Thanks for that Pat, i'll get straight on it.

ok thanks for that will send a letter to the 3rd party insurers and ask for the £250 back . Im thinking that this is not going to be an easy process so here goes phone calls and letters for a few months i guess Its annoying as we always have legal protection but this is my wifes car and she sorted the insurance out herself for the last renewal and was chuffed that she got it quite cheaper . anyway thanks for the advice. regards higsta.

im looking at the policy now and i assume its provident but not sure, it states at the bottom of the policy , Issued by BISL Limited on behalf of Provident Insurance Plc Yes i also thought leagal protection was cover if there was disputed liability and injuries etc where the case ends up in court or in need of solicitors etc. I cant believe that i have to pay £250 for an accident that has been admitted from the outset by the 3rd party.

Hi Everyone, this is only the 2nd time i have needed advice from CAG and again this time its a Car Insurance firm trying to take my hard earned !! Can you all shed some light on this issue for me Fully comprehensive car insurance with Post Office. My wife picked up our son from school one afternoon and on the way back coming through our village she had to pull over to allow a lorry coming the opposite way to pass some parked cars. After the lorry passedand before she could pull off a landrover reversed out of an opening onto the main road and into the side of the car. He apologised and said he had been watching the lorry and hadn't seen her and admitted fully liability. Insurance details changed hands and all was good main point no one was hurt. Car was collected and repaired and returned and we had to pay £250 excess upon return of the car to the repairers. When we contacted the insurance regarding getting our excess back we were informed that because the insurance policy did not have motor legal protection that we cannot claim the excess back. I asked was there a problem with the 3rd party accepting liability and they said "no" i asked had they reclaimed the cost of repair from the 3rd party and they said "yes" and so i asked why were we getting penalised for an accident that was not our fault and was told that its because we didnt have leagal protection. by this time i was starting to get a little irate and asked why they had reclaimed all of the damage cost from the 3rd Party and also £250 from us and was told that it was because we didnt have legal protection and there was nothing else they could do. So what can i do ? anyone have any suggestions ? Many thanks in advance Higsta.

Yup i totally agree, but it works both ways when i spoke to the claims people i got a terrible response and attitude which in turn wound me up till i got frustrated, then on the other hand all the people i spoke to in the customer services were completely different and would actually talk to you like a human being. Its almost like they were 2 different companies.

Well i finally got it all sorted today. Contacted the complaints investigator that had been put in charge of my complaint, he said he hadn't reviewed my case yet but would reply to me within 4 weeks as per thier procedures. I then explained to him the urgency i felt was needed as someone had applied for a registration document for my vehicle and i then explained the events of my claim to him. He didnt seem very happy by the time i finished and said he would look in to imediately and phone me back within 15 mins. 15 mins later i was contacted and was told:- firstlly that he had found that my car had not only been sold to a salvage firm but somone had purchased it from the salvage firm aswell, he then admited they (hastings) had no right to sell my car. Secondly the offer i had recieved of £2700 had been a mistake and that the report that had come in from the engineer had been mixed up with someone else and that although it had my name on the report it was for a Ford Mondeo and not my Renault Laguna Sport Tourer, he then told me the assesor had spotted the mistake and resubmitted the report with the correct ammount which was £3200 but no one had bothered to inform me of this. he apologised for the way i had been treated and for their mistakes and said he needed to meet with the heads of the claims department after lunch to get some answers and he would call me back this afternoon. He called me back around 4pm and again apologised and said that they have now revised my offer and due to the circumstances were offering me a settlement of £3800 which is top price in the glasses guide for my car. I accepted the apology and the Settlement and he assured me there would still be a full investigation into my complaint to which i will get the result of when its concluded Thanks again to all of you for your advice and posts

No unfortunately not, i even contacted barclaycard as this is the method i used to pay for the insurance in full over the internet but they they no longer provide a legal advice service.

Thanks for that Bernie have printed it No new developments yet, phoned hastings tonight and was told that the people dealing with my complaint had left for the evening and that a note would be placed asking for someone to ring me Havent managed to find any legal advice yet, contacted communtity legal advice but they said its an area of law they dont deal with, they put me on to the law society who gave me a list of solicitors to ring in my area, noe of which were much help as they were all unsure of what area of law this would fall into !!! (" THEFT " hes screams) I also found out today that anyone can apply for a V5 registration document for any vehicle without proof of ownership, when first told i thought that can never be true! Contacted DVLA tonight and apparantly this is correct .... and guess what someone has applied for a V5 for my car, i told the story so far and was told to fax all the details to department VC14 in the DVLA which i have done, all the operator said was that a note would go against the record of my vehicle but he didnt think it would stop the V5 being issued. Anyone got any ideas where i can get legal advice on this, im really struggling to find anything at the moment.

This is actual policy on my hastings insurance .... shame i didnt have a brand new car. now i just dont have a car at all progress update is that i found the complaints phone number last night for hastings ( monday 14th july ) and lodged my complaint was told usual blah blah from a call center monkey that someone will call you back (not holding my breath). Have just finished my letter of complaint and also included 4 adverts from the autotrader website of which 2 vehicles are the same model and approx mileage but are 1 year older priced at £3500, and 2 vehicles which are same registration year and approx mileage but are the model spec below mine and they are priced also at £3500, so i think i am being fair in asking for that figure and using these vehicle as comparison, but then im probably biased towards myself. I also told them i thought that they were possibly in breach of contract, and quoted 2 statements from theire documentation ... policy booklet states in section 2 “IF YOUR CAR IS A TOTAL LOSS, WE MAY PUT IT IN FREE AND SAFE STORAGE UNTIL WE SETTLE YOUR CLAIM.” and also a document titled “Need to make a claim? Your questions answered” 4) What happens if my vehicle is deemed a total loss? “The qualified engineer who inspected your vehicle will provide us with a written report. We will then make you an offer based on the market value of your vehicle as per the policy booklet. In the meantime, your vehicle may be removed from the garage and placed in secure storage whilst your claim is settled.” What do you guys think?

