claim invalid. please help.

[dolaphonic]

i previously had a post on this but cant seem to find it.

 

on april 22nd of this year the car next to mine caught fire and subsequently set fire to mine completely burning it out. the insurers came and collected it the next day and declared it a write off and subsequently made me an offer. I proceeded to send in the necessary documents (v5 and policy documents) as requested. After a delay of nearly two weeks of not hearing anything from the insurers i called them to find out what was going on , to which they responded they had a problem with the ownership of the car.

The car was taken out on finance by my girlfriend in december 08. shortly after taking out the car I fell on hardship and couldnt insure the car so i decided to not drive it and intended to declare it SORN. Following advice from a friend i changed the log book from my girlfriends name into the name of my sister whos house i was to keep the car during this period. when it came time to drive the car again i honestly had thought i had changed the log book back to my name but i obviously hadnt.

during the investigation my insurers appointed an external company to ask / officialy interview me about the situation. This went well with the gentleman telling me he cant see a problem with the situation.

i cant see the problem really. its not like anyone other than myself has ever been insured on the car so there is no fronting involved. i never benefitted financially from the oversight.

 

here is the email i received:

 

Our ref: TOT0076071

t WOLVERHAMPTON

WV6 0RW

Dear Mr

Vehicle:

Incident: 22 April 2010

Policy:

We refer to the above and recent communications regarding your claim. Unfortunately the underwriters have advised that the policy should be cancelled from inception date due to the non disclosure of the true owner of the vehicle.

Had they been made aware of the correct ownership details at the inception of the policy no cover would have been offered.

Since the policy has been voided from inception we regret we are unable to be of any financial assistance in relation to the incident that occurred on the above date. As the vehicle is a category A total loss it cannot be repaired and remains at our salvage yard pending your further instructions. If we do not hear from you within 30 days we will proceed to dispose of the salvage, due to the condition of the vehicle there is no value in the Salvage.

We understand that you will not be happy with this decision but assure you of our best attention at all times.

Yours faithfully

K Padfield

Total Loss department

 

 

 

Basically im trying to find out what i can do , who i can appeal to , when / can i contact the ombudsman , do i seek legal help.

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any help.

[unclebulgaria67]

Yes you can pass this onto the FOS to deal with this. Make a complaint to Insurers to ask them for their final decision, as you intend to refer this to the FOS. The FOS won't look into this until you have used the Insurers complaints procedure and either 8 weeks have passed without resolution or Insurers have issued their final response.

 

Sorry to say this, but in my opinion the FOS will take ages to look into this (up to 2 years in some cases) and they will probably agree with the Insurers. The way you have handled the ownership and Insurance of the car, has not done you any favours. The Insurance should have been kept in your girlfriends name as she owned it, with any drivers noted as named drivers.

 

I don't think there is any real point getting into a debate on this forum, as the Insurers would have obtained a lot of information from you, to base their decision. You are best to make a complaint to the Insurers, take legal advice to see if you can do anything legally and use the FOS if you are willing to wait along time.

 

Don't fall into the trap of saying the car being subject to fire had nothing to do with these issues and was beyond your control. The point is you appear to have deliberately deceived the Insurers by not providing truthful information. Therefore voidance of the Insurance contract could have been anticipated.

[dolaphonic]

thanks.

[wheelergeezer]

I cannot see you winning this as it isn't simply a case of not being in your name, it isn't your car! You say your GF bought the car, therefore it is her car or the finance companies. You insured a car that does not belong to you and is not in your name, usually two basic requirements for any insurer and they will have asked you this at the time of purchase of insurance.

 

Your only real course of action, is to claim off the 3rd party. As your insurance has been cancelled you would have to do this either yourself by writing and asking for their insurance company details, or appoint a solicitor to do it for you. Your last course of recourse would be to sue the individual themselves.

 

Be very cautious in future with insurance. You will be asked (often very briefly in mid sentence) if you have ever had insurance cancelled or declined. you MUST now answer yes.

[dolaphonic]

thanks for the replys. is there any other way i can prove the car was mine. my friend was in a similar situation( his gf got his car on finance) and was paid out by his insurer. although my name wasnt on the v5 i can prove i maintained the car with service and repair records from bmw, i paid the initial deposit also to bmw. i know i might be reaching but ive got 17 k left to pay so im looking at all options. its not like i set out to deceive , i honestly thought i had switched the v5 back to my name.

