Albany assistance and Admiral

[Hamsterheid]

Has anyone had any similar issues with Albany/Admiral? Someone drove into our parked car just before Christmas and accepted full liability as did their insurance company. Our insurance company passed us into Albany to sort out the claim and we are now in the situation where Albany are claiming that the other insurance company is not paying so have passed the case onto their solicitors and we may be liable for costs. I have now been asked to sign a contract with their solicitors and will be liable for their fees in recovering the claim from the other insurance company. I have contacted the driver and their insurance company who are willing to pay But have had very little communication from Albany. Albany also seem to be claiming for car hire Costs despite us not hiring a car. I have noticed that the solicitors are part of the same company as Albany and I feel very worried here about the lack of transparency as it does not feel right especially as I have told Albany that I did not hire a car but they are still claiming. Any advice as to what I should do? Feeling very worried - should I seek independent advice or contact the ombudsman here?

We had a nightmare with Albany Assistance. Hit by another driver (totally his fault he admitted it to his insurers). We were with Tesco insurance but passed onto Albany for courtesy car. DH queried why we had to sign a credit agreement with them but was given a load of flannel about it being standard procedure etc. Next day a ridiculously expensive hire car was brought to the house.

In the mean time the other guys insurance company phoned and offered to organise us a hire car. When I told the we had already been given one through our insurance company she said "OK but please be aware we only pay out up to £70 a day on hire vehicles in claims like this"

Alarm bells started to ring and we looked at the fine print of the paper work Albany had sent us which stated that the care they had given us had a daily rental charge of £300 a day and that in the event that they could recover the full cost from the other insurers we would be liable for the rest of the cost. We also looked them up online and saw a fair few horror stories. We had had the car 4 days by then so we phoned and told them to collect it immediately and the other guy's insurance company sent us a hire car and agreed to fully cover the costs (perfectly adequate Golf).

We then phoned Tesco insurance and basically tore strips off them, they tried to divert us back to Albany but we pointed out that we paid them for insurance and expected them to deal with this and insisted that they confirmed in writing that we would not be liable for any costs. Eventually they did do this but it was a huge stress at the time and involved a lot of phone calls.

Contact Admiral, refuse to sign ANY contract with Albany and insist that Admiral deal with this. Sorry I can't offer further advice I feel like we had a hugely lucky escape with this company.

Thank you for your message. I fear I am now in the middle of a stressful situation. Albany have also put us under pressure to sign with Principia Law, saying we have to co-operate otherwise we may be liable. I feel very exposed as it seems that both Albany and Principia will financially benefit from this situation at the cost of the innocent consumer. This includes Admiral, who should not pass on customers in the first place. I am going to contact the Ombudsman as this is just not right. Very stressful.

Sounds awful I think you need to get some clarity from Admiral and the other insurance company. I think contacting the Ombudsman is a good idea too. If you do a search on Mumsnet there a quite a few threads about this company. Have a look there may be some good advice there

Found this thread that I commented on under a different name

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/867505-Has-anyone-made-a-no-fault-claim-with-Albany-Assistance