Admiral car insurance and auxillis

2bFrank

Hello,

On Friday I had a crash in my car, a truck was merging into my lane behind me, caught the back of my car and spin me around. The car is a bit of a wreak, reviewing my dashcam, it's pretty much the truck's fault and I'm very confident that its the truck's liability,

I spoke to my insurance Admiral, and they offered me two options, go through this company auxillis, and I wont have to pay my excess and they will sort everything out (from hiring a car to fixing my car). or go through Admiral and pay the excess now (£250 I just don't have right now) and find quotes to fix my car etc.

I decided to go down the auxillis route, however, they have just sent me the terms and conditions and it looks like I would be liable for the full cost of fixing my car and the hire car if they are not successful in getting the truck driver to accept responsibility. Is this correct, I have tried to ring them but they are now both shut.

I'm really confused, isn't that the whole point of getting fully comp car insurance, so that I won't have the burden of fixing the car, has anyone used auxillis and experienced what I've experienced?

victor2

2bFrank said:

Hello,

On Friday I had a crash in my car, a truck was merging into my lane behind me, caught the back of my car and spin me around. The car is a bit of a wreak, reviewing my dashcam, it's pretty much the truck's fault and I'm very confident that its the truck's liability,

I spoke to my insurance Admiral, and they offered me two options, go through this company auxillis, and I wont have to pay my excess and they will sort everything out (from hiring a car to fixing my car). or go through Admiral and pay the excess now (£250 I just don't have right now) and find quotes to fix my car etc.

I decided to go down the auxillis route, however, they have just sent me the terms and conditions and it looks like I would be liable for the full cost of fixing my car and the hire car if they are not successful in getting the truck driver to accept responsibility. Is this correct, I have tried to ring them but they are now both shut.

I'm really confused, isn't that the whole point of getting fully comp car insurance, so that I won't have the burden of fixing the car, has anyone used auxillis and experienced what I've experienced?

I would contact Admiral and get written (email will do) confirmation from them that regardless who is to blame in the insurance companies eyes, the loss will not come back to you, other than the excess. The T&Cs from Auxillis could just be their standard stuff to ensure they don't get burdened with the cost, should the claim go wrong.

I agree that is why you buy fully comp insurance.

Presumably nobody has said whether or not the car is economically repairable yet? You're only entitled to a courtesy car if repairs are being done, not if the car is written off.

400ixl

Usually the conditions are that you become liable if you do not fully co-operate with Auxillis in claiming back the costs from the 3rd party insurer. Not that you are liable if they aren't successful. You need to read it carefully.

There are other things to watch out for such as if they provide a hire car what are the excesses you are responsible for. Had a friend who had one through them and it was a £250 excess for glass and £1k for damage.

Grey_Critic

An obvious question about the Hire Car does the OPs insurance include it as standard - if so then they do not need the auxillis vehicle.

Is their car a write off - auxillis may spin things out to their even if the other parties insurance accepts liablity.

Personally I would tell them to stick it. The OP has a contract with Admiral and they are trying to fob them off onto a third party - A Sub-Contractor in effect.

Legally Admiral are fully liable for the actions of any third party/sub-contractor they appoint to handle a claim on their behalf - I am in the middle of two audits and sub-contractors and liabilities are a topic under discussion. The clients are not happy at the extent to which they are liable.

Ectophile

The main business model of Auxillis is renting out really expensive hire cars, in the expectation that they can get the other party to pay.  The rest of the stuff (such as organising the repair of your car) is secondary to that.

Aretnap

The liability thing is mostly a legal technically. The contract has to say that you are liable for the cost of the hire car, otherwise you would not be able to claim the cost from the third party insurer, and therefore Auxillis would not be able to claim it on your behalf. You can only claim for expenses that you have actually incurred - if Auxillis gave you a free hire car out if the goodness of their hearts the third party insurer would not be obliged to pay Auxillis for it.

This doesn't mean that you will actually be held liable if the third party insurer doesn't accept liability. In practice there is nearly always a term in the contract to get around this problem. The contract might say that your liability is restricted to the third party's liability (so you never have to pay more than can be claimed from the third party), or the hire agreement might include a "free" insurance policy that will cover the costs of the vehicle if they can't be reclaimed from the third party (described as free, though in practice the cost of providing it is factored in to the daily rate for the car).

