Help! Stolen recovered car
Discussion
Mrs Dead's car was stolen as part of a burglary whilst we slept a month ago, we made a claim straight away and the insurance company paid out. Last week the car turned up in Bexley and currently resides at the met police pound. The insurance company have now cancelled the cheque and have told us that they will be uplifting the car to a garage with a view to reparing any damage and giving us the car back (we don't really want it). In the meantime we have already put a deposit down on a new car. Firstly where do we stand? Do we have to accept this?
Secondly will the car now be cat E and more difficult to sell?
Lastly when I spoke to our insurer this afternoon the claims handler told me that had we banked the cheque they would've been within their rights to employ a debt recovery agency to recover the money, is this true?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Secondly will the car now be cat E and more difficult to sell?
Lastly when I spoke to our insurer this afternoon the claims handler told me that had we banked the cheque they would've been within their rights to employ a debt recovery agency to recover the money, is this true?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Edited by JaymzDead on Wednesday 15th September 21:23
Isn't there something about a cheque being as good as money or something. IIRC you can take the insurance company to court over the cancelled cheque (and nothing else) and you will win.
Of course that doesn't settle the whole situation.
I would have said that you and the insurance company have a contract - you hand over all rights to the car which they acknowledge with the cheque - you have consideration on both sides. They are in breach of contract
simples.
Bills of Exchange Act 1882.
http://www.michael-gerard.co.uk/blog/briefings/the...
Mind you - I am not a solicitor so you might want to check this out - and I have no connection to any websites I may have mentioned
Sean
This was taken from a no win no fee solicitor website:
THE LAW
A cheque is like a bill of exchange and is as good as cash in the hand. Once issued the party who issued the cheque is not entitled to argue that the goods have no value and therefore there is no consideration for the payment, nor can a counterclaim be used to avoid payment. Your debtor therefore is required to make payment of the sum of the cheque.
DISHONOURED CHEQUE
Under law, when you write a cheque to someone you effectively promise that the cheque will definitely be honoured by your Bank, and if for whatever reason the Bank does not honour the cheque you imply that you will compensate that person in full.
So, if someone’s (it could be anyone – company, customer, friend, family) cheque is not honoured or is stopped by them (for example, by a customer because they are unhappy with the goods or services you supplied to them), you can immediately sue that person and there is virtually no defence that the customer can raise to that claim.
We will claim on you behalf not only the amount of the cheque, but also interest on that money and payment towards the costs you incur in chasing up payment.
In most cases, where you sue on a cheque in this way, you will get an early judgment against the person or company that issued the bounced cheque, returned cheque, stopping cheques amd unpaid cheque with no need to go through the expense and stress of a full court case.
There will only be a defence to your claim for a bounced cheque in two situations:
If the person issuing the cheque can prove that they received absolutely nothing from you in exchange for their payment, this may legally justify their stopping the cheque. If, however, they obtained even very deficient goods or services from you, this removes this defence from them and you will still get judgment against them
The only other defence they can raise is where the contract with you was illegal or you obtained the cheque from them in a fraudulent way.
If neither of these two defences can be raised, your claim will succeed, you will get judgment, and you can then proceed to enforce that judgement if they do not pay you voluntarily.
Of course that doesn't settle the whole situation.
I would have said that you and the insurance company have a contract - you hand over all rights to the car which they acknowledge with the cheque - you have consideration on both sides. They are in breach of contract
simples.
Bills of Exchange Act 1882.
http://www.michael-gerard.co.uk/blog/briefings/the...
Mind you - I am not a solicitor so you might want to check this out - and I have no connection to any websites I may have mentioned
Sean
This was taken from a no win no fee solicitor website:
THE LAW
A cheque is like a bill of exchange and is as good as cash in the hand. Once issued the party who issued the cheque is not entitled to argue that the goods have no value and therefore there is no consideration for the payment, nor can a counterclaim be used to avoid payment. Your debtor therefore is required to make payment of the sum of the cheque.
DISHONOURED CHEQUE
Under law, when you write a cheque to someone you effectively promise that the cheque will definitely be honoured by your Bank, and if for whatever reason the Bank does not honour the cheque you imply that you will compensate that person in full.
So, if someone’s (it could be anyone – company, customer, friend, family) cheque is not honoured or is stopped by them (for example, by a customer because they are unhappy with the goods or services you supplied to them), you can immediately sue that person and there is virtually no defence that the customer can raise to that claim.
We will claim on you behalf not only the amount of the cheque, but also interest on that money and payment towards the costs you incur in chasing up payment.
In most cases, where you sue on a cheque in this way, you will get an early judgment against the person or company that issued the bounced cheque, returned cheque, stopping cheques amd unpaid cheque with no need to go through the expense and stress of a full court case.
There will only be a defence to your claim for a bounced cheque in two situations:
If the person issuing the cheque can prove that they received absolutely nothing from you in exchange for their payment, this may legally justify their stopping the cheque. If, however, they obtained even very deficient goods or services from you, this removes this defence from them and you will still get judgment against them
The only other defence they can raise is where the contract with you was illegal or you obtained the cheque from them in a fraudulent way.
If neither of these two defences can be raised, your claim will succeed, you will get judgment, and you can then proceed to enforce that judgement if they do not pay you voluntarily.
JaymzDead said:
The guy I spoke to from the insurer tonight tried to tell me that they are not legally allowed to sell these cars once they are recovered and that the salvage companies are the only ones legally allowed to make money from the car?
right so they give the cars to the salvage companies for free then?I think you are well within your rights to demand the money be paid, threaten them with the ombudsman if they don't play ball - apparently they have a 'common sense' approach.....
JaymzDead said:
The guy I spoke to from the insurer tonight tried to tell me that they are not legally allowed to sell these cars once they are recovered and that the salvage companies are the only ones legally allowed to make money from the car?
Methinks I detect an odour de male cow hereSean
t.Before you agree to a payout you have to sign an agreement that the settlement is a full and final settlement. Once that's signed the cheque gets sent and the car. Or what's left belongs to the insurance company.
Well. That's how it works at the insurance company I work for. If the insurance company want to mitigate their loss they try and make as much money back on the salvage.
If you're told anything different speak to the ABI!
They're trying it on!
Well. That's how it works at the insurance company I work for. If the insurance company want to mitigate their loss they try and make as much money back on the salvage.
If you're told anything different speak to the ABI!
They're trying it on!
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