Car Insurance - Without Drive Assist!

pica_pica_3

I had an accident in our car on saturday morning a young lady drove out of a side road and "T"boned me, Very inconvenient as I work away during the week and my wife works shifts at the hospital.
We contacted shelas wheels to arrange for the car to be repaired and also obtain a (courtesy) car, We were told that it would be no problem as it is a no fault accident, They also waived our £250 exess, we were told to expect a phone call with the arrangements, We recieved said phone call shortly afterward but to my horror I find myself dealing with a credit hire company, These people will do nothing without our credit card details. So you won't be supprised to hear that I told them not to bother, We went back to shelas wheels only to be told that if we dont use drive assist they will reinstate the £250 exess, Nice bit of leverage from them there, So as a result of an accident for which my only contribution was to be there I am now feeling abused as well as physically sore and as yet have no resolution.
PS I googled drive assist afterward and wow they are popular with tales of wo and unfair charges.

dacouch

Pica if you ring the other Insurers direct (If you need advice on how to we can advise you), if they have accepted that their client is at fault. They will normally be more than happy to arrange the repairs of your car (With no excess) and arrange a hire car at their expense and risk. As it is a hire car you will probably need to give your credit card to cover any damage you may cause which is standard for a hire car. The hire car is quite often from Enterprise who do bulk discounts to the Insurers and have a fairly good reputation much much better than Drive Assist

BarnacleB

I have to say that finding this forum has been the highlight of the year!

I have dealt with drive assist several times due to non-fault accidents. They have always told me that they offer a 'replacement vehicle' and as i have always taken courtesy car cover with my insurance i have never had any reason to question if they are actually a credit hire company, which i only found out in November of last year 2010 when they rang me asking for a payment of over £2500!

When Drive Assist called me i had my son in the car and was driving home (my calls come through my speakers in my car) i was gobsmacked at the payment they were asking for.

In April 2009 my car was parked on a street and was gently hit by an older gentleman. Minimal body work damage was done but the electric locking sensors had been damaged in the boot, thus making driving difficult as my car beeped as the car thought there was a door open and also the interior light was constantly on. Being that i was 280 miles from home and the day I was hit was the day i should be driving home i was furious this had happened. Anyway.......I contacted my insurace with all details of incident and other drivers details and they passed my details onto the garage who was to repair my car. That was where the problems started!

The repairing garage took my car to repair and i was then contacted by drive assist who were offering me a replacement vehicle (bearing in mind they never once said they were a credit hire company, only a "here to provide me with a replacement car")
I immediately accepted and the ball started rolling.

All was wonderful and i got my car back mended and the DA car was collected (yes i signed a PDA)....

Now that was all done a dusted by end of May 2009.
Late November 2009 i contacted my insurance to find out some info on my insurance policy and it transpired that the incident in the april 2009 was never settled as the third party had refused to accept responsibility and that their third party insurers were not willing to pay for my claim. At the time i had only been driving 3 years and had 3yrs no claims i was worried i would lose them all, so i asked how i could keep my no claims......i was told that i could buy out the claim. This was by my insurers, Zenith! They told me that the claim was £258 and if i paid that before my renewal i would retain my no claims bonus'. I repeatedly asked over several phone calls if there were any other outstanding charges and the answer was always "no this payment of £258 covers all the costs and there are no other payments outstanding for this claim" So in January 2010 i paid the £258 and by the march when i renewed (with the same insurers) my policy, sure enough i had my 3 yrs no claims.

So you can imagine my horror last Nov when DA rang me direct asking for the payment of Credit Hire for the car of well over £2500!!!
I have now recieved over 10 abusive calls threatening me with court action if i don't pay up! Oh they've been very kind in offering me a reduce payment of just under £2000 but these payments are of several £800 payments, that the only offer on offer!
Eventually after receiving a letter saying DA are taking me to court and looking to register a CCJ against my name i am more than FURIOUS! I have contacted my broker as i have legal cover, and they are trying to sort this out on my behalf!
I am worried that the CCJ will be sanctioned before my broker (kwik fit - very helpful) can sort this out.
All in all, kwik fit are in agreement with me that i should never have been contacted by DA as i have courtesy cover and the repairing garage should have provided my with that. At the time the repairing garage said they had no courtesy cars "on the lot" and therefore forwarded my details to DA, conveniently they don't keep records dating back as far as April 2009 so i have no proof as to who and why DA contacted me!

I am now awaiting Kwik fit to come back to me with details of what they can do to help me against DA!
If anyone can help me with this matter please please please contact me!

Thanx x

magpiecottage

Two possible options here:

Firstly, credit hire agreements are covered by the Consumer Credit Act 2006. Any such agreement entered into on or after 6 April 2007 is under the jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The difficulty with this is that if legal proceedings have started then FOS no longer has jurisdiction. However, it sounds as though that has not happened quite yet (as you have not received papers from the court).

At this point it gets a little complicated. If you have evidence (ideally in writing) that you told the credit hire company that you are unhappy because they led you to believe it was a courtesy car, that will constitute a "regulated complaint". If that happened before you got the latest correspondence get the FOS complaint form here, complete it and put it in the post today.

Explain that you have complained but their response was simply that if you do not pay they will take you to court - although they have not yet done so, you are dissatisfied with their response.

At the same time, write to the credit hire company and ask for a response to your letter of complaint in accordance with their obligations under the Consumer Credit Act 2006. That is likely to buy you a little time whilst FOS gets its act together.

If you have not made such an expression of dissatisfaction, you will need to write to them today and make a complaint. They have eight weeks from receipt. If you fax it then you will get a receipt for it and it will probably be deemed to be today if it is before five p.m. and tomorrow if it is later than that.


