Motor Insurance and accident

Brent75

2 years ago, my first accident occurred driving at 12mph around a corner on the correct side of road (left)
My query is is this a matter for the motor ombudsman as my insurer eventually assigned fault to me as the driver. 

Yet I had purchased legal cover and the various add ons. The legal cover department admitted my statement was detailed and balance of probability of more than 51percent my fault and then did not reply. 

Eventually after exhausting complaints process insurer did pay my old car valuation but in the interim recovered it from garage dumping my interior belongings. Also I had obtained a witness telephone number and insurer started asking me to chase the witness. Thirdly the car that wrote mine off was unable to exchange insurance details at the scene (when I later found out drivers husband was a barrister). 

However with 25 years no claims at all, and a disputable fault liability as well as insurer badly handling the process. 

Should this be referred to motor ombudsman. At best accident was a no fault or split liability. However overall excess incurred to me was around £3k due to changes in car valuations. Obviously it was a stressful experience but I thought that if I drive correctly on the correct side of road that liability should be assigned to other driver. 

Car_54

With respect, we only have one side of the story. The other driver's was no doubt different.

Even if fault is apportioned almost entirely in your favour, it is still classed as an "at-fault" claim, and has to be declared as such.

As for the Ombudsman, I can't see that you have anything to lose by referring it.

BTW the other driver was under no obligation to provide insurance details, unless someone was injured. 

Car_54

FlaatusGoat said:

The Motor Ombudsman can help review how your insurer handled the claim, whether it was fair, and if they followed proper procedures. You should definitely contact them, especially considering that this was a stressful experience and the process doesn’t seem to have been managed well by your insurer.

Financial Service Ombudsman, no the Motor one, Shirley?

WellKnownSid

Surely it's the financial ombudsman service you refer to, not the motor ombudsman.  Be warned - it's not quick - my son had an issue with an insurer flagging him as a fraudster back in July and it's only just been resolved by the FOS.

born_again

You need to go through Insurance companies complaints process & if not resolved. Then you can go to  financial ombudsman.
But you may actually be out of time to raise a complaint on the issue.

Mildly_Miffed

Brent75 said:

2 years ago, my first accident occurred driving at 12mph around a corner on the correct side of road (left)
My query is is this a matter for the motor ombudsman as my insurer eventually assigned fault to me as the driver. 

Yet I had purchased legal cover and the various add ons. The legal cover department admitted my statement was detailed and balance of probability of more than 51percent my fault and then did not reply. 

Eventually after exhausting complaints process insurer did pay my old car valuation but in the interim recovered it from garage dumping my interior belongings. Also I had obtained a witness telephone number and insurer started asking me to chase the witness. Thirdly the car that wrote mine off was unable to exchange insurance details at the scene (when I later found out drivers husband was a barrister). 

However with 25 years no claims at all, and a disputable fault liability as well as insurer badly handling the process. 

Should this be referred to motor ombudsman. At best accident was a no fault or split liability. However overall excess incurred to me was around £3k due to changes in car valuations. Obviously it was a stressful experience but I thought that if I drive correctly on the correct side of road that liability should be assigned to other driver. 

Disputes about valuation are irrelevant to liability.

The basic way to look at it is that if it cost your insurer a penny they couldn't recover from the other insurer, then your claim is marked as "at fault".
The other party might or might not have been at fault, too - that doesn't matter to your (partial) liability.

It sounds like it was a he-said-she-said, with no credible witness testimony available to prove or disprove either side's story. That's always going to result in shared liability.

So, no, you don't - from the sound of it - have any case for the ombudsman.

LightFlare

Driving at 12mph around a corner would suggest you knew of or suspected there may be an hazard ahead.
Without further details it’s impossible to opine on whether the insurance company were correct or not in assigning fault to you

Aretnap

FlaatusGoat said:

It sounds like you’ve had a really frustrating experience, and I can totally understand why you’re asking about this. Given the situation, yes, this might be something worth referring to the Motor Ombudsman. Here’s why:

First off, the fact that you had legal cover and add-ons and still had issues with your insurer is concerning. If their legal cover department admitted that, based on the balance of probability, the accident was more your fault, but then stopped responding, that’s definitely not how things should have been handled. When you pay for legal cover, you expect proper assistance, not to be left in limbo.

The other part of your experience, like having to chase the witness yourself after the insurer should’ve been on top of it, also doesn’t seem right. You shouldn’t have to do all the legwork. And with the car that wrote yours off not exchanging details, especially with the driver’s connection to the legal field, it adds another layer of complication that should’ve been handled differently.

Given that you have 25 years of no-claims history and you're dealing with a potentially disputable fault, this should certainly be reviewed, especially if the liability isn’t clear-cut. The fact that you ended up with an excess of around £3k and the car valuation issues adds to the argument that your insurer didn’t handle things properly.

The Motor Ombudsman can help review how your insurer handled the claim, whether it was fair, and if they followed proper procedures. You should definitely contact them, especially considering that this was a stressful experience and the process doesn’t seem to have been managed well by your insurer.

If you feel that your insurer didn’t assign fault correctly or mishandled the claim, and you were left in a worse position financially, then the Ombudsman might be able to help you get a fair resolution. It’s worth pursuing, especially if you feel that things weren’t handled properly.

This drivel is what ChatGPT produces when fed the first post in this thread. ChatGPT is not a source of advice, it's just an algorithm for producing plausible-looking text; an advanced version of the predictive text feature on your phone. 

There's no better illustration of the fact that ChatGPT is just regurgitating its input material than the fact that it says you can refer your complaint to the Motor Ombudsman. You can't - the Motor Ombudsman deals with complaints about dodgy second hand cars and bad repair jobs. It has nothing to do with insurance companies - for that you need the Financial Ombudsman Service. Anyone with actual knowledge or insight would have corrected the OP's misunderstanding; ChatGPT just takes it and runs with it.

Okell

But FlaatusGoat's posts are always utter tripe.

Just because this one is also gibberish doesn't justify the conclusion it's AI generated

(Anyway, I thought it was against the rules to accuse posters of using AI.  Am I wrong?)

LightFlare

Okell said:

But FlaatusGoat's posts are always utter tripe.

Just because this one is also gibberish doesn't justify the conclusion it's AI generated

(Anyway, I thought it was against the rules to accuse posters of using AI.  Am I wrong?)

Not come across that one - do you mean accuse directly or also including reporting?

There needs to be a mechanism to wheedle out the rubbish AI tends to generate

Aretnap

Okell said:

But FlaatusGoat's posts are always utter tripe.

Just because this one is also gibberish doesn't justify the conclusion it's AI generated

If you copy and paste the first post in this thread into ChatGPT, it generates FlaatusGoat's post, pretty much word for word.

https://chatgpt.com/

So yes, I am happy to conclude with 100% certainty that this is an AI generated post.

Most of the accounts other posts are very probably also AI generated, though I obviously can't be bothered running all 300-odd through ChatGPT to check