So the only way you would actually have to put your hand in your own pocket would be if you breached the terms of the hire agreement, for example if you were not honest with Auxillis about your own circumstances or the circumstances of the accident, or if you didn't cooperate with them when it came to claiming the costs of the hire car back from the third party insurers (which in theory might mean attending court, but more likely would mean filling in some forms about your income and about how the accident happened).

2bFrank

Thank you very much for all your replies, I have decided to cancel Auxillis and insisted Admiral process the claim, the excess will just have to go through my credit card for now.

I have the hire car protection on my insurance that I pay for, so I'm very confused why they pushed me down the third-party route, but feel a little more at ease with my insurance handling the claim.

Aretnap

2bFrank said:

I have the hire car protection on my insurance that I pay for, so I'm very confused why they pushed me down the third-party route, but feel a little more at ease with my insurance handling the claim.

The main reason why they push you down the third party route is that they get a kickback from Auxillis from the credit hire costs that they claim from the third party insurer. Or Auxillis might even be a subsidiary of Admiral - can't be bothered to look that up - but either way there's a financial advantage to Admiral.

That doesn't mean it can't be in your interests too though. There can be advantages to using the AMC in preference to your own policy, namely

(1) no need to pay your excess and then claim it back later

(2) no reduction in your NCD while the claim is settled (which can complicate life if your renewal comes before it's settled)
(3) depending on the terms of your policy, your hire car might only be available for a limited period, or might only be a small runabout, or might only be available while your car is actually at the garage being repaired (so no use if your car is written off). Whereas claiming from the third party gives you the right to a car broadly equivalent to your own, for as long as you reasonably need it. Important if you need a large car to carry tools around, or a people carrier for a large family etc.

DullGreyGuy

Grey_Critic said:

Personally I would tell them to stick it. The OP has a contract with Admiral and they are trying to fob them off onto a third party - A Sub-Contractor in effect.

Legally Admiral are fully liable for the actions of any third party/sub-contractor they appoint to handle a claim on their behalf - I am in the middle of two audits and sub-contractors and liabilities are a topic under discussion. The clients are not happy at the extent to which they are liable.

Not a sub-contractor in any way shape or form, it is a totally different mechanism for dealing with the claim.

If you were to claim off your own insurance then your insurer may use a "TPA" to manage the claim for them. In that case it is a sub-contractor and absolutely the insurer remains fully responsible for the claim both financially and in relation to any complaint etc.

What Admiral are offering are to sell pass the details to a third party Accident Management Company who will deal with the mater on a credit basis and not under the terms of the OP's policy. As such Admiral are not on the hook in any way as its not being dealt with under the terms of the policy. 

Aretnap said:
Or Auxillis might even be a subsidiary of Admiral - can't be bothered to look that up - but either way there's a financial advantage to Admiral.

Auxillis used to be called Helphire and Albany ULR and are not part of the same group as Admiral

2bFrank said:

I have the hire car protection on my insurance that I pay for, so I'm very confused why they pushed me down the third-party route, but feel a little more at ease with my insurance handling the claim.

There are a few reasons:

1) They get paid to pass the details over

2) Insurers can only recover the allocated costs of a claim (eg the repair bill from the garage) but cannot recover the unallocated costs (eg the salary of the claims handler, the PC they use, the office they sit in) and so most insurers lose money when handling a non-fault claim in house

3) Their car hire option is limited to 28 days and 2L engine... there was a post on here the other day from someone saying there is a 5 month wait on parts for their car and so you'd be without a vehicle for 4 of those months under your policy. Plus they only promise the same size of vehicle rather than the same type... so if you are traveling salesman type with a BMW 330e M-Sport you're almost certainly going to say the Passat TDI isnt suitable replacement and will cost you sales

Ectophile

What you can do at the end of the process is sue the other party for the policy excess you had to pay out of your own pocket.  That's easier for you if you have motor legal cover.

Andyrast

Admiral appointed Auxillis 

I believed I’d made a claim through my insurance.

Admiral have admitted they never sent me the email explaining that I wasn’t using admiral and just closed my claim.

Auxillis have made a mess off my vehicle and don’t want to know can I take legal action against admiral. I honestly believed I was using admiral.

or is this just a waste off time the vehicle was 6 months old and worth 35k now I think it’s worth 15k