Urgent help, needed Garage have wrote car off

tlck9

Thanks that does help.

Time off/loss of earnings is due to the time it has taken to deal with the accident and the insurance companies, having to visit the garage/compound etc, locate another vehicle etc over the last 6 weeks we have had to spend endless hours on the telephone dealing with the companies involved - we have not took time off because we had no van - just time for sorting out the issues

Our biggest time, was origianlly, our insurance company wouldnt take this on and therefore trying to get legal advice on how to move forward was like getting blood out of a stone, trying to find out why an assessor had not visited, estimates etc just seemed endless tasks - which I suppose I can provide eveidence through the telephone bills etc


Petrol expenses, I was claiming, the petrol before they gave us a vehicle and petrol expenses for additional journeys relating directly to the accident/loss of vehicle etc - which I have listed as two different figures, one at 20pm and the other at 40pm

Fortunetly I can prove the orders I take at the shows, so this will also be okay

tlck9

Hi Its me again....well Im still not sorted and after having had a terrible ordeal with trying to use a solicitor I am back to the beginning....

So any help is really really appreciated..

at the moment, there are 4 parties in involved....no blame has been determined, the vehicle coming the other way that apparently pulled onto on coming traffic, the vehicle in front of my van that swerved and missed the on coming vehicle then mine that hit both the van in front and the van oncoming that was on the wrong side of the road.....

At the moment, the garage's insurers want 50% blame as this is likely to be the best outcome....

so who do I pursue for costs? small claims court seems to be the way forward but can I proceed with this before blame has been determined...

M biggest question is this....I have been paid by cheque for the van (excluding any other costs) in two cheques....one vat from the insurance company and one from the garage...

however the solicitor told me not to cash the garage cheque as we are still pursuing them.....the insurane company accepted our "part settlement" letter but the garage said If I cash the cheque I will be accepting full and final settlement of the claim...which i'm not

even if I write a letter stating that accepting on part settlement awaiting liability what have proof have I got that I have sent this letter other than recorded delivery...I would not put it past the garage to deny receipt or contents of the envelope

Please help, as I need the money, but I dont want to lose more than this garage has cost me already

Quentin

If you want to pursue this, then follow the advice given to you by your solicitor and don't bank the cheque.

You can use the small claim court yourself, but it will be up to you to convince the court on the liability issue.

tlck9

would it be best to wait until the liability has been settled prior to me placing in my claim?

Part of the issue with the solicitor was that he told me not to cash the cheque originally, then went on to ask me if we were desperate for the money why had we not cashed it....

so we weren't sure on what advice to take....

Quentin

If you are desperate, then cashing the cheque is an option to solve that problem, BUT if you cash the cheque you lose out on any hope of any more as it is sent "in full & final settlement", and your acceptance of that would be confirmed by your banking the cheque.

From whom are you awaiting a decision on liability? It seems you haven't claimed off your insurance, and if so, then it seems you have been paid out on 50/50 liability by the third party. If you don't agree with this, then you do have the sc court as an option.

tlck9

i have to claim off of the garage who had my vehicle at the time, my insurance company would not take on the case, so therefore I have no legal cover, evn though I had the comprehensive and legal cover on my policy

Had we been driving the vehicle it would have been sorted by now

ut also the garage have not owned up to the accident as being at fault even though the witness statement of the garage puts the two other vehicle in a stationery position and he failed to stop

mattymoo

Did you do what I said in post 6?

"Someone at the legal expenses firm has given duff info there. You need to press them on this point and ask for the page / clause that they are relying on to refuse assistance. I suspect they will not find it. If they do, come back to us with the full wording (sometimes available online) so we can give an opinion. "

tlck9

mattymoo wrote: »

Did you do what I said in post 6?

"Someone at the legal expenses firm has given duff info there. You need to press them on this point and ask for the page / clause that they are relying on to refuse assistance. I suspect they will not find it. If they do, come back to us with the full wording (sometimes available online) so we can give an opinion. "

Hi Mattymoo,

Oh boy have we tried, yep called them on lots, and I mean lots of occassions...in fact I thought we had got somewhere, just after the other insurance had agreed a figure, but would not agree un-insured losses, aguy said he would follow it up....he came back and said nothing he could do

I rang them and spoke with a "manager" he told me that because we were not driving the vehicle, they would not offer any assistance. I asked where it said that and he told me it was in the policy wording, when I asked where, he said I had to read through it. Helpful

I have spent hours trying to get somewhere with this and to be honest I =hit brick walls everywhere....

We even bought a new van, which they then refused to insure because we had not settled in full on the old one...so they cancelled the insurance policy as we no longer had the vehicle took them 3 months to pay up for the refund of premium

So......

Any advice is welcome....

(ps can I still get this info from the insurance company) even though we are no longer insured with them

mattymoo

Yes you can still get info from an insurer even though the policy is no longer in force. The claim is still an ongoing matter so they cannot object.

The response - you'll have to read through it - is abysmal and shows either ignorance or a lack of training on their part. I know I work in the industry so have an inside knowledge, but I would have asked "Give me the page and paragraph number of the exclusion you are relying on" and "since you are making a formal declinature, please put this in writing so that I may consider my options".

My trade knowledge also tells me the training given to some of these staff is far too short. Heard a classic today about a call centre staff member processing a windscreen claim (the simplest claim of all) but could not proceed to deal with the matter unless she knew the colour of the vehicle. The broker did not know and suggested it was not a material fact for this type of claim. The staff member agreed, then asked for the colour of the car again.:laugh: :sad: :sad:

tlck9

thanks mattymoo.

To be honest we are at the end of our tether on this...if we had been at fault or driving it would be sorted and we would have fulllegal cover...

would it be up to my insurers to try and get uninsured losses sorted for me as well, bearing in mind that I had full comp and legal protection