Vauxhall Zafira - insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim

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Tue 9 Nov 2010 17:25
Vauxhall Zafira - insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim - t1mbo

Hi there, Can anyone offer any advice how to fight a fraudulent motor insurance claim when the insurers will not?

My wife was involved in an incident whereby the car in front reversed back to allow a car to turn right across them, they almost caused an accident but my wife stopped in time. The other driver refused to get out of their car .My wife rightly checked both cars and confirmed there was no damage. She gave her details to the other driver but the other driver refused to give her details and drove off leaving my wife in the middle of the road. Two days later we get a communication from a claims handler representing the insured who advises that their car is a write off. Having already advised our insurance company we rang them to warn them this was a bogus claim. Our insurers (Direct line) own assessor noted that there was no damage to our vehicle and that he had already seen the other car and " the damage was totally inconsistent with he claim" he also offered the opinion that it looked as if they had drove into a post and missed the 1st time and scored the side of the vehicle and then tied again.

Now my wife is being sued in court for ,yes you guessed it. personal injury and physiological damage, and direct line will not fight the case having “made a financial decision”.

We want to go to court to fight but they will not support us, even though we paid for legal expenses protection cover - they have to agree to take it on and they won’t.

Does any one have any ideas how we can fight the fraudsters mostly on principle rather than recovery of full protected no claims.

Apparently to go to court and admit liability for this will ONLY cost them up to £5,000.00K but if they allege fraud as they should be doing it could cost them onwards of £7,000.00. So it’s best for them to shaft their own customers and just jack up their premiums to cover their spinelessness.

The moral of the story is if you want an easy £2,000 and a better car just reverse into a direct line customer’s car as Direct line will pay out without bothering to listen to or support their customers

Thanks for any suggestions

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Tue 9 Nov 2010 18:30
Vauxhall Zafira - insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim - LucyBC
Sorry to bang the drum but you have legal expense cover which you bought through your insurers. So the firm providing the legal expense cover is not going to sue the firm that sent them the lead - certainly not one as big as Direct Line - rather they are paying them a referral fee instead.

At my firm we don't pay insurers massive commissions for leads.

Instead we pay accident investigators, loss adjusters and lawyers to deal with case. Furthermore we don't charge as much for legal cover as your insurer will and we cover all your family's cars on a single policy for £14.99.

We also act for you and not your insurer so if your insurer is the problem we will take them on.

Let me outline what probably happened here:

You were probably sold legal expenses cover from Direct Line at the same time as you bought your motor insurance.

Direct line paid a maximum of £0.10 for this "policy" wholesale - that is less than ten pence. Given their scale I would guess they paid less than one pence - maybe a tenth of a penny. They then retailed it to you, probably at £20-£25 per car.

However it is very questionable as to whether your "motor legal protection policy" is worth anything at all. It is even debatable whether it is actually "insurance".

Your existing legal "policy" probably will not work in the event of damage only, fault claims, fraudulent claims, split liability, disputes over liability, disputes with your insurer. It certainly does not cover a dispute with a garage over a repair or a car purchase or motor prosecution defence.

So you have probably paid £20-£25 for the privilege of your "legal insurer" only dealing with non-fault claims when they will sell the repair on to any rubbish repairer making the highest bid, the credit hire on to any useless hirer charging the most and paying the highest commissions and any injury claim to the highest bidding solicitor who may (or may not) use best practice to deal with your case.

You need an accident investigator on this, a loss adjuster to take on the other side and a lawyer to back you up. To pay for those you need a proper legal insurance policy, not a "junk" one bought from your insurer.

Have you assessed your losses on this yet? Loss of no claims, loss of policy excess, increased premiums for years to come?

If you have I would be interested to see the calculation.

I have had a case in today which is clearly non-fault but which involves a serious injury to a child.

The other driver left the scene and was only traced through the Motor Insurer's Database. We have extensive photographic evidence and an investigator's report, both of which support our contention that the third party hit our client's car from behind.

"Rear end shunt with no frontal damage" is shorthand for a non-fault claim in most cases.

Yet the the third party has since produced an "independent witness" for whom neither we have neither an address or a statement and on this flimsy "evidence" the insurer and the client's "legal insurer" is pressuring the client to settle 50:50.

