HELP! Insurance settled car finance without consent - now want £18.5k before releasing car to me

brubud123

My car was stolen on 28/10/25 and was recovered two days later having been involved in a police chase, covering only 50-100 miles since being taken.

I reported the car stolen with my insurance company Admiral, who advised my case was eligible for a fast track settlement. I was told on 29/10/25 they wanted to write my car off as a total loss due to the '3 month back log of parts coming from BMW' and because it had been involved in a police chase. At that point, neither Admiral or I had any idea of what state the car was in but I agreed for Admiral to offer me a settlement for the car, assuming my car was in a state of disrepair. My car was being forensically examined at this point so was not available to be assessed for damage.

On 04/11/25, I was offered a settlement amount via the insurance's portal of £21,399.00. I wasn't satisfied with this valuation as I believed my car should have been valued higher. I was able to query this via the online portal so I declined the offer with my reasoning. The portal then confirmed my comments had been received and someone would be in touch with me in 2-3 working days.

On 05/11/25, I had a text message from Admiral to confirm my settlement had been approved and a payment of £2,356.00 would clear my bank account in a matter of days, leaving £18,543.00 outstanding to BMW finance and the difference of £500.00 being the excess deducted. I was outraged by this as I hadn't accepted the settlement and I had told Admiral I wanted to know what state my car was in so I could make an informed decision about whether I wanted my car back. At this point, it felt that Admiral were wanting a VERY quick settlement without giving me relevant information that would help my decision as to what would happen with my car. It was almost like they were making decisions for me and I had no say.

I immediately rang Admiral who advised it was their policy to settle outstanding finance and any moneys owed to their customer in the first instance without prejudice. They advised if I wanted the car repaired, I could easily send the £2,356.00 back to Admiral at a later date. At this point, I was very annoyed that they had made the decision to settle my finance without my consent and without me agreeing any settlement.

After some thought, I decided that I wanted my car looking at by a mechanic so I was aware of what damage was sustained. I was shocked that an engineer from Admiral hadn't been to see the car at this point! Admiral agreed for my car to be taken to their approved garage (steer), to be looked at. At this point, they were still very reluctant to move on their settlement offer.

To this point, I was still without a courtesy car. Weeks went by with no communication from Admiral. I had raised various complaint points about the handling of my claim being -

1. Disputing value of settlement
2. Feeling that the claim moved too quickly and I did not accept valuation - this point was upheld by Admiral
3. No communication about the location of my car and what insurance category was assigned to it as they deemed it a total loss - this point was upheld by Admiral
4. I did not think they had the right to settle my finance without my agreement

Finally, on the 09/12/25, I had a response from Admiral upholding 2/4 points above and I was awarded £250.00 compensation for the lack of communication and for being without a car for 6/7 weeks as a result of their unnecessary delays which they admitted liability for. £250.00 was a weak offer considering the stress they had caused and the amount of time I went without a car, so I responded with my frustrations yet again.

On the same day, I was sent pictures of my car sat in the compound as I wanted to see the condition of the car. I was very shocked to see that the car had sustained very little damage. A broken front splitter was the only minimal damage I could see from the photos. At this point, I thought there was no reason at all for this car to have been deemed a write off.

On 09/12/25, I was told my car was FINALLY being moved from the compound to the repair garage to be looked at. Unfortunately, another 3 weeks went by of me chasing for updates on the status of the engineer report but Admiral were useless at progressing the repair estimate.

I called Admiral in early January demanding an update on the situation and expressing my anger at how I was still without a car, not having a clue what was going on with my car. Admiral had told me that they were not able to get my car approved for repairs until the finance with BMW had been resolved. I was so annoyed that their mistake was now costing more delays. I demanded a courtesy car to which they finally agreed to and said they would sort the finance out whilst my car was being repaired as they had now approved the repair estimate of £5k. At this point, I raised a complaint with the financial ombudsman about this, who are actively investigating the issues that happened up to my final response letter dated 09/12/25.

On 06/01/26, I received a courtesy car. A couple of days later, I visited Steer in Coventry to see my car for the first time since 28/10/25. The engineer managing my repairs showed me what repairs were necessary (new splitter, alloy wheel refurbs, headlining repair, a few paint work corrections and a replacement headlight). There were no issues with the underneath and no issues with the interior and engine.

I was satisfied with those repairs and felt relieved that my car was finally being repaired. I had also realised that the '3 month delay of BMW parts' was a lie told by Admiral and in my opinion, to convince me to agree to the total loss.

