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Topic: Insurance Question (Read 2993 times) |
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Matt63
Junior Member
4 x 24v Ultimas - looking for more!
Posts: 75
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Insurance Question
« on: Dec 12th, 2010, 1:38pm » |
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Asking a question on behalf of a co-worker who bought a sporty BMW a year ago for about 5k.
During the recent snow, some young mum in Ford Ka ran into the back of her, causing damage to the back bumper, the boot and the rear side panels. But it didn't look too bad and the BMW was still drivable.
The Ford Ka driver said that she wished to avoid getting her insurance company involved, and asked my co-worker to get quotes for the repair work. She got 3 quotes between £1900 and £2700 but the Ford Ka driver said she could not afford that and said that she would need to get her insurance company to pay after all.
My co-worker also did not want to get her insurance involved as she is trying to keep her no-claims, and so she agreed to take her car into the garage nominated by the other insurers to get it inspected and repaired.
So she did this before going away on a short break and was told that the car would be ready when she came back.
When my co-worker got back from her break she went to collect her car. She was told that she couldn't have her car back as it was being written off and that she would have to contact her own insurance company for the money.
This sounds like a complete scam to me and that they are trying to find a way to get out of paying. In the meantime my co-worker has no car and no money and can't get to work!
She is now asking me what she should do next.
Can anyone explain what is going on? Anyone have any suggestions as to what she can do next to get her car back and to get it repaired?
Cheers Matt
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scorpio_man
Administrator
Ford Kuga awd
Posts: 5654
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Re: Insurance Question
« Reply #1 on: Dec 12th, 2010, 7:33pm » |
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hi there
did she tell her own insurer about the accident? you're legal obliged too, but the other insurer with have been in touch with them anyway. if she hasn't, play daft and say you thought the other parties insurance would do it for you. 
right, writing it off. yes, more likely. normally it's up to 1/3 the valve of the car for a repair (about £1600 in this case).
if it's written off (and you've agreed to that), then the car belongs to your insurance and they will pay you out.
as the other party has admitted liability, she won't lose her NCD, but will (normally) have a loading mark placed against her name, which might make some companies reject (massive costs) her.
hth
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gozz
Senior Member
Been around awhile
Posts: 3475
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Re: Insurance Question
« Reply #2 on: Dec 12th, 2010, 7:58pm » |
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Tell her to go and get her car back for a start,if all the lights are OK and there are no sharp bits she can carry on driving it.Obviously she hasn't agreed to write it off because she has been away,it's the old old chestnut "sorry luv it's written off",well not until she says so it ain't 
GOZZ.
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Matt63
Junior Member
4 x 24v Ultimas - looking for more!
Posts: 75
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Re: Insurance Question
« Reply #3 on: Dec 12th, 2010, 8:49pm » |
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Thanks for the answers - It's been ages since I had an accident so sorry for the stupid questions!
No she very definitely hasn't agreed to write the car off,
and, yes the car is still drivable and has no sharp bits. It truly doesn't look that bad.
She poured her life savings into the car a year ago and it is her pride and joy. And it is still her car, so she can collect it from the garage in the meantime.
But what does she do about getting it fixed? As she says, can't afford to buy another car!
Does she have any say as to whether it is written off? And if it is, what happens next?
It just seems so unfair that she should lose her car because of a silly girl that can't drive in the snow!
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Matt63
Junior Member
4 x 24v Ultimas - looking for more!
Posts: 75
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Re: Insurance Question
« Reply #4 on: Dec 12th, 2010, 9:08pm » |
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PS Been reading the other threads in this section, lots of good stuff. Amazingly I had never scrolled down this far on the forum front page. I'm with Admiral on a multi-car policy - good luck mondeoman - now I know why my co-worker didn't want to claim on her insurance!
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Simmo
Administrator
I'm an OAP !
Posts: 5508
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Re: Insurance Question
« Reply #5 on: Dec 13th, 2010, 8:41am » |
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She needs to be in touch with her insurance company. Her redress is against the other driver and it is up to them to settle her claim. If she has Legal protection as part of her policy then she should use that to sue the other driver in the small claims court if the other Insurers want to argue. She sould also check her Household policy,if she has one, as there may be a provision in there for legal advice/assistance.
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Now I'm an OAP
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mondeoman
Full Member
2.9 24V Cosworth Ultima + 2.3 16V Facelift Ultima
Posts: 376
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Re: Insurance Question
« Reply #6 on: Dec 17th, 2010, 7:31am » |
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Matt,
The good news is I managed to get Admiral to pay me enough money to cover the repair, but i'm having to organise that myself. The best weapon you can have is autotrader and I'm glad they tried to use that against me as they were comparing apples with bananas! They were quoting me costs for a 2.0 Ultima with no leather, when I have a 2.9 24v Ultima with leather so they found it hard to argue when my car cost more.
I think Simmo has some very good advice to follow on your situation.
Oh one last thing - Thanks to everyone who gave me advice on my insurance problems it really did help!
Simon
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Matt63
Junior Member
4 x 24v Ultimas - looking for more!
Posts: 75
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Re: Insurance Question
« Reply #7 on: Dec 17th, 2010, 10:44am » |
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Mondeoman, were you able to get cover reinstated? My co-worker has managed to get her car back from the garage but has been "too stressed" to deal with it further! It is definitely a tactic of insurance companies, to make it as difficult as possible to claim and hopefully the claimant will go away.
An ex-girlfriend of mine phoned up to add an extra driver onto her policy only to find it had been cancelled! Apparently they had cancelled her policy on the basis that her application form did not agree with information they had received, and she had never got the letter. So she had been driving around with no insurance for three weeks. On investigation it turns out that they are claiming that someone ran into the back of her two years ago. My friend has no recollection of the incident, and as she said, it's not even her number plate! She's told them that whoever had that crash was not her, but they still won't reinstate the policy! And because they say she lied when she applied for insurance, they won't refund the premiums paid so she has no money to get car insurance elsewhere!
Another ex-girlfriend was recently told that it would be £5,200 to change her address. She had only moved 3 miles down the road. When she refused to pay on the basis that they must have made a mistake, they sent her a 7 day letter of cancellation. Turned out it was all down to a "computer error" but what is it about girls and car insurance?
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Matt63
Junior Member
4 x 24v Ultimas - looking for more!
Posts: 75
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Re: Insurance Question
« Reply #8 on: Dec 18th, 2010, 12:31pm » |
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I am pleased to report good news!
My co-worker finally got the other driver's insurance company to inspect her BMW and has now got the work authorised.
It turns out that the reason the company decided to write it off without inspection originally was that the car had a private number plate that might have suggested the car was older than actually was, and they had not bothered to check the year of manufacture when originally valuing the vehicle and deciding to scrap it!
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gozz
Senior Member
Been around awhile
Posts: 3475
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Re: Insurance Question
« Reply #9 on: Dec 18th, 2010, 9:51pm » |
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DOH !!!!  The number plate ain't in the equation
GOZZ.
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