My Toyota Yaris was hit in a supermarket car park, smashed beyond economical repair, in August 2012. My boyfriend was driving – I was unwell – and as he was not a named driver, he was only covered for third party claims. There were no such claims as it was entirely the other driver's fault.
But because he was driving, neither my insurer nor the legal expenses cover on my policy would get involved. The other driver was insured by Swiftcover, part of Axa. I had to tackle them on my own.
My road tax and insurance ran out at the end of August so I had to pay to store the car, awaiting an Axa inspection. Despite frequent reminders, I heard nothing from Axa. In the meantime, I could not afford another car and after paying for four months' storage, I sold the car as scrap for £500.
Now, more than six months after the incident, I have still heard nothing from Axa. KL, Teddington, Middx
Motor insurers are notoriously difficult when dealing with legitimate claims from other parties. In this case, it was doubly difficult as both your insurer and legal expenses provider washed their hands of you because your boyfriend was covered under his own policy only for third-party risks when driving another car.
There was initially some confusion over who would obtain the CCTV footage from the car park. But this does not explain the six months of delay.
Axa owned up swiftly when we called. It blamed an "inexcusable lack of communication" and added: "We didn't reply. We didn't give the service we should have. It was unacceptable." The only reason it could come up with was that it was hit in August by a "surge of events", mostly relating to last summer's bad weather.
Axa has now agreed to pay you the full value of the car – it calculated this slightly higher than your estimate – less the scrap value, plus storage costs and a £10 a day public transport allowance: £3,917. It will also add £200 to compensate you for its poor service.
This week's column is guest-written by Tony Levene.
We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Bachelor & Brignall, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number
