My son ended up in a ditch to avoid a head on yesterday. Thankfully he was fine but the whole side of the car, front bumper to rear bumper is wrecked. He is claiming off the guilty party’s insurance but there will be an intermediary company that will do all the leg work (Albany something or other). They will send a loss adjuster to look at what needs doing. Just wondering how comprehensive these assessments are likely to be and if there is anything we can do to make sure everything is covered.

Albany are the most useless bunch of incompetent f**kwits I’ve ever come across.
Avoid them at all costs.
Hastings by any chance?

In what ways hammyuk? Can’t avoid them as Admiral insurance use them to arrange the repairs and claim off the other party’s insurance.

You can avoid them, I did with admiral. I agree with hammys comments they are useless. Admiral weren’t much better to be honest.
Just ask admiral to deal directly rather than go through Albany, they will oblige. I can’t remember if I had to speak to a manager to drop Albany or if my admiral claims handler sorted it out without escalation.

All Albany do, is increase the value of your sons losses, in ways that are not immediately visible to him, to make cash out the crash.

From

1 – Hiring a car to your son, on a credit basis, for which he retains liability to pay if the insurers on the other side dispute the cost, (for which me might have to go to court to justify) rather than the garage providing a genuine courtesy car, or the other insurers a far lower cost hire car.

2 – Organising a credit repair, at labour rates nearly double that obtainable by the insurers. Again, he retains liability for the cost in the paperwork, its just “credit”, Albany are taking no risk, simply using your son to make money.

3 – Referring all parties to a solicitor. Whilst straight forward referral fees are now outlawed, there are ways round it.

If liability is not in dispute, he’d be far better off going to the other insurer direct. – Most matters end up in court these days over the cost of the claim, rather than who’s at fault.

From memory, Albany Assist are accident management, not loss adjusters.

Anyway, whoever you deal with, expect a “trade” valuation from Glass’ guide if the cars getting on a bit, any options to be missed on the valuation, and a write off point around 70% of the car’s replacement value.

I’ve posted on this subject many times, briefly worked in the assessors business, take a look through my posting history if you want more info.

Admiral gave him the choice to use them to arrange everything, loosing his no claims of course, or to go through Albany so that everything is claimed off the guilty party’s insurance. The guilty party has accepted responsibility and two witnesses have verified my son’s account of the accident. Thought this was going to be a simple job where the only concern was that the repair was up to standard! Oh dear!

So the idea then is to get Admiral to deal directly with the guilty party’s insurance company and leave Albany out of it. Hopefully things haven’t gone too far that means he can’t do this.

Why is he going to lose NCD then?

He’s basically been lied to by Admiral, to force him to use Albany. He’s already lost NCD, until liability is admitted with Admiral.

If there’s no dispute, the tp insurer will simply reimburse Admiral, and as they will record a zero balance, it’s as if the claim’s not been made. As soon as Admiral bank the cheque, the NCD gets reinstated, and frankly they are more likely to get the money back quickly than Admiral, (as per my previous post, the tp insurer is far more likely to quibble over the cost of the claim rather than the liability of it).

Basically, Admiral lied to avoid having to do anyhting, and bounced off the risk to Albany, who they own anyway, but can and will charge more for doing what they do than Admiral can, but have exposed your son to greater risks of litigation, as he is bearing the cost of the “credit” repair and hire, than if Admiral supplied and paid for it as per the contract he actually already has.

First thing I’d be doing is complaining to Admiral over misleading financial advice.

If they load at renewal, find another insurer.

Sorry, 3rd para line 3 should read Albany, not Admiral.

Admiral told him that he could go through them with a ‘no fault claim’, hence the loss of NCD (they told him this would happen even with a no fault claim). The only other choice given to him was to go through Albany. Not wanting to loose his NCD and have to pay the excess on the claim too he elected to use Albany.
He can use his mum’s car while his is repaired so he can take the courtesy car out of the equation, but the ‘credit’ repair is still a worry as I’m sure it will be a couple of thousands worth.

I was rear ended on M5 last sunday car written off by adjusters monday. My insurance as arranged everything, compensation, said I keep my NCD, not had to pay excess, physio, massage and doctors report, hire car. RAC recovered me and my vehicle invoice was sent to other party. Everthing done in one week, Im just waiting to agree the write off damage pay out. Note I bought new car on Sunday and transfered my insurance. I have not lost my NCD.

As they said they dont expect the other party to dispute the accident 😀 If he’s not to blame why arent they all over this like a rash? Somethings not right here?

In my case the adjusters is a seperate company from the main insurers. I dont see the connection between loss adjusters and losing your NCD? In my expereince losing your NCD is when your found to be at fault. Yes, then you would be liable for excess and lose NCD and would be liable for anything else you decided such as recovery or hire car. If your fully comp the insurers pay for your repair.

Thanks everyone for the advice! It has all worked out and Albany are now out of the equation. The car is already at the local repairers and we are just waiting to see if the cost of repairs means the car will be written off. If so then we are on to the next battle! Any advise on getting them to payout enough to replace like for like would be welcome. I’m expecting to have to refuse a few offers before we get anywhere near the amount my son spent when he bought the car just two months ago.

Plop. I’ve also had the “pleasure” of using albany. Useless shower of shit springs to mind.

Re the settlement, I went onto autotrader and produced 4-5 ads for equivalent cars to justify my valuation. It took some arguing, but dont angry, just persist and eventually they realise you wont be easy to fob off.

Thanks scrumfled, I’ll do just that.