hi

on january the 12 my brother went snowboarding at tamworth snowdone and basically the car park flooded and he lost his car to water damage, direct line collected the car and within 2 days called him and told him they were wrighting the car off, but when he brought the car he purchased return 2 invoice gap so he called them to inform then and they told him not to accept direct lines offer untill they know what it was, but after 3 weeks he had not heard from direct line so called them and they told him, they had paid out direct to the finance company but obviously was not enough, so i contacted the vri company and they have come back with there figures but it still leaves me short off about £346 + my £500 exccess, i dont expect to get the excess back but the vri company are saying direct line have not offered enough for the car he called them today and they said they will not up there offer, but if he get the service book to them they will give him another £140, my question is can they pay direct to the finance company without him signing anything to say he accept there offer

is there anything he can do your help would be really appreciated

thanks

Obtain samples of cars of similar age, condition, type etc that are on sale in you local area. Look in trade magazines and other car mags. Also check supermaket boards andthe likes.

Cal Direct Line and tell them you are disputing the amount. They will open a file and ask you to send in supporting documents (which are the samples you have collected). Send them in and the assessor will have a look and will write to confirm whether they will increase or not.

This was a common occurence at DL when I worked there, and still seems to be.

Remember though that you will not get a forecourt price as they include profit which is not included in any offer.

Also bear in mind that one or two financial companies routinely dispute prices simply because its better to get it off the insurer (with oodles of money) rather than someone who has jus lost a couple of thousand quids worth of car and is having to fork out the same for a new one.

Remember though that you will not get a forecourt price as they include profit which is not included in any offer.

Not sure where you get the above from. The insurance company have to put the insured back to the position they were in before the claim. If that means that they have to purchase a similar vehicle from a garage then that will be the price they will settle at. What that normally means for the insured is that they have to do there homework and negotiate hard with the insurance company.

Negotiation can do well. But a cars value is not necessarily what someone asks for it. Most cars on a forecourt include elements such as profit, "freebies" (which in fact are covered in the price of the car) and the likes. Those things are not included when a total loss is valued.

That comes from the Chartered Insurance Institute and several underwritiers (one of whom was very senior). Things may have changed since my time in insurance, so things may have changed in the meantime, but I have not heard anything to suggest that it has.