Insurers are at fault here

12:34pm Thursday 15th May 2008

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With reference to Joyce Billingham's letter about the accident she had with her car and a younger person.

This happened to my grandson. A car driven by a young person suddenly left the lane she was in and went over to the lane my grandson was in, resulting in him getting a large dent in his wheel arch.

The young person stated they had just passed their test and were looking at their sat-nav. They accepted responsibility and there were witnesses.

As required by law, my grandson informed his insurance and said he would not be claiming as the other person had accepted responsibility and after paying his excess anyway it would not have been worth it. He thought it better to get the bump done and save his no-claims bonus but the insurance company immediately took two years no-claims bonus off him.

My grandson phoned constantly about getting his no-claims reinstated and sent drawings and statements explaining exactly what had happened. The insurance kept saying they would phone him back but never did. Meanwhile they were taking high amounts of money from his account to cover the 2 years no-claims they had taken off him.

They even suggested he get legal representation even though he pays on his insurance for this. After three months this young person put in a claim against him, saying he had damaged her car.

Well enough was enough, my grandson wrote and told them he was sending letters and drawings and all correspondence he had sent along with details of phone calls he had made to the ombudsman. Within a week the insurers admitted they were in the wrong and wrote "It does appear both ourselves and the third party insurer were very keen to apportion blame and failed to establish if a claim was actually being made". He got all his money back, his no-claim bonus and an apology.

As Jill Boddy says in the Halesowen News, it is not always the other person's fault, in both these cases it is the fault of the insurers, who are quick to take your money, but try getting it back. Write to the ombudsman, you will find the address on the back of your policy. This incident was settled two weeks after going to the ombudsman. Good Luck.

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