Lease company/insurance treating me unfairly after my car was destroyed.
Options
Bblyt
Posts: 7 Forumite
Hi guys,
New to the forums and looking for advice! It’s a little bit of a long story so my apologies for the essay....
Last New Year’s Eve my 6 week old lease car along with 1400 others was destroyed in a huge inferno at the Liverpool Echo arenas car park. The whole event was incredibly distressing - we thought it was a terrorist attack at first! Thankfully no one was hurt.
My car is leased through an NHS scheme and comes with fully comprehensive insurance included in the package.
Lots of people who were there that night formed a Facebook group and it seemed insurers were putting this down as a non fault claim and waivering all excess fees due to it being a ‘catastrophic event’ and sorted out quite quickly.
In my case it has been slightly different. I continued paying the fees for another 4 months for a car which no longer existed in return for using a hire car - I had no idea that with most insurance companies that if your car is destroyed or written off you have no right to a courtesy car..... I was happy to continue paying this until a new car was sorted out for me.
4 months later I got a replacement car and was made to sign back to the beginning of a new 3 year contract. With no further correspondence I thought the matter was put to bed.
A couple of weeks ago the lease company has written me a demanding letter and invoice requesting the money for the insurance excess.
I replied explaining that I though the matter had been put to bed and that were they not following suit with at least 25 other insurance companies who I know have waivered these fee’s?
I have flatly been told no and that if I don’t pay they will approach my employers for the money. I have requested someone in managment get in touch with me to explain the disparity in my case but to no avail.
Can anyone help? It’s a few hundred quid (which is still a lot of money) but it’s the principle of it �� I’m at my wits end. This hugely stressful situation is still going on 11 months later
New to the forums and looking for advice! It’s a little bit of a long story so my apologies for the essay....
Last New Year’s Eve my 6 week old lease car along with 1400 others was destroyed in a huge inferno at the Liverpool Echo arenas car park. The whole event was incredibly distressing - we thought it was a terrorist attack at first! Thankfully no one was hurt.
My car is leased through an NHS scheme and comes with fully comprehensive insurance included in the package.
Lots of people who were there that night formed a Facebook group and it seemed insurers were putting this down as a non fault claim and waivering all excess fees due to it being a ‘catastrophic event’ and sorted out quite quickly.
In my case it has been slightly different. I continued paying the fees for another 4 months for a car which no longer existed in return for using a hire car - I had no idea that with most insurance companies that if your car is destroyed or written off you have no right to a courtesy car..... I was happy to continue paying this until a new car was sorted out for me.
4 months later I got a replacement car and was made to sign back to the beginning of a new 3 year contract. With no further correspondence I thought the matter was put to bed.
A couple of weeks ago the lease company has written me a demanding letter and invoice requesting the money for the insurance excess.
I replied explaining that I though the matter had been put to bed and that were they not following suit with at least 25 other insurance companies who I know have waivered these fee’s?
I have flatly been told no and that if I don’t pay they will approach my employers for the money. I have requested someone in managment get in touch with me to explain the disparity in my case but to no avail.
Can anyone help? It’s a few hundred quid (which is still a lot of money) but it’s the principle of it �� I’m at my wits end. This hugely stressful situation is still going on 11 months later
0
Comments
-
Your not being treated unfairly and you agreed to the excess when you arranged the insurance.
What makes it appear unfair is the short-sighted decision by some insurers to waive the excess in circumstances that didn't merit it. That's created uncertainty, confusion, and people claiming unfair treatment when other insurers don't follow suit.0 -
Hi thanks for your reply.
I totally understand but I’m sure you can see where my frustration lies....
Apparently (with cctv evidence) the fire started in one car. Now obviously their cover won’t cover the millions of pound damage that ensued....
So what happens in cases where you have an incident with an uninsured driver? Are you still liable for excess fees then? Genuine question - I’m not 100% clues up on how it works.0 -
So what happens in cases where you have an incident with an uninsured driver? Are you still liable for excess fees then? Genuine question - I’m not 100% clues up on how it works.
Whatever you sign up for.
Some people get insurance based on how cheap it is.
Some people buy it on how likely the company are to pay out in the event of an indicent.
