Car insurance incident dragging on – experiences?

Last October someone ran into the back of of my car whilst waiting to turn right into my parents drive. I was stationary.

Wasn’t a bad one.

Got out car – bloke straight away admitted liability said he wanted to pay cash (I’m not having that it’s a new lease car – and it’s my partner’s).  Then out of nowhere angry ‘witness’ type bloke comes up and starts getting shouty at crash bloke for driving like an idiot. (He was right but we need calm heads.)

I calm him down but tensions are high and get phone number from angry witness who is more than happy to help.

All a bit wild west at this point.

Privilege sort claim within a week – I send photos, pictures and witness details.

Lucky to have all of that.

Now nearly 8 months later very little has happened – no excess returned but we did get 150 back for seemingly poor customer service.

It appears that the other insurance company is refusing to pay for whatever reason and now we have been asked to possibly appear in court.

I mean, low speed bang into rear – photos, witness and it’s fairly logical what happened.

So why this headache – I’ve only known claims that quickly sort themselves out with very little after shocks.

Has anyone had such a pointlessly protracted claim for such a simple incident where it can’t really be anything other than a third party crashing into the back of you?

I’m all up for court – will it get that far?

Surely this the point of insurance? Privilege say my legal costs will be met.

Don’t get it. Is it just stubbornness from the third party or insurance company?

People are cheapskate idiots around here is my guess.

Ideas on a postcard ..

(As an aside I’ve been with privilege for a long time as I’ve had a couple of claims with them over say 15 years. They’ve always been great. I’m not moving around every year for 50 quid. And I really don’t want to change.)

Could you clarify the issue? you say they sorted the claim within a week and then say very little has happened.

Maybe I’m being thick but what are you waiting for?

Guesswork because the OP doesn’t cover but…….

What happened after the shunt for the repair? Did you get referred to and use a claims company, were you able to continue to use the car in the meantime or if not were you given a hire car instead?

If yes then you may have been ‘scammed’ by the claims co running up a big OTT bill for the car rental that the other insurance is refusing to pay. If that’s the case then yes you could end up in court (usually not, settled just before) supporting your insurance cos case on them. Sorry, but there are horror stories.

Linked thread – not for the thread itself but because Crossed searched and collated the various threads from over the last couple of years about this. Just as others have their pet topics that they won’t stop posting about (sorry, will drop it 😉 ) I go on about the claim companies incessantly because they’re such a scam.

Stephen James – BMW Accident Support

Could you clarify the issue? you say they sorted the claim within a week and then say very little has happened.

Maybe I’m being thick but what are you waiting for?

Ah sorry no you’re not being thick.

They sorted the repair but excess still outstanding. That’s obviously normal for fully comp.  So excess not returned means the case is still on going.

What happened after the shunt for the repair? Did you get referred to and use a claims company, were you able to continue to use the car in the meantime or if not were you given a hire car instead?

Car was repaired within a week of incident.  Hire car went back within 4 days.

It’s just been months to pay back excess and claim fully settled I guess.

I don’t think there’s any scam on our behalf – meaning all that’s outstanding is £150 excess and case to be closed.

Yes we all have our pet subjects. (I will check that thread.)

Took me 9 months to get my excess back off the third party in a crash I had in February 2023.

Did it go through a claims company? How much did they charge for the hire car per day, is it in paperwork? You say only excess to settle but if your ins co is trying to pass an excessive hire car cost on to the other party’s insurer that can cause these issues (check the links in that thread, not the thread itself)

I know some say ‘really – for a few hundred?’ but I think this is quite commonplace now that Ins Cos have enough claims admin people with enough knowledge that they do have time to chase it – they’re not paying a lawyer to do it, it could well be some minimum wage admin person who’s just told to go through claims and see whether they’re being overclaimed for a loan car and then dispute it.

These things can just take time. It’ll likely get settled by the third party insurer when yours takes it to court – when someone there finally realises it’s an open and shut case.  This might happen ‘on the courtroom steps’.

When the legal side is closed, assuming it’s closed 100% no- fault for you, you should then get your excess back, and NCD reinstated. Sometimes an insurer will do this (NCD) before it’s settled, sometimes not. It will likely affect your renewal, but again you may get a refund of some premium increases once the legal side ends.

Don’t get wound up about it. You’ve been put (mostly) right, your insurer (UKI) will pay the costs. But do tell Privilege if you’re wondering about progress on the claim and are unhappy.

It could take 12 months to settle I’m afraid (may be longer, but do make sure you have complained again by then).

Oh, I am currently having to deal with a mistaken/fraudulent claim against me. It’s been nearly 3 months and I am dreading it being dragged out like this.

Useful stuff – thanks.

All I was looking for were people that had taken months to have a claim by way of example. Most of the time it’s only been weeks for me.

Did it go through a claims company? How much did they charge for the hire car per day, is it in paperwork?

Honestly no idea. We’re not privy to this info.

I just think it’s a case of the third party being awkward. Anyone who wants to settle with cash is likely not doing you a favour in an incident.

Seriously a cash fix on a brand new EV?

No chance.

Got out car – bloke straight away admitted liability said he wanted to pay cash (I’m not having that it’s a new lease car – and it’s my partner’s).

Don’t some insurers get really annoyed if you, as the insured party, admit liability on the scene?

Especially if you were driving like a knob or illegally. Might just be their internal processes arguing with themselves, and the other driver.

