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Car Accident Claim - Admiral


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Hi

 

I recently had a car accident where I was driving in the middle lane of a 3 lane roundabout, and there was a car in the inside lane that swerved out infront of me without indicating and he went straight into the outside lane,

 

Due to this I quite sharply braked and managed to avoid hitting him but the person behind me did not break and hit me from behind,

 

The situation was all amicable between me and the other driver that hit me, we exchanged details etc and made sure no one was hurt, she admitted she should have reacted quicker and it was her fault etc.

 

The problem I am is with the insurance company, basically I'm with admiral and they assigned the case to Albany Assistance, which sorted me out with a hire car, and sent my car to a garage to check the condition etc, Eventually after many phonecalls they advised me that the case is referred back to Admiral and that my car is a total loss and they valued it at £790.

 

I got a call from Admiral and they said the same thing, but I am absolutly furious that they valued it so low, I brought it originally 2 years ago for about 2k and it's in very good condition for what it is. I asked why they were dealing with it and not the 3rd parties insurance company and they said they were going to initially settle it with me and claim the costs of the 3rd party themselves, I tried to negotiate a more reasonable price but the said that this price was non negotiable. I don't know what to do now, I've still got the hire car but the price they've offered me is ridiculous, I'm not trying to be money hungry or anything, I just want the price my car's worth which is about £1300 - £1400

 

Could anyone advise me on what to do next? They've so far put my claim on "Hold" until I decide what to do but they haven't given me any other options lol.

 

Also is this normal practice of my insurance company settling with me then claiming there costs from the 3rd parties insurance company which is LV.

 

Any help would be great.

 

Also thanks for taking the time to read through this.

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I tried to negotiate a more reasonable price but the said that this price was non negotiable.

 

What exactly did they say here? When a claim is made it is up to you and the claims company to come to a mutually agreeable deal. They are not allowed to dictate the price to you, so don't let them steamroller over you. The good news here is that it is a non-fault claim. It may also mean that your insurance company is trying to be a tricky bastard. Welcome to the murky world of accident assistance...

 

 

First I will tell you what you should do to get your claim paid. Secondly I will tell you your insurance company want you to do this.

 

 

1) What you should do

Go to ebay, autotrader and all those other type of websites and search for your vehicle. try to get the model as exactly right to what you had, with similar mileage and age. Get a screenprint of all of these vehicles (ctrl+ PrtSC), paste into mspaint and save it. This will give you an indication of how much cash you would need to buy a replacement car of the same sort that you lost. Find an average price and accept that this will be what you can get for your vehicle.

 

If the price is higher (let's say it was £1500 for argument's sake as I have no idea) then you should contact the claims department, state that you reject their offer, and state that based on teh evidence that you have gathered that a price of £1500 would be acceptable. State you have looked at the market price and you are happy to share this with them. Jump through the hoops they put in front of you, and remember if you do send them print outs to send it recorded signed for.

 

If they reject your offer then ask them why. They at this point need to state why they believe that your car is worth less when the evidence you have provided disagrees. Ask them to provide you with this evidence. Looking up the value in Glass' Guide is not good enough - they don't set the market price they are only a guide.

 

Chances are at this point they will offer you something closer to what you are asking for. It is up to you how long you stick to your guns. However if there is no agreement to be reached then the situation will end going to a court to decide. Remember to take your evidence (and keep collecting more evidence).

 

 

2) Why they want you to do this.

The above is not really possible if the accident was your fault, because you only get a limited courtesy car length (if at all) so you are under pressure to settle because you need a new vehicle. However if it is the 3rd party's fault then they have to ensure that you suffer no loss whatsoever. This includes transport costs. So you could get to keep your courtesy car for a long time.

 

Accident Management companies know this. They know that whilst they are sure that you are 0% liable that they have the 3rd party's insurers by the short and curlies. The 3rd party company want to settle up as quickly as possible, because those courtesy cars are not free to give out. They will have to hire them from a supplier, who might charge, ohhh let's say £17 per day on a bulk contract.