The time to read reviews about a company was before signing up.0 -
Unless your insurer is one that advertises an Uninsured Driver Promise (plenties don't, although it is currently quite common) then yes you would pay your excess if you were hit by an uninsured driver.Hi thanks for your reply.
I totally understand but I’m sure you can see where my frustration lies....
Apparently (with cctv evidence) the fire started in one car. Now obviously their cover won’t cover the millions of pound damage that ensued....
So what happens in cases where you have an incident with an uninsured driver? Are you still liable for excess fees then? Genuine question - I’m not 100% clues up on how it works.
As I recall, the fire was thought to start through mechanical failure rather than the negligence of the owner, so the owner wouldn't be liable for the fire. Presumably, it can't be proven that the manufacturer of he vehicle was liable either.
And yes I do see were your frustration lies. I blame the waiving insurers for that rather than your insurer.0 -
We are not told nor given the details of the car insurance with the NHS lease scheme. We are only told it is fully comprehensive and is included with the cost of your car....I always thought that fully comprehensive meant exactly that and that they all followed the same code of conduct.
I just find it hard to believe a huge organisation such as the NHS is using companies that don’t follow this and it should be clearly advertised at the point of sale. I’ll keep fighting it as I feel it is grossly unfair but it’s a hard lesson learned. After 8 years of custom they won’t be getting thoausands of pounds from me again.0 -
The car dealership brand where my car is from is offering better prices with insurance from the big companies who treat people with compassion.
I didn’t know any different when I signed up for my ‘company’ lease car and assumed I was getting the best deal for the greater good for the employees....
Like I say, hard lesson learned. All for something which was totally not my fault. I would rather pay more per month to a large and reputable company where there is customer contact and support.0 -
Your excess is not a punishment for being too blame for an accident. It's just the part of any claim that your insurance does not cover. The exact nature of the claim doesn't really matter. Your fault, someone else's fault, nobody's fault in particular, it matters not - your excess is payable regardless. If you read your policy documents they will define your excess as "the part of any claim which you must pay yourself" or some such form of words and won't include any qualifier about "unless it wasn't your fault" - what made you assume that there was any such qualifier?Hi thanks for your reply.
I totally understand but I’m sure you can see where my frustration lies....
Apparently (with cctv evidence) the fire started in one car. Now obviously their cover won’t cover the millions of pound damage that ensued....
So what happens in cases where you have an incident with an uninsured driver? Are you still liable for excess fees then? Genuine question - I’m not 100% clues up on how it works.
If someone else is to blame for the accident what you can do is claim your excess from them (or their insurer if they have one) along with any other losses you've suffered which you haven't claimed for from your own policy. This does depend on the being an at fault person, finding them, proving they were at fault, and then having the means to pay any money you successfully claim from them.
So yes, being hit by an uninsured/untraced driver, your car catching fire, your car being stolen or your car being hit by a meteorite are all situations where you would have to pay your excess and have little or no chance of claiming it back, despite not being at fault. If that seems unfair, you red to choose a policy with a lower excess, or no excess at all.
A few insurers do promise to waive your excess in the case of being hit by an uninsured driver; this is a marketing gimmick on their part rather than a fundamental part of the purpose of an excess. And I imagine in a large high profile incident like this one some insurers might offer to waive the excesses, essentially for PR reasons. That doesn't mean that other insurers are under a moral or legal obligation to do the same.0 -
So if you're buying insurance yourself you are hoping to find a policy that has no excesses whatsoever? Good luck with that and if you do I'm sure you will change your mind when you see the price difference.0
-
OP stop being so bitter with having to pay excess, if you didn't read your own Terms and conditions or find insurance that suited you, you only have yourself to blame.
I can see you put a lot of 'you thought or I assumed'. So you didn't read it then? It's the same with car insurance companies, say Adrian flux who charge a lot for mid term amendments/cancelations, you see a lot of people complaining about them, because they didn't bother reading the T+C's
Pay your excess or try and sue the car park for your excess, your choice."It is prudent when shopping for something important, not to limit yourself to Pound land/Estate Agents"
G_M/ Bowlhead99 RIP0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 343.2K Banking & Borrowing
- 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.7K Spending & Discounts
- 235.3K Work, Benefits & Business
- 608.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 173.1K Life & Family
- 247.9K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards