Car insurance repair Fiasco

lmr1342

Good afternoon all

Posting here for advice / to see if anyone else have had the same issue 

My car was hit by a 3rd party in march 2023 , driver admitted full liability and before I even had chance to notify my Insurance I was contacted by there Insurance 3rd party team admitting full liability and asking me to let them fix my car.... before the end of the day I had a like for like hire car on my drive awaiting there garage to collect mine.....so good so far..... car was collected a week later and this is where it gets interesting....couple of weeks go by I find out car repair work has been approved and are awaiting parts , I'm still in a hire car so all is good .... ( now I know there is a massive delay in car parts , I understand that) , fast forward to June , notified my car is fixed and finished  ! But due to time it's taken I had to SORN my car as MOT at lapsed and I couldn't tax without it so SORN was the way to go ! 

Garage that repaired the car stated this happens sometimes and they can arrange my car to be sent to a local garage they use to get MOT'd at my expense ( I had little options with this given it was SORN and did not have the luxury of shopping around. 

Car was sent to the garage to find out it failed on the front brake pads ....given the last service the year before it had over 5mm on the front pads and had only driven 5k miles since I was surprised at this but given I had not seen my car in months I had little choice ...£350 lighter I was advised by the MOT center if I was aware my parking sensors where not working , I was surprised by this given that was one of the aspects that was repaired , I Informed the repair place who arranged the car to go back to them to be fixed , I then found out they had not installed all the parts and the car had to be sent to an external place which surprise was the MOT garage ...


Anyway fast forward to the end of July I was informed my car was now ready and was dropped off to me , the first thing the driver that dropped my car off to me said was where really sorry we have miss placed a plastic cap of your bumper it's on order and we will drop it off to you when it arrives,  I let That slide and that was that , when he left I had a proper look at my car to discover the Exhaust looked odd, I further looked into it to discover the rubber mounting brackets had cable ties round them and further looking the wrong bumper had been fitted to the car.

The paint work also was not the best and you could see masking tape resdue in the body panel gaps 
 I Immediately called the driver ( 15 mins after he left ) to Inform them .

He stated he will let his boss know,  they then phoned me back shocked by this and stated they will look into it ,

I was made aware that they admitted they messed up and stated they have ordered the correct parts and will be in touch once they arrive,  my car just sat on my drive whilst I was still in a hire car ( I of course made the insurance aware ) 

Now fast forward to September,  I was notified that the new parts had arrived and there ready to fix my car again ..... off it went with a 5 day estimate,  I found out a couple of days ago that the new parts that have arrived are also the WRONG parts so now im still stuck with no end date in sight with a car that's overdue a service my 4 months and counting.

To add insult to injury the like for like hire car is now being returned as the insurance don't cover a hire car for Rectification work and it's down to the garage who have provided a fiat 500 ( my car is a 4x4) with no end date .


I have raised a complaint with the insurance company but I just feel at a loss of what to do !


Sorry for the rant I'm just so fed up !

lmr1342

Last thing I forgot to add , is there anything more I can do ?? I feel like no one is really taking Accountability and when my car dose return at some point I'm then going to have to fork out how much for a service 

MeteredOut

You first need to get clear in your head what you want the outcome to be.

lmr1342

MeteredOut said:

You first need to get clear in your head what you want the outcome to be.

To be honest I'm not after loads do you think asking them to pay for a service is unjustified?

MeteredOut

lmr1342 said:

MeteredOut said:

You first need to get clear in your head what you want the outcome to be.

To be honest I'm not after loads do you think asking them to pay for a service is unjustified?

So is compensation you're after, even if that is a service (that wasn't clear in your first post)? Given how you've been mucked about, its certainly worth asking, but I'd say you need to get clear what you want (aim high) and what you're willing to accept.

 Are you happy that your car will be returned in a good state or are you concerned about that? You've had a courtesy car all this time - have you been happy with that or do you regard it as a downgrade compared to the car you own? Do you want to go down "the loss of enjoyment of driving and/or the vehicle has depreciated in value whilst you've not been able to use it" route?

