Car insurance query

tberry4118

My car was stolen 9 weeks ago, I reported it to the police at the scene and my insurance company. I have the logbook, valid mot and both sets of keys and invoices for some work that was done. The place it was stolen from also has cctv. My car was found by the police a few days later in a farmers field. I rung to tell the insurance company and they were very rude and said they would not be collecting the car or talking to me until I had an interview with a field investigator. I had my interview and the investigator had my file closed within 24 hours stating no fraud suspected. My car sat in a field for 2 weeks until the insurance company eventually decided to collect it. They then told me there not treating it as a theft claim and that its now a fire claim. I complained about this in writing and I received an apology from the company saying my claims handler should never have said that. I feel like they are constantly lying to back me into a corner. The insurance company have all the police reports and engineers reports. I then find out from the storage yard that my car has been written off and taken to a salvage yard to be scrapped so I called my insurance and asked them if it was true and they said yes and asked me to sign my car over to the scrap yard so they can process my claim. This was 3 weeks ago, I then get a phone call from a very rude woman telling me I might not even be paid out and that my case is with a team leader. I have no non disclosures and not been dishonest in my application. I dont know what to do or how to proceed. The rude lady from the insurance company has made me feel like I may not even be paid out and they also have ownership of my car 

Sandtree

Whats your actual question?

Presumably it was found burnt out in the field? Assuming this is the case then back in my days we would have to change the claim type on our system to fire because not all of our network repairers etc were able/willing to deal with fire claims and the changing of the type (that required IT intervention) made sure the companies appointed were appropriate. This was just a systems issue and made no difference to customers. 

tberry4118

Sandtree said:

Whats your actual question?

Presumably it was found burnt out in the field? Assuming this is the case then back in my days we would have to change the claim type on our system to fire because not all of our network repairers etc were able/willing to deal with fire claims and the changing of the type (that required IT intervention) made sure the companies appointed were appropriate. This was just a systems issue and made no difference to customers. 

My question is, is it normal procedure to take so long to settle and is it normal for them to take ownership of my car when they haven't even made a decision as to whether I would be paid out or not 

jimbo6977

I bet the farmer will charge for storage!

On a more serious note, it all seems a bit messy really. There are several possible reasons why the insurer might not collect the car immediately, and it being stuck in the middle of a field where presumably access is a bit tricky would be one of them. As would ongoing forensics (occasionally the police do give a monkeys), or the police having recovered the car using their own contracted recovery agent.

Has the car been on fire? If so it will almost certainly be a total loss ("write-off"). In any total loss, due to fire or otherwise the insurance company will effectively buy the car from you, and they will already have a contract to sell the salvage / remains to their salvage agent, which is probably the same people who dragged the car out of the field (unless the police's recovery agent did so). The change to a fire claim will probably make a difference to how much the insurer receives for the salvage (ie less than for a non-toasted car), and to their underwriting/reinsurance reports, which is why it's important to the insurer that the claim be classed correctly. 


The timescales in the OP seem a bit long, but what with staff shortages and difficulties getting hold of people at present, not inordinate. 

tberry4118

jimbo6977 said:

I bet the farmer will charge for storage!

On a more serious note, it all seems a bit messy really. There are several possible reasons why the insurer might not collect the car immediately, and it being stuck in the middle of a field where presumably access is a bit tricky would be one of them. As would ongoing forensics (occasionally the police do give a monkeys), or the police having recovered the car using their own contracted recovery agent.

Has the car been on fire? If so it will almost certainly be a total loss ("write-off"). In any total loss, due to fire or otherwise the insurance company will effectively buy the car from you, and they will already have a contract to sell the salvage / remains to their salvage agent, which is probably the same people who dragged the car out of the field (unless the police's recovery agent did so). The change to a fire claim will probably make a difference to how much the insurer receives for the salvage (ie less than for a non-toasted car), and to their underwriting/reinsurance reports, which is why it's important to the insurer that the claim be classed correctly. 


The timescales in the OP seem a bit long, but what with staff shortages and difficulties getting hold of people at present, not inordinate. 

Thank you for your reply, the police did try their best with their investigation but the car was too badly burnt. They said the car had been used to ram into a fence and then stripped for the good parts and set alight. The farmer was actually very nice😅 once the police done some investigating they asked me to arrange collection so that's when I called my insurers. It was recovered to a storage yard near me and an engineer went to look at it. After he left, the salvage company that is contracted by the insurance company came and collected it. I thought this all sounded straightforward until I received a call from the insurance company yesterday telling me I might not get paid, I just cant see a creditable reason as to why 

Car_54

tberry4118 said:

jimbo6977 said:

I bet the farmer will charge for storage!

