any insurance gurus here

Someone reversed into me and wrote off my car, hes admitted full liability and I have a hire car, unfortunately the claim has been put on hold at the underwriters while they check out something on my car(it has a K and N air filter fitted,its a big old 4X4 not a boy racer).
The hire car company have phoned and said the car which his insurance is paying for is being took back before I get a settlement for my car.
I didnt have courtesy car on my insurance policy so am I now snookered.
Also because my car is write off when the settlement comes through my insurance company say they are taking the rest of my insurance payment for the duration of the policy off before i get anything WTF
If that isnt bad enough as I dont have a vehicle now apparently I cant drive another car on my policy, so no loan of my old mans car to look for a new motor.
My only option is to take out short term insurance on my old mans car.
No wonder people hate insurance companies.

Whats my next step with this.

Dave

dalex said:

Also because my car is write off when the settlement comes through my insurance company say they are taking the rest of my insurance payment for the duration of the policy off before i get anything WTF
If that isnt bad enough as I dont have a vehicle now apparently I cant drive another car on my policy, so no loan of my old mans car to look for a new motor.
My only option is to take out short term insurance on my old mans car.
No wonder people hate insurance companies.

Whats my next step with this.

Dave

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This is how insurance works, you took out an insurance policy, and that policy has (well soon) now paid out.

When you opted to pay monthly for your insurance, technically you're not paying the insurance monthly, the premium would have been paid by a finance company, and you are now paying back that loan, so the money is still owed.

Why are your company even involved and ending your policy if the other party admitted full liability?

You should be claiming from the third party, your own insurance need have nothing to do with it :/

the other insurance should be paying for the courtesy car.

You post doesn't make much sense.

they are paying and I was supposed to have it until I got the money then for a further 7 days to let the cheque clear and buy a new car, now because it is on hold at the underwriters they are taking it back leaving me with no money and no car.
I am not quibbling about the policy because i will need it as soon as I get another car, but I cant use it because I dont have a vehicle now and cant use the policy to drive the old mans car on the odd occasion that I may need to, so the insurance isn't much use to me.
just get the feeling I am getting shafted from all corners for something I had no control over.
Think I will contact the legal people I pay cover for and see what they say as I cant afford to be without transport.

Dave

I'm still confused why your policy would get terminated if the other party has admitted liability. Likewise, whether your car has an aftermarket air filter or not should be neither here nor there as far as the third parties liability is concerned.

Have you dealt with this all through your own insurance company or did you go directly to the other guys insurance?

This doesn't make sense to me, something isn't adding up

It took the other party 3 days to contact his insurance and admit liability and by this time my company had set the wheels in motion.
My insurance are dealing with it, they arent terminating my policy just from any settlement money they will take the remainder of my years policy fee so they get a full year ... fair enough coz if I cancel my monthly payment they lose out.

But they say even though I have a policy because i dont have a vehicle I cant use the policy to drive another car on the odd occasion which I have always done.....this is apparently one of the rules in the small print.

This is why I asked if there is any gurus to point in the right direction for my next step

Do I go down the legal route, hire another car and send them the bill

Dave

dalex said:

It took the other party 3 days to contact his insurance and admit liability and by this time my company had set the wheels in motion.
My insurance are dealing with it, they arent terminating my policy just from any settlement money they will take the remainder of my years policy fee so they get a full year ... fair enough coz if I cancel my monthly payment they lose out.

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That still doesn't explain why you have involved your own insurance when it's a third party claim. Dealing with a single insurance company is hard enough work, putting two in the loop is just making things painful for yourself.

why shouldnt I be letting my insurance company do what I pay them for, am I missing something here ?
I contacted them after the accident and he took 3 days to report it to his ?
Never dealt with a write off claim before... dont suppose many people have.
Just get the feeling I am going to get shafted one way or another.
On friday I will have no car, no money and no hire car, and an insurance policy I can't use.
Is this normally how insurance claims go ??

Dave

Yeah I dont get why people are questioning why you informed your insurance company? lol.

You have done exactly the right thing - You ALWAYS inform your insurance company regardless of fault.

Very standard that they will take the remaining years premiums from the settlement.

Not sure where the issue is on the courtesy car - Bit odd. Was your K&N declared? Not that it should make much difference because its not your policy paying for the courtesy car, but then im not sure that his insurance company is obligated to provide you with a car anyway because they do not have a contract with you and as you say you dont have courtesy car cover on your own policy, so I would say you were lucky to even get one in the first place.

Nothing here really sounds underhand / out of place to me. Hate to play devils advocate, but if you wanted a courtesy car cover, you should have got it with your own policy

Is there no way you could just get added to someone elses insurance? You mention your dads car.... He could add you as a named driver? Assuming he has it insured already?

