Last November I left my VW Golf at an east London garage to have some warranty work carried out on the audio system. A day later I got a call from my insurer Bell – part of Admiral – telling me the car had been involved in an accident.
Following numerous calls to both the insurance company and the police, Bell told me to pick up my car from the garage – it was driveable, though damaged. Bell staff repeatedly assured me that they would take responsibility for resolving this and getting the damage repaired.
However, I have since been told by Bell that it had made a mistake and that it will not meet my claim. It said I should direct my claim to the garage’s insurers. If it had told me this at the start I would have done so, but I instead relied on the advice it gave me.
The final straw is that Bell has just told me it will not renew my policy on the basis that I no longer meet its underwriting criteria – meaning that my car insurance is set to double.
My car is still damaged and I am no nearer to getting this matter resolved. AL, London
This was an unusual case, and we are hugely surprised at the advice you were given at the time by Bell/Admiral. This was always going to be down to the garage’s insurer or the garage, Winshaw Motors, to fix the £1,800 worth of damage.
We asked Bell/Admiral about your experience and, while apologising and admitting that you had not had a great experience, it initially stuck to the line that you would have to take it up with the garage. Money has been calling Winshaw Motors over several weeks but the phone has never been answered.
We went back to Bell/Admiral and said it should take a second look on the basis that had someone stolen the car and caused an accident, it would have repaired the recovered vehicle. Fortunately it now agrees, although you will still have to pay the excess. While not accepting liability for the third-party claim, it says: “In light of the poor level of service we have given AL we would like to deal with her repairs on a ‘without prejudice’ basis.
“We will still write to the garage to state we hold it responsible and ask again for its insurance details. If we are successful we may be able to help AL claim her excess back from them.”
On top, Admiral has agreed to pay you £200 compensation. This is a fair outcome. But you need to be aware that this will go down as a claim if Admiral fails to reclaim the costs from the garage’s insurers.
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