# Accident - how to claim?



## Jakdaw (Mar 29, 2010)

Had a bit of an accident on Friday... driving in traffic around the North Circular a lorry didn't look and tried to perform a lane change into the left of three lanes, only I was already in it! Looks like just bodywork damage (we were both going exactly the same speed - so I just have nice circle carved by his wheel nuts into the panel behind the drivers door and some damage to the door itself).

I'd expected to just deal with this through my insurance company (Admiral), but they don't seem keen to handle it themselves (although willing, but warn me it'll risk my excess/no claims) and instead refer me to their preferred claims management company Albany.

Does anyone have any other suggestions (ie other claims management companies) or good/bad experience with Albany? I just want to get the bodywork sorted - noone was hurt and I don't want to take the piss with hire cars etc. However, it's a GT-R, so it's worth some money, and I expect that to remain the case, so want to make sure appropriate attention is paid to the repair work.

Thanks,

Chris


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## PS30-SB (Jun 13, 2003)

Jakdaw said:


> I'd expected to just deal with this through my insurance company (Admiral), but they don't seem keen to handle it themselves (although willing, but warn me it'll risk my excess/no claims) and instead refer me to their preferred claims management company Albany.


I'm also with Admiral for my everyday driver, and have had a couple of bad experiences with Albany Assistance. Both clear no-fault claims against other drivers (one rear-ended me when I stopped for a car spinning in front of me, and one pulled out of side-turning without looking) but they took ages to resolve.

Was given replacement vehicles whilst mine was being repaired (these provided by yet another Albany-related company, staffed by morons) and both times went through the same nonsense when the insurance companies of the at-fault drivers refused to pay for the 'hire' of these replacement vehicles. 

Albany will ask you to sign documents which eventually make you liable for the cost of hire should the at-fault driver's insurance company refuse to pay all, or some, of it. Watch out for that. Both my cases were eventually resolved at court, but it took a long time and it wasn't a nice experience...

I've always been (relatively) happy with Admiral, but not with their nominated claims management company Albany Assistance.


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## grahamc (Oct 1, 2006)

Im with Admiral, but have never made a claim..... and this is pretty much the worry. What are they like when you need to claim.....


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## G2GUV (Dec 16, 2012)

Speak with Stuart Gold at Gold Motors. They have branches in Pekham and Croydon, Nissans HPCs only approved bodyshop in London I believe. His accident management company are awesome and make it as painless as possible.


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## AdnanK (Jun 11, 2013)

I'm with Admiral and haven't heard good things about Albany, primary reason why I now have a dash cam, any blame will be clear cut.


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## twobadmice (Jul 2, 2013)

Use accident exchange. They deal with everything and are much better than Albany. There is a place in Slough they only deals with high end cars for the body work.


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## borat52 (Jan 29, 2006)

I had a non fault claim in an XKR a few years back, dented front wing due to the other driver changing lane and driving into me so somewhat similar.

I was with Churchill (admiral company). Car still drove and it was only cosmetic so I decided to persue it myself. The driver had admitted fault and I insisted I wanted to get it dealt with at a place of my choosing. Got 2 quotes, sent them off and asked for them to pay in cash. They got me to sign a waiver so that I had no right to any hire car and once they made the payment they had no responsibility for the repair.

All fairly painless, only thing is that they refused to pay the VAT on the quote.


I did it like that as I didn't need the hire car, and wanted someone I knew to repair it who if it needed to go back to was going to be local to me and trusted by me plus Insurance companies will always find extra charges to add on then dispute who is going to pay for them.

I'd try it yourself and see how amenable the other drivers insurance company are.


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## GlastoVeteran (Dec 15, 2011)

I had the exact same experience as PS30-SB.

My GT-R took around a month to repair and during that time Albany Assistance "hired" me an M3 at around £500 per day. You are asked to sign an agreement that says that you will be liable for all charges if the other insurance company does not pay, but at the same time they then give you an insurance policy that says that you won't be liable as long as you co-operate with them.

In my case the other insurance company refused to pay the £16k hire car charges that Albany wanted so it was a long and drawn out legal process where I was interviewed and had to provide months worth of bank and credit card statements, and the whole thing generally took up quite a lot of time. In the back of my mind I was worrying that I would be liable for the £16k hire car bill.

Not sure that I would do it again, but the alternative is using a bog standard courtesy car that Admiral would provide you with.

Good luck.


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## zed1 (Aug 13, 2013)

Sorry to hear this Chris. I remember you from our trip in 2013. Hope it works out ok for you. I have to say I've heard that Admiral was not top of the tree when it came to the crunch. Just hoping I never need to use them.


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