Admiral Insurance Drink and Drugs policy

Convicted Driver Insurance
No, I haven’t yet. I am writing to them to request further clarification on its meaning and it’s implications for myself and it was quite confusing. I’m still inside the 21 days given to respond though.

How bad was your crash? I’ve had similar responses to you - some say it’s nothing some say could be a pretty big issue. It’s the fact everything is so inflated with insurance that worries me. My car was fixed in a day for £100, granted a much cheaper car... but I know the figure is going to be silly.

Biggest mistake ever!!! 😞
Sounds like you've made a smart move.

I took off the bumper and caused a fair bit of damage to the rear quarter of the van. The back door was slightly bent and the side of the van too. It's not a huge part of the car but just looks like a messy job to fix.

Some people say that everything is so inflated with insurance costs, others say they may not be looking to rip me off since I was under the umbrella of a family policy which had about 6 other new vehicles on it so maybe Admiral won't want to completely ruin me. Who knows.

Thanks so much for your time and I'll keep you updated!
 
What is the AA form?

Apparently the third party signed these two weeks ago for Admiral but Admiral have not heard anything back since in terms of costs against me.

Thanks
It’s where the third party agrees to letting Admiral deal with the claim.

It enables Admiral to control the costs instead of a claims management company getting involved with their vastly inflated costs.
A damage only claim should be fairly easy to determine if the costs are fair.
Injury claims are an altogether different ball game.

Not clear to me where that form sits in ‘Road Traffic Law’
 
It’s where the third party agrees to letting Admiral deal with the claim.

It enables Admiral to control the costs instead of a claims management company getting involved with their vastly inflated costs.
A damage only claim should be fairly easy to determine if the costs are fair.
Injury claims are an altogether different ball game.

Not clear to me where that form sits in ‘Road Traffic Law’
That's so helpful DD, thank you!
 
Hi everyone! Came here to update everyone about my husband’s case with admiral and if possible ask you guys for some more advice as this thread is hugely helpful!!

he tried to argue about the costs but unfortunately they seemed fair.. at least to his non trained eyes. They asked him for a budget sheet and he now agreed to a payment plan that will be reviewed periodically.
My question is: he also asked them to remove my name of their files as they agreed with him a payment plan, he was the responsible for the accident and having this on my file (I was the policy holder) would impact me negatively. They said they can’t remove my name as I was the policyholder but that they won’t come after me to recover the costs. His accident was in 2019, so before the change in the policy wording.
Do you think I should raise a complaint with the FOS asking for my name to be removed as a payment plan was agreed with the driver himself? They say they won’t pursue me but having this accident on my file is something I truly want to avoid especially as I want to drive again ASAP and don’t want any possibility of them actually charging me instead of him ( I know this sounds a bit harsh, but I don’t want to risk having to pay for something I haven’t done)
 
Hi everyone! Came here to update everyone about my husband’s case with admiral and if possible ask you guys for some more advice as this thread is hugely helpful!!

he tried to argue about the costs but unfortunately they seemed fair.. at least to his non trained eyes. They asked him for a budget sheet and he now agreed to a payment plan that will be reviewed periodically.
My question is: he also asked them to remove my name of their files as they agreed with him a payment plan, he was the responsible for the accident and having this on my file (I was the policy holder) would impact me negatively. They said they can’t remove my name as I was the policyholder but that they won’t come after me to recover the costs. His accident was in 2019, so before the change in the policy wording.
Do you think I should raise a complaint with the FOS asking for my name to be removed as a payment plan was agreed with the driver himself? They say they won’t pursue me but having this accident on my file is something I truly want to avoid especially as I want to drive again ASAP and don’t want any possibility of them actually charging me instead of him ( I know this sounds a bit harsh, but I don’t want to risk having to pay for something I haven’t done

I went to the FOS with my son’s case and they instructed Admiral to remove any reference to the incident against my name. There was one item they said they couldn’t remove.

However, my new insurer (LV) was very understanding and made sure my premium was not affected.

The point was that no cover was provided under the policy therefore there has been no claim.

Before you go to FOS you have to raise a complaint through your insurers complaints dept. Only if it’s still unresolved can you take it to the FOS.
There’s a link to my FOS decision somewhere in the thread. Quote the reference number in your complaint.
 
Very minor update re my claim - don’t want to discuss it much further publicly but happy to over PM if anyone’s interested/it will help anyone.

In short though, they were useless in response to my questions - avoided everything.

