Insurance returned car in undrivable state and refuses to help further

Stevie_Joe

Apologies if this isn't the right place to post, I'm new to the site and desperate for some advice.

In summary:

My SO had her parked car hit by another driver over 5 months ago. There had been minimal communication from the garage and insurance despite her having to chase up on where her car was being held (it was left unaccounted for many weeks). She has now received her car back from the insurance came but with new damage that was not present at the time of the accident as well as the car having many new mechanical issues. Her insurance has said she has to pay out of pocket for an investigation to prove these were caused by the different garages in the 5 months, otherwise they are done with her claim. We need help trying to figure out how we can escalate this further with potential compensation.

In detail:

Hello I am making this post on behalf of my SO, she is currently looking for advice on the situation, and hopefully somebody can point us in the right direction! I’ll try to keep this post concise whilst providing as much information as possible.

Around 7am on December 5th 2023, her parked car was hit by another driver. The impact was quite large, causing it to move a whole car length forward and for half the car to mount the curb onto the pavement. Many of us thought the car would be written off, the suspension was damaged, the right tyre was flat and the frame was visibly misaligned. After contacting her insurance etc, RAC arrived at her house and towed the vehicle away around 11am the same day.

Since the time of the accident, there has been minimal to no contact from any of the involved parties. Enterprise will occasionally call my partner when the deadline to return the courtesy car began to approach, but beyond that there had been no update from neither Hastings nor the garage her car was at. Every time she chased the insurance up for an update she would be told “next week everything will be completed” and this continued for about a month. She also found out a month later that her car had been moved to a different garage without her knowledge. The first time a garage had even attempted to make contact with her so she could get a real update on her car was on the 6th March 2024. Since then she would be met with excuses such as “we were waiting for parts”, “we need to touch up the paint job” etc. 

She was updated on the 27th March 2024, that the car “looks amazing” and is in “perfect condition” and would likely be ready the following week. On Tuesday 2nd April 2024, the new garage called her in the morning to inform her the work is completed and the car can be delivered that same day. She had to decline as it was short notice and nobody would be home, she asked if the delivery can be made the following day and the estimator for the garage told her he will update her later that day. She didn’t receive an update and she tried to make contact numerous times the following morning, with no response. It was only at 1pm she received a call from the garage informing her that they took her car for a test drive and noticed many lights on the dashboard, including an engine warning light. Looking into it they decided it was likely due to an issue with the turbo. This was not a pre-existing issue as she had her MOT and Service done just over a month before the accident and her car was said to be in “perfect condition”.

Although “on the system” the repairs have all been marked completed. On April 4th they delivered her car anything, with more issues than it went away with. The EPC light is on, the engine light is still on, there was issues with the battery, there is numerous cosmetic damage to the paint/sensors that were not present at the time of RAC towing the vehicle away in December and the start/stop feature no longer works. The car is not drivable and they tried to make her sign papers to say she’s happy with the repairs (which she didn’t sign by the way). Enterprise is attempting to charge her an extra day for her courtesy car as their system says the work had been completed but the issues they have noted on their system is completely different to the reports from the garage.

For past week my partner has been chasing up the garage and Hastings insurance for a timeline of where her car was. This timeline show her car was sent to multiple locations, without any form on communication with her, as well as constant discrepancies in the records to show what work was carried out. Over the phone the garage said they did work to the front of the car, but then back-tracked and said they didn’t touch the front of the vehicle. However paperwork shows they changed one of the front tyres. The insurance are trying to tell my partner all the current issues were pre-existing and essentially it’s her problem to deal with. If she wants any further assistance she’s been told by them to pay out of her own pocket for a VW dealer report to prove the current issues were a result of the accident.

It is frustrating because the driver who hit her had his car written off and got a new one through his insurance within a few weeks. My partner however, has been fobbed off for 5 months and now has a car that she can’t drive and is being told “deal with it”.

We are hoping anyone here has some experience in the matter, perhaps there is a no-win no-fee lawyer that is known for these kind of cases? Whilst she has to wait 2 weeks for the dealer report she now has to take public transport/taxis to and from work or even cancel shifts as she finishes late and her commute home is over an hour.

Any help or advice on how to proceed forward would be much appreciated!

born_again

Who was the claim dealt by?
Her ins or the other parties.

DullGreyGuy

Given you say there was frame damage it would have needed to go to a bodyshop with the appropriate jig to straighten it, certainly in my claims days not all garages had these. Sometimes a car would be moved to be straightened and then returned to the original garage for the other works at other times the new garage would simply do the whole job.  

When the customer rather than the insurer chose the garage it could involve a third step as some insisted on going to BMW or such who didnt actually have a bodyshop so as soon as they got the car they moved it to the bodyshop they subcontracted to who then moved it on again to the one with a jig but the customer was happy as BMW were doing the repairs. 


Presumably she is claiming from her own insurance and not the third party's?
Similarly the initial garage was one of their choosing not hers?

Ultimately if it's her insurer and their garage then put the complaint into the insurer and escalate to the Ombudsman if you are unhappy with the outcome. 

ThorOdinson

Do you have legal cover on your insurance?