[wheelergeezer]

Oh wow. I just (wrongly) asumed we were talking a couple of k here. 17k is a huge amount and no wonder they are tryting to find a way out.

 

It is difficult, but not impossible. You SHOULD have been asked if you are the owner and registered keeper when you took out the policy. If they didn't ask, then you have a get out clause. If they did and you were, then you have a get out clause. If they did, you were not but said you were, they win.

 

I would suggest because of the huge amount involved that you contact a no win- no fee solicitor and see what they say.

[Endymion]

err... claim off the third party...

[dolaphonic]

err... claim off the third party...

 

how do i go about that?

[unclebulgaria67]

how do i go about that?

 

You are probably best to use one the large firms of solicitors who have set up Car accident claims management companies; Google or look in your local yellow pages.

 

You would need to know the registration details of the first car that was on fire, which spread to your own car.

 

What would then happen is that an approach would be made to the Insurers of that car, to make a claim for your own car. Personally I think this would be quite difficult, as I am sure that it would be necessary to prove liability against the owner of the other car. For this reason, the accident claim Solicitors might not wish to take this on.

[wheelergeezer]

 

I would suggest because of the huge amount involved that you contact a no win- no fee solicitor and see what they say.

 

Just as I suggested several posts ago.

 

Yes they would because it is consequential loss. As a direct result of the first car being on fire, the OPs £17k car was written off. Not the OP's fault, so claim off them.

[unclebulgaria67]

Just as I suggested several posts ago.

 

Yes they would because it is consequential loss. As a direct result of the first car being on fire, the OPs £17k car was written off. Not the OP's fault, so claim off them.

 

We will see if the OP manages to get a no win no fee company to take this on? It will be interesting.

 

I suppose it depends on the exact circumstances of how the other car caught on fire.

[dolaphonic]

25k car , 17 left on finance

[unclebulgaria67]

25k car , 17 left on finance

 

It will be the owner of the car that would need to take forward a legal proceedings against the 3rd party.

 

While you may be morally obliged to repay the money, it is up to the actual owner to take this forward.

 

Do the girlfriends finance company know the car is written off and will not be covered by Insurance ?

[dolaphonic]

It will be the owner of the car that would need to take forward a legal proceedings against the 3rd party.

 

While you may be morally obliged to repay the money, it is up to the actual owner to take this forward.

 

Do the girlfriends finance company know the car is written off and will not be covered by Insurance ?

 

I was going to call them on monday and let them know.

[unclebulgaria67]

I was going to call them on monday and let them know.

 

Someone I worked with was in a similar situation many years ago. They had to continue paying the finance back over the remaining period, for a car that no longer existed. So payments will need to continue being made or your girlfriend will be taken to court and face additional costs.

 

Your girlfriend trying to claim the value of the car back via the 3rd parties Insurers, using no win no fee solicitors will be a long drawn out affair and there is no guarantee of success. Personally I don't think there is much chance of solicitors proving any liability on the part of the 3rd party car owner. This is unless you can get your hands on any fire department/police report/investigation report about how two cars came to be destroyed by fire. I would have thought this was documented in some way.

[dolaphonic]

Someone I worked with was in a similar situation many years ago. They had to continue paying the finance back over the remaining period, for a car that no longer existed. So payments will need to continue being made or your girlfriend will be taken to court and face additional costs.

 

Your girlfriend trying to claim the value of the car back via the 3rd parties Insurers, using no win no fee solicitors will be a long drawn out affair and there is no guarantee of success. Personally I don't think there is much chance of solicitors proving any liability on the part of the 3rd party car owner. This is unless you can get your hands on any fire department/police report/investigation report about how two cars came to be destroyed by fire. I would have thought this was documented in some way.

 

 

i resigned to the fact that i'll have to pay back the amount for the car.

as far as the actual fire im not actually ., to me it looked like arson and the fireman at the scene more or less informally concurred. the worst part of it is that i parked in a space that i usually dont. had i been in my usua space it wouldnt of happened.