Insurance Refusing to settle

FaizanKhan

Hi people, seen helpful posts on this forum so thought it might be a good place to seek some advice.

Im in a little sticky situation at the moment. I bought a car early in the year and my sibling took it out without insuring it and crashed it. As there was no insurance on it at the time we had to get it repaired privately which cost a bomb as it was kind of bad damage at front end. Sadly the garage I took it to are no longer there in the industrial estate, but I have an invoice for the repair.
Surprisingly the previous owners insurance that was on it still declared the car as a write off in the insurance database, even though they didn't deal with no claim!

Anyway all was good until August when I was abroad, car was stolen from us. It was a Golf R. Our pride and joy was taken from us and when I came back from holiday I came back to misery. Luckily however there was insurance on it this time.

So went through the process, police, insurance report, statements, interview, hand over keys, etc etc...waiting for response

And here comes the response..months later, they are accusing us of lying. Here are some things they mentioned:
- Vehicle was not driven since the accident (apparently the forensically checked the keys) absolute BS as all my friends and family know and seen it be driven.
- Apparently they think it wasn't repaired at all
- They think this is some sort of cover up claim to claim back money

I understand there concerns and understand insurance find any way possible not to pay out. But damn, didn't know it was this bad.

How do I go about this? What points do I fight them on?

foxy-stoat

FaizanKhan wrote: »

Hi people, seen helpful posts on this forum so thought it might be a good place to seek some advice.

Im in a little sticky situation at the moment. I bought a car early in the year and my sibling took it out without insuring it and crashed it. As there was no insurance on it at the time we had to get it repaired privately which cost a bomb as it was kind of bad damage at front end. Sadly the garage I took it to are no longer there in the industrial estate, but I have an invoice for the repair.
Surprisingly the previous owners insurance that was on it still declared the car as a write off in the insurance database, even though they didn't deal with no claim!

Anyway all was good until August when I was abroad, car was stolen from us. It was a Golf R. Our pride and joy was taken from us and when I came back from holiday I came back to misery. Luckily however there was insurance on it this time.

So went through the process, police, insurance report, statements, interview, hand over keys, etc etc...waiting for response

And here comes the response..months later, they are accusing us of lying. Here are some things they mentioned:
- Vehicle was not driven since the accident (apparently the forensically checked the keys) absolute BS as all my friends and family know and seen it be driven.
- Apparently the repair would have cost more than the vehicle, so they think it wasn't repaired at all
- They think this is some sort of cover up claim to claim back money lost via this accident.

I understand there concerns and understand insurance find any way possible not to pay out. But damn, didn't know it was this bad.

How do I go about this? What points do I fight them on?

That is a double negative !

What did your sibling hit, did the third party claim on the previous owner's insurance that you dont know about.

No way the previous insurer can write the car off without an engineer seeing it.

It does sounds like your car got smashed up uninsured, and not repaired, then conveniently gets stolen some months later.

Any reason why it was uninsured before it got smashed up?

It gets sticky if you answered the question, have you been involved in accidents, incidents and losses - as no.

Aylesbury_Duck

FaizanKhan wrote: »

Hi people, seen helpful posts on this forum so thought it might be a good place to seek some advice.

Im in a little sticky situation at the moment. I bought a car early in the year and my sibling took it out without insuring it and crashed it. As there was no insurance on it at the time we had to get it repaired privately which cost a bomb as it was kind of bad damage at front end. Sadly the garage I took it to are no longer there in the industrial estate, but I have an invoice for the repair.
Surprisingly the previous owners insurance that was on it still declared the car as a write off in the insurance database, even though they didn't deal with no claim!

Anyway all was good until August when I was abroad, car was stolen from us. It was a Golf R. Our pride and joy was taken from us and when I came back from holiday I came back to misery. Luckily however there was insurance on it this time.

So went through the process, police, insurance report, statements, interview, hand over keys, etc etc...waiting for response

And here comes the response..months later, they are accusing us of lying. Here are some things they mentioned:
- Vehicle was not driven since the accident (apparently the forensically checked the keys) absolute BS as all my friends and family know and seen it be driven.
- Apparently the repair would have cost more than the vehicle, so they think it wasn't repaired at all
- They think this is some sort of cover up claim to claim back money lost via this accident.

I understand there concerns and understand insurance find any way possible not to pay out. But damn, didn't know it was this bad.

How do I go about this? What points do I fight them on?

Did you report the crash to your insurer at the time it happened?

What did your sibling crash the car into? Another car? A wall? A lamp post? Did you recompense the other party for the damage that was presumably caused to their property?

The garage you supposedly took it to is conveniently no longer there but you have an invoice for the work....hmmm.

How did the previous policyholder's insurer find out about the accident?

It all looks suspicious to me, and I'm only hearing your side of the story.

MEM62

You need legal advice, not forum opinion.

