Insurance dilema! Help required

[a4gom]

Last year my tin top was damaged whilst parked in our works car park. The car was written off and I was eventually paid out for the car. I know I have discussed this before with some of you on here and you have offered some good advice (which I have noted) but this has now raised its ugly head again and I am putting the details on here in the hope someone can give me some more advice and also in the hope it will prevent others from falling into the same trap.

A brief run down of the events.

10/11/09 car was run into by a colleague who admitted he was responsible, the car wasn’t badly damaged but the bump had put the airbag warning light on. I contacted Esure told them about the incident, they said they would put me in touch with their claims handling company who would arrange the repairs and provide a car for me to use, I said I was happy to continue to use my own car but they said I shouldn’t drive my vehicle due to the air bag warning. 11/11/09 Drive assist (DA) contacted me and arranged to drop off a replacement vehicle later that day. I was also contacted by a local garage who wanted to inspected the damage to the vehicle, I was still using my vehicle at this point as the replacement hadn’t turned up so called into the garage for them to inspect the damage. The car came and I signed for it on a PDA, when I got the paperwork through "with my signature on" I had in fact signed a credit hire agreement, I questioned the hire charges both with Esure and DA but was assured it wouldn’t be an issue as it wasn’t my fault. The other parties insurer contacted me a couple of days later and accepted liability offering help, I explained what had happened and told them Esure and DA were dealing with it. 19/11/09 I received a letter received from Drive assist saying the vehicle was damaged beyond economical repair and that I should transfer my cherished number as soon as possible, this I did, posting my transfer application the next day. On the 23/11/09 I received a letter from Incident Management Solutions (IMS) with an offer of settlement and request for my documentation. I called IMS regarding the documentation and the fact I was happy to accept the offer but my V5 etc was with the DVLA, I asked whether I should send what I had and forward V5 when it was returned or send all together when available, I was instructed to do the latter.

After approximately 1 week I had a number of telephone calls with DA and IMS chasing the progress of the paperwork, I explained it was still with the DVLA and that I had called but they said it could take 14 days after receipt, call back then. 14/12/09 I called the DVLA again and they told me it had been dealt with and was in the post. 16/12/09 I received the letter confirming the transfer of the number and details of new number for the vehicle. 17/12/09 I completed total loss Agreement Form provided by IMS and returned it to them by 1st Class recorded delivery complete with required documentation and letter from DVLA confirming the transfer and the new number.

I expected settlement of the claim, removal of the damaged vehicle and collection of the Courtesy car would happen the next week as up to that point dialogue between myself and DA had been regular and I was under the impression they wanted to bring the matter to a close as soon as possible. This however was not the case, I heard nothing the next week, we were then into Christmas period, I tried to call IMS and DA during the holidays but had no response to my calls. On my return to work I contacted IMS who said they would look into it, when they eventually got back to me they said they had passed the information to DA who would be in touch with me shortly. I then spoke to DA who said they had received the information from IMS on the 6th and it had been passed to their finance section for approval, they would process the cheque and I would be contacted as soon as it was ready giving me 7 days notice that they would be collecting the courtesy car. I said I was happy for them to take the car but they said that this was the procedure. A few days later I still hadn’t heard anything so called DA again, they said they would look into it and get back to me. Eventually on the 12th I received a call telling me the claim had been settled, that my cheque was in the post and that the car would be collected on the 19/01/10. I received the cheque, the courtesy car was collected and another company came and took away the damaged vehicle. I thought this was the end of it until I received a letter from Drive Assist two weeks ago telling me they had been unable to recover all the costs and that they would be appointing a solicitor on my behalf as the costs were my responsibility! Yesterday I received another letter confirming they have appointed a solicitor, today I received a letter from the solicitor with all sorts of forms to complete and a conditional fee agreement to sign. (no win no fee)

I needed a car and couldn’t buy another until I had been paid out. Having never done this before I trusted Esure and assumed everything was ok. But obviously not. Now I’m stuck where to turn, should I sign up with this solicitor? Presumably if I don’t DA will expect me to pay the outstanding charges? If I do and they loose it looks like they are saying I will be responsible for the outstanding charges plus I guess court costs?

I will be calling Esure this afternoon and will let you know how I get on.

[jeff oakley]

My opinion of these drive assit type companies is low to say the least. You wil have signed a form at some point that would have told you that in the event of a problem you would be liable for the cost of the car. Now there is a problem and they want one of their associates to recover the costs for you. So they have made money on the hire costs, and now want the fee for recovering the money. I would refer this back to your insurer in the first instance and see if they are any help. If not look at the offer from them, if they are doing it on a no win basis then you are pretty much covered, if not be very careful.

In my case someone ran into my Jaguar, a small bump less than £1000 total claim for repairs, they took it away and delivered a Merc in place. So far so good, JAg was fully drivable just dented, fast forward delay with this and that and hey presto £3.5k hire charge for them. No skin off my nose as company car, however as we all pay for this in increased costs I complained to our insureres who basically were not at all interested as it was normal.

I would trust these type of companies with a very long barge pole

[Norman Verona]

Andy, Set out this story (cut and paste the above) to Esure. Write a letter informing them that you raised the issue with them and have followed their instructions. However you're not prepared to get involved with recovery of monies and they should refer the matter to their legal department.

Refer all correspondance to Esure and don't answer any of it. send it all registered.

If anyone wants to sue you (or threatens to) just refer it to your insurer.

