Heed this cautionary tale -- get an insurer’s written word

Last May my car was crashed into by a driver whose driving licence had expired.

My car was written off and both my wife and I spent a period of time in hospital. The total medical and vehicle costs were probably over R600 000.

He was uninsured, so my costs were considerable and my insurance has now approximately trebled. My vehicle was insured for retail value, that is, no value was stated in the contract document. The insurance was taken out through a broker.

Two weeks after the crash in a teleconference I was offered a settlement payout of retail value plus 5% because the car (about 23 months old) had done only 6 500km and was in excellent condition.

I was not offered anything for the tow bar or for medical expenses.

The tow bar was in fact not insured, but I was promised either a refund of what the tow bar had cost me, or to dismount the tow bar and return it to me.

A week later the insurer phoned me and stated that the car was insured for a rand value slightly in excess of the retail value originally offered and that this would include the tow bar and there would be no additional 5% for condition and low kilometres. I was forced to accept the offer because I was without wheels altogether and had, on the back of their original offer, agreed to purchase a replacement vehicle.

Roughly a month later I discovered that the broker/insurer had continued to take insurance premiums from my bank account even though I had expressly instructed them to cancel the policy.

I chose to approach the Small Claims Court for assistance. Within days of receiving the summons I received quite unsolicited a payout for the tow bar. On the day of the scheduled court appearance I received a further R300 in lieu of insurance premiums paid incorrectly.

The court acknowledged my receipt of certain premiums and the payment for the tow bar. It awarded me all my medical costs, as claimed, and agreed with my calculation of the shortfall in premiums returned to me, but I was awarded nothing for the vehicle value.

No explanation was given. Although I have been robbed of some R17 000, I can expect nothing but some satisfaction from getting a warning out to the insuring public that they should do what I have done – obtain from their insurers a guarantee that, in the event of a vehicle write-off, they will receive the correct amount, and how to calculate what that amount should be.

Incidentally in my last e-mail to the insurers, I read them a lecture on how despicable they had been in destroying trust.

They replied thanking me for my sentiments and stated that they had conveyed the message to their head office in Cape Town.

Their e-mail indicated to me that they had in fact merely been carrying out company policy.