My 205 Involved In An Accident

[CaptainK 11]

surely this is as straight forward as insurance claims get?

EXACTLY ! Which is why I'm a bit miffed its taking this long. Originally they offered me peanuts for the car, I spat my coffee out and laughed demonically thinking it was a joke offer. Since then, they are "investigating" despite me giving them receipts for expensive work done and showing them examples of other cars with a similar spec to mine. This is the holdup here, as they just want to pay me peanuts.

 

As for the Chipstick Barn - I've replied to his PM. He's welcome to have my 205 when the insurance have sorted themselves out. I'm not being charged for storage and the car is on retention to me as I've paid my retention fee for it.

[Bogsye 22]

Not sure if you have it covered already but - I wrongly assumed the road tax would be claimed back by my insurance and be part of the settlement on my S2000 - lost myself a few quid there

 

Dig in on the value - it's like a tennis match. I did and it paid off, although I did start a formal complaint and threatened them with going to the Insurance Ombudsman. That costs them a small fortune so it's worth their while to clear it up prior to that. Think I wrote to the CEO's office, which did the trick.

 

Brian

[CaptainK 11]

Not sure if you have it covered already but - I wrongly assumed the road tax would be claimed back by my insurance and be part of the settlement on my S2000 - lost myself a few quid there

I thought of that just after the accident but decided I couldn't be bothered as there was less than 1 months tax left on it.

 

Dig in on the value - it's like a tennis match. I did and it paid off, although I did start a formal complaint and threatened them with going to the Insurance Ombudsman. That costs them a small fortune so it's worth their while to clear it up prior to that. Think I wrote to the CEO's office, which did the trick.

Unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to have to. They *FINALLY* called me back (been a few weeks since last communication) and they "generously" offered me £250 more. Oh deep joy lovely, thankyou so much ! They have said I can formally complain and I think I will do that. Fail that my other options are to use the ULR to beat the third party's insurance company, or fail that use the solicitors involved to do it.

[Bogsye 22]

When I made my first complaint it was the claims handler that responded - turned out she was the manager! So that left me no option but to elevate it to the CEO's office which at least got me another person to deal with. Next step would have been the Ombudsman Service.

 

I was just amazed how slow they were to actually do anything. My error was releasing the salvage before getting the value sorted - If I had denied it's release then they would have had the cost of storage mounting up to help get some focus - not much I'm sure, but none the less.

 

Brian

[CaptainK 11]

I was just amazed how slow they were to actually do anything. My error was releasing the salvage before getting the value sorted - If I had denied it's release then they would have had the cost of storage mounting up to help get some focus - not much I'm sure, but none the less.

Same - they really are very slow !

 

As for the car's storage, I was told by the company that deliver the car back that the insurance company has 90 days free storage with them. I guess they pay a yearly fee for the service or something. Either way, my car's storage doesn't "hurt" them until the start of May. Part of me is tempted to leave it there until then just to get them to pay attention, but part of me just wants the car into someone's hands that knows 205s and can store her properly.

[GilesW 41]

So how have they justified what they are offering you?

 

If the figures don't add up just write to them to tell them that you believe that your claim is not being addressed properly and that you believe they are deliberately undervaluing your car and protracting the process in order that they will hope you will settle for a value well below that allowing you to replace the car.

And that if you do not receive a more positive communication from them giving either a more relistic offer (taking note of the real market cost to replace with examples to support), or a full explaination and breakdown of their offer (again taking note of the real market cost to replace with examples to support), then in 14 days from the date of your (this) letter you will lodge a complaint with the insurance Ombudsmen on the way this case is being handled.

 

Additionally you would like to note that currently the car is still your property and that it is not to be moved from it's present location (I take it you know where it is and have visited iot and seen it??) without your consent being given.

 

I would probably also throw in that due to teh way the cliam is currently being handled you are become increasing concerned that the insurnace compnay may not be placing much of a value on you as a customer or your property and therefore you would suggest that it might be a benefit to both parties if the car was moved to a more independant storage area whilst discussings of this claim continue (chips yard).

You may choose to do this move yourself, or they move but you don't charge storage fees, or they move and you charge them £x week storage fee.

 

 

IMHO you need to be getting in there with letters and start taking control of the situation - if you don't you're going to get sweet FA.

 

Remember - letters will get more action than phone calls as it's not said unless it's be written down - and DON'T think recorded conversations motivate people! - and don't think an email is the smae thing either!

 

A letter sent recorded delivery is the only way to show you are being serious IMO.

 

Give them your timescales and tell them what your expecations are (regarding moving this forward) and what will happen if it doesn't.

Edited April 2, 2012 by GilesW

[CaptainK 11]

^^ Thankyou for your advice there GilesW. Thats very helpful of you. I did originally hope with the initial evidence I gave them of my car's worth that they would see it as a no-brainer and pay out something fractionally less than I proposed and I would be happy with that. However, they offered less than half that originally. I'd forgotten about the Insurance Ombudsman, thanks for reminding me.

 

My solicitors have also advised me to press the situation with the insurance company as taking them to court would be a very costly process. The car will also be being moved to Chip's Yard shortly (insurance are delivering it Free of Charge) after he kindly said he'd give it a home. I'm loving the idea of charging the insurance company for storage per week whilst we resolve this claim

[GilesW 41]

Many years ago my mate made £40 a week for storage of a crashed car which was there for about 6 months. Near on a grand!

 

He also then charged them to run it in (as well as getting teh scrap money).

 

Nice little earner.

 

 

 

TBH I think you will be fine so long as you start treating them like YOUR b1tch, rather than them treating you like theirs.

If you need help with the letter or whatever then I'm sure we can all help.