car write off woe- advice needed urgently

[ketto]

Hi folks,

In early september my partner's 1989 Mk 1 Toyota MR2 was hit from behind while stationary. She has just spent several thousand pounds restoring it, including panel work and full re spray,and was eagerly awaiting the car reaching classic status in a few years time.
It has a personalised number plate and was insured fully comp. The other driver admitted liability for the accident although somehow the police who attended did not charge him with any offence.
We made it clear to Fortis Insurance Company that we wanted the car repaired. We also asked them not to move the car from our town. Instead they wrote the car off, as was the other drivers car written off, and moved the car some 100 miles away.
We were not happy as I always understood that if it wasn't your fault in an accident, the costs of repairing the car would be paid by the oppossition insurance company. But after we complained sufficiently they agreed to return the car, pay out £1100, and not class it as a cat C write off.
The car was duly delivered back, but with obvious front end damage, the spoiler is split, the paint work is ruined and it looks terrible. I complained again and they offered £1700, for 'inconvenience', but by this time the loan car had been taken back by Angel Assistance, as in their words, 'your insurance company has dragged along for too long'. So now it's back to taxi's with no obvious recompense. And Fortis are still dragging along. In short, they have lost letters, claimed they never turned up etc etc.
The original estimate to repair the car was £1763, but now after the damage to the front end it will obviously cost more. I again tried to get them to up the offer to 2100 but they refused today and have gone back on their word regarding the cat C write off not having to be done. They are now insisting it has to be recorded on the log book which will knock off some 50% of it's value.
My question is do I have grounds to sue them for the cost of taxis and for the extra repair or will they just suck me in, chew me up and spit me out if I try it?
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Many thanks
ketto

[RedDeath]

I was recently involved in a shunt (not at fault). My insurance company is Norwich Union Direct and they were really awful the last time I had to make a claim. So this time i went straight to a solicitor through my legal expenses. They hired the car for me and everything was charged back to the 3rd party. Car was repaired through a private repairer in under a week and once again costs sent to 3rd party.

So my advice is, if your parents have legal expenses cover, use that. Contact the solicitor and see if they can deal with it for you. Standard legal cover tends to be 50k and any solicitor should be happy to take on a claim where the 3rd party had admitted full liability.

Anyway, good luck to your parents for it.