Any insurance gurus around? Not at fault claim

[Hysteria_UK]

After a bit of advice. I was hit from behind on Saturday. Bike is unrideable. I called my insurance to make them aware of the accident and liable parties details. They said they would deal with the claim against the 3rd party.

I have just had a call from Albany Assistance asking me to call them back about my claim. This is the firm that will be dealing with my courtesy vehicle and the repair or valuation of my bike.

I have looked online and the reviews are awful.

I don’t really know what to do from here. Would it be advisable to contact the 3rd party insurers or go back to my insurers (Hastings).

It appears some people have been stuck with the hire costs themselves as Albany have quoted unreasonable hire prices to the 3rd party and they have refused to pay it. You have to sign a credit agreement with Albany incase the 3rd party don’t pay out.

Any advice would be greatly received.

[timwilky]

Never agree a credit hire, daughter works in a solicitors specialising in recovering on behalf of motor insurance companies and curses credit hire as a scam.

I'll have a word with her when she gets home.

[Hysteria_UK]

Thank you Tim, much appreciated.

[Corny Gizmo]

I agree, dont sign no credit agreement, if they arnt trying their best to offer you a bike with no strings then dont touch it. They should as they get to recover the costs for the hire bike from the 3rd party.

[Cymraeg_Atodeg]

Look at it quite basically, you were hit so in no way should you have to pay for anything.

I got hit (in a car) in April last year and everything I get offered I ask "Who is paying for it?" If the insurance company can not let me know in "black and white" it is the 3rd party or them, I'm not having it

[TamSV]

Albany did have a bit of a reputation for taking the p with their hire charges, leading to disputes with third party insurers. I think they might have got that sorted out as I haven't heard many stories lately - although I should stress I have no personal involvement with them. Check the dates on the reviews you've read.

Just so you know what's happening...

Albany are giving your insurer or broker a kickback for referring the claim to them. This reduces your insurers claims workload and also gives them an earning stream from claims. Albany arrange your replacement bike with a hire firm at a higher than market rate and receive a kick-back from the hire company. They fund the hire by effectively lending you the money to pay for it. This lets them add on interest and an admin fee - they need a credit hire agreement with you as evidence of this in order to be able to recover those costs from the third party.

They pass your bike on to their friendly repairer who charges a bit more than they need to for repair and gives another kick-back to Albany. Same goes for any transportation or storage companies that get involved.

Leaving aside whether the above is morally defensible, there isn't necessarily a problem for you with a credit agreement, although it's worth being wary. This is how most people get a replacement vehicle after a non-fault accident and the vast majority never have a problem. There is often an additional insurance that sits behind this to protect you from the credit charges if the accident management company cannot recover their outlay for any reason.

Read the T's & C's and ask the question "How will this come back to me?". The only correct answer should be if you are uncooperative or dishonest.

You have a few options, depending on whether you actually need a replacement bike and what your own financial situation is.

1. Make a claim against your own insurance if you have Comp cover and let them recover their outlay from the third party. You'll need to pay the excess initially and probably won't get a replacement vehicle (unless the repairer offers one). If your insurance is due soon, bear in mind your No Claims Bonus will be affected until the claim is resolved.

2. Make contact yourself with the third party insurer. They should have an interest in reducing their costs by dealing with you direct and might arrange repairs and give you a replacement bike for the duration (with no credit agreement). Some insurers are very good at this and some are dreadful - if they were all good there wouldn't be any need for accident management companies. Keep control of the situation - they're not really on your side.

3. Use an accident management company like Albany or one of the many others. Check how they're funding the replacement vehicle and what come back there may be on you. Ignore what you are told and read what you are asked to sign.

[diesel dog]

Try these people


http://www.ridersupport.co.uk/

[Hysteria_UK]

Thanks a lot for everyone with your advice. After reading all the small print I am at the shame train of thought as you TamSV.

Albany are not repairing my bike, my insurers are using a different company to value the repair as they believe it to be a total loss (wait for the rant about lower than market value offer in the next week or two). They're just organising a courtesy bike.

I called Zenith who are underwriters for the 3rd party and they weren't interested in supplying me with a vehicle unless I used one of their repair agents to repair/value my bike. Obviously its in their best interest to get things done as cheap as possible.

Albany also supply you with an insurance policy FOC which states that as long as you are truthful and assist in any court case where the 3rd parties refuses to pay for the hire, you don't have to pay anything even if the other insurers don't pay out. Which may be why no one has complained in a while about their service. It seems a lot of the main insurers use them so I guess it works.

I cant see this being disputed as there is not many ways to try and cover up a rear end collision. He gave me all his details and even emailed me his policy on the spot.

One thing that does concern me is that he hasn't told his insurer about the accident yet. I ended up having to give them my version of events.

[HeathKanga]

Hey, my dad is currently dealing with a insurance claim (non fault, 3rd party taken full responsiblity) Albany Assistance are dealing with the hire car & the organising what garage it gets repaired at. Like you I took to the Internet to see what people were saying about Albany & I read the same bad reviews! It made me very nervous about him signing any paperwork which could possibly land him footing the Bill for the claim when it's all supposedly covered by his insurance company! So far things are moving in the right direction, they were very informative about what their involvement is in the whole process & the courtesy car was arranged & his damaged vehicle picked up with no problems, phone calls & text messages have been received updating us as to what stage things are at. Currently can't complain about their involvement! Let's hope there's still no need to update my post with any negative news when the repair is complete & the claim fully resolved!
Hope this helps!?!? Claims are always a pain! The uncertainty of it all is a nightmare even when it obvious who is at fault!

[Hysteria_UK]

Thanks Kanga. Its good to hear its not all bad reviews. To be fair, who comes on the internet to comment on an expected service? People normally come on to complain so straight away you get unbalanced reviews.

