HELP! CIS trying to rip me off

[boo_kitty10]

First off you ought to have made the claim through your insurance company. You could have still asked them to use a BMW franchised dealership. As for the excess, I would imagine that the third party who hit your vehicle had a £250 excess and his insurers have taken this off the settlement, which is quite normal. You then need to claim this back from the third party, usually via legal cover on your motor policy.

I know ive never had an accident before so i didnt know what to do for the best, i know now that i should have just left my insurers to it

[boo_kitty10]

does anyone know what i do now-do i return the cheque notify them my insurance company is dealing with it, do i leave it and not cash the cheque i dont know what to do

[Goldlady]

Is it worth asking your insurance company that question on Monday?

[Trojan1401]

Boo,

 

To as you are claiming direct from the TP, they should not deduct any excess from your claim. An excess would be deducted from a payout from your own insurer if you had gone via that route then reclaimed that from the TP but as direct with the TP insurer they should not make any deductions.

 

This whole scenario is a bit messy however, you need to discuss with your own insurers and explain the whole story & why you went via BMW as opposed to via them. I know it's a bit late but for the benefit of others, you really should use your own insurers when you have comprehensive insurance and not try to claim direct even with the so called help of TPAs. The TPA in this instance is BMW and I bet they will be getting a kick back from CIS but that's another story.

 

Back to this incident though, do not cash the cheque yet but discuss with your own insurers and also get an independent valuation to provide to CIS. Your insurers may be able to help. Howver, you may need to pay for this but then add it to your claim against CIS.

[boo_kitty10]

Boo,

 

To as you are claiming direct from the TP, they should not deduct any excess from your claim. An excess would be deducted from a payout from your own insurer if you had gone via that route then reclaimed that from the TP but as direct with the TP insurer they should not make any deductions.

 

This whole scenario is a bit messy however, you need to discuss with your own insurers and explain the whole story & why you went via BMW as opposed to via them. I know it's a bit late but for the benefit of others, you really should use your own insurers when you have comprehensive insurance and not try to claim direct even with the so called help of TPAs. The TPA in this instance is BMW and I bet they will be getting a kick back from CIS but that's another story.

 

Back to this incident though, do not cash the cheque yet but discuss with your own insurers and also get an independent valuation to provide to CIS. Your insurers may be able to help. Howver, you may need to pay for this but then add it to your claim against CIS.

Hi Trojan, thank you for your advice, your right it is so complicated and mesy - ive never been in accident before and everyone was telling me do this, no do this no ring bmw, etc-i was baffled and bmw was so helpful but not now, my insurance company which is kwik fit underwritten by southern rock is now involved and they are sending an engineer to go and value my car should be done this week so do you think i should ring my insurers tomorrow and tell them ive received a cheque and inform them im returning it to third party insurers...

[boo_kitty10]

hello evryone i rang my insurance company this morning and spoke to the person who was reluctant to help me at first but who did after citizens advice bureau help, he was very cold and rude but said i should return the cheque to cis and inform them that my insurance company is now looking into the matter which is what i will be doing.

[boo_kitty10]

hello guys,

i received a letter from cis today with photos of my car on it-it shows bonnet not in alignment????????? quarter has been filled????? gaps in rear quarter to rear panel seam made up with welding wire, more filler.....i dont know what all this means apart from its been badly repaired but how is this my fauly i bought the car in good faith and incurred no problems with it-the letter also states that by returning the cheque i hane not kept my costs to a minmum as im still in a hire car and i have a common law duty to keep my losses to a minimum and by taking the course of action i have the hire charges will be disputed so please ensure the hire company are aware of this-which may i add they are as the man was very threatining on the phone on monday and i contacted them straight away they said we always knew they'd dispute it so do not worry and they said if they contact you again dont talk to them if they talk to you in a manner you find offensive, to refer them to them. my insurance company is still awaiting an engineer to go view my car snd they were the ones who advised me to return the cheque to cis...

[Chesterexpress]

i still havent heard anything - rng my insurance who said they will be sending out an engineer for definate this week it is now 2 and half months later-this is ridiculous

 

To be fair kittyy10, that is not the fault of your insurance company.

 

However by the sound of the report on the condition of the bodywork, I have a feeling your insurance company will probably agree with CIS that your car is simply not worth what you think it is. It may have looked ok, but underneath it appears to have been a total bodged job and they will not be prepared to pay to put it back to original manufacturers condition. And they would be justified in taking that stance under the circumstances.

[Conniff]

There is a fault with the clock on the board and it's messing up the posting order: Thu 1 Nov 12:17

 

Boo, where is BMW in all this?

 

You said in the begining that it was in a BMW garage and that they were going to sort it all out for you, but you haven't mentioned anything else from them. Surely they can give you a valuation.

