How to challenge a 50-50 settlement

luiceur

Back in Dec 2017, I was 20m away from my properly parked car when I saw a taxi driver turning 180 degrees and finally hit my car. The taxi driver (private hire) had 2 customers inside the taxi and the taxi driver obviously accepted his fault. I made a formal claim to my insurance (Llloyds) and the car was repaired without any problems. This week (25th May 2018) I received my renewal offer (15th June 2018) from my insurance and I was parallelized when I read that their intentions were to increase my premium £650 and that my number of NCD years was reduced to just 1 from 3. I phoned them and asked why and the lady on the telephone said that they finally agreed a 50-50 settlement. Unfortunately I could not get any more information because Ihad to call to another phone number and the services were not operative until next week. As far as I know I have not been asked to pay any excees as of today, however my premium has doubled.
I have pictures from the incident and I now the time and date so I could potentially find the name of the taxi customers, but I don't know if the taxi company is going to provide that information. The thing is that I would like to challenge this as in my view it is pretty clear that it was not my fault! If I file a small claim, what should I claim? Even If I now change my insurer I cannot count with the number of NCD years that I should have and considering the date today (26th May 2017) it is clear that they are not going to give me back the NCD years before the renewal date.

Any advice?

Quentin

Whenever you are unhappy with your insurer the route to take is a formal complaint in line with their complaints procedure which will be set out in the policy docs


Then if you are unhappy with the reply or they ignore you for 8 weeks you can escalate to the FOS for their adjudication at no cost to you

dacouch

The operator may have not understood the information on their screen, it may just be a case that they have not recovered their outlay for the claim. In such circumstances, the Insurer will mark it as a fault claim until they make a recovery

luiceur

dacouch wrote: »

The operator may have not understood the information on their screen, it may just be a case that they have not recovered their outlay for the claim. In such circumstances, the Insurer will mark it as a fault claim until they make a recovery

It could be, but if that is the case how should I proceed?

Zorillo

This is how it works. It will feel unfair, of course, but it's not really. You've made a claim, your insurer is currently out of pocket, and until they've recouped (recovered) their losses they will consider it to be your fault that they're out of pocket. Of course, the accident wasn't your fault, but it wasn't theirs either.

You could speak to your insurer's Recoveries department (if they have one) and ask them where they are with getting their money back, or you could try to find an insurer who will agree to reinstate your NCD retrospectively once the recovery is confirmed, but otherwise you're a bit stuck at this stage.

If you think the recovery is taking to long, you could complain as per Quentin's advice.

EdGasketTheSecond

Zorillo wrote: »

Of course, the accident wasn't your fault, but it wasn't theirs either.

Oh yes it is their problem; the insurer takes on the risk in return for their premium. They should not be penalising or disadvantaging the OP who should proceed through the insurer's complaints process and then the ombudsman if necessary.

luiceur

Zorillo wrote: »

You could speak to your insurer's Recoveries department (if they have one) and ask them where they are with getting their money back, or you could try to find an insurer who will agree to reinstate your NCD retrospectively once the recovery is confirmed, but otherwise you're a bit stuck at this stage.
.

This will be very difficult, I am not sure if any insurer would agree with this.

I think it is very unfair. Let's see what they tell me on Tuesday but I do think they did not challenge the other insurer at all and they were happy with a 50-50, even though I told them there were witnesses. Besides, I don't understand how this could be partially my fault!

Zorillo

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

Oh yes it is their problem; the insurer takes on the risk in return for their premium. They should not be penalising or disadvantaging the OP who should proceed through the insurer's complaints process and then the ombudsman if necessary.

They've met the claim in return for the premium. It's the "no claims bonus" that is currently lost, because of the claim. Nobody's being penalised, assuming a recovery will be made.

OP, contact your insurers on Tuesday and don't be fobbed off by "50/50". Find out exactly where the recovery of their outlay is and what, if anything, is holding it up. If you're not satisfied, complain.

luiceur

Zorillo wrote: »

OP, contact your insurers on Tuesday and don't be fobbed off by "50/50". Find out exactly where the recovery of their outlay is and what, if anything, is holding it up. If you're not satisfied, complain.

I will, and then I will report back here on Tuesday. Thanks for all your help!

marlot

A number of taxi drivers were insured with a company that recently went bust. I wonder if this is one of them?


http://www.cityam.com/285504/london-cabbies-scrambling-alternative-insurance-after