2 Incidents - Markerstudy Insurance Vs. Admiral

[Lokur]

My Car was damaged in March by a 3rd party while parked.

 

Car was booked into repair

 

Insurer cancelled the repairs for more investigations (they wanted it checked by a specialist engineer)

 

Time moves on, and we end up in July.

 

My car is involved in another accident, and is written off.

 

The original repair is then scheduled and I say I don't need it any longer and want the claim settled in cash

 

Original claim is against Admiral, while mine is underwritten by Markerstudy

 

Second claim was my fault, and it was valued at roughly what I'd expect for the state it was, and the valuation said it was valued at the present condition prior to the incident. My Insurance company paid that out.

 

My insurance company now say that since I no longer have the car, i'm not entitled to anything from the first incident. Even though my car was damaged and I had to drive with a banged up car for months, other party admits liability, and I'm roughly £2k out of pocket since value of my car at second claim was lower. Edit: They also now states the engineer didnt take any prior damage into account. Even though I have in writing that he valuation was as at present condition, if it wasn't I would have argued the valuation.

 

Are they entitled to say this?

[unclebulgaria67]

I can't see the July settlement not taking into account the damaged state of the car, unless it was never inspected.

 

You are due an amount related to the first accident and how much it devalued the car. It is a case of working out how much this would be and i would suggest a fair way is the cost of repairs. If you bought the car in July, you would have worked out the cost of repair and negotiated this off the price you were willing to pay.

 

Suggest you write to the Insurer dealing with the first claim, explain the cicumstances and suggest that they need to pay you the cost of repair or risk this ending up being argued in the small claims court. This is based on the repair still being outstanding and affecting the write off value of the car following a further accident in July.

[Slimm]

No. Some more numbers would help, however for example:-

 

Car is worth 5k to start with. After accident 1 it's worth 3k.

 

After accident 2 happens you are paid our 3k, less your excess.

 

You should still be entitled to the 2k difference (less excess - recoverable from fault driver) between the original value and the value between the two accidents.

 

Get a full copy of the engineers report. If the end value has indeed been reduced due to accident 1 then you have the choice of an argument with your own insurers or approaching the insurers for the fault driver from accident 1 for the difference between the original value and pre-accident 2 value - sometimes called 'diminution'.

 

If the car was valued without a physical inspection/report you may struggle given that it sounds like you agreed the settlement.

[Lokur]

Car was worth roughly £8k

 

Damage was quoted at £1800

 

I would say that the damage would make the car worth £6k...or a bit less since the new owner would have to go through the hassle of repairs.

 

Car was valued at second incident at £6k at present condition pre accident. Which was settled less excess and some deductions. Car was definitely inspected, I never saw engineers report. The insurance company did a Cat B write off and has been in possession of the car since the police released it to them.

[Slimm]

First thing Monday ask for either:-

 

1) A copy of the engineers report , or

 

2) A payment to make up the difference, less your excess

 

If you got a quote for £1800 for repairs then ask for that, less excess but be prepared to settle for less to get the matter resolved in a timely fashion. If you don't mind a wait then feel free to follow their complaints process and threaten to go to the ombudsman.

[Lokur]

Spoken to them again, they wont give me the engineers report, but claimed she had spoken to engineer and she said there was no deduction due to previous damage.

 

She then also said I was £300 better off due to excess being applied once, I wasn't aware that no fault claims came with an excess...

[unclebulgaria67]

Excess applies to any claim on own policy and you would normally claim back off at fault third party.

 

You can submit data protection subject access request for copy of report.

 

Does not make any sense that current condition of car was not part of engineers valuation. A car has not devalued by that much in a short period with no accident damage.

[Lokur]

Should I now contact Admiral for claiming off them?

[unclebulgaria67]

Should I now contact Admiral for claiming off them?

 

If there is an excess deducted off your policy because of an accident caused by a third party, then yes you ask the third party Insurers to pay it.

 

You obviously need a letter confirming the excess amount you will pay by having your claim reduced and you send this onto the third party insurers. If you have legal cover under your own policy, then can help you with this, just in case fault in regard to the accident is still under dispute.

[Slimm]

You cannot really approach the other side until you have clarified the position with your own insurers.

 

It sounds as if they are saying that the engineer ignored the damage when they valued your car, however they are rather oddly refusing to evidence this. If the engineer did indeed ignore the damage you have no right to claim against the TPI as you have already been fully compensated.

 

I would suggest you ask for and follow your own insurers complaint process, ask again for the report and assert that you will go the ombudsman if you are not satisfied with their response.