Treating third parties fairly

One of the cornerstones of the FCA's regulation of general insurance is the principle of Treating Customers Fairly. Fundamentally this means that insurance buyers should be confident that they will be dealing with a company that will treat them with respect, not have undue delays or jargon blocking their paths and they can expect outcomes that have been set for them.

I have a motor claim ongoing at present where my client was not at fault so we are pursuing the third party insurer for my clients losses. The third party insurer has admitted liability, made a partial payment of the claim and now just need to make a second payment to complete. They have had all necessary supporting documents and yet it is taking months for them to issue a payment. 

They don't answer the phone to third parties, they don't answer email, on the rare occassion we do get through to them, they simply say that the file is being reviewed. 

If they treated their own policyholders like this then they would very soon have no customers left. 

I would suggest that, if only for good business sense, TCF should be applied to insurers dealing with third parties in addtion to their own policyholders. Perhaps then they might put the required resources into dealing with everyone fairly.