Insurance claim third party capture

weasel198

Hi,
I would appreciate anyone's help as to who I can complain to regarding the handling of a car insurance claim that is, so far, being dealt with under third party capture. The handling of the claim has been utterly awful, I have tried complaining to the insurance company but they have shirked the fault to another company in the chain, who I have  also tried complaining to but get no response from, even when I state it as a formal complaint.
The ombudsman have said they can't help as I do not have a contract with the at fault party's insurers - surely it cant be right that they escape any sort of regulation by going down this route?
I am aware of the ABI guidance, but where is the accountability when this is not followed?
Suggestions much appreciated.

facade

They are correct, you have no contract with the insurer, they don't work for you.

Your course of action is to take legal action against the negligent driver to recover your losses. Their insurance company should indemnify them.

A no win no fee (but if we win a big fee) parasite may help.

Or you can claim on your own insurance, and then pursue the other driver for your uninsured losses.

Aretnap

The third party's insurer don't work for you, they work for the other driver. So you have few rights in this situation. You're not their customer so you have no right to good "customer service", and they don't have to let you use the complaints procedure which is open to their customers. As you note, the Ombudsman will also not intervene. The only legal duty they have to you is to pay whatever you are eventually awarded by a court should you take them and/or the other driver to court over the accident.

Anecdotally you usually can expect a third party insurer to be helpful because it's much cheaper for them to arrange your repairs themselves than it is if you go through an accident management company who inflate the costs and encourage you to use a very expensive credit hire car on top. But if they're not helpful then your options are basically

(1) Put your claim though your own policy instead; you do have a right to good customer service that way and can use the Ombudsman if you're not happy with how your own insurer is handling things
(2) Engage an accident management company or 
(3) Issue court proceedings against the other driver (not a quick process, and puts you at risk of having to pay costs if the amount involved is greater than £10K).

Grey_Critic

The penalty of DIY - as others have said use your own insurance company that is what you pay a hefty sum of money to every year.

You may lose your NCD in the short term but you can sue for uninsured losses and if you have legal cover that will cost you nothing.

DullGreyGuy

weasel198 said:

Hi,
I would appreciate anyone's help as to who I can complain to regarding the handling of a car insurance claim that is, so far, being dealt with under third party capture. The handling of the claim has been utterly awful, I have tried complaining to the insurance company but they have shirked the fault to another company in the chain, who I have  also tried complaining to but get no response from, even when I state it as a formal complaint.
The ombudsman have said they can't help as I do not have a contract with the at fault party's insurers - surely it cant be right that they escape any sort of regulation by going down this route?
I am aware of the ABI guidance, but where is the accountability when this is not followed?
Suggestions much appreciated.

You are in pre-litigation against their customer. Their job is to support their customer not you. Your resolution is to go to court not the ombudsman.

What is the actual issue?

born_again

weasel198 said:

Hi,
I would appreciate anyone's help as to who I can complain to regarding the handling of a car insurance claim that is, so far, being dealt with under third party capture. The handling of the claim has been utterly awful, I have tried complaining to the insurance company but they have shirked the fault to another company in the chain, who I have  also tried complaining to but get no response from, even when I state it as a formal complaint.
The ombudsman have said they can't help as I do not have a contract with the at fault party's insurers - surely it cant be right that they escape any sort of regulation by going down this route?
I am aware of the ABI guidance, but where is the accountability when this is not followed?
Suggestions much appreciated.

Did the 3rd party admit fault? Which is shy you have gone direct to them.
Just remember you will still have to declare a accident/claim on future renewals. Despite not going via your insurer.

Why not use your insurance to claim.

weasel198

Thank you everyone for your replies so far.
To answer (I hope) all of your questions, the other party admitted fault straight away. 
We had a big family holiday coming up a few weeks after the accident and my own insurers said that I couldn't use the hire car to drive to the airport (3.5 hrs away), and offered no further help as to how we could resolve this other than be paid an amount each day that would not cover making my own hire. I have motor legal cover.
I stipulated about the holiday from the outset and the other party's insurers said it was not a problem to take the car to the airport. This was then followed by error after error in their part, said I couldnt have a car, couldn't park the car at the airport, left us stranded at the airport on our return as they failed to arrange a new hire. There really is a long list of mess ups and they have followed very few of the guidelines detailed by the ABI.
Also terrible at communicating what's happening, we're now over 4 months since the accident and I just want my car back, but haven't heard from them in months.
I understand they work for the other party, but I also stupidly thought there might have been an element of just getting the job done.

rigolith

Keep track of all your expenses and send them to the insurers regularly. Make sure they know that their costs are mounting up.