Advice on settling a car insurance claim

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: MSE News: Car Insurers to pay £200m in compensation after short-changing 270,000 motorists.

Charley007

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?

Ayr_Rage

If you took the £16,400 then that was the settlement to which you agreed.

The time to argue the toss was before they paid out.

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. 

MyRealNameToo

Ayr_Rage said:

If you took the £16,400 then that was the settlement to which you agreed.

The time to argue the toss was before they paid out.

"They" didnt pay out, the third party insurer will have based on the evidence presented on behalf of the OP from their independent motor engineer as an expert witness

sheramber

You could have bought the car back for scrap value and got it repaired yourself,  if it was suitable for repair. 

TELLIT01

The use of AMC seems to be common amongst car insurance companies.  When I was hit by behind, thankfully causing minimal damage, I called my insurers or so I thought, and connected to an AMC.  That didn't bother me unduly but I did tell them to go away when they called me a couple of times in the following week "to make sure I was certain I hadn't suffered any physical injury"!

MyRealNameToo

TELLIT01 said:

The use of AMC seems to be common amongst car insurance companies.  

They're not common with insurers*, with the notable exception of Admiral Group. They are common with brokers and other intermediaries who make next to nothing on the actual sale of the policy and dont have the investment income that insurers do. Unfortunately these days people dont seem to know who's an insurer and who's a broker etc. 

* - insurers do use them in the cases where people haven't bought appropriate cover for their needs, namely credit hire when someone says they can make do with the VW Up that the garage is offering as the courtesy car under their policy or in the case of TPFT/TPO with own damage.