car insurance claim leaving financial hardship

rangiemad

Hi Alchemist,

I am assuming you aren't self employed and not too familiar with how business assets are used, please check Para 5 of my last post, It isn't just as simple as borrowing a car when using for business due to the Vat legislation, business needs and Tax implications.

I don't wish to mean this in any negative way, but there are a lot of complex issues which I can't go into, which were all put to the insurers and solicitors and agreed before they instructed me to hire this way.

If you had an accident which destroyed your laptop or other item you want to name, knowing that if your partner could give you theirs, but meant they would lose all their earnings from it whilst you were using it would you expect to be just given it?

rs65

rangiemad wrote: »

As this is her business asset and her income depends on it, there was no possibility of her being able to lend it to me as she would not be able to carry out her business without it and consequently losing all her income.

Does her hire business only have one vehicle?

alchemist.1

I know very well how self employed people work. I'm just unsure why you are scrabblling around for documentation in support of hiring a car from your wife's business when it would be clearly be set out in her accounts and tax returns.

After all it is a business asset and the income from hiring the same out would be going into the business not directly to your wife.

rangiemad

Hi,

Thanks for putting a question, rather than the first post. Like I say, I mean no disrespect in answering your first post.

You are correct, all the documentation is accounted for in her accounts for both tax and vat, as are in mine, I'm not scrabbling around for evidence, it is all there in black and white. The problem I have isn't just this, as all the evidence is all above board and readily available.

It's compounded by multiple mistakes, omissions by the solicitors and themselves trying to protect themselves due to the instructions they gave me initially, plus their such poor handling of the case.

The detail here isn't really what I needed advice on.

Basically, what I was trying to ask at the outset as simply as I can is:

Am I tied to the solicitors appointed by the insurers, Is there any responsibility on the insurer not to make my position un-recoverable, should the solicitors have experience in mental health issues and are there any regulations freely available to the public that insurers should adhere to.

Everything is weighed so heavily against a legitimate claimant, I just hoped somebody might have been able to suggest how to get independent advice as none of this seems to be covered by CAB, Stepchange, SRA, etc.

Kindest regards

rangiemad

Hi,

Thanks for asking, yes, she only operates the one vehicle which she uses for chauffeured hire, plus all her other business running around as the hire business is only a part of what she does in her business.

Kindest regards

rs65

rangiemad wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks for asking, yes, she only operates the one vehicle which she uses for chauffeured hire, plus all her other business running around as the hire business is only a part of what she does in her business.

Kindest regards

So she isn't in the car hire business. You have rented a car from a chauffeur drive business.

rs65

rangiemad wrote: »

Am I tied to the solicitors appointed by the insurers, Is there any responsibility on the insurer not to make my position un-recoverable, should the solicitors have experience in mental health issues and are there any regulations freely available to the public that insurers should adhere to.

You said above that you are not tied to them.

I don't understand the not unrecoverable question.

Solicitors have to have experience in the law. They can rely on appropriate medical evidence.

Insurers have to comply with the terms of the policy and the FCA handbook.

rangiemad

Hi,

Thanks for response, I probably complicated the matter by adding the word chauffeur into the sentence. Due to the ridiculous rules levied by local councils, licensing authorities, tax and vat etc, this part of her business is separated in the short term hire of the vehicle and using independent licensed chauffeurs, if that is what her client wants, or just the hire of the vehicle separately.

She spent hours and hours (and considerable expense) with her solicitors and accountants at the time of starting her business making sure everything was done in the most flexible, efficient way, yet still staying within the licensing laws (for not being a private hire company etc), within what she could do for tax, insurance, vat purposes etc. like I mentioned in a previous post, this is one of the complicated areas which I wasn't involved in and was put to the solicitors before they advised me to hire.

I can assure you, it is all above board and so transparent due to being a small business. Shame the insurance and finance industry didn't look so closely at Drive Assist, who, allegedly, sold several million pounds of Land Rovers and Jaguars which were on lease to them and being hired to insurance companies with alleged massive back handers to their clients, before the administrators wound up the company not knowing where the missing cars were!(allegedly!)

This is why we are so up front about everything we do.

Hope that clears that up, I can't get my head round it, but the lawyers and accountants assure us it is all within proper practice.

Kindest regards

rangiemad

Hi,

No, I said "Am I", very different to "I am".

The un-recoverable section is, due to my complete loss of earnings at my age, as the likely hood is that I will have CCJ's issued against me and probability of a creditor petitioning for bankruptcy, how are the solicitors to agree to put me in the position I was before all this happened, in real terms meaning I will never be able to get a mortgage due to 6 years period plus all the other implications.

As for relying on medical experts, why does the SRA have a database of what area's of expertise solicitors practices have, would you want a commercial lawyer specialising in banking or international copyright representing you in a personal injuries case? I appreciate the vultures who advertise on tv are who give the legal process such a bad rep (and people who are legitimately affected), but when does it become not in the clients interest for an insurance company to insist in a legal practice that is not experienced in dealing with a particular type of injury?

As for the FCA And the SRA code of practice, being written by lawyers, surprisingly has a get out clause for virtually everything they can do wrong, when interpreted in a legal sense.

hope that answers the questions/answers from your last post, which I do thank you for as I do take anything that may be deemed negative as what I will have to face when putting my case forwards.

Hope this all makes a bit more sense to where I am coming from.

Kindest regards

FutureGirl

Depending on when the 3 year anniversary is you can't really move your claim forward until they have got an order from the court, confirming they have issued a stay. Without this your claim is time-barred.

Once your solicitor has this, then they will then look to send you to another medical expert. There wouldn't be any point in doing so prior to this.

The issue with the hiring of the chauffeur car is that it may be legal and above board, but you still have a duty to mitigate your losses and the third party insurers to seem be arguing it is excessive in it's cost. You will first need to prove that you needed a car.
- Did you need a car for the length of time you had it for?
- Could you not hire a cheaper one elsewhere?