There is a further possibility in that if your insurer or intermediary (i.e. KwikFit) incorrectly told you it was a courtesy car you may have a claim against them. Because they are not taking you to court, that could be taken to FOS even if the credit hire company has started court action against you. However, they would be entitled to eight weeks to investigate the complaint before you can go to FOS.

A bit complicated but there are some options.

A_B_2

As I have been having issues with DA since 2008 and had countless letters from them, their solicitors, my insurance, the OFT and the financial ombudsman I contacted a solicitor of my own today.

He said that there is currently a parliamentary report on this issue regarding insurance companies getting a "kick-back" from hire car companies so we should contact local MPs to highlight the fact that we are being misled by insurance companies in order that they receive their "kick-back" from DA. Parliament are trying to get this association between insurance companies and hire car companies in the public domain so that it is transparent that they're "all in it together"!

He also did say that he would be very suprised if I actually had court-proceedings started against me. I am still refusing to sign the "statement of truth" but he did say that I could re-write it explaining that I was misled at the time that all the costs would be paid for by the 3rd party.

He didnt think it would harm my case (if there ever is one!) to ignore them for now! He reckoned that the reason the 3rd party insurer wont pay my DA costs is that they're being ripped off. If it had been a reasonable hire car (e.g. with Avis or similar) at a normal rate then it would have been no problem.

The people in this post are right, in future I will always contact the other insurer to organise hire/courtesy cars. although I'm hoping this never happens again ;-)

Also, just on a different story....i pulled up to the petrol pump the other day and a DA van pulled into the one alongside......so tempting to vent my rage.............but don't want to owe them any more money ;-)

s2B

Hi Maggiepie did you not listen to the part were they said ''ultimatley you are responsible for the hire charges''???

s2B

If you go through your insurance company and use your own garage you will not be entitled to a courtsey car and if your choice of garage offer you a vehicle then it will be the same as what Drive Assist will off you a credit hire vehicle.
If your not happy put everything on hold get Drive Assist to call the third party insurance company and get a admission of liability before you decide to take Drive Assist credit hire vehicle, if the the third party insurers admit fault to DA then 99% they will pay DA charges.

jf90

Hi
I was wondering if anybody could help?
i had a similar experience to the above by BarnacleB yet i was in a 'joint fault' accident on the lanes near my house, a few days after the accident and after i had reported it to my insurers i got a call from drive assist asking if i needed a courtesy car, i had not heard of drive assist before this but after going through an accident statement over the phone and and being assured i would not incur the hire charges i accepted and a couple of days later a 09 ford focus arrived. i was given a handheld to sign regarding existing damage and charges if i caused any more. i cant remember signing anything else although i may have signed a document confirming delivery of the car etc.
Anyway after almost two years and a settled claim i have received a document from solicitors saying they were unable to collect the hire charges etc and that they need my cooperation and without i could face the hire charges and those of the solicitors, they have attached a copy of my accident statement which i have to amend if necessary or return it as it is, on this statement it states that 'i hold the third party fully liable for the accident'. i never wrote this or even stated it over the phone. It also goes on to suggest i said a few other things which i did not. There are also identical copies of my signature on these statements which i did not sign.
These solicitors from what i can make out, are trying to charge me between £2500 - £5000 to 'recover the hire amount', and if they are unsuccessful i will have to pay the £4800 in hire costs on top.
I don't know what to do. I know people are going to say, you shouldn't have done this and should have done that etc i realise this now but for now i could really use some advice on what i can/ should do now

MIU_MIU

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walker1178

I feel compelled to post about my recent experience with DA..

On 01/03/11 another driver hit smack bang into the drivers side of my little Daewoo Matiz while I was on my way to work. I called my insurers claim line and was transferred through to DA to arrange a hire car. I was lucky that a 10 reg Astra had been de-fleeted barely 10 minutes away from my work that morning and would be dropped off before lunch. 90 minutes later it arrived with 800 miles on the clock. The inside was immaculate and the driver had just jetwashed it. I was shown 2 obvious marks on the outside by the lovely man and signed a PDA to that effect. It was later in the afternoon that I was warned about how 'accident management' companies con you! On arriving home that evening I googled DA and found this thread....

I read through every page with a sick feeling in my stomach and felt like a very naive little girl (which at 32 I am not!). Expecting the worst I took my camera and camcorder outside and took detailed pics/footage of the car just in case. There were of course several minor 'dings' not noted on my paperwork. The wreckage of my vehicle was collected the following day and not surprisingly classed a write off. DA valued it at £950, £150 MORE than I had paid for it two and a half years ago and sent me paperwork to sign accepting their figures. The other parties insurers meanwhile had accepted full liability, no contest and DA sent their enginneers reports off to them requesting the money. Almost 3 months later they call me to say they have received the cheque and will collect the hire car in one week (26/05/11). Yesterday I took the car to be valeted and put enough petrol in to take me over the amount it had been dropped off with.

Here's the surprise... It was collected today at the exact time promised. The driver was extremely polite and asked about my car. He gave the hire car a check over, thanked me for having it clean and tidy and with plenty of petrol apparently this is rare! I was then given a PDA to sign confirming that the car was returned without any damage and that I had not incurred any charges. I know for a fact that there was at least one more minor ding on the hire car as I was in it when an idiot parked his BMW touching the front of it and left an extremely small chip. I don't doubt that there were possibly more as it had been parked in a town multistorey carpark almost every day!

I may of course just been extremely lucky but I honestly cannot fault DA or the driver that I dealt with.