Drive Assist - 50/50 claim problem

cupcake2

Hi,

First post, so bear with me. I have received a letter from Drive Assist asking me to comment on the fact that the 3rd party insurers have offered a 50/50 split liability in regard to the accident I was involved in. Please forward your written comments to the above.

I was involved in a partial fault or 50/50 accident in January. The car I was driving was in collision with a car on a single track lane which was covered in sheet ice. Neither myself or the other driver were able to stop in time. The police who attended the scene pressed no charges against either driver, and were sympathetic to the road conditions and lack of gritting. Both cars were undriveable. The courtesy car offered by the bodyshop dealing with the repair was not suitable for a family of 4 so I asked my insurers if there were any options. I was advised that drive assist might help, but this depended on whether they felt that they would be able to claim costs off the third party. I made it clear to Drive Assist and my insurers that that the accident in my opinion was caused because of extreme road conditions. However, Drive Assist confidently informed me that they had no problem in supplying a replacement vehicle at no charge to me as long as I could confirm that the accident was atleast partial blame. I queried this a number of times as I felt that this needed clarifying. I was assured that I would not be liable for any cost, and that if Drive Assist were unsuccesful in reclaiming there costs that this would be at there risk.

This evening I called Drive Assist to query the meaning of the letter received today as it was rather vague. I was told that there system showed that I had informed them that the accident was non-fault and and that I might be responsible for 50% of the hire charges. I refuted this very strongly as I had never implied that the accident was caused purely by the 3rd party, and that it was "an accident". However there was no-one available to discuss this with me further. Apparently I will get a call tomorrow.

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated as I am concerned as to where this might be heading.

Many thanks

stevie19uk

Hi Cupcake2

Please be aware there are different teams in Drive Assist and that the information may be different.

I work at Drive assist and I fully understand what you are trying to say

Firstly, some teams in Drive assist are told they are not to deal with Ice/Snow claims because it is classed as an "act of god" this means that neither you or the other person were at fault - it is classed as a knock for knock - however the third parties insurance sometimes do not pay this because ice cannot be helped.

If the third party has offered you a settlement of your claim for 50%, the first thing that me personally do, would accept it, because none of you were at fault for the accident.

With regards to the other 50%, (**ON THE TEAM THAT I WORK ON** - may be different to other schemes) we do not come back to the clients for the other 50%

So really you shouldn't be liable for any charge as the third party has accepted 50% and they will pay the 50%.

In regards to your repairs, you will pay half of your excess and they will pay half of theirs as it is 50/50.

If you have any problems email me i'll try to help.

LadyIndecisive

stevie19uk wrote: »

With regards to the other 50%, (**ON THE TEAM THAT I WORK ON** - may be different to other schemes) we do not come back to the clients for the other 50%



cupcake2 - if this is the case you are extremely lucky.

If the matter is settled 50/50 you will usually be required to pay your full excess and will be able to recover half of it. You and the other party will both have your no claims reduced (or 'lose a life' if protected).

The third party insurers will also have made the same settlement proposal to your insurers, who should also seek your comments on the 50/50 offered. Drive Assist should not prejudice your insurers claim by accepting the offer unless this is agreed by them too.

asbokid

cupcake2 wrote: »

I was assured that I would not be liable for any cost, and that if Drive Assist were unsuccessful in reclaiming [their] costs that this would be at [their] risk....

This evening I called Drive Assist to query the meaning of the letter received today as it was rather vague. I was told that there system showed that I had informed them that the accident was non-fault and and that I might be responsible for 50% of the hire charges. I refuted this very strongly as I had never implied that the accident was caused purely by the 3rd party, and that it was "an accident". However there was no-one available to discuss this with me further. Apparently I will get a call tomorrow.

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated as I am concerned as to where this might be heading.

It's probably way too late to make comment..

By now, you are no doubt £600 lighter, thanks to Drive Assist and your even more dubious Insurer..

But here's a layman's view..

There surely is an insurance industry protocol defined by the Financial Services Authority that should be followed in these circumstances..

Since the Insurer was underwriting both you and the third Party, a clear Conflict Of Interest exists. This conflict prevents your insurer from acting fairly towards you.

As such, your insurer's interests are in direct conflict to your own.

Picture us discussing the actions of a lawyer here. Imagine a lawyer had been advising both parties in an acrimonious divorce case. That would be a clear breach of his professional Code of Conduct:

"You must not act if there is a conflict of interests.. There is a conflict of interests if you owe, or your firm owes, separate duties to act in the best interests of two or more clients in relation to the same or related matters, and those duties conflict, or there is a significant risk that those duties may conflict. A "related matter" will always include any other matter which involves the same asset or liability."

