False accident claim against me on Hastings Direct

1Tonsil

 I currently have this situation with Hastings Direct car insurance and wondered if anyone else has ever had the same and resolved it ?

On 4th February 2022 I got an email from Hastings Direct asking me to describe an accident  they claimed  I had been involved in on 31st January 2022.  , saying that a  third party insurers held me at fault.

I have never had an accident and I honestly thought I had been the victim of scammers. The number on the email was listed on ''who phoned me'' as a phone number previously used by scammers who claimed you had an accident and they were claiming against you. So I called HD after looking up the number online. The call centre person took my details then told me that I had indeed had a third party claim registered against me. They would not give me any more details of the alleged incident. I told them I had never had an accident and  I had not actually driven my car for the previous ten days due to the storms that had been hitting Scotland and that on the day it was supposed to have happened there was a 'stay at home' order out in my area of Scotland. I offered to sent Hastings Direct photographs of the car taken that day 4/2/22 by email and denied that I had ever had an accident. I sent the photos to them and asked for them to be acknowledged.

After the call to the call centre, I decided to contact the cyber team for scams at Police Scotland and register a complaint that I thought the claim against me could be fraudulent. or a scam.  They acknowledged my complaint and advised me to get all documents and transcripts acknowledged in writing by Hastings Direct and to register my complaint with the Insurance Fraud Bureau.

I rang the call center on 7/2/22 to ask if they had received the photographs of my unmarked car and if they could please sent me transcripts of the calls I made. I also asked if it was possible that my registration number had been misheard on the telephone. I sent details of a very similarly numbered reg plate that belonged to a car with a long history of MOT failures and advisories for illegal tyres and faulty brakes and asked for them to communicate with me and send me acknowledgement of my communications.

I have heard nothing at all from them, no acknowledgements of the photos, my complaints and no word of the claim.

The company I bought the car from two year ago,  asked me if I would like them to check the car for damage or recent repairs and provide a document saying it was undamaged  and had  no repairs done to it. I had this done (they kindly did it for free) and sent the results to Hastings Direct again, along with the photos they took showing the car ,engine and chassis number.

Meanwhile I found a lot of bad reviews for the company online and some with the same issue as me. They had a false claim put on the insurance, and the insurers took so long to sort out the false claim that these people had a big increase in their premium when it was next due. I wrote them a bad report with a one star review on Trustpilot last week, giving just the details of what was happening and their total  lack of communication. The next day someone from the company had commented that a claims team member would contact me within one working day. This did not happen, I have had no communication from them of any kind. The same day I received a message from Trustpilot saying the company had questioned if my review was from a genuine  experience with them and could I provide them with  my email and telephone number. I provided them but no one has contacted me. I also filled in the form on their website to inform the team of Fraudulent claims that I wish to persue this as a fraudulent claim against me.

I have just contacted the Financial Ombudsman and filled in a complaint about them, I could do that earlier than the eight weeks required as they will not communicate with me and will  not provide the information I have asked for.

Sorry this is so long, but I have been really worried and upset about it. I have never had an accident in all my years of driving and a clean licence since 1981. I hope this never happens to anyone else, but I am sure it will. Apparently some insurers pay out for small claims without even informing the person accused.

Sandtree

It is not uncommon for insurers to receive allegations of incidents from third party insurers that their insureds go on to deny. This can be due basic human error... bad handwriting of registration plates that's misread later for example, cloned plates and so both you and the other party are victims, and very rarely, fraud by the third party.

Insurance company claims teams are typically divided up between at least 2 tiers and often more with the listed telephone numbers going through to basic trained staff who only deal with customer calls and then the higher tiers which have much more training and will be dealing with the third party aspect of the claim. I suspect the telephone number on the email will get you through to the more advanced team who'll take a very different approach to the matter.

Your insurers will tell you what details they have so far, often this can be almost nothing if all they have received so far is an initial letter of claim. Once they have your denial they will go back to the TPI and ask for additional information. This process can be slow and sometimes it just dies as the TP/TPI realise their mistake and don't have the courtesy to advise.

1Tonsil

I tried the number on the email, also their motorclaims team, numerous emails asking for my emails and phone calls to be documented and acknowledged.  I suggested it could be a mis hearing of my number plate or a mistake by someone. But they should communicate with their customers, even if it is just an auto reply saying they have received the emails. As a customer you have a right to ask for transcripts of the conversations on the phone. They won't give me any details since they will not communicate at all.