 

You say that the bonnet is out of alignment, surely you should have noticed this when buying, did you not get anyone else to have a look at the car for you? at £9000 I would never have paid my money over until someone with some knowledge of cars had had a look at it.

 

I think what Chester has said will be a blow to you, but I fear that it is exactly what the insurance companies will say and it is not worth what you think it is.

Insurance companies will only reinstate, they will not make it better than before.

[Chesterexpress]

The second engineer insturcted by me said he will have his report done by the end of this week and he will email it to me

 

You posted the above on the 17th October. As you have not posted anything since with regard to that, what was the outcome of that report?

[boo_kitty10]

i still havent heard anything - rng my insurance who said they will be sending out an engineer for definate this week it is now 2 and half months later-this is ridiculous

[boo_kitty10]

hiya the last reply i made was still where i am now, still awaiting an engineer to go out and view my car from my insurance company. my car is still in bmw garage and i have heard nomore from them or form cis or form accident exchange who the hire car is from, ive tried chasing it all up with a response we'll phone u back wen we no-more, i feared thats what would happen and no the car looked fine to me so i didnt notice the alignment, etc-also the hpi sheet was clear so i dont know, im fed up with it all to b honest i wish this hadnt happened so i cud still have my car i loved it and it never gave me no trouble until the stupid idiot drove into the back of me.....

[Chesterexpress]

bookitty, you said you had arranged for your own engineer to look at the car for you and he was going to charge you £75. On the 17th October you said he would be emailing the report to you by the end of that week. So what happened to the report he was doing for you?

[boo_kitty10]

bookitty, you said you had arranged for your own engineer to look at the car for you and he was going to charge you £75. On the 17th October you said he would be emailing the report to you by the end of that week. So what happened to the report he was doing for you?

hiya chester, my apologies i dont explain things vry well, he was in the garage loking at anothr car and whilst he was there he said he had a quick look over mine and said he'd rather not get involved as it is very hard to place a value on my car so he'd rather stay out of it altogether, what can i say - so i said thats fine thats wen the guy from the bmw garage who has been advising me/helping me said look just ring your own insurance explain to them and they'll help you.

[Chesterexpress]

Where did you buy your car from?

[Bernie_the_Bolt]

I think that chester is on the right lines. You may find yourself having to go for the person you bought the car from, if you can.

[boo_kitty10]

private out of the paper

[Chesterexpress]

Not the answer that I wanted to hear, as you have very few rights against a private seller. It all depends now upon your insurance company. However I really don't expect it to be good news for you when they do appraise the vehicle, as a qualified engineer will almost certainly agree with the one CIS sent out originally.

[boo_kitty10]

hello chester,

ive just looked on parkers guide for the value of my car in poor condition as it supposedly now is as it was badly repaired not my fault but like u said i should have been more careful but its a leeson learnt anyway this is wat it said for a car in poor condition, wont this stand for my car:

Private Poor £6,645Typical private sale value of a car in below-average condition, which cannot be restored to clean condition. May have mechanical defects or no service history; body may be rusty or have substantial damage; interior may be stained or torn.

[Chesterexpress]

As I said earlier all that you can do now is wait until your own insurers have looked at the vehicle. If they refuse to repair it, then you will need to negotiate a settlement with them.

 

Good luck

[boo_kitty10]

hi chester, they wont repair as they've placed it under catergory B which means it has to be scrapped. Anyway i rang my insurers yesterday to see whether they'd sent an engineer out to view my car and the lady told me they'd instructed an engineer who said he couldnt do it as he'd already viewed the car which means he was cis engineer and therefore they sent a different engineer as it would be conflict of interest if the other one wud have gone anyhow the other engineers report will be in nxt week.bizarre i thought insurers hav there own personal engineers but the lady said they just use the local engineers in the area.

keep ur fingers crossed for me guys i could do with some good news. x

[Chesterexpress]

Most insurance companies use independent engineers. Although some engineers do have a strong bias towards certain companies and aren't always as impartial as they ought to be.

[boo_kitty10]

hiya chester, im gonna sound really thick now but what did u mean by your last reply? the cis engineer was biased for cis hence the low valuation??

[Chesterexpress]

What can happen is that in order to get a higher percentage of work from an insurance company, the engineer can be very strict on how they value a vehicle when it is going to be classed as a write off or requires major repair work. This results in a lower payout, which after all is what the insurers want. At the end of the day these people are virtually dependent upon the insurance companies for their livelyhood.

[Conniff]

One thing to keep in the negotiations boo is that you keep the car as part of any settlement. You can then either transfer all the good bits to you new car or break it and sell the parts on ebay.

This way you will at least get a lot of your money back especially if you have attractive parts to sell.