Insurance & Other stuff (my little whinge)

[Troy Willmot]

You make good points about insurance, however I had notified MY insurance
company of the items, as adding such things causes an increase in theft risk
an if you're under 21/25 and don't tell them they can try to cause problems
later on.

The issue here was that it was the other drivers insurance company, not
mine. NZI pretty much refused to get involved. At the time I only had 3rd
party insurance, because I couldn't afford the $2000 a year they'd quoted me
previously. Because I only had that type of cover they said it was my
problem to deal with the other driver and her insurance company, although
they did say if I really got stuck they might consider talking to AMI on my
behalf.

AMI did let me take out my car seat covers as they were considered 'personal
affects'.

Anyway, I pointed out the items I mentioned to AMI as well but they said
they'd had a valuation done by one of their valuers and if I wanted to
dispute it I'd have to find another registered valuer, get him to do a
valuation, and then we'd have to debate the difference and see what could be
done.

I couldn't be bothered with that, so I wore the cost. My new car cost me
$12k to buy, I bought my stereo equipment back from Ross at MX5Mart (thanks
Ross!) after he bought my wreck, then I spent $400 on an immobiliser/alarm
(otherwise NZI either refused to insure me or charged me more) and then I
had Al at Al's Upholstery (a really great guy, see him for all your soft top
needs) install a new roof. The new roof was done under the clubs August
special so that only cost $1k approx, but all up to replace the car cost me
about $4k on top of what AMI paid me. The stereo equipment was also still
under HP at the time, but only had a couple of hundred dollars left to run,
so I don't worry too much about that.

I should also mention that it took several months for the payout to happen.
The accident occurred in September laster year, and I was only just able to
buy my new car a little bit before Christmas. Part of the delay was the
police, at least according to AMI.

According to AMI they couldn't do anything until the received a crash
report. The police kept saying they'd sent the report to whatever office
required it, and that office was the only one who could pass it on to AMI.
At one point the office in charge of the report said, never mind, it will
take the insurance companies ages to get their act together so it doesn't
matter if its been sent yet or not. We pointed out to him we'd rung the
crash office, who had not received the report, but had already received a
request for it from the AMI. Things started moving a little faster after
that.

Oh, yeah, and the police also didn't turn up at the scene either. The
accident occurred at about 5:15 pm, ambulance and towies turned up minutes
later, but we were still waiting for the Police at 7 pm. Eventually the
towies got a call from the Police telling them to tell us (the two drivers)
to go into the Police station and make a report, as they probably would get
there for a few more hours. It was a non-injury accident, so I can
understand it didn't have priority, but nearly two hours ? Buy the time they
showed up all the cars had been towed away, there were no witnesses to talk
to and all that there was to see was the intersection itself and some debris
in the middle of the road. Quite what sort of investigation can be made from
that I don't know. Luckily I had two witnesses, one behind me who confirmed
I had a green light and one behind the other driver who confirmed her light
was red. We think may she got confused by a green filter arrow that didn't
apply to her.

PS: For anyone that lives in or regularly visits West Auckland, I recommend
avoiding the Royal Heights intersection near the motorway on ramp. That was
where my accident occurred, and there had been a similar accident ealier in
the day. Since that time I've seen three other vehicles run red lights at
that same intersection, and one lady ran up the back of my new car because
she wasn't paying attention. Again, a female over 25. That bites. Anyway, I
never go that way during peak traffic times now.

[Aaron Hart]

hmmm if your stero was still under HP then they had NO legal right to take it. It doesn't belong to you ! it belongs to the HP company, and you should have claimed under your HP policy insurance for your stero, hmm interesting, oh and did you sign your vehical over to AMI ? cause if you didn't then they have stolen it !

Unless you sign your car over to them they have no right to it, Had this dispute with AMI myself, my sister rote off my car with my NEW stero in and they took the car b4 I could get my stero out, so i informed them that they send me the stero with speakers back or Id report my car as stolen and Id see them in court . Got my stero and all sorts back

Just a little more usless information for everyone

Aaron.

[Troy Willmot]

Hmm, well its all done with now. AMI told me they'd included the stereo in
the valuation. I can't remember whether or not I told them it was under HP,
as I said it was mostly paid off so I just went with it... my mistake. I'll
know better next time, thanks.

Troy

[nmr]

Am reading here some whinges about AMI; thought I should
mention that they have been my insurer for years and they have
been superb eg I sent them the receipt for windscreen damage last
week and I have the cheque in my hand today. (I bought out the
excess.) Both times I had hundreds of my CDs stolen from home
they gave me an enormous cheque without so much as a whimper.
(Got an alarm since then!)