If the car was driven regularly presumably you can evidence this. (Photos of days out, stored satnav history, fuel receipts etc) I would ensure that evidence is gathered and kept safe.

You might also need to clarify why the previous owners insurance wrote the car off. Did something happen before your purchased it? Was it as a result of your sibling's actions? What is the full story here?

I am sure that there is more background to this than we are getting.

FaizanKhan

The car was hit into another vehicle, whose insurance started to claim and pursure the insurance that was on the golf r (previous owner) who then contacted us and informed us, but Nothing happened for him as he sold the car but left the insurance on it as he didnt get round to cancelling it

The garage we took it to was a bunch of europeans who done a good deal for us so we didnt refuse, car was repaired and was driven by all of us, and many people have been passengers in the vehicle since.

As the previous owners insurance was still on the vehicle it showed insured on askMid which is why my sibling thought it would be ok for a quick spin, which lead to disaster.

I dont understand how they can rely on key data to presume its not been driven

The_Rainmaker

foxy-stoat wrote: »

No way the previous insurer can write the car off without an engineer seeing it.

Being slightly pedantic here yes it can be I had my last car written off CATB on photo evidence alone (the engine had been moved a foot to the left)

Having said that of course from what the OP says the insurance could not have seen it even in pictures.

I suspect there will be a claim in to the previous owners insurance and the previous owner will not be too happy.

I'm surprised this hasn't gone to court.

Was the car SORN I presume not so therefore had to be insured by the OP again it wasn't. Did the sibling have permission to drive it? Who knows.

As has been said previously you need legal advice and I really don't see the insurer rolling over easily on this and it will end up in court one way or the other.

Aylesbury_Duck

FaizanKhan wrote: »

The car was hit into another vehicle, whose insurance started to claim and pursure the insurance that was on the golf r (previous owner) who then contacted us and informed us, but he got away as he sold the car but left the insurance on it as he didnt get round to cancelling it

The garage we took it to was a bunch of europeans who done a good deal for us so we didnt refuse, car was repaired and was driven by all of us, and many people have been passengers in the vehicle since.

I dont know how they managed to report it as a write off when we didnt receive a penny for it as there was no insurance from our side, it was sitting on the driveway while I was trying to arrange insurance for myself.

As the previous owners insurance was still on the vehicle it showed insured on askMid which is why my sibling thought it would be ok for a quick spin, which lead to disaster.

I have the receipt from the garage that fixed it but when i went there yesterday its been sold on to different people.

I dont understand how they can rely on key data to presume its not been driven

So let me get this straight:

You bought a car and your sibling fancied a quick spin in it, but realising you hadn't insured the car, checked its insurance status online and decided to drive it on the former owner's policy.

Your sibling crashed the car whilst uninsured on it, the other party tried to claim off the previous owner's insurance for the car.

You say the previous owner "got away". Do you mean "got away with it?" If so, with what? He didn't crash the car. At worst he's guilty of not cancelling his insurance quickly enough (how long after buying this car did your sibling take it for a "quick spin"?)

You decided to fix things yourself so took it to some "Europeans" who offered a good deal. Since then they've sold up and the new owners have no records of the work carried out.

Honestly, your story is full of holes and I'm not surprised your insurer is suspicious. My suspicion here is that you bought the car, drove it whilst uninsured, crashed it, parked it somewhere for a while when it was conveniently "stolen", then fabricated an invoice from a since-closed garage, allowing you to claim its value from your insurer. In this scenario, neither your sibling nor the garage exist. They could be useful accessories to the story. All your family members are completely partial "witnesses" who are being used to convince the insurer that the car was repaired and used between the accident and the "theft". That's how I think it might have unfolded.

That's the reason I doubt your honesty and I suspect your insurer thinks the same thing is plausible. If I'm wrong, the best way to convince your insurer is to get proper evidence to them. Among other things, get the owners of the garage to give you records of what sounds like substantial repair work and certainly would be on their work logs. Then, as someone else suggested, get evidence of its use; fuel receipts, MOT record, service evidence, parking tickets, toll tickets, etc.

Herzlos

You paid more than it was worth in repairs instead of scrapping it and buying one that wasnt crashed?
Your story on the face of it sounds pretty dodgy, so unless you can prove it was repaired and in use (photos of it, parking invoices with registration, service/MOT, etc) then you've got an uphill battle.

Was anyone ever prosecuted for the driving without insurance part?

FaizanKhan

Hi

Previous owner got away meaning his insurance didnt handle the claim as he wasnt the owner/driver at the time.

Sibling thought I had it insured as he saw it on on askMID showing insured, didnt realise its the previous insurance still on there.

The only receipt I have is a minor service receipt from a different garage (who is still present and can confirm it)

FaizanKhan

Yes sibling got points and fine.

It was repaired for a good price but not to perfection

tonyh66

the service receipt from the other garage should be enough if they are reputable.