Massive problems with Allianz car insurance

[Xeed]

Good evening everyone.

 

Nearly six months ago my Jaguar X-Type 03' has been involved in an accident with a HGV.

No one was present in my car at this time,

lorry was reversing and third party insurer accepted liability.

Seems like a fairly easy case.

 

I had a lot of bad experiences with insurance repairs as very often they do fairly good work with visual and cosmetic damages,

but when it comes to more advanced / mechanical repairs it becomes a struggle.

 

 

My insurer, Allianz, sent my car to the first garage who fixed rear driver's side wheel, mudguard and rear driver's side door.

I started complaning about quality of repairs pretty much straight away, so my insurer decided to send it to another garage.

Paint started coming off and door was fitted ridiculously bad.

 

 

Second garage, Jaguar approved fixed the door, paintwork is still due to be repaired by the first garage.

 

 

Same day I picked my car up from the first garage I noticed horrible juderring to my steering wheel.

With no word of a lie, when going 70mph it's like working with a pneumatic tool! Can supply a video.

 

I reported that to the insurance company, and now the problem begins that is still not resolved six months after the accident.

Car was taken to second garage (mentioned earlier) that is Jaguar approved,

they fixed the door but couldn't find a problem for juderring.

 

 

First garage said that juderring is caused by ABS sensor, and even though most garages like ATS, KwikFit or Helfords said it's definitely not true,

I replaced ABS sensor and when problem was still there I contacted Allianz to see what they say.

All they said is that in their opinion car is perfectly fine as their engineer says so!

 

As a European national I had to make a trip back home, to Poland to be precise, it's approximately 1800 miles in just a week.

Now we came back and juderring got even worse.

 

 

I decided to to go a random garage myself, pay 150 pound for stripping rear axle and see what the problem is.

What was revealed is a nightmare.

 

 

After stripping mechanic pointed out at bent break disc which was constantly holding vehicle, caliper is also damaged,

however it is now not known whether capiler has been damaged during impact or during all that time car was running on applied rear break.

 

 

There is also 1mm (apparently that's a lot!) space in gearbox adapter to rear axle that is also responsible for juderring.

 

To put this all together.

My insurer sent my car to two garages and none of those could be bothered to look properly at the car.

That is on it's own quite strange,

 

 

I rang three garages and just asked what should be done when car is hit in a wheel by a lorry,

answer was always the same, strip the axle and investigate if there's any physical damage to the axle or other components.

 

I was then allowed by my insurer to drive unroadworthy car for more than 1800 miles,

and all together since the accident I am pretty sure I covered more than 2000 miles constantly risking my life,

my family and other road users.

 

 

Each garage stated that this is definitely a life-threatning fault.

 

 

Disc and caliper due to this work could easily catch a fire, especially on a longer run.

 

Summing up all I wrote in this 'essay'. Can I sue my insurer for that?

[TSx]

You can sue the insurer for your actual losses (e.g cost of repairs to the vehicle).

 

You cannot sue them for something which might have but didn't happen (it being a 'life threatening fault').

 

You will find it easier to make a complaint via the financial ombudsman who are free for you - the insurer will have a complaints process allowing you to do this but they need the chance to investigate first.

[unclebulgaria67]

That is what you need to do now, is enter into some complaint communications in writing with Allianz saying that you are now thinking of issuing a County Court claim against them, due to the continuing issues with the Car, which were not fixed after the accident claim.

 

But your problem now is that it is sometime after the event and you have done 2000 miles since. You can bet that Alliance will now say that the issues with the car have happened since the authorised garages last looked at the car. This could well affect whether you would win in court.

 

If you want to stand a chance of winning in court, then I think you would need to obtain an independent engineers report for the car. They would need to find that the problems with the car relate to the original accident. If they don't come to that conclusion, you would face a real struggle winning any claim against Allianz. Because the engineers report would cost you money, you could ask Allianz whether they could arrange and pay for an independent engineers inspection to check on the condition of the car, in regard to the accident damage and the repairs that were done.

 

The alternative to court, is to go down the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) route, who will take ages to look into your complaint and you would be faced with having to get an independent engineers assessment anyway.

 

Remember that if you go down the court route first, you cannot then use the FOS.