Third party insurer messing me around...small claims or accident management co or my insurance?

Saeed

Hi all,

Long story short is my car got hit in May, third party (TP) admitted liability. I dealt directly with the third party insurer to save costs for the TP and their insurer, but I think they are messing me about and looking for advice on how to deal with them.

The third party insurance asked for photos of the damage which I sent and they offered me £300 in cash settlement over the phone. I rejected this cash offer at the time as I thought the damage was more than that and told them that I would take it to my main dealer to assess.

The main dealer quote is £1000 which I sent them and asked them to send me a cheque. The TP insurer said they accept the quote and have authorised repairs, but I don't want to get it repaired but they are refusing to give me the cash settlement of £1000 (even though they previously offered me £300 cash).

I am wondering how to get the cash settlement from them. I am not asking for any extra money such as claiming for my time/extra money as my renewal will go up/hire car etc. I just want the money the main dealers have quoted for repair (£1000) as compensation for the damage to my car.

My options seem to be:-

1. Take legal action via small claims court (maybe instruct no-win-no-fee solicitor) and add these costs to the claim?

2. Get my own insurance company to deal with it (previously they wanted to refer me to their accident management company but I refused as I wanted to keep costs down/didn't want car repaired)?

3. Instruct a local accident management company?

4. Something else?

I would appreciate any advice from the forum who have experience of something like this about which option to go for or anything else I could do.

Thanks in advance.

worried_jim

I don't think they will give you £1k cash, they'll pay for the repair to get you back in the position you were in pre crash, I think the £300 was a cheeky little offer for you to go away quickly, that ship has sailed.

Aylesbury_Duck

Get your insurance company to deal with it.

Insurance is there to put you back in the position you were in before the accident, it's not a cash generator. The "messing about" you refer to isn't as one sided as you think it is.

missile

Saeed wrote: »

… The TP insurer said they accept the quote and have authorised repairs, but I don't want to get it repaired but they are refusing to give me the cash settlement of £1000 (even though they previously offered me £300 cash). .

Why not.
You can accept £300 or get your car repaired.
Seems to me, 3rd party have been generous and it is you who are messing them about.

loskie

they are only liable to put you BACK into the position you were in PRIOR to the accident. So by repairing your car at main dealer prices they are fulfilling that, quite generously I would say.

Odd that they did not send or require an assessor to view it.

AdrianC

Saeed wrote: »

Long story short is my car got hit in May, third party (TP) admitted liability. I dealt directly with the third party insurer to save costs for the TP and their insurer, but I think they are messing me about and looking for advice on how to deal with them.

The third party insurance asked for photos of the damage which I sent and they offered me £300 in cash settlement over the phone. I rejected this cash offer at the time as I thought the damage was more than that and told them that I would take it to my main dealer to assess.

The main dealer quote is £1000 which I sent them and asked them to send me a cheque. The TP insurer said they accept the quote and have authorised repairs, but I don't want to get it repaired but they are refusing to give me the cash settlement of £1000 (even though they previously offered me £300 cash).

They offered you £300 cash in lieu of repairs.
They are offering you the £1,000 cost of the repairs.
You cannot have £1,000 in lieu of repairs. No, it doesn't work like that.

Make your mind up - do you want your car repaired, or do you want some cash in your pocket?

My options seem to be:-

1. Take legal action via small claims court (maybe instruct no-win-no-fee solicitor) and add these costs to the claim?

2. Get my own insurance company to deal with it (previously they wanted to refer me to their accident management company but I refused as I wanted to keep costs down/didn't want car repaired)?

3. Instruct a local accident management company?

4. Something else?

1. You have been offered perfectly reasonable options. There was zero obligation to offer you any cash-in-lieu.
2. Your insurer will simply take the car away and repair it. You have a contract with them, you do not have a contract directly with the third-party's insurer.
3. They'll not deal with you, because there's nothing in it for them.
4. Make your mind up. Cash in lieu or repair. Them's your options.

DoaM

Counter offer £600 cash in lieu? They might accept.

Otherwise your options have already been explained.

Saeed

I've just checked today and they have written off my car as a category S without letting me know. I only found out as I was trying to check it's value on autotrader and it had a marker against it. It must have been marked within the last 24-48 hours.:mad:

This is my first crash in 10 years and I don't know how all this works...:(

Checking cat s shows that it means it is structurally damaged, but this is not the case, it's only got some cosmetic damage to the bumper. I think they may have got angry as I got a repair quote from the main dealer. The car was worth around £1800 in un-damaged condition and the £1000 in repairs would be 55% of it's value.

I only got the repair quote from the manufacturer so that I could get a better cash-in-lieu settlement from them but it looks like they used it to write off the car after giving me the go ahead to get it repaired...

Can they do this?? Can I get them to reverse this Cat S designation ??? They have not paid me any money and have not had my car repaired or anything!!! Does this Cat S mean I can tell them to take my car and give me the market value for it?

AdrianC

Yes, a write-off of any category means they pay you the market value of the car and dispose of it, instead of repairing it.

But, with this back-story, it sounds as if either the marker is an error - or it was previously marked. When did you buy the car, and have you checked it before?

Saeed

AdrianC wrote: »

Yes, a write-off of any category means they pay you the market value of the car and dispose of it, instead of repairing it.

But, with this back-story, it sounds as if either the marker is an error - or it was previously marked. When did you buy the car, and have you checked it before?

I bought the car from the main dealer, and it was NOT accident damaged/written off when I bought it, I am sure of that. A few weeks ago and up to a few days ago I was checking the value of it on autotrader and it did not show as category S and gave me an estimated value of £~1800. Since Friday autotrader now automatically brings up the Category S classification and no longer estimates a value for the car (had to put in a value manually).

So, it maybe an error, or maybe they did it on purpose, but it has only appeared AFTER they gave me the go ahead for repairing it for £1000 so I don't think it is a co-incidence.

Below is a screenshot of the current autotrader page.

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZd2Yc7ZYgR3asgIB4mQS8piNpDRbXgCPbMV

Also Parkers car valuation no longer recognises my registration mark!