Insurer refuses to repair vehicle

[Arfamind2]

I crashed my vehicle and claimed for my repairs through my Fully Comprehensive policy. After the crash the vehicle kept cutting out along with some bodywork dented. The insurer was told about the cutting out.

6 months later my insurer has said the vehicle is now ready and repaired but we can't sort the non starting, sorry here is £100 compensation.

They say the fault is due to a non OEM immobilizer which must have had an inherent fault. As it was not OEM they will not fix it.

The 6 months of delays were due to bad management and only moved on if I chased them and only went to be repaired after 4 months.

My question is are they correct, can they refuse to repair my vehicle which no longer starts and is stuck at a garage?

They have fitted non OEM parts such as headlights and bumper(fiat don't make them now). But refuse a possible non OEM immobilizer fault, an item I was not aware I had(15 yo vehicle).

I wonder if it is fair of them to reuse a repair. The vehicle never ever cutout before the crash. An Inherent fault is a poor excuse.

The £100 compensation offer suggests toe they may consider themselves liable??

Thankyou

[atticus]

Is this fault a consequence of the accident, i.e. is it covered by the policy?

You may need to take this to the Insurance Ombudsman if you wish to take it further.

[PallasAthena]

The Insurnace Ombudsman will expect you to have used your insurers formal complaints procedure first, before going to the Ombudsman. You motor insurance policy should include details of how to make a formal complaint.

Your insurer may may try to justify their decision by claiming that you were under a duty to disclose to them if there were any non-standard changes to the manufacturer's original specification but you didn't do so because the immobiliser was a non-standard part. However insurers should not ask for information that a private individual could not reasonably be expected to know. If they raise that I would make it clear that no private car buyer could reasonably be expected to know that at some time in its life, before you owned it, the immobiliser had been replaced with a non-OEM unit.

They may also suggest to you that the cutting out was happening before the accident but if you are sure it wasn't it would be their responsibility to produce evidence to support such an assertion.

You need to read what the policy says about insurer's duty to repair but in general terms if they undertake to arrange the repairs themselves then they must return ot to you in a condition equivalent to its pre-accident condition. A car which won't now start clearly isn't in its pre-accident condition.

One angle you could explore, if you wanted to, is whether the insurers will write it off on the grounds that it not economically feasible to repair it to its-pre-accident condition and instead pay you in cash its pre-acident value.

[Arfamind2]

Thankyou both for taking time to consider my post.
I had already made a formal complaint and recently received a reply saying they were unable to issue a final response due to ongoing repairs.

Then the email which led to my post above staring no further repairs.

I will look at my T&C's. and send them a response from your advice asking for a final response to make an Ombudsman complaint if necessary.

Have a great weekend, you have helped me enjoy mine now