Help please. Third parties insurance is taking foreverrr!

[lujamil210]

So someone hit my car whilst it was parked outside my house on Jan 26th and over 3 months later I'm still driving a courtesy car.

 

I asked a lawyer to deal with it and didn't go through my own insurance because otherwise I would not have got a courtesy car (they only provide a car if you get your car fixed from one of their appointed garages). I told them I want either money or I want them to get the car fixed from a Toyota garage as I am the 1st owner of the car and it's just one of them things, I didn't want some cheap garage fixing my car.

 

After 2 inspections, one quoting £4000 a one quoting £2000; the insurance company said they would pay the £2000 (approx) if I wanted cash. I declined the offer and asked them to get it fixed from Toyota. The car has been at the Toyota garage for about a month now and Toyota quoted about £5000 to fix a car which is worth about £6500. Another 'engineer' then visited the Toyota garage last week to see the damage and assess it or what not and even yet I've heard nothing from them.

 

I have been annoyed and p*ssed off during the whole duration of this process.

 

Does anyone have any idea how long such processes take? Any previous experiences or even any suggestions?

 

All will be appreciated.

 

Third party insurance company is Churchill I believe.

[unclebulgaria67]

Going through the third parties Insurers means you can't use the FOS to help with the dispute. If you went to court, you would only get awarded the most competitive price for fixing the car and not the £5k that a Toyota garage wishes to charge.

 

If I were you, I would find out what the discrepancy is between the £2k quote and the one at £5k. If this goes to court, this will be looked at and you will probably be offered £2k, if there is not any explanation as to why this amount is not adequate.

 

This is really a lesson as to why it is not always a good idea to use the third parties Insurers. Had you used your own Insurers, they would have arranged for a repair from an authorised repairer, that was totally in line with any Toyota warranty conditions. With a repair arranged by the Insurers you are also protected by the Insurers being liable for the standard of the repairs. i.e if you had a problem with the garage, the Insurers would have to pay any additional costs to rectify the problem.

 

One thing is for certain. Churchill will not pay £5k to get the car repaired, unless you have evidence that this is the most competitive price for fixing the damage to the car.

 

The other thing you might struggle with is the hire car costs. Churchill might also kick up a fuss about any excessive charges for this.

[raydetinu]

I think you will have to justify the repair costs! and have got agreement to the hire car from the TP insurers?

you may end up in court sueing the TP to recover costs.

You should not have instructed repairs without written ageement first.