Car Insurance Claim Nightmare

uk1 · 21 February 2019 at 12:41PM

sttony wrote: »

Bizarre situation. Looks as though they are trying void the policy or some other unsavoury thing.

I know exactly what to do, as I do this day in and day out, but do not want to put you in an awkward position. I am just saying;

Hypothetically speaking, providing there was no personal injury involved on your side....

1 Obtain full name, address of driver responsible and their insurance details.(you may have this already, if not get it from your insurers)
2 Issue a letter of claim against that driver (plenty of CPR template letters online and do contact the other insurance company to ensure they do in fact indemnify the other driver or you are suing a person of straw potentially)
3 If (2) is fine, Issue proceedings against the driver after the expiration of the letter of claim to include all losses even if their insurers respond (providing no allegations of low velocity/fraud, contributory negligence or something that seeks to avoid responsibility)
4 Follow all the court orders
5 Hearing date

To be honest - based on the circumstances you would get an admission from the other side, but you would have to prove losses. Not much research needed for small track claims and you will be surprised how easy it is.

Do the above in conjunction with your complaint against the insurer.

Hi,

This is always an option but only sensibly if everything else fails and as a last resort and certainly not after just a few weeks of completing the claim. But it is not a way of hurrying things up. You have said that "providing no personal injury is involved on your side" but the OP said very clearly "My daughter and her passenger were taken to hospital".

Irrespective of that, typically from issuing the summons a court date can be anything from around 6 months if very lucky to 18 months if there are a few directions and delays. The most likely outcome is that this will be sorted out long before any hearing and all the OP would have achieved is to have wasted a fair amount of time on starting the claim and responding to directions and paid the court fees. Most people starting the process are shocked to discover that there are court hearing fees to be paid once a date is set on top of the up-front claim fees. It isn't as inexpensive as it is made out to be.

Oraclepam · 21 February 2019 at 3:10PM

uk1 wrote: »

Hi,

This is always an option but only sensibly if everything else fails and as a last resort and certainly not after just a few weeks of completing the claim. But it is not a way of hurrying things up. You have said that "providing no personal injury is involved on your side" but the OP said very clearly "My daughter and her passenger were taken to hospital".

Irrespective of that, typically from issuing the summons a court date can be anything from around 6 months if very lucky to 18 months if there are a few directions and delays. The most likely outcome is that this will be sorted out long before any hearing and all the OP would have achieved is to have wasted a fair amount of time on starting the claim and responding to directions and paid the court fees. Most people starting the process are shocked to discover that there are court hearing fees to be paid once a date is set on top of the up-front claim fees. It isn't as inexpensive as it is made out to be.

Good news I think folks, I have just spoken with the brokers. They contacted the insurance company as they are able to speak to the underwriters direct apparently. Long story short the insurers 'allegedly' emailed the broker about the PT job/premium and the brokers never 'allegedly' received it hence the delays. There is no extra premium to pay and things should start moving now. Suffice to say I feel there is some negligence here but I will cross that bridge later. I will also have to keep chasing them about third part admitting liability as a separate issue as I do not trust them to do this efficiently either. Does anyone know if there is a timeline on the liability side of things? Obviously until this is settled we will have to pay the excess and she will lose her no claims...........

uk1 · 21 February 2019 at 3:19PM

Oraclepam wrote: »

Good news I think folks, I have just spoken with the brokers. They contacted the insurance company as they are able to speak to the underwriters direct apparently. Long story short the insurers 'allegedly' emailed the broker about the PT job/premium and the brokers never 'allegedly' received it hence the delays. There is no extra premium to pay and things should start moving now. Suffice to say I feel there is some negligence here but I will cross that bridge later. I will also have to keep chasing them about third part admitting liability as a separate issue as I do not trust them to do this efficiently either. Does anyone know if there is a timeline on the liability side of things? Obviously until this is settled we will have to pay the excess and she will lose her no claims...........

Hi, great news ......

You must be relieved that you didn't follow the advice to cancel your claim and all that other stuff ......... where would you have been if you had done so .....

There was it seems a simple miscommunication that needed to be investigated and it looks like it has now been resolved. You can try the "negligence" stuff but may I suggest you calm down and think it through and simply move on. If your claim is now in the process of being resolved, any negligence won't carry with it any loss so what is the point exactly? What are you trying to achieve exactly? You have one life, so nudge your claim along, get your insurers to confirm your daughter can drive the car and is covered and move on.

You need to ask your insurers and brokers who is pursuing your uninsured loss claim, if some of this is unisnured.

Great to see it seems to be working out.

Oraclepam · 21 February 2019 at 4:07PM

Thanks, as long as it all works out I will be happy with that. Just one quick question, not sure what this means?
"You need to ask your insurers and brokers who is pursuing your uninsured loss claim, if some of this is unisnured."

Quentin · 21 February 2019 at 4:17PM

If her claim is processed by her own insurer then she will have uninsured losses to recoup off the third party (eg insurance excess/fares/loss of earnings etc)

If she has legal cover with her policy then that can be used to pursue these, otherwise it's DIY, or instruct her own solicitor to get them back for her

uk1 · 21 February 2019 at 4:29PM

Oraclepam wrote: »

Thanks, as long as it all works out I will be happy with that. Just one quick question, not sure what this means?
"You need to ask your insurers and brokers who is pursuing your uninsured loss claim, if some of this is unisnured."

The best thing for you to do is to list all of the elements of your costs associated with the accident and ask your insurers to confirm which of them they will cover and reimburse. There might be some left over. Those are called your uninsured losses. There is also an issue I’m unclear of. Is there a personal injury claim? If so, you need to clarify with your insurer if they are either covering them or whether your cover includes the costs and potentially legal costs of pursuing them. If the answer confirms elements not covered then you will then need to check to see if you have legal cover elsewhere eg your household policy covera it ... normally you would have paid an additional amount for it.

If you end up with uninsured losses you need to decide whether to pursue them possibly at your own risk. However, one step at a time. Work out what might not be covere first and BE PATIENT!

PhantomMind · 22 February 2019 at 10:57AM

If you don't have a car but the fault is clearly the TP the go to enterprise, rent one and tell them you want to do it via their third party claims department as it's not your fault. They will provide the car free to you and then claim from the TP insurer.

Car Insurance Claim Nightmare

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