Quick Advice Needed

[Lukep]

Basically earlier this week my car was broken into and my head unit stolen and a few dents (kicks) put in the door panels and a few scratches which look like a knife of some sort. I had some previous damage to the rear bumper and rear wing which i had checked out my a garage and said thta it was only bodywork but would be expensive to fix. So I left it.

I took it to the garage and told them this and the insurance company's engineer came out and has looked at it.

He has now gone and told my insurer im trying to rip them off as some of the damage was old and has happened in more than one incident. Now I told my garage that some of the damage was old but now they are acting like I never said anything.

What happens now? Do they repair the stuff the enigeneer advises them to and let me go fish for the rest. Do the police get involved? (My other half is scared stiff that im going to have a knock on the door from the fraud unit.

But it honestly isnt my fault. It appears to be a mix up with the garage.

One last thing. There was a big scratch on my passenger door and the vandals added a new one. Will that get fixed?

[GoldyR]

The best policy is honesty, the insurers can only go on what the engineer tells them in his report & when he went out to inspect the vehicle, it is quite possible your garage showed him all the dmg, possibly by mistake, possibly hoping that it would all be dealt with under one claim & they would get paid for it.

Phone your insurers, explain the situation as you have explained it on here. You are not going to get into trouble with any fraud unit if you are honest, although the motor engineer may remember your garage as less than honest perhaps!

A) Explain there was previous dmg but you didn't have it repaired as it was too expensive. Explain that this was to the rear of the car & was nothing to do with the new dmg.
B) Explain that this is a new incident, theft of stereo plus dents & scratches.
C) Explain that you told your garage what you were claiming for, & that you were not claiming for the old dmg, but they failed to make this clear to the insurers. Apologise, tell them you are embarrassed & you want to clear this up. They are only people at the end of the phone & there is often confusion like this when there are several parties involved.

Just be straight with them & there shouldn't be any problem!

[Lukep]

Thanks Goldy sounds like a beaut. I should find out tongiht or monday what exactly the engineer said in his report.

[Lukep]

Right basically.....

I phoned up the engineers and they said "Phone the insurer". So I phoned my insurer and explained the situation:

"There was previous damage, I made the garage aware of it and they did not make the enigneer aware of it when he came. He has subsequently told the insurer in his report I am claiming on stuff that happened previously. I am an honest driver and a victim of a crime and I am not trying to claim for previous damage, just get the vandalism fixed. I told them that there was damage before and that I had told the agarge about it."

They said they understand and that they will contact the engineer to amend his statement. A case handler will get back to me later in the week.

So what will happen now guys?

[GoldyR]

What should happen now then is that the engineer should authorise the garage to go ahead with the insured repairs. You should get a courtesy car from the garage for the duration of the repairs, and will need to pay your policy excess before you collect your vehicle.

It should be as straight forward as that!

[Lukep]

Thanks Goldy. And what about the whole mix up thigny?

They said they would phone the engineers to correct that. Does he resubmit his statement or do they just note it down?

[GoldyR]

It depends on the engineer & his workload really, he'll either amend his report & re-submit it to them, which could take up to a week or so. Or they could just note their claim file. There is a slim chance he might need to go back out to ascertain what the dmg is you are claiming for, and what is old damage - this way he can ensure his estimated costings are correct & subsequently authorise the garage to go ahead if he feels their costings are fair. If they do tell you he is going out again, it may be worth you meeting him there just to be doubly sure.

[Lukep]

By the sounds of it he is a busy man so he wont be coming back out. They have made a note on the claim file which is fine for me. Its just peace of mind really so i dont get labbeled a insurance fraud.

[Lukep]

Now I am worried. I just had to chase away 2 blokes who were walking round the side of my car in the car park and eying it up and peeling the tape off the window.

I have NOWHERE to park it apart from in the private car park where i live. What if the car gets stolen? What happens then

[GoldyR]

Phone your insurers & tell them that you are worried because your car is sitting there in a dmg'd state & you feel that it is now more of a target for further vandalism &/or theft. I'm sure they would let you take it to the garage ready for the repairs to be completed, & push through the authorisation of repairs - it's better this way than having to deal with a theft claim!

If it does get stolen, the theft will need to be reported to the police & you will be asked to go through the circumstances, including what you were doing immediately prior to & after discovering the theft. If the vehicle is found, then the dmg will be repaired in addition to the dmg already sustained - however this will inevitably mean 2 excesses as will be classed as 2 seperate incidents. Or, if it is not recovered, they will make you a total loss settlement offer based on the market value of the vehicle at the time of the loss (the vandalism dmg should make no difference to the price as they were intending on repairing this to put you back in a pre-incident position). The sum insured is irrelevant, & the price they offer will be based on either Glasses or Parkers guide, with adjustments made for mileage. This is all academic at this stage though, but I would strongly suggest keeping the channels of communication open with your insurer, call them & tell them about your concerns.