First bill for just the credit hire car
landed, for over a months use! Not impressed - seems a lot in terms of both time and cost!

While reading a different thread I’ve seen huge bills for solicitors fees (10k in one - which was about the same size of the rest of the claim). Are solicitors fees of this size likely in an accident with no personal injury? What exactly are these solicitors said to be doing? Slightly naive of me but I was assuming my claim would be repair cost + hire car. Now wondering whether I should be expecting more…. 😬
 
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Very minor update re my claim - don’t want to discuss it much further publicly but happy to over PM if anyone’s interested/it will help anyone.

In short though, they were useless in response to my questions - avoided everything.

First bill for just the credit hire car
landed, for over a months use! Not impressed - seems a lot in terms of both time and cost!

While reading a different thread I’ve seen huge bills for solicitors fees (10k in one - which was about the same size of the rest of the claim). Are solicitors fees of this size likely in an accident with no personal injury? What exactly are these solicitors said to be doing? Slightly naive of me but I was assuming my claim would be repair cost + hire car. Now wondering whether I should be expecting more…. 😬

Sounds like par for the course.

Excess costs and Admiral ineptitude.

They make a lot of noise about you signing an indemnity to help reduce the costs. Usually after the horse has bolted and costs are already racked up.

For credit hire it must not be for any longer than is necessary and it should be a like for like vehicle.

Was the damaged vehicle undriveable? Why did it take a month to repair? How long was it in the repairers?
When did the owner sign the A&A form? I would put your questions in a letter, not email or phone calls. It's more formal and if nothing else it'll make them work a bit harder.

You need an explanation of the course of events and the decisions Admiral made before you agree to pay. They don't do what's best for you, they just follow the usual course of a claim and throw the bill over the wall to you. They will say it's not worth the time/cost/effort challenging some of these costs which is fine when it's not you having to pay the bill.

Can't see why solicitors need to get involved for property damage where Admiral have agreed to settle under the A&A.
 
Sounds like par for the course.

Excess costs and Admiral ineptitude.

They make a lot of noise about you signing an indemnity to help reduce the costs. Usually after the horse has bolted and costs are already racked up.

For credit hire it must not be for any longer than is necessary and it should be a like for like vehicle.

Was the damaged vehicle undriveable? Why did it take a month to repair? How long was it in the repairers?
When did the owner sign the A&A form? I would put your questions in a letter, not email or phone calls. It's more formal and if nothing else it'll make them work a bit harder.

You need an explanation of the course of events and the decisions Admiral made before you agree to pay. They don't do what's best for you, they just follow the usual course of a claim and throw the bill over the wall to you. They will say it's not worth the time/cost/effort challenging some of these costs which is fine when it's not you having to pay the bill.

Can't see why solicitors need to get involved for property damage where Admiral have agreed to settle under the A&A.
Thanks for your reply. The A&A form was signed no more than 4 days after I received the consent form. I don’t know the exact day but I know the TP had signed in this time. I asked why this was and it was just to ‘get a form in quick to speed things up’. Then went on to say I could still sign consent form for them so I ‘looked good as a customer’.

I have no idea how a bumper replacement takes over a month, but apparently it has. Almost 5 weeks on the credit hire.

In my opinion the car was moveable, mine was and mine was more damaged. I obviously don’t know what classes as too damaged to drive in professional opinion, but Police certainly had no issue with me driving mine home and stated there was ‘minimal damage’ to both cars.

I did send a letter, and they replied with a phone call. I was also told I couldn’t have any copies of bills / receipts or dates of hire etc for data protection. I will argue the toss about that when the time comes, I already now TP name and address so don’t know what data they’re protecting.

Its starting to look like an awful figure. I can understand paying for what I’ve damaged, but inflated costs are incredibly frustrating!
 
Thanks for your reply. The A&A form was signed no more than 4 days after I received the consent form. I don’t know the exact day but I know the TP had signed in this time. I asked why this was and it was just to ‘get a form in quick to speed things up’. Then went on to say I could still sign consent form for them so I ‘looked good as a customer’.

I have no idea how a bumper replacement takes over a month, but apparently it has. Almost 5 weeks on the credit hire.

In my opinion the car was moveable, mine was and mine was more damaged. I obviously don’t know what classes as too damaged to drive in professional opinion, but Police certainly had no issue with me driving mine home and stated there was ‘minimal damage’ to both cars.

