Highway Insurance have finally settled my claim

[BlitzBoy]

Ok guys this is the letter I have written and will post this afternoon



Dear David Salter

Your work colleague Craig Hammond has informed me that my claim will not be honoured. I find this disgusting behaviour on the way he has acted with my case and to what he has written, I have opened a case with the insurance Ombudsman case number 6458498.

Now I will address all aspects in the letter he has written to me (please note I actually never received the letter through the post, I had to ring up, then find out he went on holiday after him promising he was going to ring me, when I rang up and was told the claim was not going to be paid they had to fax me the letter!)

Right onto the first point in his letter quoted below



1)    “We write with reference to the above motor insurance claim and regret to advise you that as you have failed to comply with the policy terms and conditions we will not be paying for the damage to the vehicle.

Under the claims handling section of your policy it states:

Fraudulent, False and exaggerated Claims

Fraudulent, false and exaggerated claims increase premiums for our policyholders. We will not pay a claim which is in any part fraudulent, false or exaggerated, or if you, or anyone acting for you, or where we have been given any documents which are false or stolen. We will also seek to recover any costs that we have incurred. In such circumstances, we will cancel your policy and we will not return any premium.

During your interview (telephone) with us 3rd July 2006 you told us that you were on the way to car show in Stratford on-Avon where you were to ’show’ your car and that you met other people at a lay by off the M25 when your vehicle caught fire.

We are now in full receipt of the full fire report which states that a fuel pipe came lose while you were driving and that it was spilling fuel as you were travelled and that the fuel ignited as you indicated to pull in to the lay by.

At this point we can confirm that problems caused by mechanical failure such as this are not covered by the terms of the policy and we would therefore be unable to cover you for this event.”


Right having read my policy and consulted with the ombudsman, we agree the actual fuel pipe failure is not covered, but the subsequent fire damage IS covered by the policy. Now the “Mechanical failure” Exemption clause in the policy is to stop people claiming for broken Engines, gearboxes etc. I think you agree most fire damage to cars is caused by some type of failure of a mechanical part. I purchased a fully comp insurance policy from yourselves including my declared modifications to include Fire protection. Therefore the policy does cover fire damage to my car.
Ok now onto the second point



2) “That Aside, during your interview with us you were asked if the vehicle was fitted with a Nitrous kit or any other fuel boosting equivalent. You replied that it was not. We have today spoken with a trained vehicle engineer who has now completed a full and thorough inspection of your vehicle. He states that there are fuel pipes in the vehicle in areas where fuel pipes would not be located unless a fuel boosting mechanism were fitted to the vehicle. He has located a fuel pipe T connector that’s is usually used to take and mix another substance with the main fuel supply and is sending this to us as evidence. Another breach of the Policy terms, as we will not provide any cover for a vehicle that is fitted with such a device.”

Ok this car has never ever been fitted with Nitrous! Also any engineer worth his salt knows you do NOT add Nitrous directly to a fuel line, I suspect the T-piece he has removed is to do with the fuel pressure regulation system, I have asked one of your work colleagues to return me this T-Piece (please note I did not authorise any engineer to remove parts from my car, so I think your engineer is breaking the law!)

I can obtain an engineers report to confirm Nitrous was never fitted to this car, I would think the fire brigade or your so called engineer would have found a Nitrous bottle installed in the car.
Also I would like the full name and address of the Engineer and a list of his qualifications please as required by law.
Ok onto the third point

3)   “In addition to the above you were asked if you had ever raced this vehicle and if you were planning to race on the day in question. You replied, “No, I\'m not good enough”
This is clearly a falsehood as we have written evidence, which confirms you have attended and raced in previous events and that you were on the list to race on the day of the event. Evidence from various websites shows that you have the alias of Blitzboy and we have printed some interesting threads as further evidence of your deceit!”


Ok what has accusation of me racing at an event have to with my Fire Claim!?
I think you have to agree nothing, and the ombudsman has confirmed to me on the phone this is unrelated to the claim.
Also I do not hold a racing licence therefore how can I race?
When I replied, “I am not good enough” I took his question as meaning do I race the car round a racing circuit, which I never have done. I think Craig is referring to Drag strip events at Santa Pod and Stratford upon Avon, these are just RWYB time test events.
 I agree I have taken part in RWYB events but these are not on Public roads.
These places do not endorse racing at RWYB events, to race there would require a MSA racing licence.
I know insurance do not cover on these premises. But I still ask the question what has this got to do with my Fire claim? The fire occurred on a Public road where by I was meeting my friends.