During late January, I was getting updates that the repairs were progressing well and it was looking likely to be finished mid early-mid February so I have been patiently waiting to be told my car was ready, but still with no answer on how Admiral was handling my finance.

On 04/02/26, I had a call from my file handler at Admiral that left me speechless. I was told they had been unsuccessful with reinstating my finance with BMW (not a shock!!) and I would personally now need to find the £18,543.00 to give to Admiral before they allow the release of my car. They said in their opinion, the car is now there's and if I can't find finance or take out a loan, they would be keeping the car, transferring me £2,356.00 and that would be the end of the matter. I have not once signed ownership of my car over to Admiral, I'm in possession of my V5 and I am the legal owner of the car.

I am at a loss as to how having my car stolen, claiming on my insurance then having my car repaired, has now led to my car being held ransom for £18.5k. My whole finance agreement has now been affected, my future plans with how I fund my car has been affected and Admiral are now suggesting I suffer additional interest and financing costs to raise a substantial amount of money at very short notice. Not to mention, the stress and worry I have endured through all of this.

I have challenged this with them and spoke to a manager at Admiral who has reiterated the same message showing no remorse or empathy for what they have caused. They admitted that the case moved too quickly which ultimately resulted in the finance being paid off too soon and yet they are now treating their customer like this. My car's repairs are nearly finished and now I find myself in this impossible situation through no fault of my own.

Can anyone offer advice on what I do next? I have raised this as an official complaint with Admiral who now have 8 weeks to respond before I can raise it with the ombudsman but this could mean further months delays. I simply cannot wait any longer! I've read that Admiral have been penalised by the ombudsman in the past for undervaluing car claims but I've never known anything like this!!

I have attached a picture of the car in the compound for reference of the condition of the car when it was deemed a total loss.

Can anyone help? Thank you.

flaneurs_lobster

If I was going to nick a car to go "race the police" in, that's the one I'd pick.

MyRealNameToo

Have you actually read your policybook?

Policybooks normally state how claims will be handled and what happens if a car has finance secured against it. Standard practice would be to pay off finance first and give the remainder to the policyholder assuming its a PCP or HP agreement, if its a Lease/PCH then often all the money goes to the lease company and nothing to the policyholder as they are the legal owner of the car.

Its not uncommon to make an interim settlement up front in the case of a dispute, remember that if you go to the FOS then the insurer would have to pay 8% simple interest so its clearly advantageous to do that on the £1-2k difference in valuation thats in dispute rather than the whole £21,399 + £1-2k.

Every insurer will have had cases where the ombudsman have said their offer was too low but for everyone one that gets upheld 2-3 typically are declined. It's the nature of the beast somewhat. Ultimately they can choose to settle a claim as they see fit, they could write off every car and not repair anything as long as they paid out a fair amount.

Ideally after the vehicle had been recovered and you saw it didnt look to have too much damage you would have simply have offered to buy the salvage rather than trying to undo the total loss or have them repair it. Typically it would have cost you much less then as normally it's just a percentage of the settlement rather than something individually worked out.

If you want the vehicle back have you looked at getting finance to raise the funds? You only had a modest amount of equity in the car and a big debt immediately before the theft.

Grumpy_chap

Prior to the incident, the OP had a car worth £21,399 and a debt of £18,543.

Due to an error, that debt was settled by the insurer.

The OP can now take the balance between the value of the debt and the value of the car (less £500 excess), so would receive £2,356 as a cheque. The OP would then be free to buy any car from anywhere and that would most likely require the OP to take some finance.

OR, the OP can pay the insurer the £18,543 value of the original debt and have their same car back. That will require the OP to take some finance.

I do understand that this is all very annoying for the OP, but has the OP investigated what options they have to raise that finance? How would the cost of that finance over the original term compare with the cost of the previous finance over the original term?

So far the insurer has offered £250 compensation by way of apology for their error. The OP thinks is is inadequate.

The OP also referenced never having had a courtesy car during the period of the repairs being carried out.

Compensation generally does not pay for inconvenience but for actual quantifiable losses. In the OP's case, this would be a claim based upon:

• how much the new finance will cost compared to the original finance, over the original term
• costs resulting from failure to provide the courtesy car - any public transport, taxi costs and such like

A calculated claim for compensation is far more likely to gain traction than simply a claim that the £250 offered is inadequate and the OP wants more. The OP could, of course, add the originally offered £250 as another line and mark that as for the inconvenience etc.