I wish you had had your legal insurance with us t1mbo. If you write to me at asklucy@honestjohn.co.uk I will advise you on what to do next on your case free of charge.

Edited by LucyBC on 09/11/2010 at 18:34

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Tue 9 Nov 2010 20:40
Vauxhall Zafira - insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim - bonzo dog

I would have thought you could insist that the legal cover fought the case, but I'm no expert.

Have you got legal cover on your home insurance? This may cover it?

Have you involved the police?

Good luck, whatever happens

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Wed 10 Nov 2010 06:17
Vauxhall Zafira - insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim - LucyBC

Report it to:

www.insurancefraudbureau.org/

They usually have done it before.

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Wed 10 Nov 2010 10:01
Vauxhall Zafira - insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim - t1mbo

Report it to:

www.insurancefraudbureau.org/

They usually have done it before.

Thank you for your suggestion. I shall certainly be doing this, it may not solve my problem but it may well stop them shafting someone else. I trust you read the item from Lucy BC about how worthless the Direct line legal expenses cover is- note Direct line for one car charge £26.00 for a worthless bit of paper whereby honest john charge £14 to cover all your families cars with a genuine legal expenses policy. I suggest it becomes standard procedure to refuse motor insurers offer of “legal protection insurance” and go direct to Honest John and get a policy that does what it is supposed to. Best regards

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Wed 10 Nov 2010 10:06
Vauxhall Zafira - insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim - t1mbo

I would have thought you could insist that the legal cover fought the case, but I'm no expert.

Have you got legal cover on your home insurance? This may cover it?

Have you involved the police?

Good luck, whatever happens

Thank you for your suggestion.

The police are not intereasted - I did try - they advise that the insurance company have juristriction over the claim and will not get involved.

Unfortunately my home insurance is with Pirate Line so they are not going to fight themsleves.

Best to remember that a celebrity voice over and sound bite does not equate to a reputable or reliable service provider.

Best regards

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Sun 14 Nov 2010 18:00
Vauxhall Zafira - insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim - t1mbo
Hi
Has any one seen fit to challange the sale of these insurance policy's as mis described therfore missold.
I would be happy to put my name to the challange if someone was able to support me.
Regards
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Sun 14 Nov 2010 18:16
Vauxhall Zafira - insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim - bonzo dog

Has any one seen fit to challange the sale of these insurance policy's as mis described therfore missold

Now this is where my sympathy starts to go out of the window.

Just because a policy doesn't do what you believe it should do, doesn't mean it has been mis-described or mis-sold:

  1. Was it sold face to face, over the telephone or purchased directly by you over t'internet?
  2. Where you told / did the policy summary say "whatever situation you find yourself in requiring legal assistance we will pay? (I know the answer to this one BTW :))
  3. Why do you think it was mis-described?
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Mon 15 Nov 2010 12:55
Vauxhall Zafira - insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim - injection doc
I too have had a bad experience with direct line who refused to fight my corner, i concluded they are not interested as it will cost them money !

Change ins company,& buy one of these !

www.roadhawk.co.uk/index.html

have it all on camera and wait till some smug person tries it on again.
I have one in each of my cars and worth there weight in gold.
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Tue 7 Dec 2010 16:01
Vauxhall Zafira - Pirate Line insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim - t1mbo
Many thanks for your help and advice.
This indeed is a brilliant prodcut and I am ordereing one for my wife for christmas.
Initially I thought "Shame about the £200.00 cost" , but had we had it before my wife would have retained her £100 ecxess and full noclaims - so it shoud pay for itself in the future.

Would it be to much to ask if insurance companies would offer drasitic reduction on our policies if we had these fitted to our cars?.

Tim
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Tue 7 Dec 2010 19:09
Vauxhall Zafira - Pirate Line insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim - jaybee24

whereby honest john charge £14 to cover all your families cars with a genuine legal expenses policy

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Tue 7 Dec 2010 19:10
Vauxhall Zafira - Pirate Line insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim - jaybee24

whereby honest john charge £14 to cover all your families cars with a genuine legal expenses policy

sorry meant to ask where I can locate details of this policy??

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Tue 7 Dec 2010 20:41
Vauxhall Zafira - Pirate Line insurance company refuse to fight bogus claim - Armitage Shanks {p}

www.24cover.co.uk/

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