Motor Claim Against Policy Paid Without Consent

B

Bananaman

Registered User
Messages
20
Hi

I had an motor insurance claim made against me, I believe I was 100% in the right.

I made it clear to my insurance company that I was not accepting any liability whatsoever and that any claim against my policy should be contested and not settled. I followed their claims guideline exactly and obtained a Garda report etc.

I just received a letter to say the claim had been settled and that my no claims bonus was affected.

It seems as if the insurance company took the easy road and paid out a sum of money to get the claim off their books, which was probably easier than defending my interest and refusing to pay anything at all.

Has anyone had an experience of such a situation? Will complaining to the insurance company/Ombudsman get me any where in terms of keeping my no claims or do you think I am wasting my time?

Thanks

 
They may give you an explanation, but once you make a claim they can settle without your consent! Are you sure you were in the right? Give us some more information and see if the great minds of AAM can advise!
 
The same thing happened to a relative of mine in Dec 2000. It was 5pm in the evening on a badly lit road and drizzling rain. A little old lady dressed in dark cloths crossed the road by weaving her way through queing traffic and stepped out of nowhere. Thankfully she was not badly hurt and actually wanted to go home. The driver insisted on calling an ambulance and making sure she was alright. Result... she sued and the insurance company paid out. Drivers premium shot up to 1000 punts. She wanted 300,000 punts in compensation and got 70,000 punts. The insurance company said it was their decision to make and that it would have cost them more to fight it.
 
I had a similar issue in 1999 - taxi pulled out without looking while I was making a turn and hit me. It was clearly his fault, backed up by two witnesses who gave statements to the gardai when they arrived. It was at the weekend so Monday morning I went into my insurance company, filled the paperwork etc to be told that the other party had already submitted the claim first thing that morning holding me responsible.
I lost 5 years no claims and started from scratch. My solicitor told me it wasn't worth fighting and that it was the insurance companies right to settle based on information provided without my consent.
I probably should have done more about it but I merely remained bitter about the taxi driver and my insurance company for many years.
 
Your policy allows Insurers to make this decision without your agreement. Insurers make decsions based upon what they believe will be the economic outcome of any particular case. If they believe they do not have a strong case, they will not waste money defending it. It would seem that, galling as it may be, that this is what they have done in your case, and because under the terms and conditions of your policy you agree to them to do this, there is little you can do about it. You did have a choice, you didnt have to ask Insurers to deal with your case. You could have dealt with the claim yourself and defended it directly if you believed that you where in the right. Otherwise, you are stuck with your Insurers position im afraid.
 
A drunk got in the back my of taxi van. Fastened his seat belt and away we went, at some point he took off his belt without me noticing (there’s a partition between front and rear of the van).
I had to break sharpish as someone had wondered out on the road- the guy fell off his seat and banged his head. He required a couple of stitches.
I took him to the hospital and got it sorted, got a Garda statement- he admitted to removing his seat belt while i was driving, the Garda also noted that he was intoxicated.
The insurance assessor mentioned that that the van met all safety criteria, and that I had followed procedure 100%.
Had the guy not decided to take of his seatbelt mid journey the would not have gotten hurt, as far as im concerned a driver can only ensure an occupant is waring a seat belt before they start to drive- short of putting a pad lock on a seat belt.
I would have gladly death with the claim myself as I have legal expense cover under my policy which I can use without affecting my no claims. However this option wasn’t offered.
The occupant got on to his solicitor the very next day and is now 6.5k richer.
 
That is so frustrating. I had a small bump about 10 years ago, my fault. I slightly damaged the front bumper of a car to my right. (only my second ever accident driving). The guy got out, was really pleasant. His car was slightly scraped but was a total banger. Anyway I apologised, took his details, told him I'd ring him later.

My husband actually rang him and thanked him for being so decent and civil- I was 9 months pregnant . He said no bother, 2 or 3 hundred should sort it. A month later I got a process server at my door. Guy got seriously injured, whiplash, loss of earnings, couldn't lift or play with his kids, etc. etc. etc.