Hi again, well i thought i was sorted, i knew exactly what my game plan was today. 1. I phone the legal cover on my insurance and instructed them to get the ball in motion on making a claim directly to the 3rd party's insurance.Told thats fine and the chap i spoke to would start the process and ring me shortly to confirm. Phone call back from solicitor confirmed all was well and that all i needed to do now was to arrange a time and place for the engineer from the 3rd party's insurance to assess the vehicle. Also told to call hasting and cancel the claim and get my vehicle back from them. 2. I phone hastings told them i was persuing the claim though my legal cover and that i no longer wished to claim through them. (so far so good) Then i ask when will my vehicle be returned to me as i need to arrange for the new engineer to asses it. The reply i got was "im sorry sir but we can not do that as your car has either been destroyed or sold for salvage" I told them they had no right to do this as i have never accepted their offer and there for the car still belongs to me. I was then told that when i made the claim on the insurance that it is then deemed that i am giving permission for Hasting to do whatever nessescary with the vehicle and as it was a total loss they got rid of it. I found out later that they had arranged the for it to be sent for salvage on the 8th of July. They phoned me at 4.30 on the 9th of July with the offer and as i was not at home i told them that i would need time to think it over. The car was collected for salvage at 9am on the 10th July. I called them on the 10th July at about 10am to reject the offer. And all this after i told the woman on the phone on Saturday what i planned to do and she said that was ok... but she knew then my car wasnt available anymore !!!! So as far as hastings are concerned its still tuff and unless i can prove the service history they still wont review the offer .... and as far as my car is concerned they said that i could write a letter of complaint and i might get compensation. What i feel like doing is phoning the police and reporting my car stolen !

Yes the cheque they sent stated it was an interim payment and without prejudice. You have definatley given me somthing else to think about with that. Thanks for the replies people, these forums are a blessing when at a loss and have no idea what to do next.

Hastings are the broker !! i never realised that i thought they were a insurance company in their own right. Just read through all the paperwork that came when i took out the insurance and it says the insurer is ( as printed on paperwork ) Advantage Insurance Company Limited (regulated by the financial services commission of Gibraltar) And i have just got off the phone with Hastings and they have basically said they dont care if i choose to go through my legal cover to recover the costs of my vehicle as they are confident i wont get a better offer. Obviously it wasnt in that wording but that was the short of it after a 25min phone call.

Thanks for the advice here, i will get straight back at them and i think i will instruct the legal cover on my policy to persue the 3rd party for the cost of my vehicle. A couple of new developments today .... 1 . Even thought i rejected their offer, i recieved a cheque this morning for £2700 and a letter stating they wanted all documentation of my vehicle within 7 days. 2 . I phoned nationwide repairs today (this is where my car was taken for assesment / repair) to ask about collecting personal stuff out of the vehicle and i was told that they had emptied my car into a box and i could collect it anytime i liked, but my car was no longer there as Hastings have had it collected for salvage. Are they allowed to do this without my permission, surely the car is still my property until i agree a settlement. damn im getting so frustrated with these people.

Hi everyone, I was informed on Tuesday that my much loved Renault Laguna sport tourer has been deemed a total loss. This is courtesy of some lummock who decided that he didn’t need to look left or right when he decided to pull out of a junction in front of me. Although I suppose I should be grateful that at least he admitted full liability in front of the police when they arrived. Hastings policy states that in the event of a total loss they will value the vehicle on a like for like basis and also use the glasses guide. They have offered me £2700 which is at the bottom end of the price bracket for my vehicle, I refused this saying I wanted £3500 which is the top end of the price bracket. I did this expecting them to come back with an offer somewhere between the two. To my astonishment they told me there and then on the phone that they would not increase the offer unless I can prove the car was worth more. I said that I could send them 5 or more printouts from the internet showing cars of same age, model and mileage at values around £3500, they said that was not acceptable. I asked how I could prove then that the car was worth more and they said the only way they will review the offer on my car was if I can prove it has a Full Renault Service History. I told them that it didn’t have that and that I did my own servicing and they said that wasn’t acceptable and the £2700 offer stands. A few hours later I phoned them back, I said I was not accepting the offer of £2700 and that I wanted my car repaired and returned to me, I was told that was not an option as it would cost £4000, I said in that case they can go and buy me a replacement car on a like for like basis with the £2700, they said its not our policy to replace customers cars, I said then I want the offer increased and again I was told they would only review it if I can prove it has full Renault service history. Today I contacted the legal cover I have on my insurance they are an independent law firm and not directly connected to Hastings, he said whilst there wasn’t anything he could do to make Hastings increase their offer he did think they should have accepted the internet printouts as proof of worth of my vehicle, he also stated that he could make a claim directly against the third party, he said that they would send an engineer of their own to assess the car and then make an offer but I would also get the car back as well because third party insurance payouts don’t want the vehicle after the claim is settled. So at the end of the day for the pleasure of having my car written off by an idiot that didnt pay attention it looks like im going to end up around £800 out of pocket, and i also get a disgusting attitude from my insurance company that i feel should be doing everything possible to get me the best settlement but in fact are trying to settle at the lowest possible cost !! Anyone else had these experiences or got any advice.