What are my rights? - I had a car accident yesterday

[Theangel1971]

Dear All,

 

I had a car accident yesterday,

the road surface has been gravelled that day & the stones were still loose.

I was driving 20 mile an hour because I didn’t want the stone to chip my paint work.

 

Other cars we’re over taking me & one overtook me on a bend,  

before I knew what was happening my car skidded on the stones & I was veering onto the other side of the road.

 

I pulled the steering wheel to the left to get the car back on the left hand side.

It skidded even more, steering wheel locked & before I knew it the became out of control driving off the road, knocking down a Ballard & into a hedge.

 

I found the insurance company very unhelpful,   

The recovery truck picked up my vehicle & told me I had to get myself home

 

Today I have been told by the insurance that my car is a write off, which means I loose the 5 months left on it’s insurance that I’ve paid in full, I can’t have a hire car because although I paid nearly £500 for my insurance which included a courtesy car in the event of an accident,  I don’t get a courtesy car.

 

I pay £250 excess on top of all this.

 

Is all this allowed, do my insurance company really get to do this.

[BankFodder]

Firstly, please will you space your posts out a bit better so that they are easier to read. Thanks.

Secondly, if a courtesy car is included in the insurance then why aren't they providing it to you? You don't explain and we really have no basis for making a guess.

Thirdly, are you sure that the vehicle is a write-off? What is the value of the vehicle – for you to replace – equivalent mileage, condition – everything? How much do they say would be the cost of repairs?

You had the accident yesterday and already they've assessed the vehicle as being written off. This seems extraordinarily quick to me.

Which insurer are we talking about here?

[Theangel1971]

Hi,

 

They say I am only entitled to a courtesy car when the car is being repaired not when it has been written off.

 

They have not given me details of the cost for the repair.  The value of the car is approximately £4000. 

 

The insurers are called  Admiral.

 

Also, my insurance states they provide up to £100 to cover injury. I have really hurt my back but there has been no mention of it at all. Just what they want from me.

[BankFodder]

Okay. The first thing you have to realise is that the insurer is in conflict with you in suffer as your interests are concerned. They want to save money and rip you off. You want to get properly compensated for all of your losses.

He say the value of the car is approximately £4000. Is this the value that you have given it? Is this the value the insurer has given it? You need to be doing some proper research to find out the cost of a replacement vehicle. The purchase price to you – not a trade price. You can be certain that Admiral will attempt to fob you off with some kind of trade price.

How have they informed you that it is a write off? You must take control of this and the first thing you should do is that you should write to them and asked them for the basis of their write off assessment and copies of any evaluations of the damage and assessments of repair costs. At the very least you must make them realise that you won't simply be accepting what they say.

Secondly, if you say that you have been injured then have you been to the doctor? If not, then why not? You should have gone to the doctor immediately and get a proper examination with a view eventually to getting a report. If you haven't been to a doctor then do it now.

I don't understand that the insurer is only providing you £100 to cover injury. This seems to be a very unlikely situation. Is it not possible that you have misinterpreted the situation and that the hundred pounds is intended to cover immediate expenses of some sort?

[Theangel1971]

Hi,

 

I spoke with my doctor on the phone because I was in too much pain to walk to the surgery. He has prescribed me some painkillers. Tomorrow I will go & see him then. 

 

I valued the car car based on its market value today.

 

They  informed me on the telephone it has been written off. I have called the garage the insurer sent to retrieve the car at the time of the accident & told them I still need to check the car for valuables. This has delayed them, in the meantime I will write to admiral requesting the information you have advised.

 

thank you 

146610903.pdf

[BankFodder]

Okay I understand now that because there is no third party involved, you will be able to claim anything for your injuries – just up to £100 medical expenses. Unless you are thinking of suing the council or whoever it was was responsible for the gravel on the road, there won't be any point in doctors reports et cetera.

I hope that you are in contact with the insurer by email because everything needs to be done quickly. They will be taking steps to dispose of the vehicle and you should make sure that they agree what the value is before this happens. When you go to visit the car tomorrow take photographs – inside and outside.

I think you should phone the insurer now and tell them that you want the information relating to their write off assessment – and then confirm this in writing. You should read our customer services guide and implement the advice there. You should also email the garage and instruct them that they are not to do anything with the vehicle without hearing that there has been an agreement from you – the owner. The insurer will try to say that they are owning the vehicle – but you want to ascertain that they agree with your evaluation. I can imagine that you will get a shock when they see how much space there is between your evaluation and their evaluation – although I'm thinking extremely pessimistically here but better to be prudent and cautious.

