreement within the cooling off period (14 days). I requested that Admiral deal with the claim themselves, which they did and all was sorted very quickly (car was written off, payment given out and i bought a new car). Nearly a week later, after i cancelled, Albany picked the car up.

That was 13 months ago, ~15th march 2014. Yesterday I got a letter from Albany's legal representation asking me to fill in a huge form as they we're trying to claim ~£850 (9 days car hire) from the other parties insurance company which they were refusing to pay.

What legal obligations do I have for this amount? I presume the period after cancellation and before the collection of the car is not my responsibility but what about the few days between entering into the agreement and cancelling it?

Thanks in advance for any help, I came here when originally looking into Albany over a year ago and it really helped me to understand how they use credit agreements to strong arm money out of people.

InsideInsurance

It is rare that they will take money out of the person who hired the car and typically it only occurs in three occasions (1) that the person blatantly lied about the incident, (2) that they refused to return the car when instructed and (3) where they refuse to cooperate in attempting to recover the monies.

Your question is an interesting one and not one I have come across before. Ultimately you'd need to have the contract reviewed to see what terms survive the cancellation of the credit agreement. Whilst I am not a lawyer I do believe it could be possible for a liability to exist after you cancel the credit agreement (similar if you bought a car on finance and cancelled the finance after a few days of having the new car - you havent simply had a free car for X days)

The fact you actually cancelled the agreement early may well actually damage their case and could be why the TPI is disputing the costs on the basis you managed without a car afterwards so you didnt actually NEED one at all.

MattTarquin

I will request a copy of the contract and take a look to see if anything is listed as surviving the contract after cancellation.

With regards to the period after cancellation and before collection, in your opinion, would you say that I should not be liable (if it comes to it) for that charge?

Would you suggest that I simply play along and fill in the form for the information they are asking for so that they can use it to try to claim?

OnanTheBarbarian

You are liable for charges before notice of cancellation was served.

You will have a continuing duty to assist them with recovery of the charges incurred before cancellation arose.

Any charges arising after cancellation served on them are going to be Albany's issue. Third party insurers will just ask Admiral for the "loss of use dates" in order to determine when you were paid out etc as this too will denote what a resonable period of hire charges are.

Assist Albany where requested, otherwise you could end up with them attempting recovery from you if you hinder their recovery action from the insurer of the party at fault.

Auxillis

Hi MattTarquin,

We'd like to contact you regarding the above query.

If you could email us your reference number to onlineteam@albanyassistance.co.uk we can get someone to contact you to explain.

Many thanks,

Albany Assistance Online Team

Parking_Trouble

albanyassistance wrote: »

Hi MattTarquin,

We'd like to contact you regarding the above query.

If you could email us your reference number to onlineteam@albanyassistance.co.uk we can get someone to contact you to explain.[/COLOR]

Many thanks,

Albany Assistance Online Team

Wise for Albany to manage their online reputation but already seems to assume they are right.

Better perhaps, to say you will investigate the case first.

InsideInsurance

albanyassistance wrote: »

We'd like to contact you regarding the above query.

As there is a generic element to the query its a pity that an actual response cannot given, if nothing else but to help other people in the future that may have the same question... arguably to add value rather than just defend the brand.

Auxillis

In order to fully assist with the above query we require a reference number (which due to the Data Protection Act needs to be provided privately) so that we can investigate the circumstances and discuss this directly with the original poster.

Albany Assistance Online Team

Quentin

Doubt you really need a reference number just to answer a simple generic question.


What do you face if you cancel an agreement with Albany during the cooling off period?




Anyway, here's a ref number for you Ref GU15686Q. Now can you help?

OnanTheBarbarian

Do you expect someone's claim to be openly debated on a public forum?

InsideInsurance

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

Do you expect someone's claim to be openly debated on a public forum?

As above, its not someones claim, its a generic question or a hypothetical one.

They may decide they dont want to share their business practice on a public forum, which is their prerogative, but hiding behind the DPA is just the usual rubbish companies peddle when they dont want to admit they simply dont want to help