Albany assistance

Conderned

I was involved in a non-fault accident in Dec 2014 when a third party left there hand brake down & his car rolled into my stationary car. Admiral advised me to deal with Albany assistance who arranged a hire car. From memory I signed an online form of some type but did not manual sign any document when the car was dropped off or returned as on both occasions I was at work & the keys were left in a safe place. 12 months later I have recieved a letter from Albany who have stated that the indemnity on the policy has been lifted due to "not being co-operative" as I am in breach of my contract due not being able to attend court due to work commitments despite the fact that when I told their solicitors I wouldn't be able to attend I was advised that this would be fine as my signed & returned statement should be enough to present a case.

With no notice I get a letter from Albany in Jan 2016 stating I am now liable for the costs. The cost is £6k+ & although I did not manually sign the credit hire agreement how is it possible that Albany send me this letter claiming I am in breach of my contract when the solicitor said that I will not be needed to attend court when my statement has been returned.

How can I resolve this please? Can Admiral take the claim back? Can admiral Law take the case if I am disputing Albany's allegation of not being co-operative. This is a non fault claim & how can it be that the third party insurers have merely stated that they are not paying the hire charges & even before the case has gone to court that Albany saying that I am liable? Where do I legally stand as this was a non-fault incident. Please help

Quentin

You would normally have agreed to co-operate with this when first taking the car hire. (Though your OP does say you didn't - are you certain there was no agreement to sign when you took out the car - what was the "online form" you agreed with them?)


Ask them for a copy of your signed agreement with them - if they provide this you should get proper legal advice over this, but if you never agreed to co-operate then they cannot use this to sue you now!


The dispute is between you and Albany and your insurer won't pay it for you!

Conderned

Thank you for your quick reply! As this was all part of Admiral advising me to use Albany at the beginning, can I not refer the case back to Admiral as I was their insured? I'm finding it difficult to come to terms with how an insurer can step back & not intervene when they where who you had your policy with & if Albany can just pull the plug on any customer i.e. Just find any excuse to say that a customer is not co-operating & wrongfully making this allegation, then surely in this day & age the professional thing for admiral to do would be to intervene & assist when the customer is being treated unfairly by an organisation that they put you in touch with for your "free" courtesy car. Please advise... Thank you

rs65

Conderned wrote: »

Please advise

Just attend court - problem solved.

Conderned

The court date is only a matter of days always & I have cancelled my work & will be left open to disciplinary action however that is the last thing on my mind. I have emailed the solicitor & Albany advising them that I will now be attending court & will hope to get a response from them tomorrow as it'll be a Monday. If u go to court & Albany fail to be reimbursed by the other insurer can they still say that I am being co-operative? Thank you

Quentin

Conderned wrote: »

Thank you for your quick reply! As this was all part of Admiral advising me to use Albany at the beginning, can I not refer the case back to Admiral as I was their insured? I'm finding it difficult to come to terms with how an insurer can step back & not intervene when they where who you had your policy with & if Albany can just pull the plug on any customer i.e. Just find any excuse to say that a customer is not co-operating & wrongfully making this allegation, then surely in this day & age the professional thing for admiral to do would be to intervene & assist when the customer is being treated unfairly by an organisation that they put you in touch with for your "free" courtesy car. Please advise... Thank you

Admiral are out of the picture.

You chose to go with Albany rather than make a claim on your policy.

If you did agree to the condition regarding cooperation with them to assist them recover their costs from the other side then you do need to get proper legal advice on whether you have any grounds to challenge this.

Quentin

Conderned wrote: »

The court date is only a matter of days always & I have cancelled my work & will be left open to disciplinary action however that is the last thing on my mind. I have emailed the solicitor & Albany advising them that I will now be attending court & will hope to get a response from them tomorrow as it'll be a Monday. If u go to court & Albany fail to be reimbursed by the other insurer can they still say that I am being co-operative? Thank you

You have solved the problem! (Assuming your change of mind has come in time and Albany haven't withdrawn their claim to save more costs of a hearing and are taking the hard line against you as outlined in the letter you quoted in the OP)

As long as you told the truth originally regarding why you needed the car etc you will be in the clear whatever the outcome of the hearing.

This still might get sorted before the hearing, but if you do end up missing work your employer will be on sticky ground disciplining you (though you could have given more notice!).

If you are in a union get advice now, and if not get some proper advice if you are disciplined over this

Conderned

The court case is in 5 days time Thursday. Do you think that they would have cancelled it to pursue me? The other insurer has just refused to pay due to the high costs of the hire so why would they possibly still pull the plug on the case as the other insurer should pay the costs as the claim was 100% accurate & factual yet Albany may decide to not put it in front of a judge? Think I'll wait until I speak to solicitors & Albany tomorrow & will post their reply on this tomorrow to let everyone know

Quentin

You won't know till you speak to them.

The case looks to be just about the justification of the car hire rather than any dispute over liability.

The letter you got would seem to indicate they couldn't continue the court case because of your lack of cooperation, and if they cancel more than 7 days prior to the hearing it saves a lot of costs.

jaybeetoo

Don't post the same question in 2 different forums

Conderned

Sorry, I only joined this site yesterday & new to the forum chats & was'nt sure what category to put the thread under