Car Insurance Write Off Nightmare

JDM71

Hi I am wondering if anybody can give me some advice in regards to some troubles I am having claiming my losses from a third party car insurance company (Bell)

I had an accident where a vehicle turned into my right of way, the third party admitted liability within weeks. As my insurance (Adrian Flux - Equity Red Star) is Third Party Fire & Theft I was passed to a claims management company by Flux who I was then in contact with Slater & Gordon Solutions Motor.

I was then given a hire car for the time my vehicle was off the road being inspected by their engineers, the engineer initially came to a value which I was not happy with as I have coilover suspension on my car which my insurance are aware about and I did provide invoices to prove this. The engineer from Slater & Gordon agreed and sent this off to the third party so a cheque can be proccessed for the vehicle write off amount. I received notification that they have issued a cheque for under half the valuation that the enginner provided with the modification. I called Slater & Gordon who then advised me to cash the cheque as an interim payment and we will chase the rest, another call an advisor spoke to there manager and confirmed I could keep the hire car until upto 7 days after I recieve the second cheque.

The third party are advising they are not paying for the coilovers as they do not agree with it, therefor Slater & Gordon are continuing to chase this up however advised me they need the hire car back. I also was advised by a previous agent at Slater & Gordon that they have to pay if we have justified it with an engineers report.

I then spoke to a manager again who advised me the ombudsman for them will not entertain it, and I cannot go to the legal ombudsman as I didn't use the third party services. I was not advised of this at the start of the claim.

Any help would be appreiciated as I have been paid £280 when I should of been paid just over £600. They are also disputing hire car charges whilst I appreiciated Slater & Gordon will have to chase this up.

I am having no help and soon to be without a hire car without enough money to cover my short fall.

Any more info needed please let me know I hope I have explained everything in detail.

Quentin

As you didn't have any insurance for damage to your own car then you didn't have any ombudsman cover as far as an insurance claim was concerned.


But you do have recourse to the Legal Ombudsman if you are unhappy with the response to a complaint from Slater & Gordon.

JDM71

They advised me because I have not used the services via the Third Party direct I cannot go to the Legal Ombudsman, I can only go to the Financial Ombudsman for Slater & Gordon and they said they would not entertain this scenario.

Is this correct? Just feel I have no way around this and the information I was provided by Slater & Gordon I feel was incorrect so would you go down the service aspect if I cannot use the Legal aspect?

Quentin

Your complaint is against S & G isn't it? (They told you that you could keep the hire car till they got you the second cheque??)

JDM71

That is correct, they have 8 weeks to get back to me as per standard process. But they won't cover the £400 would they? S&G also stated that once we have submitted our justification they will have to pay out and cannot dispute it but they have well a agent of S&G.

Still however in investigation with correspondence going both ways with the TP about this modification.

dacouch

Does the coil over suspension actually increase the value of the car eg if you advertised it for sale, would someone pay the extra £300 to buy your car over the same car without the coil over suspension?

JDM71

Is dependent to be honest, but this has been justified by an engineers report to be correct. I did advise S&G this prior as I would of advised them not to declare my care a right off and then just strip the car for parts.

dacouch

JDM71 wrote: »

Is dependent to be honest, but this has been justified by an engineers report to be correct. I did advise S&G this prior as I would of advised them not to declare my care a right off and then just strip the car for parts.

Dependent on what?

The other Insurer do not have to pay out what the Engineer values the car at.

Then other Insurer are liable to pay you the market value of the car imediately prior to the accident. Often modifications to a car do not increase the actual value of the car.

The value you have agreed with your own Insurers is irrelevant to this claim as it's just a value they have agreed with you if they have to pay out for a Fire or Theft.

The other Insurers may be arguing that your modification don't actually increase the value of your car eg would someone actually be prepared to pay £600 for your car.

Ultimately it's what a (Civil) court would rule your car was valued at. The engineer's report would be very persuasive to the court as he is deemed to be an expert. The other Insurers are unlikely to allow the matter to go to court due to it just adding further costs for them, but if they think they have better evidence as to the value of your car and it would persuade the court over the engineer's report, they may chance their arm at court (Although extremely unlikely in your case due to the value of your claim).

Have Slater's advised you what reason the other Insurers are giving for valuing your car lower?

I suspect if you had not used Slaters and just gone direct to the other Insurers, you would have received a much higher value for your car. Slater's are only really interested in injury claims and / or the credit hire where they rack up daily hire charges of £50 or £100 for your car so the longer the claim takes (Within reason) the more they make. Credit Hire companies being involved can change the way the other Insurers handle a claim

glentoran99

If the parts are really worth that much see how much they will let you buy the car back for