Car Written Off- How Long To Wait For Payout?

[chinchi]

I reported our car as written off on 23rd April as it had been stolen, burnt out and abandoned.

After no contact from Norwich Union Claims, I phoned them on Friday and spoke to a woman who said that according to our file, the engineer had not yet provided notes about the car (even though we were told a week after making the claim that it had been collected from the recovery garage).

She said that she would contact them to find out the progress and call me on Tuesday. We received no phone call yesterday, so I contacted them again today, and were told that there were still no notes on file from the engineers. Again, I was told that they would be contacted, and I would be informed as to the progress of the claim.

In the mean time, we are still paying our monthly insurance payments for a car that no longer exists, and have been told we need to carry on paying until the claim has been completed.

Does anybody have experience of this and how long it normally takes for a company to pay out?

Why do you need to continue paying insurance - that's daft. You can't insure against loss!

That's barking.

Call them back and kick up a fuss. Tell them you need an offer within the next week.

I got the cheque for my car which was stolen and burned out - within five days!

Write to them as well as phone and ask about their complaints procedure while you are on with them.

Our claim went through really quickly, probably about a week I think. Don't forget to haggle with the engineer about the value of the car too, you dont have to accept what they offer you at first if you don't think its reasonable.

Agree with hobbity on the haggling. The car was I assume full of fuel (expensive), in perfect nick and there were childseats in it which need replacing etc.

You can expect a 15% variance in the first offer and final offer IME.

My car caught fire and was written off. I had the cheque about 6 weeks later. Mine was delayed because the incident occured on December 22nd.

Thanks for the replies

Just spoken to claims and have been told AGAIN someone will contact me later on today regarding when the inspection of the car will take place

Now got to get on the phone to Auto Trader insurance regarding the payment of monthly premiums. What a farse

Call them at lunchtime and hassle them. This really is unacceptable. Tell them you will be complaining to the insurance ombudsman if the matter is not resolved in seven days - do this by letter as well as phone.

Definitely thraten them and tell them you will be complaining to them and to the insurance ombudsman (google it...).

Their behaviour is ridiculous - if you needed to buy a new car to earn money to make the insurance contributions, you'd be screwed, and they should realise that.

Turns out our 'car' is still in the bloody recovery garage!

Cant fault the woman I spoke to this afternoon when I phoned again. She got onto it straight away and called me back within 15 minutes.

Apparently a third party arranged by Norwich Union should have collected the vehicle in order for the company's own engineers to inspect it, and this hadnt been done.

It has now been marked down as urgent, and Ive been told it will be sorted (including offer) by no later than this time next week.

Thanks wise MNers!

Good for you. Do follow it up with a letter though confirming that you have been told it will be sorted within a week and that you intend to take matters further if it is not (and that you reserve the right to do so in any case).

Thanks for that