I hope your Dads is sorted in full!

[SIII]

My Jag was parked on the drive, idiot van driver reverse's into it and drives off. Luckily neighbour see's him and I go and speak to them - claim he didn't hit me, although I had a witness.

Long story short - Hastings (fu**in, low-life, scumbag, tw8ts:smt009) washed their hands of the whole thing and passed it over to Albany. I too read all the online reviews of their shoddy business practises. i tried to sort it by myself and got pushed around by their insurer. I eventually gave up chasing and had no choice but to go with Albany.

Things could not have been easier !!! Took my car to Carlisle for repairs, picked up a piece of Sh*t A-class mercedes, drove home, complained, got a 0 miles BMW 3 series delivered, drove that back to pick my car up - end of.

I chased it up, worrying I was going to get stiffed and have to pay for courtesy car & repairs, etc - but they reassured me that was not going to happen - and it didn't !!!:smt041

Wish I had signed up with them from day 1 and saved a lot of hassle.:rolleyes:

[Hysteria_UK]

Looking at the bad reviews, it seems Albany were awful in the past and have booked their ideas up.

I called the 3rd party insurance yesterday who wouldn't give me a courtesy bike unless I had my repairs done through them which I wasn't really happy to do, so had little choice but to agree to take Albany's bike so fingers crossed all goes smoothly.

I missed a call last night at 7:50pm from the 3rd party insurers, who called to offer me a courtesy vehicle (!?) so I called back and apparently their offices are only open 9-5:30pm. I could have cancelled Albany last night but I cant now without a fee so gonna have to ride this to the end [-o<

[Red Herring]

Bearing in mind that the 3rd party insurers are not going to agree to or offer you anything until they have received a report from their driver. Are you prepared to share the circumstances of the collision with us?

[Hysteria_UK]

I did actually say on the phone that I understand that they wouldn't offer anything until they had spoken with their driver but its pretty clean cut who was at fault and would they offer me a vehicle after they had spoken with their driver. She said no, not unless I had it repaired with them.

The message the insurance guy left says thattheir driver was at fault so not liability questions to be asked.

Was coming down the A610 in Notts (40mph limit) in the righthand lane. There was a car turning right into the petrol station so slowedright down to probably walking speed, car behind didn’t notice I had slowed anddrove into the back of me. Shunted me forward but managed to keep it upright.

[Red Herring]

Was coming down the A610 in Notts (40mph limit) in the righthand lane. There was a car turning right into the petrol station so slowedright down to probably walking speed, car behind didn’t notice I had slowed anddrove into the back of me. Shunted me forward but managed to keep it upright.[/FONT][/SIZE]

Sounds like you were pretty lucky not to get shunted into the back of the vehicle turning right. I don't know the road but I take it it's single carriageway with more than one lane in each direction?

[Hysteria_UK]

Yeah, spot on.

Good training I guess. certain things were drilled into us, keeping a good distance from the vehicle in front is one of them. Its weird tho, as I probably don't keep as good distance in slow moving traffic in my car as I do on my bike. I suppose it the vulnerability of being on two wheels.

[timwilky]

I talked with the daughter last night, she knows Albany well. You have to realise her practice look to recover costs on behalf of insurance companies. i.e. Where her clients have paid out on a claim and wish to recover their costs against the 3rd party or his/her insurer.

Her advise is don't touch credit hire with a barge pole. I know Albany say they have their own insurance to cover the cost if the 3rd party refuses. But the devil is in the detail. There is always the risk that you will get hit with an inflated rental bill.

[Red Herring]

......I suppose it the vulnerability of being on two wheels.

Being on two wheels does have it's advantages, for example it makes it easier to find space to pass other traffic, perhaps easing into the nearside flow of traffic instead of braking behind someone....? There is nothing as vulnerable as a slow moving bike!

[theenglishman]

Personally, I went to my local solicitor. After a bit of an argument, my insurance company agreed to let me use solicitors of my own choosing. My house insurance covered me for the after the event component of 'no win no fee' so a lot of things were already in place without additional expense or hassle.

I think it's good to have someone you can talk to face to face, especially if the other side is being a PITA.

[Hysteria_UK]

Yeah, when its safe to do so. I filter daily so don't make a habit of sitting in traffic

[Red Herring]

I suspect you may do so even less now.... Good luck resolving the claim, hope it all goes smoothly for you.

[madcockney]

Reading this just a few points. Insurance companies, claims companies, etc cannot now by law pass on details to each other for a fee. The outcome was claims companies buying or setting up solicitors practices. No insurance companies like a solicitor getting involved, unless it's their para legal, but I have virtually always used my own solicitor and they have had to accept it, though it must be about 15 years since I was involved in any RTC. A few decades back the other party stated they had advised their insurer, but the insurer stated that he hadn't. I gave him two weeks to resolve and then told him he had 24 hours to advise them if not I would take action against him directly. He thought that as he had insurance that I couldn't take action. I advised him that the law states that he has to have vehicle third party insurance, but that does not prevent me taking action directly. The next morning I was advised that he had notified his insurers and they accepted full liability.

[kiggles]

Going through a claim myself and know the feeling. carolnash gave me a bike from PLANTEC. PLANTEC made their own judgement to decided who was at fault before taking on the risk.

Unfortunately the bike they gave me didnt suit my needs so I reinsurance my track bike on my policy. Funny enough I was hit up the back as well and going through this crap as well. URGH

[Heorot]

Credit hire should be OK provided it is arranged by an insurers. DO NOT arrange your own credit hire under any circumstances. You will be charged what is called the Spot Rate. Insurers are members of a scheme called ABI that means that they pay much less than the Spot rate if they arrange the hire and most will only settle credit hire on the basis of the ABI rates. Any difference is the insured's responsibility to pay.