My insurance company defeated a fraudulent claim but incurred fees? Who is liable?

Arnie91

Hey All,
I will give you the background to this, but I'm wondering who may be liable for my insurance companies 'legal costs' in order to defeat a claim made against myself.

Back in 2015 I was involved in a tiny collision in London where some rough rowdy driver cut into traffic and caused me to bump his rear bumper. Initially there was no damage at all, pictures can confirm this. The guy then ends up claiming on my insurance some weeks later with a bill from BMW for £3000 for a completely new rear bumper due to the claim that a 'rivet' has been damaged and cut in half, alongside personal injury claims. This rivet had some microscopic damage that no one could see by eye, or so I was told.

My insurance sent out an engineer to both parties and told me that the claim was highly suspicious and that they would be fighting it.

Here are some of the details.
XS Direct Underwriter, One call Broker. £3,000 excess, £3,000 a year insurance. I know it's daylight robbery but I started driving young with a fairly large size engine car. Luckily after three years that's down to about £1,000 a year with the same company but my car's been off the road for the past year while it's had the front end rebuilt.

Months and a year passed, I was not contacted or anything. I called them in 2016 in order to try and get NCB letter from them but was told that this same chap had closed the 2015 case for damage and had reopened another case almost a year later claiming personal injury for himself and three other individuals that were not in the car. I was told that since I was insured from 2015 and 2016, if the claim was in the first two years I would not have any NCB. I later realised that I had also been insured with them in 2014. So I contacted them again and explained this to my call handler, who was with XS direct (the underwriter), she explained that she would contact One call (the broker, however I didn't realise the difference nor was it explained) and that they would be able to sort this out.

I didn't hear back anything until calling them up, it's now october 2017. Today I found out they defeated the claim back in March 2017 (No contact or emails regarding this update), but had to instruct their solicitors and incurred costs of up to 1600 pounds. The reason I called is that the car in question just underwent a front end rebuild with upgraded parts and I went to put my car on autotrader and it told me it was marked as a CAT D. I was extremely angry because I've just shelled out thousands on parts and tools to get this done.

They told me on the phone that they don't know why it's marked as a CAT D but that they would get this removed by this afternoon. Good result.

The issue is that my call handler will be calling on Monday to explain them recovering the legal costs. Now I knew this claim was fraudulent and was not accepting any fault. But I was never told they were going to instruct solicitors.

Now that the case is defeated, who is liable for my insurance companies legal costs. My initial thought is that surely it's the other parties insurance company that needs to pay this as their client tried to fraudulently claim on my insurance for bogus injury and zero damage to his car. On the phone the chap also explained that my excess was 'All sections'. I don't know what this is but One-call never explained this to me, they just explained to me that in the event I was in an accident and other party claimed, I would have to pay upfront the costs on my own claim, or any other parties claim, if that were the case and I had won a non-fault situation I would be reimbursed the up-front cost.

I don't like the way I was sold insurance by One-call and never explained or told that my insurance is with XS Direct. I remember the first time calling One-call and they didn't even know who I was, subsequently I learned that if I had any claims or insurance issue that One-call would not handle it, that I had to go direct to XS-direct.

Am i right in thinking that this other party should be covering the legal costs for my insurance solicitors considering the claim was defeated, it was fraudulent and I am innocent. I was also not informed of my insurance companies decision to use solicitors. Must be that juicy £3,000 guaranteed cover... :rotfl:

P.s I'm pretty sure I have some kind of silver package legal cover so I'm trying to find that asap.

FutureGirl

How did you buy the policy? One call are a broker, it says on their website they use a variety of underwriters, and your documentation would have noted who your underwriter was.

Your issue will how they sold the policy, and them defending the claim are 2 different things. In terms of your excess - everything about that will be detailed in the policy documents.

Put it this way, if they didn't defend the claim, they would have had to pay out for the claim. If the judge has awarded your insurers costs, then the other party will pay them, if not, then your insurers will pay the costs.

dacouch

FutureGirl wrote: »

Put it this way, if they didn't defend the claim, they would have had to pay out for the claim. If the judge has awarded your insurers costs, then the other party will pay them, if not, then your insurers will pay the costs.

The OP has a £3000 ALL SECTIONS excess, he will pay any costs upto the £3000

Arnie91

Sorry for not getting back to you.

I bought the policy through Onecall. I had no idea another company was underwriting, in fact the first time ever trying to contact Onecall about my policy they didn't seem to know anything about it and then told me that I needed to contact XSdirect which left me completely confused.

An old insurance document from 2015 is a certificate from XS direct, I didn't see one in 2014 as far as I can remember.

I don't know anything about the legal situation, whether it went to court or just involved some threatening letters to the third party, so I can't speculate on if they actually went to court and were/were not awarded costs. I have just sent an email to them. I've been chasing them since I wrote this topic with no reply.

If in a worst case scenario for myself, that I do have to end up paying the legal costs in order to get my 3 years NCB, which at the moment is being held ransom until the outstanding fees are paid, do I have any grounds to claim this back from the fraudulent third party? I emailed XS direct querying whether or not it would be possible for them to claim it back from the third party themselves since they are in possession of the case work.

What is strange is that the claim was defeated in march 2017 and they've not even bothered to contact me until even now, why aren't they chasing me for the outstanding legal fees?

Arnie91

I've just received a reply from the under writer who said they can't assist me in any way. I have to call my broker to sort this out? This makes no sense at all

At no point have I been in communication with the broker, with the fradulent claims or otherwise.

Shami121

One Call and XS Direct, they both are extremely fraudulent companies. One call never told the previous customers that XS direct will be their underwriters. They just started now recently. You're told about XS direct once you receive the documents.

I had an accident few years back when my car slipped off the road. No damage occurred to anyone whatsoever. I was supposed to inform One Call so I did. And I mentioned that I am not doing any claim. I'll get it repaired myself. I paid all recovery costs and repairing costs myself.

2 years later I received an email from XS Direct saying "Congratulations - We have settled your claim". Underneath they sent me an invoice of £3700. In the meanwhile I received the same email from One Call too demanding the excess fees. But for what?

They have settled the claim to someone without my concern, on my behalf?? What the.....

When I raised this complaint further, they told me someone made a claim against me. It took 7-8 months for them to find out who this "someone" was. When I mentioned there was no damage to any other car whatsoever plus there was no evidences. Call handler Now its done and they can't reverse it.

Now both companies wants the excess fees separately.

It's not my fault at all that you have settled a fraudulent claim. You made a mistake, you pay for it.

garth549

Unfortunately this can (and does) happen with this company because (unusually) they have a third party excess.

Basically they have less incentive to fight or investigate claims because they pass a large amount of the cost onto the policyholder. Whether the claim is fraudulent or not they can settle as they see fit and pass the cost onto you. One of the reasons this company shouldn't be touched with a barge pole.

You need to complain to them and then escalate to the FOS. I'm afraid I don't fancy your chances however. Sorry.