No fault accident nightmare

dbruvoir

Hi there, I'm wondering if anybody has some sage like advice.

My wife’s car was hit by another driver in mid-January. The other driver admitted liability at the scene to my wife and to the police who attended. He couldn’t have been more apologetic, and his liability has never been retracted or disputed.

After the ambulance team allowed her to leave and go home, she immediately contacted her insurance company, Bank of Scotland. She had to relive the entire event I think five times talking to BOS, TradeX, and the claim handling company, Vision. She did all this extremely traumatised and with limited understanding of what was happening. She also received a call from the third-party insurer, Admiral, trying to convince her that she should forget everybody else and just go with them.

I know I shouldn't be, but I really am surprised at how much this insurance industry is just a resting ground for sly practises, and dishonest behaviour.

First, Vision.  My wife didn't realise they were a credit hire company. She was told they were the people who would sort out a replacement car for her, and they were. Some days later a rocket ship was delivered to our drive. Apparently, this was inappropriate vehicle replacement for hers. What has become clear is that Vision were only really interested in providing the replacement car, not actually helping.

Weeks after the accident, Admiral decided to write the car off (anybody who saw the accident scene could tell you that from day zero, including the guy who collected it!) After more time, Admiral made an offer for the vehicle. However, given my wife liked her car and intended to replace it, the cheapest equivalent (yes, it was nearly an exact match) was £3k more than Admiral’s offer.  From this point it all just turns into an ungodly mess.

Vision asked her to provide some evidence which she did. Admiral refused to adjust their offer, offering no conflicting evidence other than to state that the valuation was made by an “independent engineer”.  Independent, yeah right! Independent only from reality. Certainly not independent from Admiral’s financial interests.

Vision told my wife to make a complaint direct to Admiral, and “helpfully” provided a link to Admiral’s website.  However, this facility is only available to Admiral customers, not the people they attempt to rip off.

Vision stated that according to their agreement with insurers (what the heck?), they needed to pick up the replacement vehicle. That was weeks ago, and nothing has happened since. Nothing.

When Vision showed their true colours, my wife contacted BOS as they were her insurance company after all. Turns out they weren’t. BOS just took money and we needed to talk to Tradex.  Tradex were very understanding on the phone but we’ve had nothing from them in weeks either. We have been told we can’t even make a complaint to either as the matter isn’t settled - seriously?

So, we are nowhere.  My wife’s work is in disarray as her ability to commute from our village is totally reliant on taxi’s or me, she is still not physically right from the accident, none of the company’s that are supposed to be on her side appear to be on her side, she is completely stressed out not knowing what to do or who to turn to, and Admiral are just ignoring it all expecting we’ll eventually accept the money and fade away.

Pathetically, the most frustrating thing for me is a quote I found on Admiral’s own car insurance guide (of course, only for their customers):

 “What we will pay

 We will decide how to settle your claim and will either pay:

•    to repair your vehicle

•    a cash sum to replace the damaged vehicle.”

 If only, they treated their innocent victims with anything approaching the same level of support.

 

Does anyone have some advice for us?

Ectophile

There is no process for making a complaint to someone else's insurance company.

If you don't like their offer, you have to sue them for your loss.  It's easier to do that if you took out motor legal protection with your insurance.  Otherwise, you need to find your own lawyer.

If you had put in the claim with your own insurance company, then you would have had a complaints process if the offer was too low.

Keep receipts from taxis and the like, and tell Admiral that you will be adding those costs to your claim against them.

We have been told we can’t even make a complaint to either as the matter isn’t settled - seriously?

Ignore whoever is telling you that.

DullGreyGuy

dbruvoir said:
Vision asked her to provide some evidence which she did. Admiral refused to adjust their offer, offering no conflicting evidence other than to state that the valuation was made by an “independent engineer”.  Independent, yeah right! Independent only from reality. Certainly not independent from Admiral’s financial interests.

In normal circumstances it is Vision that would have arranged and paid for the Independent Engineer to value the vehicle. They send the report to Admiral who's own engineers review and decide either to pay it or suggest a lower value. 

Are Vision not dealing with the total loss? I mean it doesn't go any further than commissioning the report and sending it. Clearly their interests are in you being in hire as long as possible. 

You have no right of complaint to a company you are not a customer of and no right to take matters to the ombudsman. It's the one downside of not using your insurers. Your escalation route is court and to do so you need to include the hire car costs in your case. 

When credit hire first came about it was a nightmare, companies suing each other, arguing over the legitimacy of the concept, what was a fair price given the risk the hire car company takes etc. To try and calm maters the Association of British Insurers created the ABI GTA on credit hire which in principle codified how the CHC had to act, what happens in various scenarios etc and in exchange the insurers that signed up would pay the bills without challenging the rates. Its all fairly open, you can read about it and see the rates (exc vat) at https://www.gtacredithire.com/rates/car-hire/ 

Vision and Admiral are party to the agreement, there are other firms that aren't and some of their rates can be 5x as much as the GTA rates. 

dbruvoir said:
 BOS just took money and we needed to talk to Tradex.  Tradex were very understanding on the phone but we’ve had nothing from them in weeks either. We have been told we can’t even make a complaint to either as the matter isn’t settled - seriously?

BOS doesn't take the money, BOS isn't involved in Insurance as they are a bank. As you will see from https://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/assets/pdf/insurance/pdf/bos-comprehensive.pdf BOS car insurance is just a whitelabel of BISL or Budget Insurance Services Ltd for their full name, a well known consumer broker. Budget in your case placed the business with Tradex who are the actual insurer of the policy. 

Its not uncommon for brokers to sell pass non-fault accident cases to credit hire companies, even some insurers do, its really the only way to make the tiny margins viable. 

Insurance is full of white label deals with big brands wanting to monitorize their name by licensing it to a broker or insurer and a lot less risky/expensive than setting up an insurance firm. At one point even football clubs were trying it.

dbruvoir said:

Does anyone have some advice for us?

It would be mildly interesting to know if Admiral or Vision commissioned the engineer report, obviously if it is Vision then you are arguing against your own report which really does look a bit silly though normally a CHC would tell you the reports valuation before sharing it with the other insurer. 

The courts have generally decided you're entitled to keep alternative transport arrangements for 7 days after the initial payment for a total loss. If there is a dispute on valuation you continue that after. You need to continue to follow Vision's instructions as failing to do so makes you become fully liable for their costs. 

Were you to switch to claiming off Timex there is a material risk they won't be able to recover their outlay from Admiral in full and as such it could count as a fault claim against you as there will be duplicated costs and Admiral have already decided its value so would push back against a higher settlement