I think the only reason Craig Hammond has written this is to belittle me and make me feel like a criminal, I take great exception this and I am considering suing Craig Hammond personally this is defamation of character.
Therefore can you forward Craig Hammonds’ address and his FULL name, which I will hand over to my Solicitors?

I have now had to collect my car as the salvage people had instructions from Craig to dismantle it. Previously I was told this was CAT A write off but upon collecting my car was told it was changed to CAT B in which could be sold and put back on the road, I feel Highway or probably Craig has thought that I would have given up my claim felt the car was unrecoverable because it was CAT A and left it to be disposed of and Highway making money out of the Salvage, if this turns out to be true I am very shocked at this behaviour.

I have now had to dismantle the car to make sure it doesn’t get put back on the road, I am still pursuing my claim, I therefore ask you to pay the claim, at the time of insuring the car I gave you Highway the approx value of £15K, I have provided you evidence of its value and also adverts for similar cars on the market from 9K upwards. I therefore ask you to make me an acceptable offer to me.

I think I had better inform you as well that I have informed my car club and other car clubs with my case with Highway Insurance and they are following this closely and are presently quite shocked at how I have been treated, many people in my car club and other car clubs are insured with Highway. So far 5000 people have read my story and counting.

On a customer care front, Highway in the two months that have dealt with my claim have never sent me a letter in the post or returned any of my phone calls! It’s always me ringing up to chase and to find out what’s going. Also Craig Hammond has lied to me on the phone saying he was going to me ring back, he also lied to say the only reason why my claim was taking so long because they needed another engineer to value the car as the first Engineer valued it at 2K, he never told me my claim was ever in dispute! The only people that were efficient and fair were the last two women I spoke to on the phone all your staff should lead by their example as they were very professional but Craig Hammond was not.


I hope you can deal with my claim efficiently as it will show others who are following my case that Highway can be fair.
Please can you send all correspondence to me via recorded delivery, as I will be, just in case this matter goes before the Insurance Ombudsman or court.

[Shyne]

Wooooooaaaah!!! I didn\'t realise half of this, you\'ve been lied to on more than one occasion to affect decission, tricky to proove, but definately seems as though they were applying any information they could (true or false) to get you to walk away (which you almost did).

Keep in constant contact with the ombudsman for any info or advise you need, I know we claim to record calls as I think its a requirement of the FSA that this is done for a certain percentage. You may benefit from requesting these call records be recovered to back up your evidence against Graig Hammond.

Best of luck Mark, stick with it mate!!!

[cannibal]

Good reply Mark. I hope they respond quickly and positively. Keep at them as I and I\'m sure everyone else here believe this is a gross misjustice.

[TwistedHumour]

As this is now a formal complaint, I\'m sure that they are bound by FSA regulations on response times etc.

Best of luck wish this one!

[monkey-fd3s]

Fantastic letter Mark - good luck

Highway - if you are reading this I hope you are loosing a lot of business.  thousands of people have read this and just remember what word of mouth can do to that number.

[BlitzBoy]

Now posted guys, just lie back and wait the response lets hope its a good one

[fro]

Good luck Mark. Great to see you\'re fighting them, they thoroughly deserve it

[RobbieRX-7]

Yes that should push them into the corner battling a way out. I did find a couple of mistakes, so read it again carefully then send the bugger off. I cant wait for their reply :WaveBye

[BlitzBoy]

well I corrected a couple of Grammer mistakes and now it is sent

[nikp]

Good luck. Keep us all updated.

[Kieron]

Flame the fdukers :flamed

[ro284]

Well done Mark, brilliant letter, good luck,
Bob

[oldone]

If you want me to collect the cheque from Mr.Hammond at Highway,I will do it with the greatest of pleasure for you bud.....but I will take A with me .....heheheheheheheh

ps Good letter bro..........

[Stu.Wilson]

Goo direct letter bud! and yep they are now tied by time scales and stuff! like the bit about Recorded mail, they can\'t say they didn\'t post it now can they!

Stu

[Ada7]

Nice one Mark. Hope this all gets sorted out in your favour in short and sweet time. Dont settle for less than the maximum pay out.

Anyone seen the programme \'Dont get done, get Dom\'? Should of got that guy involved. He\'d of sorted it out in a day and it would of been all over the TV to

Adam