Yeah, as mentioned already, was it a hire car or a courtesy car? I had a thread a while ago outlining what happened to me when I fell into that trap. Other side disputed the cost of a hire car we had, took 2 years to sort out with threats of having to appear in court. The other side dropped it on the day we were due to appear.

I just think it’s a case of the third party being awkward. Anyone who wants to settle with cash is likely not doing you a favour in an incident.

Awkward or uninsured?

It’s a courtesy car and came when the body shop collected the car.

Many years ago, yes we had similar. Churchill took nearly 2 years to sort a near identical claim to yours.
They finally archived my file before things had been settled.
It ended with me writing a letter before action – they had failed to insure me against losses as was the policy contract. Therefore I wanted all insured sums, excess, two years policy cost (we had been with them 2 years) and compensation, and I cc’d in ombudsman.
I got excess, half a years policy cost and £50 voucher, plus a letter pleading not to go further and admitting they had been shite.

I just think it’s a case of the third party being awkward

It’s very unlikely to be the third party driver who’s being awkward. The claim will be with their insurer and all policy wordings contain a section saying the insurer can settle any claim as they see fit (whether or not their policyholder agrees).

Sounds like it’s caught up in the very Claim Protocols that were intended to smooth these things out.  Within those, there are various stages with time limitations & some insurers (particularly the cheaper end of the market) will use them as a form of cash flow management.

The reality is, it’s not just your excess & hire charges that are being claimed, Privilege will be claiming their outlay too.  The usual BS is to drag stage 1 out as far as they can then either deny liability altogether or, in cases where it’s cut & dry, a 50/50 settlement.  The likely next step is Privilege refusing & demanding 100% which, even if that’s done immediately, gives the third party insurers a few months in which to respond.  Probably then 75/25 offer & so on.

The best way to shortcut this is to issue proceedings for which they will generally ask you whether you are willing to attend court – if you’re not, they’d likely lose without video evidence etc if the TP did attend.

The whole process was designed to limit what a no win, no fee solicitor could do & earn but when it’s only insurers involved it can become a proper ball-ache.

@rone IME it can drag on. Your insurer can make decisions independently of the other party/their insurer to return your excess, but that doesn’t stop the case bubbling away in the background. It’ll likely be resolved before it gets to court

I was hit by an uninsured driver in October 2022 and I just had my clean record and NCB reinstated last week after being stuck in limbo.

I had to chase the underwriter (Markerstudy) every step of the way to make anything happen.

leegee

Oh, I am currently having to deal with a mistaken/fraudulent claim against me. It’s been nearly 3 months and I am dreading it being dragged out like this.

I had one of those. Collision in a town that I hadn’t visited in that car. Wrong registration number taken at the scene with a correct driver name; I googled the driver name and fortunately he was on linked-in, job jobbed

If you’re not that lucky there isn’t much that you can do or say, which is why you pay an insurer. Hope it goes well 🙂

Awkward or uninsured?

that would be my guess!  Lots of ways to have a policy on the car but not be insured at the time (driver, use for work, fronting, etc).  But court cases take a long time so doesn’t seem surprising it drags on – the insurer will be a lot more out of pocket than you.

In the past I’ve had to force their hand.  I would go onto the Money claim online site and fill in all the forms to go to small claims court.  At the last step, do a print screen to PDF.  Send the third party and your insurer versions of this and title the email ‘Letter before Action’.  State you’re giving them a 3 weeks to return any NCB/Money and close the insurance claim before you are proceeding with the court claim. Follow up the email with a phone call as well.  The phone call should spur them into checking their email promptly.  I’ve done this in the past and they resolved it within 24hrs.

It is in your interest to resolve this before you next need to renew insurance!

It’s very unlikely to be the third party driver who’s being awkward. The claim will be with their insurer and all policy wordings contain a section saying the insurer can settle any claim as they see fit (whether or not their policyholder agrees)

Maybe. Just the bloke was a bit daft. You can sort of tell his from his response at the time.

But I don’t really know.

Awkward or uninsured?

But then my insurance company would have reported he was uninsured ages ago?  And lumped the claim on to me perhaps.

They said they’re pursuing his insurer.

The whole process was designed to limit what a no win, no fee solicitor could do & earn but when it’s only insurers involved it can become a proper ball-ache

Wow, this is an eye-opener.

@rone IME it can drag on. Your insurer can make decisions independently of the other party/their insurer to return your excess, but that doesn’t stop the case bubbling away in the background. It’ll likely be resolved before it gets to court

Hmmm.

What’s concerning me is mine was a very simple case.

What the hell happens where it’s less clear who’s fault it was – no witness etc?

thanks all.

What the hell happens where it’s less clear who’s fault it was – no witness etc?

Well, it can only ever keep going back and forth with proposals of out of court settlements until either someone accepts letting it get to a court date where everyone ends up out of pocket, or it becomes time-barred as they only have 6 years.

Game of chicken really.

I had something sort of similar happen, I was hit, not quite as cut and dried in terms of liability but i took a load of photos and had a witness and with all of that it was obviously the other guys fault. He admitted liability at the scene but then his insurance co contested.

Car fixed and all well and good bar me not having my excess back, I think it then took 6 or 9 months to get the excess back. I would send an email to my insurance every month and get no response, eventually I took to calling them. I think I had to agree that I was happy to go to court, and then eventually I got a cheque through for my excess.

That sounds very similar Steve-g.