Car sold off without my consent

[icrina53]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

The independent company that valued my car were allowed to deal with my claim for 21 days only, if they were unsuccesfull in obtaining the money from the at fault insurer they had to refer my claim back to my insurance company .

[des8]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

It would seem there has been "a cock up" (technical insurance term?) between your insurers, the valuers and the salvage operators.
None of that is your fault or concern.
As all those outfits were acting on behalf of your insurers, it is your insurers who are responsible.
First Central are only Agents or brokers or intermediaries.
You need to find out who are your actual insurers (they will be named on the certificate of insurance)
Write (signed for) to their complaints department (not 1st Central) setting out what has happened (they possibly don't know as the matter could be being handled completely by 1st Central without reference to the actual insurers).
Point out that your personal possession have been disposed off illegally, and the car (still owned by yourself) has been sold, again illegally.
Also you anticipate they will supply a courtesy car until such time as an agreed indemnity is paid, and then for a further reasonable period to enable you purchase a replacement.
Give them a time limit of 10 working days to respond with their proposals to indemnify you.

All those costs should be recoverable from the party who caused the accident.
Have you claimed against the third party for your uninsured losses, or are the brokers doing this for you?

[icrina53]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

That is a good point, I will have a look to see who is my insurance company and if they agree in talking to me or send me back to 1st central. I have been provided with a curtesy car for all this time , I still have it , and been told that the at fault insurance will be liable to pay for it.I only dealt with 1st central and nobody else.

[des8]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

If it comes to initiating court action against someone about your car it will be your insurers.
!st Central probably have what we used to call "a cover" or "binding authority" to act of behalf of the insurers, and that would include settling claims.
But if push comes to shove it is the insurers you shove.

Re the courtesy car; the third party will only be liable to pay for hire of a similar car. So I hope your Fiesta hasn't been replaced with a Roller!

[icrina53]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

Hopefully it won't go that far but I will see what my insurance says on Monday. The courtesy car was provided on like to like basis , my car was considered a premium so they gave me a premium courtesy car.

[icrina53]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

If it comes to initiating court action against someone about your car it will be your insurers.

!st Central probably have what we used to call "a cover" or "binding authority" to act of behalf of the insurers, and that would include settling claims.
But if push comes to shove it is the insurers you shove.

Re the courtesy car; the third party will only be liable to pay for hire of a similar car. So I hope your Fiesta hasn't been replaced with a Roller!

Hello,
Just received a call from the insurance that the claim is settled and will receive a payment soon. When I asked how much will cost me to buy my car back , they said they don't offer that option. Is that even corect? i understand the car belongs to them but not before the claim/payment etc was settled .
The complaint I made will take 8 weeks , I will have to give my curtesy car back in a week . What do I do?

[des8]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

Glad to hear your claim is to be settled.

What has happened about your uninsured losses eg excess and extra expenses caused by accident.
Did you claim these from the third party responsible for the incident?
To these you could add a claim for cost of hire car until your indemnity has been received plus a few days until you are able to find and purchase a reasonable replacement.

Your insurers do not have to give you the chance of buying back your vehicle, (although many do)

[icrina53]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

The issue is not how long it took to settle my claim , the issue is that they dispose of my vehicle before the claim was settled and without consent from myself. Now I have to wait another 8 weeks to see what they have to say about that. They will allow me to keep the curtesy car 7 days after I received the cheque but I have no intentions of cashing it until the complaint is resolved

[des8]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

Looking at it dispassionately as an uninvolved party, whilst agreeing the disposing of your vehicle in advance of settlement was incorrect, what do you expect realistically to gain from your complaint other than an apology (and perhaps a token payment)? You are being indemnified for your loss.

Presumably you have agreed the settlement figure, so I see no reason for not cashing the cheque.
Have you disputed the settlement figure? If so you can accept the cheque but do so without agreeing it is a full and final settlement, and restate your challenge.
If you are disputing a settlement the final arbitrator is often an independent assessor agreed with insurers (but paid by you).
As the insurers have disposed of the vehicle in advance this gives you the moral high ground as there is now no car for the assessor to examine.

