Time to settle claims

Wegie

How long should it take to settle insurance claims? My car was written off in a motorway accident (a car came into the side of my car) in December 2006. The insurance company (Privilege) gave me the (mean) value of the car minus excess and took the car away in January 2007 (they immediately sold it). They told me it would take some time to get the police report through (the police disputed this, saying it would be swift) and they sent me a note around April saying they were "liaising with the police". I heard nothing for months so contacted them and received a bizarre letter in November 2007 saying that the price of the police report had gone up. So they didn't have it after almost a year. The insurance company have now passed it to a solicitor who, after more than a year, is asking me questions like "which car hit yours?" Grrr! I just want my excess and liability sorted out, which I never envisaged would take more than 16 months.