Insurance/lease company treating me unfairly after my car was destroyed

Bblyt

Hi guys,

New to the forums and looking for advice! It’s a little bit of a long story so my apologies for the essay....

Last New Year’s Eve my 6 week old lease car along with 1400 others was destroyed in a huge inferno at the Liverpool Echo arenas car park. The whole event was incredibly distressing - we thought it was a terrorist attack at first! Thankfully no one was hurt.

My car is leased through an NHS scheme and comes with fully comprehensive insurance included in the package.

Lots of people who were there that night formed a Facebook group and it seemed insurers were putting this down as a non fault claim and waivering all excess fees due to it being a ‘catastrophic event’ and sorted out quite quickly.

In my case it has been slightly different. I continued paying the fees for another 4 months for a car which no longer existed in return for using a hire car - I had no idea that with most insurance companies that if your car is destroyed or written off you have no right to a courtesy car..... I was happy to continue paying this until a new car was sorted out for me.

4 months later I got a replacement car and was made to sign back to the beginning of a new 3 year contract. With no further correspondence I thought the matter was put to bed.

A couple of weeks ago the lease company has written me a demanding letter and invoice requesting the money for the insurance excess.

I replied explaining that I though the matter had been put to bed and that were they not following suit with at least 25 other insurance companies who I know have waivered these fee’s?

I have flatly been told no and that if I don’t pay they will approach my employers for the money. I have requested someone in managment get in touch with me to explain the disparity in my case but to no avail.

Can anyone help? It’s a few hundred quid (which is still a lot of money) but it’s the principle of it �� I’m at my wits end. This hugely stressful situation is still going on 11 months later.

littlerock

it seemed insurers were putting this down as a non fault claim and waivering all excess fees due to it being a ‘catastrophic event’ and sorted out quite quickly.

Who is your leasing company? Why do they not accept it as a catastrophic loss? Do you pay for the insurance, does it include legal cover?

AdrianC

As a general rule, if the claim is paid from the insurer's pocket (as this would have been), then it's treated as an at-fault, and the policyholder will pay their excess.


Some insurers may have made a goodwill exception for this particular circumstance, others may not. It would be entirely down to the insurer. Do you have any anecdotal evidence of your insurer doing so for other people in your situation?


It's entirely possible that your insurer are viewing you as a captive customer - since your policy is included in the lease cost, you have no choice but to insure with them (or use a different finance scheme), so normal marketing considerations may not apply.


If you want to dispute the situation, then you need to do so with the FOS.
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-insurance.html

cajef

Duplicate post already several answers here:-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5920477/lease-company-insurance-treating-me-unfairly-after-my-car-was-destroyed