At work we have a 10 year old Transit. As with all Transits that age it is a bit battered and bruised but still works every day. It is well maintained engine wise by my indie.
A colleague was manoeuvring between parked cars, turned to sharply and scraped the rear near side of van against a car bumper, and Avensis I think. Damage to the bumper was of the type you regularly see these SMART repairers do and the van had the slightest of rubs on it but it was more just rubbing the dirt out of a previous scrape than anything else.
Carowner wanted to go through his own ins co as is his perogative and I notified our ins co of the claim. They asked me if I wanted to claim for the van and I explained no that it was just a minor rub added to the many it had. However the caller explained that I should get it quoted for anyway as there was now a valid claim so if we could get our van looking better then we should do. As the authorised repairer was based on my commute to work I agreed to take it in to them where the assessor said there was nothing they would be able to do and I explained thats what I thought the case would be but I was just ticking their box for them.
We have now been advised by our insurers that my van is a Cat N write off! They are offering a settlement of £772 - £200 excess. It has no salvage value so I would be able to keep it but according to them, I would need to have it repaired and re MOTd. I have went back to them to say that I do not want this written off, I did not want a repair in the first instance but that it was them who directed this but they have said they cannot now undo this.
I have asked for clarification on
1. Is the van still insured just now as it is being used daily
2. Why would the bodywork scrape need repaired as this is not a requisite of the MOT
3. Who and how do I complain about this whole process.
We are all (mostly) being stung for high insurance premiums and yet here we have an insurance company basically paying out a claim to a policyholder who doesn't want it, who has made clear that the van is still usable, but they are insisting on it?
Why is the industry allowed to act like this? I think that's a rhetorical question as I know that they are all interlinked with the claims companies, the lawyers etc but I am mightily p'eed off at this decision and attitude.
I have gone back to our brokers with my views and will update but is there anything else that can be done?
(Oh and the insured's car - my company have paid out the £400 excess to him but still await the balance bill so assume he has decided that he needs a complete new bumper!)
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What a cock-up.
Disregarding the third party claim, you have presumably been "slammed" by the claims management parasites. Tell the insurer you never made a claim, challenge them to produce any evidence that you did, and demand that they wind back their clock and set right any databases they have updated or caused to be updated (HPE, DVLA etc).
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Would the insurance ombudsman be interested in this? The more people who complain at such practices might flag the issue at the very least.
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Might you be able to "threaten" them with a date in the small claims Court for loss of earnings/hardship caused by their decision?
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I think you have to raise a formal complaint against the insurance company first and follow that. Only after you have exhausted that procedure and still not had satisfaction can you take it a stage further to the FOS.
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Cliff that is my intended route, tomorrow I intend to ask them for a recording of our phone call.
Devonite as this is a company vehicle that wouldnt really be a course of action.
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Well, after a phone call today from a salvage company asking when it suited to pick up the van, I decided to bin the emails and get on the phone to broker. She had already made contact with AIG and whilst I was on phone she received a call from them to confirm they were removing the claim on our van and therefore no loss / write off would be recorded.
Sense won in the end but unbelievable how it can happen in first place!
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Good news but it's wasted a lot of your time.
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Insurance claim woes and frustration - Manatee