[Openlaw15]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

Have you consulted the terms and conditions of your insurance? There may be a clause in there which gives the right for them to sell the vehicle on or provide you an alternative equivalent to the price of the vehicle at the time or give you cash value.

If there is nothing in there then they may have acted outside of their powers and you could have a claim against them.

Who are your insurers?

If there were such a clause it would be rather onerous notwithstanding how could it not be illegal. Here's a simple analogy. I purchase £20,000 car. I unfortunately damage it owing to crash with another car. I am later informed by the insurance company "that the car will cost too much to repair, so the car has been sold at auction by our 'repairers with whom we have a 'long term' course of dealings. *Puts 2 fingers up...tell someone who cares."

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Could you please clarify who has done what?
This was a non fault incident on your side.
Did you claim against your insurance? or directly against the party who caused the accident?
Who instructed the "independent engineer"?
Was he a loss adjuster?
Where was the vehicle stored prior to collection by the salvage company?
Were you not able to collect your personal belongings from the vehicle?
Was the "valuation" from your insurers or the third parties'?
Was the valuation an offer o indemnity?
How satisfied are you with the valuation?

I shall be busy over the next day or so, therefore I might not be online much.

It does not matter whose fault it was

[icrina53]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

I have checked their terms, it clearly states that the car is to be kept in storage until the claim is settled.
I have not agreed the settlemnt, yesterday they informed me that the claim is settled and will receive a cheque , I told them that will not be accepted , so how is that agreeing?
With regards to the re-evaluation I asked for, it was done by them three weeks after the car was sold .
I am not being indemniefied for my loss at all, I had a good reason to buy the salvage back . If they're not in the wrong , why they sent me a cheque for the salvage value of my car? I've never seen this before and I've tottaled couple of cars in my life .

[Openlaw15]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

The issue is not how long it took to settle my claim , the issue is that they dispose of my vehicle before the claim was settled and without consent from myself. Now I have to wait another 8 weeks to see what they have to say about that. They will allow me to keep the curtesy car 7 days after I received the cheque but I have no intentions of cashing it until the complaint is resolved

I would have called the police if I were you. You have right to do as you please with your own property. You received £4700. Your car was sold at auction for how much? without your consent. If you report it to the police the magistrates can also make an order for damages for the amount you lost, to save you having to take them to court.

[icrina53]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

As of today I receved a cheque for £752 salvage value of my car. Yesterday they phoned me and said that the claim will be settled and will receive 4700-752 that I already have a cheque for-any unpaid premium . I will be left in the end with two cheques for a total of 4500-ish

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I am seriously considering court action but I need to wait for 8 weeks to respond to my formal complaint .

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It was sold at auction for £1530

[R0b]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

I would have called the police if I were you. You have right to do as you please with your own property. You received £4700. Your car was sold at auction for how much? without your consent. If you report it to the police the magistrates can also make an order for damages for the amount you lost, to save you having to take them to court.

Why is it illegal? if there is a clause in the T's&C's I cannot see how it is illegal, this would work quite similarly to an IP indemnity clause where for example the company will indemnify the purchaser of software however the purchaser agrees that the company shall have sole conduct of any litigious matters on any IP infringement and authority to settle the claim without the consent of the purchaser or the purchase cannot settle without the consent of the company.

So if the insurer has a clause which says they have authority to sell the vehicle and provide the owner of the vehicle with a cash equivalent of the market price of the vehicle at the time then that is perfectly acceptable and in no way illegal if the owner has accepted their terms and conditions?

[icrina53]

Re: Car sold off without my consent

If they have a clause, is not in their terms and conditions that I have . I asked them yesterday to send me the Terms where it says that they can sell the car before the claim is settled , I'm still waiting