Car Insurance not refunding money

Elstree20

Hi there

In early January my wife was involved in an accident where another car drove into the back of ours. No problems really and not too much damage but got all the necessary details and informed our insurers( Swiftcover). The other car was insured with Norwich Union . I have a £200 excess which I had to pay as the other partys insurers had not agreed liability at the time. I was assured that this would be refunded fairly quickly . The car was repaired at the end of January.

However we are now nearly 3 months down the line and no refund and the claim is still open. I have contacted Swiftcover who come back with the standard response of Norwich Union have not admitted liability so they cannot refund the money!

Is there anything else I can do to try and get this resolved? My feeling is that although the accident was no fault of ours the insurers are in no rush to sort this out as I have already paid.

Quentin

You can take independent action against the driver of the other car asking him to repay your uninsured costs of the incident (which includes your excess).

If you have legal expense cover you could see if they will do this for you.

Steve1981

Elstree20 wrote: »

Hi there

In early January my wife was involved in an accident where another car drove into the back of ours. No problems really and not too much damage but got all the necessary details and informed our insurers( Swiftcover). The other car was insured with Norwich Union . I have a £200 excess which I had to pay as the other partys insurers had not agreed liability at the time. I was assured that this would be refunded fairly quickly . The car was repaired at the end of January.

However we are now nearly 3 months down the line and no refund and the claim is still open. I have contacted Swiftcover who come back with the standard response of Norwich Union have not admitted liability so they cannot refund the money!

Is there anything else I can do to try and get this resolved? My feeling is that although the accident was no fault of ours the insurers are in no rush to sort this out as I have already paid.

In short no - though you can hassle them.

Did you have the legal services included? if so get on to your solicitor and do it EVERYDAY - get them to phone Norwich Union (we had a claim where NU were the Third party insurer, and they are well known for not responding on claims for many months - ours took 7 months and it was prety straight foward) sorry

Phone your solicitor everyday - get them to put a call in to Norwich Union EVERYDAY - this will be logged by your solicitor - when resolved you get your pay out and they claim their expences from NU (remember your solicitor will charge £20 per letter, phonecall or email they send (this might be more)

Once NU realise the costs are mounting up they might get their fingers out.

worst case senario is that you annoy your solicitor so much they want to get it sorted just to stop you calling them

lisyloo

I was assured that this would be refunded fairly quickly

To be honest I think you have either been misled or someone has been optimistic.

I am trying to get an excess back for an accident 2.5 years ago.
I'm hoping the case will be settled soon but that's mostly because there is a 3 years limit on people taking action over injuries.

IMO someone was either being overly optimistic.
Perhaps at the time they were expecting the other side to admit liability and they are genuinely suprised at their reaction.

I'm sorry that it's not what you want to hear but these things can take years.

If your finances are tight then my advice is to have a "car fund" in future where you put money aside each month for unexpected repairs or other costs associated with motoring. Oftern having a seperate account can help because then it's completely seperate.

pixelchick10

"I have a £200 excess which I had to pay as the other partys insurers had not agreed liability at the time."

Did you actually pay this? Or have it deducted from the settlement cheque if a write off or the cost of the repairs.

I hassled the loss adjustor at our insurers after my DP was involved in a motorbike accident - giving her the mobile phone number and work number of the third party who went into him - had to push quite hard for her to pick up the phone and call the 3rd party, but she obviously did, as last time I rang up our insurers, they said the 3rd party's insurer had now admitted liability. I don't think it would have moved this fast if I hadn't really pushed her. They all seem to really drag their feet - If I were you, I would nag Swiftcover daily if you can bear to ...

Btw I'm not expecting to get our £150 excess back anytime soon --

Elstree20

Yes I did pay the excess direct to the Repair centre as required by Swiftcover. Thanks though for all the advice depressing as it may be!:D

I will now start contacting Swiftcover on a daily basis until I get some joy! I will also check again the legal cover and speak to a solicitor if all else fails.

Travelqueen

I have a similar situation, ish.