The above describes the duty that lawyers are expected to observe in relation to any conflict of interests that arise in the course of business.

An independent intermediary should have been appointed to represent your interests in the negotiations that took place at your Insurer.

The ramification of this sort of misconduct are huge.

The losses in an accident are often much more than the cost of credit hire fees..

What if you had been killed in the accident? Since you and the third party shared the same insurer, that insurer has an overwhelming financial motive for admitting liability on your (posthumous) behalf. Since to do so mitigates its own losses. It will be motivated to admit liability on your behalf, even it is not borne out by evidence.

Your insurer could be denying your bereaved dependents the damages they deserve to be paid....

No surprise that we find Drive Assist at the centre of another scandal.

May we ask the name of your insurer, so as to avoid them, too?

Buddug_2

I can't see where the poster says their insurance company also insures the third party involved, but I would be very interested to know the outcome of this. I was involved in an accident last year where I was in the same position, ie both the other driver and me were insured with the same insurance company. I did not accept liability for the accident, and had a hire car from Drive Assist. To cut a long story short, the insurance company settled the claim against me, which in my view they did simply to avoid paying for my hire car charges. I contacted Drive Assist and asked them if I would get charged, and the woman I spoke to said they 'usually' write off the charges and take a loss if they can't get the money from the 'third party' insurer. The claim was settled in November, and I sent a complaint to the Ombudsman. I'm still waiting to hear from the Ombudsman, and as yet haven't heard from Drive Assist, but know there is still a likelihood that a large bill will land on my door mat. I've seen other posts where people say that an insurer has to be very careful when handling a claim if they insure both parties. I don't see how the regulations can allow them to do this (as the other poster says, if the claim was handled by solicitors, then we could not have had one solicitor acting for both of us).

angel_wadley

I had a car crash in march and I had what I thought was a courtesy car from Drive assist through my insurance. I was not at fault in the crash but my witness backed out of giving a statement, so they now want to go 50/50, which my insurance is fighting. Anyway I received a letter From drive assist yesterday requesting my version of events and a diagram so that they can recover there costs for the vehicle hire from the 3rd party. They have told me If I dont help them by giving the info, Then I will be liable to pay the costs of the vehicle because if i dont give them my statement they cant help me. which he informed me today is £800.
When I questioned him and said that as far as I was aware the car was a courtesy car through my insurance, he told me it wasnt and Drive assist dont work like that. He said the when I had the car a credit was taken out in my name and whoever was liable for the crash would be liable for the vehicle costs to them.
I have never been told this when i had the car and i have never even had any paperwork for them. nothing was ever said about recovering costs from me. I am fuming.

Please advise if you can.

dacouch

There are quite a few threads on MSE and other sites such as Moneysupermarket and Honestjohn etc etc about Drive Assist.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=552905&highlight=drive+assist

The above thread has some helpful info towards the end, Clare123456 had problems with DA and requested a copy of all of the data including calls which you are entitled to. If you were not made aware by DA that this was not a courtesy car and you could be respondsible for the costs there is a chance they may drop the charge.

P.S Drive Assist will have paid your Insurer circa £150 for refering you to them!

angel_wadley

The man I spoke to today said that he was going to check the calls to see if i was made aware. im just so angry. I dont want a bill turning up for £800. No one can afford that kind of money at the moment especially if you werent told about the posssibility of having to pay it. he said he was going to try and contact my insurance (sheila's wheels) to get my statement of events. but he said they have been trying for months and they wont give DA what the ask for.

dacouch

Please take the time to read the Drive Assistr thread I linked to as you will find helpful advice on how to complain to DA and some of the practices. The links to the forums on the other sites are also helpful.

If you post on the MSE thread I have linked to you will probably find that some of the people who have or are having problems with DA will post advice

Are you aware that DA were the subject of a BBC Watchdog feature.

I think you will find the person you spoke to will come back and say they either cannot trace the call or they have listened to it and they have explained how it works. If they do you are entitled to a copy of the data they have on your and copies or transcripts of the calls for a small fee under the data protection act http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/data_protection.aspx

angel_wadley

my partner has written on here to explain more. please read

aceades

angel_wadley

I didnt know they were on watch dog. My partner will find that interesting.
Thanks for the help. read my partners thread