You might also want to post (or get this post moved) to the Consumer Rights board, where you might get some more views.

lmr1342

MeteredOut said:

lmr1342 said:

MeteredOut said:

You first need to get clear in your head what you want the outcome to be.

To be honest I'm not after loads do you think asking them to pay for a service is unjustified?

So is compensation you're after, even if that is a service (that wasn't clear in your first post)? Given how you've been mucked about, its certainly worth asking, but I'd say you need to get clear what you want (aim high) and what you're willing to accept.

 Are you happy that your car will be returned in a good state or are you concerned about that? You've had a courtesy car all this time - have you been happy with that or do you regard it as a downgrade compared to the car you own? Do you want to go down "the loss of enjoyment of driving and/or the vehicle has depreciated in value whilst you've not been able to use it" route?

You might also want to post (or get this post moved) to the Consumer Rights board, where you might get some more views.

Thanks for your comment back , I'm going to be honest it's the first time being in this situation 

I will flag this post to the admin team to see if they want to move it.

I was happy with the curtesy car until now,  I am worried what state it will return in given the mess I've already had.

I just feel gutted I've been without my car for so long which yes I have had a curtesy car but its just not the same .

I think my ultimate aim is for them to pay for a service 

DullGreyGuy

lmr1342 said:

Last thing I forgot to add , is there anything more I can do ?? I feel like no one is really taking Accountability and when my car dose return at some point I'm then going to have to fork out how much for a service 

The amount for the service will be the same as if the car had never been in an accident

The one issue with claiming from a third party insurer is you have no rights to escalate the matter to the Financial Ombudsman. 

Presumably the garage is one recommended by the third party insurer or was it one of your own choosing?

lmr1342

DullGreyGuy said:

lmr1342 said:

Last thing I forgot to add , is there anything more I can do ?? I feel like no one is really taking Accountability and when my car dose return at some point I'm then going to have to fork out how much for a service 

The amount for the service will be the same as if the car had never been in an accident

The one issue with claiming from a third party insurer is you have no rights to escalate the matter to the Financial Ombudsman. 

Presumably the garage is one recommended by the third party insurer or was it one of your own choosing?

That's annoying I had no idea I couldn't use the financial ombudsman??


And yes it's the one they sorted out

[Deleted User]

You can potentially claim from the repairer for a better hire vehicle if you can reasonably justify needing it. Obviously a Fiat 500 is no good if you have a family with young kids, but if it's just that you like to be high up and take up the whole lane on your way to the supermarket then you probably can't do much about it.

If the repairer can't sort it out to your satisfaction, one option is to go to your own insurer instead. You can still open a claim with them and get them to fix it for you. Threatening to do so may help get the TP insurer to act. It's pretty unreasonable to expect you to accept fixing their dodgy repair in a way that disadvantages you but saves them money. However, do read the fine print of any contracts you signed e.g. for hire vehicles, to check what happens if they fail to repair the car and you decide to make a claim on your own insurance.

lmr1342

[Deleted User] said:

You can potentially claim from the repairer for a better hire vehicle if you can reasonably justify needing it. Obviously a Fiat 500 is no good if you have a family with young kids, but if it's just that you like to be high up and take up the whole lane on your way to the supermarket then you probably can't do much about it.

If the repairer can't sort it out to your satisfaction, one option is to go to your own insurer instead. You can still open a claim with them and get them to fix it for you. Threatening to do so may help get the TP insurer to act. It's pretty unreasonable to expect you to accept fixing their dodgy repair in a way that disadvantages you but saves them money. However, do read the fine print of any contracts you signed e.g. for hire vehicles, to check what happens if they fail to repair the car and you decide to make a claim on your own insurance.

Thanks for this ! 

Yes I have a young family not a pride thing ! But understand completely 

I will speak to my own insurance and in regards to signing anything I haven't it was a verbal yes via a telephone and a very basic letter saying thanks for allowing us to do the work, there is one point in the letter guarantee like for like hire car but unsure if that covers rectification work? 

Also it dose not really say what the process is if I'm unhappy with the repair ect

[Deleted User]

In that case the threat of going to your own insurance is probably the best bargaining chip you have.