Delay in receiving car total loss settlement payment

mozza73

Hi. My car was written off by a speeding driver 15 weeks ago.  They admitted liability and this was confirmed by their insurance company.  I am still waiting for the settlement payment from the Third Party Insurer due to ongoing delay excuses between the engineering company from my insurance and the third party insurance.  Has anybody else experienced this and,  if so, how did manage to resolve the matter. Thanks 

DullGreyGuy

mozza73 said:
I am still waiting for the settlement payment from the Third Party Insurer due to ongoing delay excuses between the engineering company from my insurance and the third party insurance.  Has anybody else experienced this and,  if so, how did manage to resolve the matter. Thanks 

This doesn't make sense

Either:

1. You claim off your insurance, your insurance company engineer (internal or third party) values your vehicle, your insurer pays you the money, your insurance company recovers their costs from the third party insurer
   .
2. You claim off the third party insurer, they appoint an engineer (internal or third party) who values your vehicle. the TPI pays you the money
   .
3. You go to an accident management company, they appoint an engineer, put you in an expensive hire car on credit, they send the engineer report to the third party insurer who then appoint their own engineer to value the vehicle. The accident management company sits back happy because the longer it takes the more your credit bill runs up and the more profit they are likely to make.

 Your insurer wouldnt appoint their own engineer and then pass it to the third party insurer to settle. 

mozza73

Thank you for your reply.  You are right,  I didn't make my question very clear.
I made my claim through my insurance company.  They sub contract the engineering work out to a company who examined and valued my car. The engineering company referred the valuation to the TPI who referred it to the engineering company they use. 
The problem has been that the engineering company working for my insurance company say they have sent the engineers report to the email address provided by the TPI but the engineering company working for the TPI kept saying they had not received it. 
Now, some 14 weeks after the accident, they finally have the engineers report and photos of the damage to my car.
I would like to know if anyone has experienced such problems, and if so, how they managed to resolve it. 
I may add that my insurance company have not provided me with the level of service I would have expected as my claims manager left the company shortly after I made my claim and my case was not referred to another person and they also closed my claim as settled early July as the TPI  admitted liability.  I have submitted a formal complaint 7 weeks ago which still has not been resolved.  Needless to say,  I will be taking this matter up with the insurance ombudsman. 

DullGreyGuy

Are you in a hire car or still using your own vehicle?

Many insurers and claims management companies outsource engineering but the report always goes to the company that commissioned the report. If its your insurer they then settle, if its an accident management company they forward it to the third party insurer and hope they take a long time to settle whilst you are in their credit hire car.

mozza73

Hi. Thanks for your reply.
I am still in a hire car.
I made my claim through my insurance company. It was only when I asked for an update was I told that the assessment of my car was being done my another company.  
My insurance company told me that there was nothing they could do and for me to chase up with their engineering company and I would only receive payment once they received it from the TPI engineering company. 

DullGreyGuy

mozza73 said:

Hi. Thanks for your reply.
I am still in a hire car.
I made my claim through my insurance company. It was only when I asked for an update was I told that the assessment of my car was being done my another company.  
My insurance company told me that there was nothing they could do and for me to chase up with their engineering company and I would only receive payment once they received it from the TPI engineering company. 

I'd bet money on the fact you are dealing with an accident management company and the hire car is on credit. Admiral are well known for passing all their non-fault customers to Auxilis for example plus there are companies that put adverts on Google for "Direct Line Claims" or such so if someone googles and calls the number on the first link they aren't speaking to Direct Line Insurance but the Direct Claims Line (or some other random company) who step a thin line between lying as to who they are and wanting you to think your on to your insurers.

Assuming you are in credit hire that also explains why they aren't chasing, its running up £200 a day (depending what car it is etc) so they have no incentive to get it resolved quickly. 

mozza73

Hi. I am with M & S car insurance and it appears it has been passed to a company called IMS.
From communications I have received,  it appears that IMS, Sedgwick Motors ( TPI engineering company) are part of Enterprise who are the company I have the hire car from. Some thing does not seem right.  Hopefully the Ombudsman can unravel everything. 

DullGreyGuy

So M&S Car Insurance is a white label of Budget Insurance Brokers. 

IMS are not a company I know too well but I understand they do both TPA services (processing claims on behalf of and as your insurer) and accident management. The fact the report went to the TPI before you received settlement sounds strongly like an accident management arrangement. 

M&S do offer a "guaranteed replacement car" which is a hire car under the terms of your policy but its a maximum of 28 days and so as you say its been way longer than this its going to be credit hire. Naturally reading the docs you signed for the car will confirm.


Depending on what your complaint is the Ombudsman's hands may be tied. You have no right to complain about an insurer you are not a customer of (or attempting to become a customer of). So if your complaint is how long the TPI has taken to settle the complaint will ultimately be rejected as out of scope. 


I assume you have Comprehensive insurance (rather than TPFT or TPO)?

mozza73

Hi. Yes I have comprehensive insurance.
My complaint is to my insurance company for the way they have handled my claim (or not as in this case), for closing my claim as settled when it is not and for not having my claim referred to another claims manager when the allocated claims manager left the company.  It is also for the very poor service I have received when asking for call backs from managers and senior managers and not receiving them and the amount of time I have spent chasing this up when the insurance company should be responsible for that once the claim has been made and all required information has been provided to them. . I can't blame the TPI when my insurance company haven't managed my claim at all. 

DullGreyGuy

That's because they sold passed you to an accident management company. The insurer (not broker) file stays open for a couple of months to make sure there is no claim attempted against you and assuming their isnt the file is closed and left in the hands of the accident management company.

You can insist that your insurers (not broker) deal with the total loss claim, given you have comp cover, they'll give you a host of reasons why its best not to but you are in your rights to get them to. The one problem that can create is with the credit hire, why wait so long and run up such a big bill if your own insurers could have dealt with it much quicker.