[a4gom]

i spoke to esure, they don't want to know, they say they haven't dealt with the claim so can't comment on or get involved. I said what! You are my insurer, I rang you and you put me onto drive assist? Stadard practice they said, we do  it with all straight forward non fault claims it's in the interest off our customers as you don't actually claim on you're insurace so no excess or nonclaims to worry about. I said this wasn't clearly explained to me and i felt very let down. they said i should speak to direct assist for reassurance but they didn't think there was anything to worry about it was all standard practice. I told them how unhappy I was with how this had been dealt with and i will write them a letter of complaint.

I spoke to drive assist they said don't worry, all standard practice, letter was not meant to worry me and that although i was responsible for the car hire costs they weren't chasing me. the solicitor works on a no win no fee basis and if he doesn't win any charges are drive assists not mine.

[andyfiggy2002]

i remember the good old days when the insurer you'd paid your premiums to would do the job your paying them for & get your claim settled. I had the same confusing situation when various 3rd party assist companies were vying for my signature but I stuck with with my insurer, I can only assume for small claims its cheaper for the insurer to fob you onto these companies or they get some form of commision for passing the trade their way. On renewal i say i've made a claim that was recovered from the guilty party & this hasnt affected my premiums or NCB. Isn't it funny that they know how the system works saying its standard practice & therefore as a first timer assume you do, idiots

[a4gom]

I just wish I had been a bit more aware and less trusting back in November, I don't know how much money is involved but I would think it's over £5k and tbh at the moment the fact that they could turn around and expect me to pay is constantly playing on my mind. The worse thing is it appears there is nothing I can do at this moment in time to sort it out.

[Norman Verona]

You should remember that a "no claims bonus" is just that. If your insurer receives a claim on your policy your NCB will be withdrawn (unless it's protected). They do not have to pay any money to you or a 3rd party just receive a cliam.

In order to reduce that possibility they use 3rd party companies to recover costs when the 3rd party ara at fult.

Don't lose any sleep, it's very unlikely they will ask you to pay anything.

I used to run a largish hire fleet plus all teh company cars in a medium size dealer group and always recovered costs from 3rd parties without claiming on our policy. All these companies are doing is the same.

[a4gom]

Cheers Norm I hope you are right.

[carpetstu]

Esure are a total waste of time and I had to threaten to sue them on 2 occasions.

Speak to the Financial Ombudsman and put the case in their hands.

Also email, fax and recorded delivery a letter to Esure giving them 14 days to rectify the matter. Head the letter notice of intent to sue. That will scare the crap out of them!

Financial Ombudsman

[Norman Verona]

Stu, Problem is by pressing Esure Andy will be deemed to be making a claim.

If you put it in the hands of the Financial ombudsman you will have to show where your (Andy's) loss is and he hasn't one. Even if you can you will have to wait at least 18 months for an ombudsman to look at the case.

Andy, as far as I can see you're in the clear. If anyone wants money from you refer them to Esure. If anyone wants to sue you your defence is in the posting at the top. Im so sure you won't have a problem that if you send me copies of any letters claiming payment I'll compose your answers.

[carpetstu]

Stu, Problem is by pressing Esure Andy will be deemed to be making a claim.

If you put it in the hands of the Financial ombudsman you will have to show where your (Andy's) loss is and he hasn't one. Even if you can you will have to wait at least 18 months for an ombudsman to look at the case.

Andy, as far as I can see you're in the clear. If anyone wants money from you refer them to Esure. If anyone wants to sue you your defence is in the posting at the top. Im so sure you won't have a problem that if you send me copies of any letters claiming payment I'll compose your answers.

I see your point Norman but I would still report the useless A*** holes to the ombudsman.

If he has been sent an invoice or pro former of any description for the hire car this will be taken as a loss.

My best advice of all on this is remove your insurance from Esure, and before committing to any other insurance check who the underwriter is. EG Sainsbury' are underwritten by Esure as well.

[Tubs]

Like Norm says, patience is the key. It might be worth re-reading your policy just for peace of mind.

However, as you are claiming against another party and, as they (their insurer) will be fighting it, sometimes it takes time. 6 months is not unusual, even a year wouldn't surprise me.

Keep your pecker up and I'm sure it'll work out. If not, we'll go and blow up Michael Winner for you.

Tubs

[a4gom]

Cheers guys, Stu I haven't actually been sent an invoice yet, Norm I may take you up on that offer if it gets that far.

I have spoken to the solicitor since and he says the third parties insurer has admitted full liability but hasn't responded to their application for costs, they are getting involved to put some deadlines in place and hopefully bring the matter to a close, he too suggested it was standard practice.

[Hilts]

Andy

I am not convinced this has anything to do with esure, whilst they are your insurers you appear to be making a claim directly against the third party insurers using driveassist as your representative. Liability is not in dispute it's a quantum dispute about the amount of hire driveassist has submitted to the third party insurers. If driveassist cannot convince the third party insurers you have mitigated your loss then the agreement you signed with driveassist gives them a right of recovery against you. If the hire is in the £5k bracket then clearly given two weeks after the claim the car was declared a total loss it would appear an exceptional amount of hire but that's irrelevant if the period of hire can be justified. From what you have said you have done all you can it appears the actual total loss payment took too long. Until you got the payment how could you replace your car and return the hire. I am not sure who sent you the total loss payment. If it's the third party insurers then it is possibly a delay of their own making, they might be arguing the delay in making the payment was a delay caused by driveassist and or you. One thing that confuses me is why esure did not handle the total loss claim under the terms of your comp policy. As soon as they passed you over to driveassist and you signed the agreement it's nothing to do with esure despite the fact they are your insurers. Who has made the total loss payment to you?

[a4gom]

Drive Assist made the payment to me.

QUOTE

One thing that confuses me is why esure did not handle the total loss claim under the terms of your comp policy

I don't understand this either and although they have tried to explain it to me since it certainly wasn't explained to me at the time.