Car Repair Shop Seized Engine On Car,Insurance Wont Pay Out

Cat100

To cut along story short.My car was rear ended (not my fault),other driver admitted liabilty.Car was driven for 3 weeks ok, body repair shop collected car drove it 25miles to garage.Two weeks later car was being returned by driving it back to us, car engine was seized lack of oil.I must point out the car has a compter dash which will ask you to check oil if low,also a large red warning light would come on and stay on when car is started if low of oil.Car has been inspected twice by independant engineers all stating the obvious that the car was low on oil,and the accident didn't cause the probelm.Therefore my insurance company say it is my fault the car had low oil,and will not pay for new engine.I must stress that the car was ok and well looked after, and when that car was driven away there was not a probelm with the oil.I have spoken to the insurance company on numerous occasions, and all they say is it isn't there fault,the fault is mine.I have had to buy another car in the mean time.Were do I go from here?
Thanks for any advice.:mad:

Fatpants

Hi

If you have tried talking to your insurance company and have got nowhere I would contact the Financial Ombudsman Service. The Insurance Company will then have to investigate the matter further. The decision may not return in your favour but its worth a try?

raskazz

Personally my first port of call would be the repairer. If they drove the car despite warning lights appearing then personally I feel it would be them who should sort it out. This is assuming that there was no pre-existing damage done to the engine.

Was the body shop an insurer approved repairer or was it your choice to take it there? If it was the latter I don't think you will have any comeback on the insurer as the policy excludes wear and tear, lack of maintenance etc. If it was the former then if the repairer doesn't resolve the matter I would take it to the insurer as a complaint, and if still unresolved I would take it to the FOS.

Cat100

Hi Thanks for the reply.The repairer was an insurer approved garage.

19ninety

They will have carried out a check sheet on collecting your vehicle, they should also have started the vehicle and checked the ignition/ srs & EM & brake & oil warning lights all went out before signing the sheet. if the light came on after everything appeared ok then they should have noted it down and acted on it. maybe it was ok when they collected, but then due to the drive the oil droped just enough for the light to come on? also once the vehicle repairs were complete, as a insurance approved repaired they MUST have carried out a post repair quality control check to ensure the repairs were satisfactory and that there were again no SRS or other possible repair related warning lights on.
I would expect on a heavy rear end that they would have also and should have road tested the vehicle, again they would have seen the light come on? alos check the mileage when they collected the vehicle, if it was 50miles round trip, expect to see 55-60 extra on the odometer, allowing 50 collection & delivery and then a further 5-10 for a road test.
I hope you have luck with this, it will be hard as repairers never back down - dont be affraid to ask for copies of the check sheets, also if the warning light is on the clocks where the speedo/rev counter are they are ment to take an image of the vehicle clocks when it have been running for a few seconds to show no warning lights remain on (as a part of taking images of the rest of the vehicle which are submitted to your insurance companies engineering dept for appraisal and authoriy to carry out the repairs.)