Left out of pocket in a legal slow lane

In 1998, I was involved in a traffic accident when the car behind me failed to stop. I sent a claim form to AGF Insurance, who provided a hire car. First they lost my claim, then they lost the assessor's report. Eventually the car was repaired and we paid the £150 excess. In July 1998, we were offered £170 for the excess and out-of-pocket expenses, but we have still not received the money. The guilty party's insurer is refusing to reimburse AGF with the car hire charges, which were £1,565 - more than the value of our car. Apparently we have to wait for a ruling from the House of Lords before we can get our £150 back. Why should we be penalised, particularly as it was my hard work that kept the repair time to five weeks? CL, Royston

Arguments between AGF, the other driver's insurer and the car hire company ground to a halt, leaving you stranded. The guilty driver's insurer said AGF had been unnecessarily slow, resulting in excessive hire car costs, which they refused to pay. AGF denied this. Since contacting me, you have received a cheque for £170 from the other side's solicitors, inexplicably forwarded by the car hire firm.

This was before the Lords' judgment, which finally arrived 10 days ago. The court case, Dimond v Lovell, concerned how much insurers should have to pay for cars that the innocent victims of motor accidents hire while theirs are being repaired.

Insurers argued that the new credit hire companies in this business charged too much and the Lords decided that insurers had to refund only reasonable car hire costs.

Last September, the Association of British Insurers launched a scheme for innocent victims not provided with courtesy cars by their own insurer or the guilty party's. You can get details from www.abi.org.uk/tphire or from car hire firms Enterprise (0800 800227) and National Car Rental (020 8358 9860).

Jobless claim: Never valid


A year ago I was laid off work and claimed on my redundancy insurance policy with Britannia building society. In December, Britannia wrote saying they were closing the case as they had not heard from me. I told them it was me waiting to hear from them. They then said they would activate my claim by the end of January, but I have heard nothing. AH, Bury St Edmunds

You were told that you qualified for payment by call centre staff at Britannia's external administrator, which the society has since dropped. In fact, your claim was never valid because you took a temporary job two days short of the 60-day qualifying period after being made redundant.

Britannia says the claims department should not have kept chasing documents when your claim was invalid.

The society is making an ex-gratia payment of £100.

Share deal: The true cost


I instructed my stockbroker to sell 200 On Line shares. They sent a share transfer form and a request for the share certificate. As we had never received the certificate, we returned the transfer form and went on holiday. On our return, we found letters from my broker saying that as they did not have a share certificate, they would have to buy the shares on the market to close the deal, with a bill for £2,500. I pointed out that there was no need to purchase the shares, as we already owned them. PB, Bushey

You did not own the shares once you gave instructions to sell. The deal is done then, even though the share certificate is not due until settlement day, five days later. Unless your shares are in a nominee account, you must produce a certificate. If you do not, Stock Exchange rules allow brokers to buy more shares, so the next buyer has a certificate and they can reclaim the cost from you.

Policy mix-up: Delay payment


We have an endowment policy with Scottish Life maturing this month, but they said it was assigned to NatWest Bank. I told them it wasn't, but they said I must sort it out myself. I called five different departments at NatWest but none could help. They say another policy is assigned to Alliance & Leicester, which it is not. Surely Scottish Life should be sorting this out? EP, Lenham

NatWest has tracked down your file, which shows that the policy was assigned to the bank for a few years but discharged in February 1997. It looks as though NatWest sent the policy back to you without informing Scottish Life, but it has now written to the insurer confirming the facts. Because of the delay, Scottish Life is paying you an extra week's interest, £4.68. The second policy is assigned to Kent Reliance Building Society, but Scottish Life typed in the wrong name when your original lender, Chatham Reliance, amalgamated with the Herne Bay.

Write to Margaret Dibben, Money Writes, The Observer, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER and include a telephone number. Do not enclose SAEs or original documents. Letters are selected for publication and we cannot give personal replies. We accept no legal responsibility for advice.