On a more serious note, it all seems a bit messy really. There are several possible reasons why the insurer might not collect the car immediately, and it being stuck in the middle of a field where presumably access is a bit tricky would be one of them. As would ongoing forensics (occasionally the police do give a monkeys), or the police having recovered the car using their own contracted recovery agent.

Has the car been on fire? If so it will almost certainly be a total loss ("write-off"). In any total loss, due to fire or otherwise the insurance company will effectively buy the car from you, and they will already have a contract to sell the salvage / remains to their salvage agent, which is probably the same people who dragged the car out of the field (unless the police's recovery agent did so). The change to a fire claim will probably make a difference to how much the insurer receives for the salvage (ie less than for a non-toasted car), and to their underwriting/reinsurance reports, which is why it's important to the insurer that the claim be classed correctly. 


The timescales in the OP seem a bit long, but what with staff shortages and difficulties getting hold of people at present, not inordinate. 

Thank you for your reply, the police did try their best with their investigation but the car was too badly burnt. They said the car had been used to ram into a fence and then stripped for the good parts and set alight. The farmer was actually very nice😅 once the police done some investigating they asked me to arrange collection so that's when I called my insurers. It was recovered to a storage yard near me and an engineer went to look at it. After he left, the salvage company that is contracted by the insurance company came and collected it. I thought this all sounded straightforward until I received a call from the insurance company yesterday telling me I might not get paid, I just cant see a creditable reason as to why 

Did you ask them?

AdrianC

It seems fairly clear that the insurer suspect you were in some direct way involved with the car ending up in the field...

The question is why are they getting that suspicion? Because it was you that found it?

There seems little doubt that it's a write-off, probably CatA if it's significantly burnt. So there's absolutely nothing suspicious in them hoiking it straight off to scrap. This is purely about the payout timescales.

tberry4118

AdrianC said:

It seems fairly clear that the insurer suspect you were in some direct way involved with the car ending up in the field...

The question is why are they getting that suspicion? Because it was you that found it?

There seems little doubt that it's a write-off, probably CatA if it's significantly burnt. So there's absolutely nothing suspicious in them hoiking it straight off to scrap. This is purely about the payout timescales.

I dont know where they got their suspicion from. No it wasn't me that found it, the police called me and told me it had been reported. I had an interview with a field investigator who told the insurance company there is no fraud suspected. I didnt say it was suspicious them taking it to the salvage yard. However thats technically still my property until they pay out so they had no right to scrap it

AdrianC

tberry4118 said:

I didnt say it was suspicious them taking it to the salvage yard. However thats technically still my property until they pay out so they had no right to scrap it

Nope, doesn't work like that. When you claimed, you gave them the right to do as they wished with it.

Why on earth would you want a bent, burnt, stripped shell, anyway? It's not even as if the ID's any use (illegality aside), if it is going CatA - that means it has to be crushed complete... It's worth a few quid as mixed metals less transport costs.

Don't muddy the waters. Keep this on payment, and payment alone.

tberry4118

AdrianC said:

tberry4118 said:

I didnt say it was suspicious them taking it to the salvage yard. However thats technically still my property until they pay out so they had no right to scrap it

Nope, doesn't work like that. When you claimed, you gave them the right to do as they wished with it.

Why on earth would you want a bent, burnt, stripped shell, anyway? It's not even as if the ID's any use (illegality aside), if it is going CatA - that means it has to be crushed complete... It's worth a few quid as mixed metals less transport costs.

Don't muddy the waters. Keep this on payment, and payment alone.

Who said anything about the ID🤔 im not muddying the waters at all. They can have all the suspicion in the world. My claim was validated by one of their own private investigators. I have the right to be annoyed, my property was stolen, ive had them dig into my private life, ive co operated fully. They've scrapped my property and taken off the good parts that were left and im sat here like a lemon being told I might not get paid out and when I ask why they cant even give me an answer. After reading reviews on the company I can see im not the only one and this company has had a 30% increase to the ombudsman in the past year. So forgive me for being a little cheesed off 

Sandtree

tberry4118 said:

Sandtree said:

Whats your actual question?

Presumably it was found burnt out in the field? Assuming this is the case then back in my days we would have to change the claim type on our system to fire because not all of our network repairers etc were able/willing to deal with fire claims and the changing of the type (that required IT intervention) made sure the companies appointed were appropriate. This was just a systems issue and made no difference to customers. 

My question is, is it normal procedure to take so long to settle and is it normal for them to take ownership of my car when they haven't even made a decision as to whether I would be paid out or not 

The duration you mention is fairly long but these things are highly variable and thats before you add the complexity of a pandemic. 

It is normal for them to want to get a burnt out wreck out of storage that has to be paid for into a scrap merchant as quickly as possible. If they have fraud suspicions then clearly they aren't going to tell you about them. Never dealt with a claim where a burnt out wreck is declined as a claim but suspect the resolution would be payment of the scrap value net of any storage.