Insurance And Payment

[Phoenix999]

Guys I need to pick your brains

A few weeks ago my daughter had a slight run in with a flat back van when he did a U-turn in front of her

The car, her Aygo, needed a new bonnet, front bumper and O/S/F wing and headlight. :(

The car was taken by the approved garage, on the advice of her insurers who are Norwich Union. Anyway, the car was repaired and returned but the work was of poor quality so NU said the garage had to be given a second chance to put things right. So off the car went again!

Today the car was delivered to her and frankly the work is as bad as it was previously. I saw the car this time and the following faults remain:

Bonnet has numerous chips of the edges which show the undercoat.

The bonnet hinges are not colour coded

The headlight does not appear to be a 'real' Toyota part

The bumper still has a chip in the paint and does not align with the wing on the right arch

The new wing has two chips in the paint low down in front of the door

Another serious issue is that the car appears to have done some 300+ miles more than when the car was originally taken. This repair garage is no more than 20 miles from here and when originally collected was taken on a recovery truck.

Anyway, my daughter, on my advice, has refused to accept the repairs or sign for the work. She has refused them the chance of taking the car back and she has also refused to stump up the excess payment. She is able to drive the car but now has to enter into a dispute with NU. I told her that her excess amount is enough to get the bonnet repaired and the bumper realigned and she will still have quite a tidy sum left in her purse.

Have any of you experienced such a situation and if so what was the outcome Do any of you have enough legal knowledge to say what her rights are in such a situation

At least she has the car and not paid or signed anything :)

[bothwell_buyer]

I made a lot of mistakes a few years ago by trusting that what I said to the garage was accepted - it wasn't..... - they denied I'd told them about loads of things, and the RAC Insurance were as unhelpful as Arnold Clark was dishonest. Yes I wrote to him as well.

However what I learnt is do everything in writing. Give them written notification of ALL the problems and copy it to the Insurance co. Any phone calls etc - write them down and copy it to the garage and the insurer as confirmation of discussions.

As this is beginning to escalate, copy it to Trading Standards for advice - they will keep you right. You might also want to ask what Complaints Procedure Norwich Union have as you wish to formally register a complaint.

Track back all that was said and done with the dates and copy that to both the garage and the insurer as a record/history of how you view matters..... it gives them the chance to remedy and come to an agreement with you to get things fixed elsewhere..... you may need to get an opinion from an engineer - do that sooner before they claim the car has been further damaged in your daughters hands (A Clark did that to me too)

Take photographs of the repairs and send them a copy of that as well - it shows that you are serous. Also keep a record of all costs -letters, stamps, phone calls, etc as these will be your costs that you will claim for your hassle. Keep a note of the time you spend on each on each day as well.

The more you do just now, the stronger your claim is.

[Blue84]

Have you logged a complaint with NU (not sure if you definately have or not reading your post). You will also need to follow the complaints procedure that will be detailed in your policy book.

One thing that is handy to know is each Insurer gets penalised £500 just when the Financial Ombudsman Service are approached by a Policyholder, but the thing to bare in mind with the FOS is that they will only become involved properly once the complaints procedure has been followed.

Bothwells advice is spot on about keeping record of everything, also definately consider getting a completely independent opinion and get the outcome put in writing.

I would keep pressuring them, but no point in shouting at anyone as from an experienced claims handler point of view it won't get you very far!

Be firm, be clear and don't take any nonsense, insurance is there to provide indemnity which is putting a policyholder back in the position they were in before the incident. If repairs are a crap quality then they have not indemnified your Daughter and fulfilled their promise. They will no doubt side with their garage too, which is why you need to get independent opinions and document everything.

I know it'll be expensive but you could also see if Toyota would give you a quote on the work thats needed, get it direct from the manufacturer.

If possible, it might not be a bad idea to not drive the car too much just so it indicates that although you have the car in your posession you are not prepared to use it huge amounts.

I now do Household Insurance claims and have done for over a year and a half but I did to Motor Claims from 2002 to May 2007 and this sort of issue can be resolved it just might take time.

Hope I've helped in some way.