In july 2006 someone drove into the back of my car on the A406 as I slowed to let out a police car with its lights flashing. He crashed into the back of me infront of the police car.
He had no insurance and no licence and was arrested at the scene & taken away by the police (he was from Eastern Europe if that matters)
The police stayed & we were all breathalysed (negative). I then had to wait another hour for the AA to arrive as my car was making a funny sound - the exhaust pipe was scraping the floor where he has smashed into the back of the car and dented it
The car was repaired at just over 1K and I paid a £100 excess.
He didn't respond to mails for a while and my insurers passed the claim from Albany assistance to Temple Solicitors (who are still handling it)
At one point he contacted my insurers to say that no damage had been done to either car, the police had certified this at the scene and he had since got rid of the car he was driving (erm... as it had a huge dent in the front of it where he smashed into my car!).
My insurerers (Diamond) then sent him photos I believe to ask him to pay. He stopped responding again.
He was then summoned to court and didn't attend. They found in my favour in his absense and are now trying to send the bailiffs around to seize goods so that I can get the repairs paid for and get my no claims back.
The solicitors have told me though that they will only try 3 times and after that give up, which leaves me up the proverbial creek without a paddle and losing 4 years no claims bonus (would be 5 in May).

Question is, is there anything I can do about this? I don't care about whether I get my excess back, all I want is my no claims bonus - unfortunately I couldn't protect it as I hadn't had it for 4 years when this accident happened.

I am really hacked off with the whole situation and don't seem to be able to move it forward at all despite calling the solicitors & diamond and depsite having a clear cut case it seems as though I am going to be the one to lose out.

Anyway got any suggestions at all of anything I can do?

Thx

TQ

Quentin

Elstree20 wrote: »

Yes I did pay the excess direct to the Repair centre as required by Swiftcover. Thanks though for all the advice depressing as it may be!:D

I will now start contacting Swiftcover on a daily basis until I get some joy! I will also check again the legal cover and speak to a solicitor if all else fails.

Swiftcover (your insurers) won't be bothered about recovering your excess. You must have agreed to pay an excess when you first took out the policy.

You need to do that yourself by pursuing the responsible driver (or his insurance company) - using any legal expense cover you have, or instructing your own solicitor or instituting your own proceedings.

Quentin

Travelqueen wrote: »

all I want is my no claims bonus

If the third party was uninsured, there is little you can do except hope the bailiff is able to seize enough property to reimburse the cost of your repair.

Unless you get these costs back, then your insurance company won't reinstate the ncb.

lisyloo

Question is, is there anything I can do about this?

You could pursue him personally but obviously if he has nothing then that is money down the drawn because balliffs etc. need to be paid. You can sometimes get an "attachment of earnings" which means the money comes direct from his employer out of his salary but of course you'd need to know he has a job.
Like most people, your legal cover solicitors will only be prepared to throw a certain amount of money at it before giving up.
You could try some amateur detective work if he lives nearby (but be careful).
If he has assets then he can be pursued and in this case if you KNOW he has assets then you could complain and make your legal insurers pursue it.
But ultimately if the guy has nothing then you can't get it.

depsite having a clear cut case it seems as though I am going to be the one to lose out.

You have my sympathy FWIW but it's part of life and partof motoring.
If money is tight then I suggest starting a "car fund" where you budget money each month for unexpected costs e.g. repairs or claims.
If it's easier to manage then get a seperate account so it's completely seperate from all other money.

But if you have reason to belive he can pay then why not ask your legal insurers about an "attachment of earnings".

Travelqueen

Thanks for that, will persue the attachment of earnings thing

Thanks for the 'its all part and parcel of motoring' I do realise that, but it is incredibly frustrating when you insure yourself, pay taxes etc etc and 2 uninsured drivers in a year drive into you! (the other one gave fake details and I had to leave the dent where it was in the back of my car)

I already have a car fund too so that isn't the issue. The issue is that instead of paying £500 a year for insurance I am currently being stuck for £1.5!!! Not being able to move insurers either because of my NCB being on hold is also a pain so I don't seem to be able to get cheaper cover.

Ho hum. I'll go the attachment of earnings route if I have to, and persue the home office after that. :rolleyes: