Council unlawfully scrapped my sister's car

Quentin

betterthanyours wrote: »

No, she hasn't launched a complaint about her policy being cancelled immediately. Does she have any grounding to do so? Is there any official guidance as to how long they should give someone to find a suitable vehicle to transfer the insurance to?

Yes she looks to have been treated unfairly.


See #91.


See what her policy wording says about this - but the FOS would side with her that they treated her unfairly by cancelling immediately and not allowing her a reasonable time to find a replacement.

betterthanyours

Thanks, I read #91 and will request policy wording to see if I can clearly understand why they have behaved this way.

I've just looked at the policy schedule. It's not clear whether it was a 12 or 10 month policy. In any case, a 12 month policy would have made the NCD due in March, a 10 month making it due in January. Cutting the line fine here, will need to check policy type and whether 10 or 12 month. For reference, the policy was with Elephant.

Does anyone know how much a years No Claims is "worth"?

Quentin

betterthanyours wrote: »

Does anyone know how much a years No Claims is "worth"?

It depends on how many years she had at the start of the policy year.


(if she had nil, then getting one year's NCD to use makes a significant difference to the next year's premium. If she had 5 or more then going to 6 or more makes little difference to the premium)

betterthanyours

This would have been her second NCD. So as it stands, she has only one.

Quentin

Usually 2 years NCD = 40% off (1 year = 30% off)

Stevie_Palimo

Quentin wrote: »

Well....


If this solicitor was in full possession of the facts he is not as good as he claims to be!

Well :-

The OP and I exchanged pm's on this will the full details listed in order to clarify the points made and with a view as to whether he would take the case on for a no win no fee basis.

Quentin

Excellent. Is this to claim compensation off the council or fight the insurer?


(What is different in the clarification regarding the insurance angle that has been discussed here?)

Stevie_Palimo

Quentin wrote: »

Excellent. Is this to claim compensation off the council or fight the insurer?


(What is different in the clarification regarding the insurance angle that has been discussed here?)

If you read my post it states the answers as per details given and covers the OP here but by rights with fully comp insurance it is through them first and foremost regardless of what they have said thus far. Then they go to insurance ombudsman, If fully comp insurance is not held and the Council have not given a sufficient offer then it is via the Courts by means of a claim against them.

Quentin

Stevie_Palimo wrote: »

by rights with fully comp insurance it is through them first and foremost regardless of what they have said thus far. Then they go to insurance ombudsman, If fully comp insurance is not held

Mmmmm.


Well the OP has repeatedly told us his sister has comprehensive cover (no such term as "fully" comp)


A complaint against the insurer plus an escalation to the FOS when the complaint is rejected will cost the solicitor nothing, in terms of fees, just his time, but is pointless - the council have accepted liability and agreed to pay the pre incident market value of the car (and the insurance doesn't cover this type of loss anyway). An insurer has 8 weeks to deal with a complaint. Only after the insurer has replied or ignored the complaint can you escalate to the FOS which will take months to reach an adjudication.


The OP wants compensation off the council, which he should be going for, not the insurer who is in the clear!

HO87

betterthanyours wrote: »

@HO87 do they actually have lawyers/solicitors/case workers at CAB?

I haven't the time to take off and attend these with her. Please do bear in mind she is pregnant and has a nine year old to ferry around. If she travels to whitechapel from poplar, it would be quite difficult to get back in time unless she went straight after dropping her daughter off to school.

I understand all of that. That is why I provided the telephone numbers the various services advertise as well, all of which is immediately available on Google. As CAB and the local law centre additionally provide a call in/drop in service surely its possible for her to fit in during that part of the day she has available to her between school runs? And next week is half-term so that might make things easier for her. Get her to call at least one or other of these bodies (CAB and community law centre) on Monday morning.

The more time she wastes (I understand why it is being "wasted") the less impact on her mobility and quality of life she is going to be able to effectively argue. In other words, the longer the delay in getting a letter of claim into the council (this must be done in writing - not by phone) then the council could argue that demonstrably the matter can't be that urgent.

The CAB do have solicitors on their staff (nationally) but they may not be immediately available and it is doubtful that your sister will speak to one face-to-face. That said their advisers are well versed in the law and besides anything else could help her draft a letter of claim to go to the council as soon as possible. Unless and until she gets that formal letter of claim onto the relevant man's desk (chief executive) then this is going to continue to be a time-wasting faff.

The community law centre is also a good pick and they will certainly have solicitors available. She may need to make a contributory payment but the whole purpose of a community law centre is to provide those with a restricted income with access to law.

EDit: Being in Limehouse the law centre is closer to her than the CAB if she is based in Poplar.