Insurance company owe me over £1k but won't send the money

CM295

I was involved in a car accident in November 2024. As I was not at fault, my insurer (Go Skippy) passed the claim onto a company called AX. AX dealt with everything for me and everything was claimed from the other party's insurance company, Aviva. 

The car was a write-off and a price was offered which I disputed. I won the dispute and it was agreed that an additional £1,200 would be paid. 

I'd already had the initial payment however. As I had a courtesy car that Aviva were paying daily for, they were very keen to pay the funds. Whilst the price dispute was going through, they took the courtesy car back and agreed to pay this additional £1,200.

However it's now mid-March and they've still not paid the money. I can only chase this through AX and they tell me that they've escalated the issue but otherwise there is NOTHING they can do! They've said that Aviva have no phone lines and everything is communicated over email. They said that they chase regularly but I just have to wait. 

What can I do to get the money I am owed? I don't know where to go from here. Thanks.

perizadah

Make a formal complaint, if that doesn’t work you can take it to the ombudsman. But you need to make a complaint first.

cw8825

If the complaint is against aviva. OP will
not be able to go to the FOS as they are a third party. 

Are AX actually chasing this because if not you can contact aviva yourself

CM295

Thank you. So I should raise a complaint against AX? 

I have no idea if they are actually doing what they say, but they tell me they have it on a list of owed monies that are regularly chased. 

WindfallWendy

Who paid you the initial payment? I'd suggest they are the ones you pursue for the remainder/ make the complaint to.

Unfortunately, insurance companies paying each other the costs of a claim do seem to take forever. My husband had a claim where he had received his uninsured losses back, but his own insurer hadn't bothered to recoup their costs (six months later) so the claim was still marked as unsettled when it came to his insurance renewal which caused his renewal quote to go through the roof. 

But yes, formal complaint process I think. Gets an official clock ticking and in my experience the complaints team are far more efficient than the claims team (which I'm allowed to say as I used to work in car insurance claims!!).

cw8825

Complain to ax 
the cynic in me is feeling that you are owed money not AX
they are not chasing it the same as if they are owed money themselves. 

I would call ax get the details before calling aviva myself 

there will be a number you can get through on. The issue is there’s a lot of waiting on hold so AX only email. (The delay Works in their favor when it’s about hire)

HedgehogRulez

I had a similar thing 6 months ago when my car was written off by a third-party (they drove into the back of me whilst I was stationery).

 I had to chase my excess payment from the third party insurer after the settlement.

I just phoned the other parties insurance company and quoted their reg number and told them I was claiming back my excess payment.

no issues and got my refund a couple of weeks later

DullGreyGuy

perizadah said:

Make a formal complaint, if that doesn’t work you can take it to the ombudsman. But you need to make a complaint first.

You have no right of complaint to a third party insurer @perizadah nor rights to go to the Financial Ombudsman Service, they can only look at complaints from customers. 

CM295 said:

I was involved in a car accident in November 2024. As I was not at fault, my insurer (Go Skippy) passed the claim onto a company called AX. AX dealt with everything for me and everything was claimed from the other party's insurance company, Aviva. 

The car was a write-off and a price was offered which I disputed. I won the dispute and it was agreed that an additional £1,200 would be paid. 

I'd already had the initial payment however. As I had a courtesy car that Aviva were paying daily for, they were very keen to pay the funds. Whilst the price dispute was going through, they took the courtesy car back and agreed to pay this additional £1,200.

However it's now mid-March and they've still not paid the money. I can only chase this through AX and they tell me that they've escalated the issue but otherwise there is NOTHING they can do! They've said that Aviva have no phone lines and everything is communicated over email. They said that they chase regularly but I just have to wait. 

What can I do to get the money I am owed? I don't know where to go from here. Thanks.

So the normal process, when dealing with a credit hire company like AX, is they commission an independent engineers report on your behalf. Assuming it states it's a total loss the engineer will value the vehicle. This report is then sent to the third party insurer asking for them to total loss the vehicle and all the time you are in a very expensive hire car. 

Normally the insurer will do their own valuation of the vehicle, naturally capped at the amount your expert witness has valued it at. If its at or above then they pay what the engineer said, if its below they pay that. 

So, whose valuation are you disputing? Is it that Aviva valued it below what your expert witness did? Or are you arguing against your own expert witness? You can imagine how courts react to people arguing against their own expert witness. 

Your route to get anything you think you are owed is to go to court but you will need to check if AX have already recovered their hire charges as if they haven't you will need to include that cost, plus the engineer report cost etc (again claiming your expert witness is wrong and then trying to claim their costs go down even worse than arguing against your own witness)