Hai,

My car is been written off by the insurance company recently after a non-fault accedent happend on 20/10/2008.The claim goes on the other parties insurance company .The company has taken my car after one week of the accident and i am using the caurtasy car at the moment.

I fed up with calling my insurance company regarding the cheque(value of my car) .It has been 42 days since the accident and they are always saying that they are waiting for the engineer to value the car. Is there any rule regarding the time limit for settling the claim? .Where shall i make a complaint against this delay in getting the claim ?

pls help me

This is similar to my situation with Direct Line, my car was written off in September. They paid the value of the car, but kept the excess, I had a letter in October from them stating that the third party admits full liability, but every time I phone up I have to wait to be told that liability has not been admitted, then I wait for them to read all the notes and they agree liability has been admitted, then I am told a cheque will be sent out asap, I wait a week, no cheque, and then repeat the process.

I have written to them to open a complaint procedure and contacted the financial ombudsman.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

They wont touch the case until your insurance company has concluded it's own complaints procedure, and at the speed they move I don't see an end any time soon. I am not aware of any time limit, but they usually don't want to be paying for a courtesy car for too long.

Best of luck, my advice is open a complaint with them, wait them out and if you feel frustrated take the courtesy car for a few laps around Goodwood or Brands Hatch on their open days!