Insurance settled. He asked for 30,000 punts and got 17,500. I lost no claims and learned not to take people at face value in those situations.

A.
 

Sickening. This type of thing is exactly whats wrong with Ireland. He got 6.5k, should have got kick up the ***
 
bit confused here.

Your reported the accident saying you were in the right and you got a Garda report. Did you get the full report, sketch and statements? It seems a tad unusual for the Policyholder to get this report - normally the insurer gets it as it costs money and is paid for on a per statement basis, so the more statements, the higher the cost.

Normally, if the policyholder is adamant that they are in the right, and more importantly, it is CLEAR that they are not in the wrong, the insurer will investigate further, either by discussing over phone with policyholder or by sending someone to investigate at the scene with the driver.

If you feel strongly, you can avail of your Insurer's complaints procedure. If you are not satisfied with the outcome there, you can go to the Ombudsman.
 

Similar, but not exactly the same - a few years ago wife tipped a car in front in heavy traffic - no major damage - nothing to our car (Yaris), small dent in rear bumper of 'injured' car (Megane). We were at fault. Advised our insurance company at the time for the record, but advised that we would be settling claim ourselves.

Spoke to owner by phone and asked that he obtain quote for damage. Follow up phone call confirmed the bad news at E600 - seemed high, but on the basis that he was probably going to get a new rear bumper, labour etc, I accepted same. He advised Main Dealers name that provided quote. Rather than lose NCB I decided to pay myself - I dropped a short note to injured party including cheque for E600 payable to the Main Dealer.

Third phone call when he rang he and went ballistic - wanted cheque made payable to him - I was shocked on the basis I thought it might be a 'thank you' phone call. I held my ground on the basis that I felt I had covered the cost without question (and without even requesting sight of the original quotation) - phone call ended with him threatening to contact Gardai.

About 2 weeks later - received notification from our insurance company that they had settled our claim!

Rang for clarification - he had claimed the princely sum of over E1,900 - including rear bumper, two days car hire etc etc - told them my side off the story. They were non-plussed... I let it go (but often wonder if I should have challenged more at the time...
 
Sometimes insurance companies do look into things. My named drived went into the back of someone, only slightly tipped them. She was fine very nice, only a small scratch and dent, he swapped numbers agreed to pay for the damage ( well he was told by me cause i wasn't losingmy no claims bonus ) 3 weeks later we get a call saying the cheapest quote was €1500, he had gone to 3 different garages. We said we thought that was a bit high and could they send us the 3 quotes they had recieved.

We heard nothing more from them. 2 years later I had a call from the insurance company, the girl was looking for thousands from us. Claimed she was seriously injured, couldn't go to work had to see numerous doctors ect ect had all the proof of letters from doctors and eveything. For someone who was only tipped and i mean the car rolled into her at about 1 mph, we were stumped on how any doctor could say she had recieved all these injuries.

What actually was revealed was that 2 days after my named driver had tipped her she had crashed the car herself by skidding on ice or something, and that is where she got all the injuries from, so she did actually have injuries and loss of earning ect but not caused by the accident that she claimed, obviously she couldn't claim on her own insurance, she was chancing her arm. How the insurance guy figured all of this out I dont know cause he said he couldn't tell me...i'm just glad that he did.
 
Thanks for the comments- seems like im not to only one to have had bad luck.

I drove the guy to the Garda station after he was cleared by the hospital to get it in writing that by his own admissio,n was not waring a seat belt. the Garda also noted he was intoxicated. The Garda did not get into who was right / who was wrong- just documentated the facts and the two of us signed the statement. It was not something i was instructed to do by the insurance company, i just insisted it was done in case he tried to change his story.

I think it just came down to which would be cheaper for the insuranace company- go to court and argue or pay off quick and get the potential claim off their books.
 
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