Advice please- non fault RTA- 3rd party insurance refusing to pay full repair cost

Myrian

Hi

I’m a newbie and this is my first post so apologies if I get anything wrong please be gentle! Also sorry it’s a long one…

My 19 yr old son was involved in a non fault RTA on March 20th. All on dashcam and not disputed by other driver. All done through other drivers insurance (Hastings) and initially seemed fine - they sent a mechanic out to assess damage and then my son was given a date when they would come and take the car in for repair. On the day no one showed. He called Hastings and was told the mechanic had some personal emergency and they would pass it to another garage to deal with. Which they did…eventually.

Another mechanic came out, assessed it, and said he’d hear from insurance as to when it could get done. My son heard nothing so had to chase it up a few times.

Eventually he got told “oh it’s been put through as a total loss….. on no wait ..no a cash loss…. The garage are refusing to carry out the repair due to a previous illegal repair on the car they found, so we will give you the money to get the repair done yourself just give us your bank details”

My son being a young driver and never having dealt with insurance companies before just believed them (and was relieved after the initial ‘total loss’ statement!) and gave his details. My son did tell them the car was on a PCP agreement but they dismissed his concern and said “that made no difference as to how they dealt with payment” . My son also asked them for the mechanics report so that he could complain to the seller about the “previous illegal repair” which he had no knowledge of, however Hastings told him they couldn’t give him it and cited data protection as it has the mechanics name on it. They paid him £998.74, which remains in his account. But he has not signed any paperwork whatsoever.

We then contacted the garage direct to get the report off them. They sent it through immediately but it had no mention of any previous illegal repair, and also no mechanics name! It did however state that the total cost would be £2433.18!! So called garage back again and explained full story. The manager spoke to us and said he had no knowledge of any previous illegal repair and never told Hastings that or had seen it on any reports by them and stated he’d be happy to carry out the repair and was in fact waiting on Hastings giving him the go ahead. He also explained they valued his car at £6000 therefore the repair was well under the threshold for economic repair.

So Hastings lied about the data protection/mechanics name being on the report.

They lied about a previous illegal repair (which caused panic!)

And they lied about the garage refusing to fix the damage from the accident.

And they also lied about the cost of the repair… the quote from the garage to repair it was £2433.18, not £988.74!

At this point we put a complaint in writing to Hastings and gave them 14 days to respond or we would go to FOS (we now know they can’t help!). Hastings sent an automated response saying they had 8 weeks to investigate. After the 14 days we sent another letter quoting the FOS number etc but they obviously ignored that as they knew they couldn’t do anything as my son didn’t have a policy with them. We know that now 🤦🏻‍♀️

Anyway just wanted some advice on what to do next? My son has a damaged car through no fault of his own and not even half the money to get it fixed from Hastings, who are now ignoring him.

Should we go down the small claims route? I know it’s Simple Procedure (we’re in Scotland) but is this the best way to go?

Any advice appreciated :)

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6676069/advice-please-non-fault-rta-3rd-party-insurance-refusing-to-pay-full-repair-cost

who was the mechanic that came out to look at the vehicle?

In each of the companies I did claims handling for, which doesnt include Hastings, we would either send one of our engineers (or an independent if ours were too busy) or we would arrange for the car to go to one of our approved repairers. Most the approved repairs had delegated authority to self autorise repairs up to £2-£10k depending on how our relationship was with them and one of our engineers would drop in 2-5 times a week (the biggest ones we had an engineer onsite constantly).

The garage would do the estimate but it is our engineer or the appointed independent that would prepare the report. If it was one of our own they made their own decisions, if it was an independent then the report went to one of our desk engineers who'd review and make the final decisions. The engineers report wouldnt normally be shared with the garage, instead they'd get a fax (I'm showing my age - not THAT long ago but not all garages regularly used email back then) saying if the repairs were authorised and any special instructions

Ultimately you need to wait to see the outcome of the complaint. Hopefully you have the quote from the garage to use as evidence of the cost of the repair. As you note, as a third party you have no right to go to the FOS and this is the main downside of not allowing your own insurers to deal with it.

Myrian

Hi thanks for the quick reply.

The first mechanic that came out was an independent garage in glasgow, arranged/approved by Hastings. Hastings okayed the work to be done but then the mechanic no-showed on repair day. (Due to a personal emergency according to Hastings) so that’s when Hastings arranged for the 2nd mechanic to come out because they “didn’t know how long he (first mechanic) would be off for” and assess the damage.
This 2nd mechanic was from Kerr & Smith. That mechanic is who completed the report that we have, quoting £2433.18. No one else has seen the car. And no one at any time has reported any previous illegal repair. This seems to be fabricated entirely by Hastings.

sheramber

Your son is required to advise his own insurance about the incident, even if not claiming through them.

I would be inclined to contact them and explain the position and ask if they can take over the claim.

kaMelo

Having a repair carried out via a third party insurer is a pain in the neck. At the very least you should be choosing your own repairer that you trust, you're under no obligation to use the third party insurance approved repairer..

For simplicity I'd tend to agree with @sheramber, he should notify his own insurance company and let them take control of the repair/write off and negotiate with the third party insurance on his behalf.

Myrian

thanks for the replies @sheramber & @kaMelo

He did notify his own insurance at the time of the incident back in March. He’s no longer with them anymore as his policy was due for renewal not long after the accident, would that matter?

kaMelo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068044#Comment_82068044

No, his insurance company was providing cover when the incident happened therefore they have to deal with it.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82067934#Comment_82067934

Just be aware that this may make it a fault claim…

Assuming Hastings have incurred costs they are likely to refuse to repay those same costs to the OPs insurers meaning they end the claim with a net payout which by default means it's a fault claim. Sometimes insurers will decide to still close it non-fault but this is more typically when they offer something above indemnity in their cover and therefore ignore the net outlay because its been a commercial decision to exceed what they know they can recover when they designed the product.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82068044#Comment_82068044

Insurance can be written in one of two ways… Losses Occurring During and Claims Made. In the UK LOD is by far the most common and it means you claim off of the insurer at the time of the incident that resulted in the loss. The only notable exception is Professional Indemnity/Liability which is almost universally written on a Claims Made basis so you claim off the insurer at the time a claim is made against you not the insurer at the time that the event occurred.

France is a bit of an odd one as they do blended basis, lots more insurance is Claims Made but if you stop buying insurance then that last policy basically becomes a LOD when it expires… this avoids the issues with CMD that accountants and police staff have that they need to keep buying insurance for 5-7 years after retiring

Reinsurance adds a third basis but we won't go down that rabbit hole.

The insurer at the date of the incident would have to deal with it if required to, the fact he has left them doesnt change that. That said in principle you may find terms are more strictly applied whereas the benefit of the doubt may be more liberally applied for a long standing current customer. I say in principle because the firm I spent most of my claims days with didnt routinely do it, as a Claims Technician it was a bit of a ball ache to get into the Service side of the system to see if they still had a policy with us or not but occasionally you may if someone protests they've been badly treated as a long standing customer.

Myrian

thank you @MyRealNameToo this is helpful info. He’s going to contact them today 🤞🏼