I did send a letter, and they replied with a phone call. I was also told I couldn’t have any copies of bills / receipts or dates of hire etc for data protection. I will argue the toss about that when the time comes, I already now TP name and address so don’t know what data they’re protecting.

Its starting to look like an awful figure. I can understand paying for what I’ve damaged, but inflated costs are incredibly frustrating!
Stick to your guns and keep challenging.
 
Stick to your guns and keep challenging.
I intend to as I’m not hugely impressed with how they have dealt with this. Could I ask what difference it makes if the car was drivable or not? Does it have a bearing on anything?

I don’t know how you had the minerals to deal with them for so long… I’m just trying as hard as I can to take this monumental disaster as a character building life lesson/life experience! 😖
 
I intend to as I’m not hugely impressed with how they have dealt with this. Could I ask what difference it makes if the car was drivable or not? Does it have a bearing on anything?

I don’t know how you had the minerals to deal with them for so long… I’m just trying as hard as I can to take this monumental disaster as a character building life lesson/life experience! 😖
I was just wondering if they really needed a hire car if the damaged car could have been driven.
Perhaps it was safer to not drive it until it was assessed. Admiral need to justify it.

They probably can’t answer your questions because they’ve not bothered to think about it or bothered to challenge it.

If it ended up in court you wouldn’t be denying you hit the car, you’d be challenging the amount they are claiming.
Admiral would have to justify the claim to the Judge. The Judge would expect Admiral to have done their best to settle the claim without taking you to court. They are not showing signs of doing that yet.

What kept me going was the belief that Admiral had done nowhere near enough to keep the costs down and just gave the claims management company a free run.
 
I was just wondering if they really needed a hire car if the damaged car could have been driven.
Perhaps it was safer to not drive it until it was assessed. Admiral need to justify it.

They probably can’t answer your questions because they’ve not bothered to think about it or bothered to challenge it.

If it ended up in court you wouldn’t be denying you hit the car, you’d be challenging the amount they are claiming.
Admiral would have to justify the claim to the Judge. The Judge would expect Admiral to have done their best to settle the claim without taking you to court. They are not showing signs of doing that yet.

What kept me going was the belief that Admiral had done nowhere near enough to keep the costs down and just gave the claims management company a free run.
Ah, you certainly wouldn’t want to drive the car for general journeys as the whole bumper was cracked, but it wouldn’t have been dangerous to move. So I guess they needed a hire car while theirs was fixed, I’m just struggling to see how it takes 5 weeks, I arranged for my car to be repaired, it was done the next day. I know it might have been waiting for parts, but I would have expected a common part on a common car to not be too hard to come by.

How do I know claims management is involved? Is that credit hire? When I reported my accident, the lady on the phone told me they try really hard to avoid claims management. I think she said that before she knew about the conviction, probably don’t care as much if they know they can reclaim costs.
 
Just an update on my situation. Spoke to admiral today after 4 months since my incident. So far costs from the party are above £7000 but no exact figure since this hasn't been finalised. There are further costs coming since the vehicle repair, car hire and any extras.

Quite strange that the other 2 3rd parties are yet to put in a claim as I have seen the cars replaced their wing mirrors and had scratches all painted. Until these have made a claim or contacted it looks like the whole claim is open and it will be a goos year until Admiral can put a final bill together.

Hating the waiting game but this is all part of the lesson which is certainly learned. So happy that I'm. Paying to replace car parts not human body parts which can't be replaced...
 
Just an update on my situation. Spoke to admiral today after 4 months since my incident. So far costs from the party are above £7000 but no exact figure since this hasn't been finalised. There are further costs coming since the vehicle repair, car hire and any extras.

Quite strange that the other 2 3rd parties are yet to put in a claim as I have seen the cars replaced their wing mirrors and had scratches all painted. Until these have made a claim or contacted it looks like the whole claim is open and it will be a goos year until Admiral can put a final bill together.

Hating the waiting game but this is all part of the lesson which is certainly learned. So happy that I'm. Paying to replace car parts not human body parts which can't be replaced...
Hi, could I ask what the further costs are? Are there other things to consider aside from car hire and the repair cost? I’ve received a figure for car hire but no repair figure yet.. I was assuming the bill would be made up of just these two?
 
Hi, could I ask what the further costs are? Are there other things to consider aside from car hire and the repair cost? I’ve received a figure for car hire but no repair figure yet.. I was assuming the bill would be made up of just these two?
Well the van I hit was a hire van. Possibly loss of business while the van was in the garage? Who knows. They didn't say much to manage my expectations...
 
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