Involved in an accident, third party inspected my vehicle. Any pointers?

Ricochet J · 26 Jul 2011 at 20:31

So I was involved in non-fault accident a while ago. The third party insurance company has finally inspected my car today and evaluated the damage.

The technician evaluating my car immediately went on the defensive "ohh, that damage can't have been caused by the accident", basically trying to flog me off.

He will contact me tomorrow to tell me how much his insurance company is prepared to pay.

If I think the evaluation does not cover the original damage, am I within my rights to reject his evaluation and ask for the private evaluation I undertook by a Ford Dealership to be considered instead?

The car is an x-reg Focus. By the looks of things they might write the car off as the Ford quoted more than £1000 to rectify the damage.

Is there anything I should be wary of? Thank you

Slam62 · 26 Jul 2011 at 20:36

yeah, get a couple of quotes if you like, doesn't matter what they say, just be stubborn.

edit: if they start getting funny, start piling a few other things on or contact one of those law firms, they are just hoping you will be a push over.

paradigm · 26 Jul 2011 at 23:04

How long was a "while" ago?

I'd be pushing that they should have inspected it sooner if they are going to dispute your claim.

Ricochet J · 26 Jul 2011 at 23:23

paradigm said:
How long was a "while" ago?

Jan 2010 - a long while now. It was a lengthy process. The third party made threats, the police got involved, and there were courts of law.

I've been pushing Albany Assistance (Admiral) since Jan 2010 to extract more info from the third party (More Than). Its just going at a snails pace despite:
- Photographic evidence
- A witness
- Other person admitting liability

I don't see what's taken so long. And to top it off the inspector is desputing some damage which is clearly recorded by two independent and reputable garages? :confused:

I don't see what I'm doing wrong for it to take this long.

[TW]Fox · 26 Jul 2011 at 23:26

So you've had to drive around in a damaged car for 18 months!?

gobbo · 26 Jul 2011 at 23:26

You're not doing anything wrong, this is what we pay our insurance premiums for!

Participant · 27 Jul 2011 at 08:47

Out of interest Ricochet J, did you tick the legal cover box on your policy? How have you found this decision has affected the claim process, if at all? I always tick that box and wonder if it's worth it.

Dup · 27 Jul 2011 at 09:16

Robbie G said:
Out of interest Ricochet J, did you tick the legal cover box on your policy? How have you found this decision has affected the claim process, if at all? I always tick that box and wonder if it's worth it.

I was third party fire & theft on my motorbike, had two non-fault accidents. Absolutely invaluable! In the case where a taxi drove over me and the bike they sent a barrister and that was resolved in about 20 mins, although it took a year to get to the court as they disputed it. In a case where someone pulled out on me and admitted fault, they recovered the costs for my riding gear and loss of earnings within a couple of weeks. For £15 I couldn't have done better, although really you'd expect some of these aspects to be handled by the insurance company directly.

Ricochet J · 27 Jul 2011 at 17:48

The third party insurance company want to do a cash settlement of £700 which they say will cover the costs of the repair should I want to repair it. The list is:
New rear bumper
Crash bar (conservative decision)
Replace boot latch
New front wheel
Geo+adjust

Does this sound right?

[TW]Fox;19675417 said:
So you've had to drive around in a damaged car for 18 months!?

Strictly speaking yes. However, the damage to the car was:
- Rear bumper. This "popped" out since the bumper is plastic and was still useable.
- Back panel boot latch was faulty.
- N/S/F alloy scratched.
- Geo + adjust.

The main issues which affected the car's performance and safety was the boot latch and geo+adjust, which I paid to fix.

So you're right in saying I drove around in a damaged car for 18 months, however the main issues which afffected the performance was rectified a long time ago. If someone scratched your car you would be driving around in a damaged car until it is fixed.

[TW]Fox · 27 Jul 2011 at 17:49

Cash settlement sounds good - doesnt this mean the car wont be written off?

mattyprice4004 · 27 Jul 2011 at 17:59

I'd want costs for the court time and time taken to fight, if they're in the wrong and they've been dragging their heels so much!

Ricochet J · 27 Jul 2011 at 18:06

[TW]Fox;19680617 said:
Cash settlement sounds good - doesnt this mean the car wont be written off?

Yes you are right. However, I'm not sure if it will show up in an HPI check that the car has been involved in an accident.

mattyprice4004 said:
I'd want costs for the court time and time taken to fight, if they're in the wrong and they've been dragging their heels so much!

Advice noted

Bipolar Kittens · 27 Jul 2011 at 20:26

Am I missing something here?

Why didn't your own insurance company deal with this and recover the costs from the third party?

Scania · 27 Jul 2011 at 20:49

Bipolar Kittens said:
Am I missing something here?

Why didn't your own insurance company deal with this and recover the costs from the third party?

From what the OP said, I think his insurers have been dealing with it, albeit at a glacial pace.....

hurfdurf · 27 Jul 2011 at 21:28

mattyprice4004 said:
I'd want costs for the court time and time taken to fight, if they're in the wrong and they've been dragging their heels so much!

Indeed, this sounds like it has gone far from smoothly and you have received massively sub par service, but then I don't really understand what has happened so...

Moeks · 27 Jul 2011 at 21:36

Take their bleedin' time don't then!

I thought you were gonna write the car off yourself at that Southern meet we did a while back and you were following me, I braked hard as the person infront of me did and you locked up and came skidding towards me in a cloud of tyre smoke

...almost made a Jocus ...or a Faguar ...whichever you prefer.

Ricochet J · 27 Jul 2011 at 22:06

Bipolar Kittens said:
Why didn't your own insurance company deal with this and recover the costs from the third party?

My insurance company are dealing with the case. It just got complicated when the guy made threats and the police got involved. I had to wait around six months for the police report. That doesn't explain where the other 12 months went. Albany Assistance were rubbish and didn't put enough pressure on the third party insurance company.

Moeks said:
Take their bleedin' time don't then!

I thought you were gonna write the car off yourself at that Southern meet we did a while back and you were following me, I braked hard as the person infront of me did and you locked up and came skidding towards me in a cloud of tyre smoke ...almost made a Jocus ...or a Faguar ...whichever you prefer.

Yeh the road was damp, and there were leaves on the floor

I've got to make the next meet...

wasc · 28 Jul 2011 at 09:31

You see, this has got me wondering. In a scenario like this where you're claiming off a third party that's being slow, is there anything stopping you from doing the following

- taking the car to your choice of garage and getting a quote
- pass quote onto third party giving them 7 days to pay
- telling your garage to fix (obviously you'll have to pay out of your pocket)
- if third party haven't paid up add on 8% interest which I believe is permissable and then initiate court claim through the website?

I would have thought allowing their assessor to inspect the damage and offer a settlement is nothing more than courtesy, i.e. if the car isn't obviously written off (i.e. completely smashed up), you can repair it and get them to pay?