 

But what if instead of using their car you used your own ca, and it cost you £25 per day? Well, they'd have to cover it. This is what accident management companies do. They hire cars themselves at £17 per day, lend it to you, and then charge the 3rd party insurer £25 per day and bag the profit themselves. In one way it's good cos it forces the 3rd party insurer to get a move on, but of course this is an industry wide thing, and the cost of these ambulance chasers on the industry makes everybody's premiums go up.

 

 

Anything an accident management company can do, an insurance company can do better. Your insurer will give you one of their courtesy cars, at the cost of £17 per day and will be charging the 3rd party insurer £25 per day. It's called a courtesy car lead, and forms an important part of generating extra revenue for the insurance company.

 

 

the longer they do this the more money they get from it. So it is in their interest to slow the process down. Now not saying that this is what they are doing, but a deliberately low and unacceptable claim which is put on hold is a very effective way of drawing this process out.

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Hi mate

 

Thanks for the quick reply

 

The admiral (my insurance company) advisor literally said "this is non negotiable " referring to the £790 offer, I really should have recorded the conversation but that is exactly what she said,

 

I asked why that is and she explained that this was the engineers valuation of the car and that that's the value in his report, and if they agree to pay anything more than the engineers value then they would not be able to recover the costs from the 3rd party.

 

Thanks for all the information there mate, I figured they were making quite a bit on the hire car that's why they weren't very punctual, Like with Albany assistance, They took 1 extra week to tell me that my car was a total loss when a week earlier I received a call from the repair centre stating that the insurance company agreed it was a total loss.

 

I know the 3rd party insurance companies forking out for all these extra costs, I decided earlier to give them a call and see what they say, funny thing is that they actually have an option on the phone for this exact purpose "press 5 if you are not with LV and the other party is an LV customer", anyway the chap said that they are not disputing liability but that they are waiting for a damage report from my insurance company. I left my mobile number with him and he said he'll call me directly once he's got the report and try to settle the claim directly.

 

I'll call Admiral tomorrow and tell them I reject there offer, and send them evidence if required of similar cars.

 

Thanks for the advice mate, If theres any other advice it would be much appreciated and I'll keep this thread updated.

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Hi

 

Just a quick update

 

I spoke to 3rd party insurance company today (LV) and they said that Admiral/Albany assitance haven't yet given them the engineers report, I decided to call my company Admiral who are acting really dodgy, it seems there really hesitant on giving the report to LV for some reason,

 

They said LV won't pay you out more because it's what the reports value is, and that I should settle with them and they can get the money later from LV, I think the report may have a higher value and there just giving me lower amount so when they give the report to LV they can claim the higher car value from them (if you get what I mean),

 

I refused and told them to send the engineers report to LV but they said they will try and someone will call me back with an update.

 

is there any way I can get them hurry up and send the report over? would a threat of a complaint to the FOS encourage them?

 

thanks

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Hi

 

another update, I got a call from Albany Assistance who told me that they have been advised by Admiral that I am rejecting the value of the car, Albany went to onto say that I would HAVE to accept this value in an "interim" basis in the next 24hrs otherwise they will have to cancel the lease of my hire car because I am delaying the claim by not accepting.

 

They stated you have to accept it and then send them evidence of the car being worth more.

 

I spoke to LV before this Albany phonecall who said they still haven't received the engineers report for the vehicle.

 

I am really at a lost as what to do now..

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Albany assistance have a point. Why not accept the payment as an interim amount only and not acceptance of the true market value, keep the hire car a little longer and negotiate a higher value.

 

Have you checked the glass.co.uk value ? This will probably be the one the Insurers are using.

 

The settlement offered by Insurers is always negotiable, but at the point when they say their offer is final, you then go to the FOS or other independent adjudicator used by Insurers. If you go to the FOS, the FOS will not accept any trade ads for similar cars for sale. The FOS position is that trade or local newspaper ads only show what people want for their cars, not the actual sale price.

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As the above has mentioned, go to the FOS if Admiral are going to be awkward. I'd avoid contacting LV anymore, you could be percieved as trying to play both insurer off each other, which is a well known tactic for certain types of claimants. Unless they are issuing the cheque, LV have no reason to know what the amount offered is until presented to them, any mention of LV not agreeing to any increases etc, will only give Admiral more reason to be awkward, you could also be prejudicing your postition.

However again as mentioned above, check Glass's, if your on retail, you have little chance of anything more.

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