Admiral, Auxillis and uninsured expenses

MildMellow

Car parked, legally, was hit by another driver. Left a dent. Car still drivable. The other driver, very honestly, left a note.

Reported to Admiral. Admiral online form offers Auxillis without explaining what it is and not allowing any change of entry. So Auxillis rejected.

Admiral phone, pushing Auxillis again. Say that it's a way to avoid claiming on the policy. Auxillis claim to be a credit broker, so I talk to Auxillis.

Repairer assesses car. Auxillis consider car to be a total loss. Write saying that insurance is no longer valid. I do not believe Auxillis have the authority to do this. Admiral keep me on hold for an hour before I give up.

Valuer offers a price for the car. Which might be valid if there were any for sale, but there aren't. Rarity and urgency in any market puts the price up which isn't included in the offer. Auxillis still trying to get me to take a hire car I don't need.

At this point I don't believe that anyone has contact the third-party insurer.

So my problem is that I'm likely to be withour a car soon. And possible without an insured car even sooner. And that's going to make getting to work difficult. If Admiral continue to insure the car until a replacement is found then considerable cost can be avoided. But Admiral don't seen to want to do that.

I'm trying to minise costs, but there are inevitably going to be some soon. Not least a new insurance policy, because Admiral will cancel the current one and keep the unused 10 months (that can't be right).

I don't know who is representing me to the third-party insurer. I'm concerned that they will make an offer I don't accept, and that Auxillis will bump up the cost with a load of unnecessary extras (that they presumably take commission on) but not actually claim for anything needed (like travel costs to buy the new car).

Admiral quietly dropped legal insurance cover (which used to be included) a year ago.

Help!

Questions I think I have please:

Can I negotiate with the third-party insurer myself, or will this upset Admiral?

Can I add additional claims once Auxillis have negotiated a value for the car?

Grateful for any other tips please.

Nobbie1967

Yes, you can negotiate directly with the third party insurer as long as you haven’t entered a contract with Auxillis. You should be able to negotiate a cash settlement in lieu of repair and sort the repairs out yourself. If it’s just a dent, can’t see it costing much to repair. What car is it? Presumably fairly old? What have they valued it at?

daveyjp

Get your own quote and provide cost details to the third party insurance.

If its sensible they generally agree to pay.

MildMellow

If it’s just a dent, can’t see it costing much to repair. 

Just shy of £5,000 to repair. For just a dent. No structural damage, door only, no other panels. I get that the window winder mechanism is likely bent, but I don't understand why it's so expensive.

daveyjp

Its a typical no fault claim rip off.  We were once quoted £2,500 for a repair which my bodyshop did for £250, again no fault on our part.

It will be along the lines of £2,000 repair (actual cost will be £1,000), £1500 hire car, £1500 Auxillis fee.

DullGreyGuy

MildMellow said:

Questions I think I have please:

1) Can I negotiate with the third-party insurer myself, or will this upset Admiral?

2) Can I add additional claims once Auxillis have negotiated a value for the car?

1) Yes you can, or more accurately in most cases the third party insurer will be happy to deal with you directly assuming their insured has advised them of the incident and liability/indemnity isnt in question. How negotiable they will be is a separate question... remember you have no Financial Ombudsman rights with claims against third party insurers and so if you cannot agree values your only option is court 


2) Yes you can add other heads of claim to the Auxillis claim however that wont be in connection with the value of the vehicle... your otherwise the person arguing with their own lawyer which rarely goes well

Nobbie1967

MildMellow said:

If it’s just a dent, can’t see it costing much to repair. 

Just shy of £5,000 to repair. For just a dent. No structural damage, door only, no other panels. I get that the window winder mechanism is likely bent, but I don't understand why it's so expensive.

If it’s just the door, the most cost effective solution is to accept a cash settlement from the 3rd party insurer to write the car off whilst retaining the car and buy a 2nd hand door of EBay in the right colour and get someone to switch them over. I did it with my dad’s Fabia that he had pranged. Cost me £50 for the door and the paint match was perfect. That was a steel grey door, so other colours may be more difficult to get a good match on due to fading etc.

MildMellow

DullGreyGuy said:

2) Yes you can add other heads of claim to the Auxillis claim however that wont be in connection with the value of the vehicle... your otherwise the person arguing with their own lawyer which rarely goes well

Thanks for this. Do you have any idea of how this works with Auxillis in particular please? I'm not confident that Auxillis are my lawyer - they don't seem to be acting in my interest in anything, they haven't asked me what I want to do and every time I try to talk to a person on the phone that person claims to be unable to help. I get the impression that I'm dealing with a bunch of minimum wage call centre operators following a script.

For example nobody's offered me the option to retain the car that Nobbie mentions.

DullGreyGuy

They wont be lawyers, though they will have some in the claims departments. Most claims handlers in insurers and other places are just highly trained call centre agents. They normally start at the bottom taking the initial notification of claims and work their way up to dealing with more complex things. There are some lines of commercial insurance where most claims handlers are qualified solicitors/barristers but the average premium for those tend to have at least three more zeros at the end. 

Most accident management companies will do uninsured loss recover too but its totally unpaid work for them and so the level of effort they put into it probably accurately reflects that. If you have injuries then thats a different matter. 

Depending on what your heads of claim are and the values involved it could be a single letter from Auxillis with an extra paragraph at the bottom gets your monies returned or it could be a long battle if you are trying to claim loss of earnings or worse, loss of earnings for your business or dividends.