I flagged this up to our site team member  @unclebulgaria67and I expect that he will be along at some point and will no doubt give you much better advice than I can and if it is in conflict with my advice at all then follow his.

[Theangel1971]

Hi,

 

This is the email I received back from  the insurance company:

Quote

 

 I have spoken to our salvage agents and told them to delay the collection of your vehicle. If by any chance you happy for them to collect the car because you don’t want to retain your vehicle and there are personal belongings still in the car, please let us know and we can request for them to be posted back to you.

 

Now your vehicle has been deemed a total loss if you want to retain your car, you’re able to do so but the vehicle would need a category against it. As long as it is a category N or S you can put the vehicle back on the road. We would need a new MOT on the car though to make sure it was safe and legal to drive. We may cancel the insurance on that vehicle until a new MOT has been completed.

 

If you are happy for us to dispose of your car then you have the alternative option of reactivating the insurance on another vehicle. There may be some additional premium for the change of the vehicle, and this is usually determined by risk. The best example I can give is if you were to place a more expensive vehicle on your car this would be determined as a change in risk.

I know you asked for some costs to determine how we total loss vehicles. The best explanation I can give after speaking to a handler who works in the first notification of loss department would be, they take the market value that is placed on the car by you as the policy holder which in this case would be £3605. They then determine based on the glasses guide which we use to place market values on vehicles if the market value is within a certain percentage the car is then a total loss.

 

The damage doesn’t always have to be severe it can be because it is uneconomical to repair, as your insurer we promise to replace all parts on a car with genuine main dealer replacements and these tend to cost more than the parts you may get from a local garage.
If you need more information about the market value of your vehicle, please follow the online link my colleague sent in a previous email to access our online portal. It is an application that can be accessed whenever you’re free to

 

 

[BankFodder]

You now need to decide whether to accept their valuation or to challenge it. You could challenge it completely or you can simply try to negotiate a better settlement. Effectively they are offering you £3600.

You should understand that although they are offering to have the vehicle retained, at some point they will say to you that you become responsible for the costs of the retention.

Have you had any work done recently on the vehicle? For instance has it got new tyres or new brakes. Have you recently laid out a reasonable sum of money for maintenance or improvement?

[Theangel1971]

Hi,

 

only the usual services etc. 3600 is about what I would get for it if I had sold it.

 

I will of course loose what is effectively £200 for the rest of the years insurance & I will have to pay the £250 excess.

[BankFodder]

Well do a bit of research, find some examples of the same vehicle for about £4200. Send those to the insurer and say to them that you dispute their valuation. You think that the true value is £4200 but in the interests of getting out the way and is matter of goodwill, you would be prepared to accept £4000.

Maybe they will come back with £3800 and you can accept that. At least then the problem is gone.

Try that

 

In fact you would even tell them that unless they give you the proper value of the vehicle that you want them to consider your letter as a formal complaint and they should pass it to the ombudsman.

This might motivate them to meet you halfway rather more quickly

[unclebulgaria67]

Admiral probably won't offer near £3600. They are most likely to offer lower end of value shown in Glasses guide. Then you will have the excess deducted from the amount.

 

Always up to policyholder to negotiate the market value by providing evidence of similar cars for sale locally. Details of condition of the car pre accident etc. 

 

Depending on the damage you can always get a local garage or AA/RAC to carry out an inspection and report on damage/costs of repair. But they may charge you and the Insurers won't cover costs of your inspection report.

 

Insurers don't mess around with repairs over a certain value, as can be a pain, as they would be liable for more repairs if policyholder unhappy after initial repair or damage was missed.

 

The £100 injury cover i thought was not cover for actual injury. I thought this was cover if you incurred costs due to be injured e.g. ambulance call charge. 

 

Cannot really criticise Admiral as what you have been told by them appears to be correct. Unfortunately most people don't realise how Insurance works until they need to claim.

[Mwynci]

On 26/06/2019 at 12:49, Theangel1971 said:

Hi,

 

only the usual services etc. 3600 is about what I would get for it if I had sold it.

 

I will of course loose what is effectively £200 for the rest of the years insurance & I will have to pay the £250 excess.

 

Sounds like you've got a good deal there, it's hard for insurance companies to get it wrong (or get away with it) these days. 

 

Often if you place another car on cover within a certain time frame they will transfer the cover over for the rest of the term, subject to additional costs if say you get a different make model etc.  

[Theangel1971]

How do you know if I have had a good deal, you don't know what my car is worth.

 

[unclebulgaria67]

Market value of the car has yet to be negotiated.  Never accept first offer, as the Insurers will often increase with further evidence of current sales prices.  But Insurers won't match list prices shown at car dealers and they expect most people to negotiate a small discount;.