Europcar Insurance lack of compliance concerns.

My vehicle was legally parked outside my home (Sea Point Cape Town)  when it was struck by a Europcar insured driver who admitted liability immediately. More than a month later, despite extensive cooperation on my side, Europcar still had not authorised repairs or confirmed payment, leaving me driving a damaged and unsafe vehicle while absorbing the disruption, administrative burden, and loss of use myself.

What followed was extraordinarily shocking in terms, both in service and compliance from Europcar. Despite this being a straightforward third party claim involving an innocent parked vehicle owner, I was repeatedly required to follow up, resubmit information, obtain at least 3 independent quotations for their own assessment process, and spend days attending to administration that should reasonably have sat with the insurer and claims department. They refused to send an assessor. 

I was further advised that: • Europcar would allegedly reimburse me a fee "they feel appropropriate" and possibly note the lowest quote ob*****ed, rather than settle repairs directly with the repairers • no interim vehicle would be provided despite the admitted liability and loss of use • I was expected to source quotations myself rather than have the vehicle independently assessed promptly by their own assessor despite quoting the CPA, and despite requesting an assessor in central Cape Town. 

As a consumer and innocent third party, I found the handling of this matter inconsistent with the principles of fairness, reasonableness, and timely resolution contemplated under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008. A consumer should not be subjected to unnecessary delay, prejudice, or procedural obstruction in circumstances where liability is clear and the damages are straightforward.

The issue was never merely the accident itself.Accidents happen.The real issue was the prolonged delay, the shifting of administrative responsibility onto the innocent party, and the apparent lack of urgency in restoring me to the position I was in before the incident occurred.

Based on my experience, I would exercise extreme caution before using Europcar or relying on their claims handling processes should something go wrong.  To date, one month later, Hanli Strydom and Danie Snyman , the legal team at Europcar, continue to ignore all my emails.   I am now forced to pursue the driver, who resides in Germany directly, and he will have to claim.  Do not use Europcar, they are not an ethical operation at all.