Hi,

I am a named driver on my Grandad's insurance and have recently had an accident (the fault is still being disputed) and the car is a write off.

The car in question is a 2004 1.2 Corsa 3door. It was purchased for little over 3 grand.

The insurance are currently offering me £2447 for the car which i believe is not enough, but they are also minusing the excess of £250 (fair enough) but an additional £500 for what i believe is the rest of the insurance time, but I cannot under stand this. Although we pay monthly, there is more than £500's worth on insurance left to pay! So cannot understand where they get the figure from. Also, they did say that if we took more insurance out with them, then they will give us back the £500.

Are they allowed to do this? It doesnt seem to make sence to me

Also, I have not accepted the first offer of £2447, should I ask for the £3000 or so that I originally paid for (or there about's, I said it was worth £4000 on the insurance)?

One more question while I am at it, I had the accident but as I am the named driver, and not actually making the claim, for the next time I take out insurance do I say i had an accident or do I say my Grandad made a claim (or both?)

Many thanks, I did try searching but couldnt really find much (plus I am in a bit of a rush at the moment).

Chris.

 

Are they allowed to do this? It doesnt seem to make sence to me

 

Also, I have not accepted the first offer of £2447, should I ask for the £3000 or so that I originally paid for (or there about's, I said it was worth £4000 on the insurance)?

 

One more question while I am at it, I had the accident but as I am the named driver, and not actually making the claim, for the next time I take out insurance do I say i had an accident or do I say my Grandad made a claim (or both?)

 

Yes they are and it is normal for them to deduct the remaining premium. You would be surprised by the number of people that obtain a claim payment, then cancel their monthly payments and do a runner.

You can dispute the settlement but Insurers will only pay the market value as shown in guides such as glass.co.uk. Insurers do not have to accept any details you send them of similar cars for sale in the small ads. The FOS deem such ads as being the selling prices people hope to achieve but not the actual price paid.

You will have to declare the accident and claim under all future Insurances. Being that your accident as a named driver led to the claim being necessary.

Be very careful, if you have been using your grandad to 'front' the Insurance for you, to reduce the premium. You appear to mention that it was you that had bought the car. If you push the claim settlement too far, the Insurers might start to look into the vehicle ownership a bit more. If they find that the Insurance was not correctly arranged, they could then reject the claim and void the Insurance.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

What doesn't make sense is, the rest of the premium is more than £500!

So I say i had the accident and claimed, and not my Grandad?

And no fronting was involved, believe it or not, if i had the insurance on my own it would be cheaper! Also I didn't buy the car (I talk on my grandads behalf, he happens to be almost 89 years old)

So it seems my (well our) best plan of action is to get the car repaired locally, purchasing the parts off ebay (i think its a Cat. C Write off) as it was the drivers side rear quarter panel damaged? It seems this way its more worth while for us, am I right in saying I can request the damage/pricing list of the car, and the value of the car after the accident? As they do seems to make it sound like we can't...

I did this for my motorbike, when I had an accident and its on the road again, but they specifically told me I could either take only the cash, or the cash minus the value of the bike after the accident.

Again many thanks for your help.

It could be that they have mis-calculated what is due up to the end of the policy term. If they have made a mistake, if this is in your favour keep quiet.

You both had claims. Only you had the accident and claim.

I only mentioned fronting, as you mentioned in your post about how much you paid for the car.

When you have a claim, if the repairs will cost approx 60% of the cars value, Insurers will often write off the car. This is because they are basing repair costs on buying brand new parts and labour. Often you can get the car repaired for a much cheaper cost. If you discuss this with the Insurers, they should pay the claim settlement, less an amount for you to buy the salvage back. Just make sure are fully aware of the extent of the damage before you do this and the full cost of getting it back on the road.

Okay thanks for the help!