Third party payout?

[Bobojan]

In May of this year one of our trucks was involved in an accident with a bakkie that veered into it's lane. Our truck and it's load had to be towed into the nearest town. We freed one of our other horses to go and assist with the offloading of the load (luckily not damaged), but the truck itself had R160 000 worth of damage. Our own insurance dealt with this claim and we had to fork out R34 000 in extra payment. The truck and driver were out of work for over a month.
We have put in a claim for the horse that had to go and assist as well as a loss of income for the third party. Our insurance do not want to pay out the extra horse directly to us and insists that it should be handled together with the third party claim. Surely if we did not free one of our own horse to assist in the accident, they would have had to get another transporter to assist and would have paid his costs directly out?
We have also discovered that our insurance and the bakkie's are the same company and everything is dealt 'in-house', yet we have been waiting almost 7 months and lost over R100 000 in damages and income. The insurance now want to offer us 80% of our extra payment, 50% of our bill for the assisting truck and 0% on our loss of income.
Is this fair? Are we not allowed full payment for our losses? How long will this take before it is resolved?

 

[xrapidx]

www.osti.co.za

for that sort of money - I'd enquire with a lawyer.

 

[Bobojan]

Will this not slow down the process even more and just balloon our costs?

 

[xrapidx]

Will this not slow down the process even more and just balloon our costs?

A lawyer? Probably. Insurance companies count on people not wanting to take the chance, so they screw them.

You could try the Ombudsman - it'll take longer - but doesn't cost anything.

 

[MFour]

I think the big question is whether your insurance policy allows for the extra claims in case of a crash. Not all policies include loss of income or recovery, but your policy documentation should state that. If it does cover loss of income, then a visit to a broker or lawyer (even just one consultation) might see you on the right path.

 

[Gnome]

I would talk to a expert in the field on insurance anyway. One consultation will be enough for him/her to give you the correct course of action. Usually if the person in question is actually an expert the insurance company will settle.