Car Accident Solicitor Nightmare

pcgtron

Hi all. 

Sorry for what will be quite a long post, but I'm loosing my mind over utter incompetance in regards to an accident claim, and was wondering if the hive mind can help in anyway. 

Back in August 2021, we (My Family) were involved in a car accident on a UK motorway. We were hit from behind whilst slowing to a stop, and the car behind went into the back of my car, which then hit the car infront. After the insurance companies talked to each other, and I had to show my dashcam footage, it was agreed by all parties that the car that went into the back of mine was at fault for the accident. This is not being disputed. 

My insurance company wrote off my car, and paid me the money agreed, minus the insurance excess, which they told me was due back to me via the other parties insurer. 
This was all sorted by the end of September 2021, and moving on from here is where the trouble started. 

We were passed onto Carpenters Solicitors by my insurance company (Quote me Happy - Underwritten by Aviva)
I had my wife in the car, as well as my 2 children at the time of the accident. I myself, suffered minor whiplash, my wife suffered more major whiplash, and 1 of my 2 children suffered minor injuries. None of these were life threatening, but did required 3 of us having to go to physio appointments. These were all agreed.

After 3 visits, I was discharged from the Physio. My youngest child had a doctors appointment, 1 more follow up and was then discharged, and my wife completed the 9 week treatment, and then was discharged. My wife suffered most in the accident. 

I also had to hire a car for approx 4 weeks after the car accident in order to get to work, whilst I waited for the money, and then the time it took to buy a new car. We also had 1 child seat in the car, which needed to be replaced, as it had been in a crash. 

Carpenters Solicitors have been appauling from the start. My compensation for minor whiplash was agreed over 1 year ago (Minimum rate), but the other parties insurance company are telling my Solicitors that the expenses and the car excess will not be covered, as this has already been paid out to a company called Validus. I have no idea who Validus are, what they are, or why any money has been paid to them, but my claim has not moved any further towards completion due to this problem with the insurance excess and expense reclaim. I have agreed the whiplash compensation. I'm going round in circles with Carpenters, who don't seem to be doing anything with this claim. My old insurance company are telling me it's Carpenters who need to reclaim this money from Validus, but they don't seem to know who Validus are, or why they've been paid this money. My old insurance company are telling me as far as they are concerned, this claim is settled, and they won't talk to me about it anymore. 

Carpenters are impossible to get hold of on the phone, and take about 2 weeks to respond to a simple email. They have pushed this no further forward since Feb 22, when the compensation was agreed, and keep sending me the same offer, every 6 months, without even the excess refunded, telling me to reject the offer as they are not paying the excess or expenses back to me. The other insurance company keep repeating that they have already paid this out to Validus, but nobody seems to know who Validus are. 
I asked for an update on my claim on the 22nd November 2022, and have heard nothing since. 
My youngest child has not heard anything back about his claim at all. The last contact with Carpenters about this was about a week ago, where they asked our permission to share a medical report of his with a doctor we have never heard of, for an appointment that he didn't attend, and a report we have never seen. 
My wife's compensation claim is ongoing, as at least there was an offer from the other insurers, which she rejected in November 2022, but has heard nothing since. It was my understanding that there is a time limit of 35 days to respond to a rejection, of which this has passed a long time ago, with no further updates. 

Is there an insurance ombudsman I can contact, or should contact to try and sort this out, as I have no idea where to turn, to try and get this all closed off. It's going to be 2 years since the accident in August this year, and as far as I can tell, nothing is moving forward, and progressing at all. 

Can anyone help?

DullGreyGuy

Validus is after my time in claims but they operate platforms called vERIFY and vALIDATE (got to love tech companies and their product names). This is a portal that allows subscribing insurers, accident management companies etc to deal with each other in a more efficient way.  It is possible that they offer an effective escrow service where the defendant pays it to them and then the claimant insurer draws it down.

Why wasnt the car seat covered by your insurance? Were there any other expenses other than the car seat and excess?

In the first instance I would be speaking to QuoteMeHappy claims departments and see if they use these tools and/or if they received reimbursement for your excess etc. Whilst we didnt have fancy tools to use in my day if we were told the TP insurer had paid out £5,000 net of a £500 excess we'd be sending them the full £5,500 rather than sitting back and waiting for someone else to attempt to recover the excess.

The Financial Ombudsman covers complaints about insurance but they only cover complaints from the policyholder about their own insurance... ie you saying your insurers didnt offer enough on the total loss or such. You cannot complain to the FOS about the third party insurer and a complaint about a firm of solicitors would go to the Legal Ombudsman or the SRA depending on the nature of the complaint

pcgtron

The expense claims are not being disputed, its just that everytime I ask about them, apparently they've already Bern paid to validus, but I have no idea who should be in charge of getting them from validus to myself, hence we keep going round in circles. 
Expenses were insurance's excess, hire car cost and child's car seat 

DullGreyGuy

pcgtron said:

The expense claims are not being disputed, its just that everytime I ask about them, apparently they've already Bern paid to validus, but I have no idea who should be in charge of getting them from validus to myself, hence we keep going round in circles. 
Expenses were insurance's excess, hire car cost and child's car seat 

Assuming it is the platforms I am aware of then it could be either Carpenters or Aviva depending which of the two are signed up to it... as a betting man Id say its more likely Aviva

pcgtron

DullGreyGuy said:

pcgtron said:

The expense claims are not being disputed, its just that everytime I ask about them, apparently they've already Bern paid to validus, but I have no idea who should be in charge of getting them from validus to myself, hence we keep going round in circles. 
Expenses were insurance's excess, hire car cost and child's car seat 

Assuming it is the platforms I am aware of then it could be either Carpenters or Aviva depending which of the two are signed up to it... as a betting man Id say its more likely Aviva

Which is all well and good, but I've been going round in circles with Carpenters about it, and I can't speak to Aviva as Quote me Happy won't discuss anything with me, because as far as they are concerned, my case is closed, and I am no longer a customer. Thank you for the info on what Validus is though, this might be useful when I next manage to speak to Carpenters, or I might even try Quote me Happy again. 

DullGreyGuy

pcgtron said:

DullGreyGuy said:

pcgtron said:

The expense claims are not being disputed, its just that everytime I ask about them, apparently they've already Bern paid to validus, but I have no idea who should be in charge of getting them from validus to myself, hence we keep going round in circles. 
Expenses were insurance's excess, hire car cost and child's car seat 

Assuming it is the platforms I am aware of then it could be either Carpenters or Aviva depending which of the two are signed up to it... as a betting man Id say its more likely Aviva

Which is all well and good, but I've been going round in circles with Carpenters about it, and I can't speak to Aviva as Quote me Happy won't discuss anything with me, because as far as they are concerned, my case is closed, and I am no longer a customer. Thank you for the info on what Validus is though, this might be useful when I next manage to speak to Carpenters, or I might even try Quote me Happy again. 

Whilst you may of switched insurer they are still your insurers in relation to this issue and if Carpenters were instructed under their LE cover then its not a full finish until Carpenters file is also closed. 

If you look through your paperwork you may find some letters from their Recoveries team or something similar named 2nd line. Ideally that may contain contact details for that more technical team than the first line/call centre type team that field most the calls. Some insurers do shield these teams from incoming calls though (and some of these teams are very certain they are professional claims handlers not call centre agents so equally dont like calls)