MSE News: Car Insurers to pay £200m in compensation after short-changing 270,000 motorists

MyRealNameToo

Youwish said:

I wonder how compliance with this will be policed by the FCA. Waiting for Hastings to contact me. 6 years ago I had a no-fault car write off. Wasn't happy with Hastings' agent Auxillis offer as I thought it was too low given the condition of the car but had no choice but to accept. A few months later the car was registered as back on the road and it looks like it still is. I can't log onto the policy as I changed insurers in the subsequent years. I've emailed Hastings to an old claims address but had no acknolwedgement. 

It varies depending on the scale of the problem... with some the regulator will do random audits on files to ensure the new guidelines have been followed. With others they appoint an independent firm to do the oversight, with the issue on the sale of annuities WTW were commissioned to develop a tool to do the calcs of what someone should have been paid, oversee the overall process and do audits. 

However it sounds like you claimed via an accident management company not your insurance so certainly wouldnt be in scope of Hasting's own review and probably not in scope of the third party insurers either. 

MyRealNameToo

Charley007 said:

I was involved in a car accident through no fault of my own, a car came into the back of me while I was stopped in May 2023. I thought I telephoned my Insurance (AA),but got through to Claimsline who was nothing to do with my personal Insurance? It was an accident management company. I live in South Wales and they took my car to Hammond’s Fleet Care,Halesowen (West Midlands) two and a half hours away. Unfortunately my car was written off and was way under valued. They gave me a total of £16,400 for my car which was back on the Road with in a month - 6 weeks. My vehicle was a Nissan Qashqai Tekna +,4 years old, Full service History, 27,000 miles and one owner. I was forced to take the £16,400 and couldn’t find a replacement vehicle for the value of my vehicle? I had to take a loan to purchase another Nissan Qashqai not as High spec as my Tekna +. I have contacted Claimsline & Hammond’s Fleet Care and they both said that the case is settled in full and that I wouldn’t be entitled to any more money? I didn’t agree to the settlement figure, but was told that’s what I was going to be paid. These companies shouldn’t be allowed to do what they are doing and couldn’t get help from anywhere because they were an independent company? Any body else had this issue and where I stand in claiming?

Putting aside the how you instructed the fact you instructed an accident management company...

An AMC will commission an independent expert to value your vehicle and they will determine if its repairable or not and give their opinion on the value if its beyond economical repair. That report is then presented to the third party/their insurers (TPI). The TPI will most likely do their own valuation on the vehicle based on the report and if its broadly similar they'll pay out what's been requested on your behalf and if they disagree then they will make a counter lower offer.

Unfortunately you've effectively turned up to court with an expert witness to represent you and then started arguing with your own witness. These sorts of occurrences never end well. 

Many think their car was worth more than the books state it was worth, on the basis book prices are created by motor industry experts based on actual sales figures it can't be true that most peoples vehicles are worth more than the average. 

Charley007

I couldn’t find a car for the amount of money they gave me to purchase another car (model & year) equivalent to mine. I was sending them advertisements from papers which the cheapest was approximately £20,000, I still have these advertisements (lower spec than my vehicle). I was paid £12,000 and then had to wait for the sale of my vehicle to receive the final £4,400. 

CLAIMSLINE said that Hammond’s Fleet Care was dealing with it which I received a cheque for £12,000 and had to wait another 10-14 days for my car to be sold (which was put back on the road) and received a cheque for £4,400 from Fairway Legal Trading? Claimsline, Hammond’s Fleet Care & Fairway Legal seem to be in cahoots with each other and ripping innocent customers off. 

CLAIMSLINE review on TRUST PILOT isn’t the best and these companies shouldn’t be allowed to do what they are doing? When you have an accident and in shock,(you are vulnerable)I thought Claimsline was working with the AA.

MyRealNameToo

Charley007 said:

I couldn’t find a car for the amount of money they gave me to purchase another car (model & year) equivalent to mine. I was sending them advertisements from papers which the cheapest was approximately £20,000, I still have these advertisements (lower spec than my vehicle). I was paid £12,000 and then had to wait for the sale of my vehicle to receive the final £4,400. 

CLAIMSLINE said that Hammond’s Fleet Care was dealing with it which I received a cheque for £12,000 and had to wait another 10-14 days for my car to be sold (which was put back on the road) and received a cheque for £4,400 from Fairway Legal Trading? Claimsline, Hammond’s Fleet Care & Fairway Legal seem to be in cahoots with each other and ripping innocent customers off. 

CLAIMSLINE review on TRUST PILOT isn’t the best and these companies shouldn’t be allowed to do what they are doing? When you have an accident and in shock,(you are vulnerable)I thought Claimsline was working with the AA.

AA are an intermediary not an insurer, its not uncommon for brokers/intermediaries to sell pass their non-fault customers to accident management companies given the pittance they get for actually selling the policy. They have absolutely no skin in the game on what your car is worth as thats paid directly by the third party insurer so makes no odds if they value your car at £12,000, £16,400 or £22,000. If they over value it then the TPI will just pay what they think it's worth anyway. 

AMCs are a complex beast, on the one hand they drive up the cost of claims as credit hire is provided at highly inflated rates but on the flip side when people need to be mobile etc they can provide transportation, deal with vehicle repairs etc and make the life of a claimant much easier when the third party is slow to report the accident to their insurers, when there is a dispute on liability and/or an issue with indemnity all of which would stop you claiming directly from the third party insurer. 

However all a bit of a moot point as the FCA action is about insurers undervaluing their own customer's vehicles and nothing to do with AMCs and the valuation their engineers place on vehicles.