Yes you inform your insurance company. But you deal directly with a 3rd party claim company to make the claim. This means you don't lose any temporary NCB, you don't have to claim your excess back, you get a hire car instantly that CAN'T be taken off you until the claim is completed should the other party accept liability.

You also don't have an issue with undeclared modifications potentially voiding your policy.

BDEE said:

Yeah I dont get why people are questioning why you informed your insurance company? lol.

You have done exactly the right thing - You ALWAYS inform your insurance company regardless of fault.

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You INFORM them, yes. You do not let them pursue the matter though, or you end up in this sort of situation where everything is a mess.

It's a bit late to do anything about it now really.

This is why the accident management companies are so good.

You get a car straight away, and they do all the leg work without messing around with your own insurer.

You simply tell your insurer that you've had an accident and that you do not require their assistance in settling the claim.

What your insurance company have likely done is essentially claim on your own insurance, with the intention of chasing up the other company afterwards.

Well as of tomorrow, I have no original car, no courtesy car and no money to buy a car....remind me again why i pay insurance ....

Dave

You have insurance to cover you when you're at fault. In your case you've got your insurer involved when you should have claimed via the other party's insurer.

In terms of cancelling your current policy over the air filter, was this a simple panel filter? You should be able to argue that this is a simple replacement and not a modification, complaining enough should get them to overlook that.

You should be able to contact the other party's insurer and arrange a hire car through them. May veb be worth explaining the situation to them and seeing if they'll take the claim off your insurer and process it.

What a thread.

You must always inform your insurance company of an accident like this. Note that this says 'inform' and not 'allow them to sort it for you'.

What has happened here is that your insurance company is dealing with the damage to your car, as you've instructed them to do. The way it works is that until your insurer receives a settlement in full from the other party, it is processed exactly as any other claim would be were it your fault.

This is why they are presumably giving you a **** courtesy car and this is why they are now querying what I presume they beleive to be an undeclared modification. It's being processed as a standalone claim.

Once they pay out, they will recover the money from the third party insurer and you will be refunded any excess and have your NCB reinstated.

This sounds like hassle. It's because it IS hassle and its why we always tend to advise you do not involve your insurer in a simple non-fault claim beyond simply telling them its happened.

BDEE said:

Not that it should make much difference because its not your policy paying for the courtesy car, but then im not sure that his insurance company is obligated to provide you with a car anyway because they do not have a contract with you and as you say you dont have courtesy car cover on your own policy, so I would say you were lucky to even get one in the first place.

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This is completely 100% wrong in every possible way. The correct situation is basically the opposite to what you've posted.

His policy IS currently paying for the courtesy car because of the way he has approached making the claim.
The other parties insurer IS obligated to pay for replacement transport if neccesary
The fact he doesnt have a 'contract' with the third party insurer is irrelevent, this isn't a contract issue this is a Road Traffic Act issue, the third party insurer has duties to him under the RTA not a 'contract'.

He wasn't lucky to get one in the first place.

dalex said:

insurance company [...] I am going to get shafted

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Yup.

Courtesy car cover is useless. I paid for it on my old Bell policy, as I needed a like for like car for work. When someone decided to try and park a motorbike in my boot, I was given a petrol i10 as a replacement for a diesel Focus (I was doing ~800 miles/week, carrying various large boxes of parts and tools around, so as you can understand I wasn't best impressed).

Following that, I got a phone call (without warning) 4 days later demanding it back by the end of the day (within about 2 hours of the phone call!), as my insurance company had posted the settlement cheque. Regardless of the fact that I hadn't actually accepted any settlement - they'd basically given me a rubbish offer, and straight away posted a cheque for said rubbish offer, apparently this triggers their policy to recover the courtesy car 48 hours after posting, and is perfectly fine for them to do.

Moral of the story - never trust an insurance company. They make their money by screwing you over (I'm sure most of you knew that anyway! )

Haggisman said:

Yup.

Courtesy car cover is useless. I paid for it on my old Bell policy, as I needed a like for like car for work. When someone decided to try and park a motorbike in my boot, I was given a petrol i10 as a replacement for a diesel Focus (I was doing ~800 miles/week, carrying various large boxes of parts and tools around, so as you can understand I wasn't best impressed).

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Why were you not dealing with the third party insurer or going through a third party firm to do it for you?

Don't claim from your own policy when its clear non-fault! You'll end up with tales of woe like those in this thread.

If your without a car Hire one and claim the costs back.

You should NOT be out of pocket due to a no fault accident.