Hello all.

I am helping my dad with a car insurance claim.

I've never claimed anything on insurance before so am new to the process.

I hope you can help.

The general advice is,

that when your car is a written off,

as is the case here,

the insurers will try to low ball you on the first offer and you should reject it.

Some background on the incident is that

my dad parked his car on a hill,

some time later something failed

and the car rolled, writing his

and another vehicle off.

I have researched the car and it's difficult to tell whether the offer is low based on second hand car listings on ebay and autotrader.

They have offered £750 minus excess of £100.

Some similar cars are on sale for double that,

others have sold for around the same.

Obviously condition and other factors aren't going to be identical between the cars on sale and my dad's car.

Should I just go ahead and settle on the offer, or would I be a fool to?

I appreciate any advice, thanks for reading.

It would help knowing what make/model of car it is.

Hi.

It's a 2004 Vauxhall Astra.

I'm not sure of the mileage, I would estimate 70k. Low use, good condition.

Without the model its impossible to value.

Astra made around 50 variations in 2004

The only information on exactly what it might have been is 'VAUXHALL ASTRA CLUB TWINPORT 2004 1.6 litre' based on an Autotrader check on the registration.

Is that any good?

Well it seems from a couple mins search the average price is around 1300-1500 quid.

So offer seems a little low.

However the insurance company may argue that the vehicle was not in good condition, in fact they may say safety devices were not maintained.

I.e. You state " something failed" causing it to roll down a hill.

I presume you mean the handbrake.

it depends on whether you want letter tennis with insurance company for a while or settle at the amount.

Me,

personally would reject the offer and supply details of other vehicles for sale of the same make/model.

But I wouldn't think they would go above £1000.

They might start the argument of disrepair or failing to maintain a safety feature etc.

Thanks for the replies.

This is what is baffling.

We assumed it was the handbrake,

but they say they have had that checked and everything seems in good order.

They didn't expand on what might have been the problem, if they even know.

It had an MOT about a month prior to the incident.

The car was fine and rolled a couple of hours after it was parked.

In that case,

if they investigated and found the handbrake system in working order

then go for top amounts of other comparable cars for sale.

On the matter of a MOT.

The mot is only saying the car is roadworthy on the day it was tested.

It matters not if done a month ago or 363 days ago.

Its a guide

OK, thanks for the help, much appreciated.

What would 'We Buy Any Car' offer for the VRN and mileage?

Can you provide Service history or receipts for purchase of new tyres/battery?

What was the estimated value at last renewal?

Suggest they offer £1200 in full & final settlement, but be prepared to settle for less.

accept as you as many a case has been reported wasted time arguing over small amount, people think value sites are recovery/accident prices and are not!

does automatic or manual gearbox play a part here too re Park selection?

neighbour only got £500 on an auto jag s-type 2004 that had been parked on a hill everyday for 4.5yrs previous

he always engaged park and always engaged the additional electronic hand brake option.

the battery failed in cold weather, the ECU released the auto and hand brake, it went opps and hit 3 cars fwd of it down the hill

later by downloading the ECU data the insurance company ruled it was his fault for not replacing the battery.

strange world

dx

parking = i.e. mechanical fault? cause of an incident? car maintained?

so many questions but see Para 11 above.

seen so many arguments in 60 years as to Insurance claims which end up parked up (small amounts) where people think they should have full retail / trade in price for car written off etc,

also seen some weird and wonderful explanations as to why an accident occurred, my ex use to be an engineers secretary for a very big Insurance company and homework in bad weather etc carried out all night, I helped by batching up claims for her to deal with in order and believe you me some very good fiction stories came to light.

in a hell of a lot of the cases MAINTENANCE cause of many a problem i.e. lack of!

even one try to claim off my wife after a pot hole incident @ 3 MPH and the wonderful world of the Ford Car and back bumper complete write off?

pity a camera showed the claimant father breaking the bumper to further a claim,

he came shouting at me that get another car hire for son, and pushed his pot belly up to me against the wall, pity he picked on the wrong one - he did run well for a 20 stone pig, the insurance engineer was not amused after the inspection of the other car (Ford) and they got less than Glasses guide etc, or be reported for fraudulent claim!

I ended up asking for more.

I was only after general advice, as the consensus seems to be 'always reject the first offer' but apparently that's not the case.

it's too late now so we'll see how it goes.

Thanks again.

insurers tend to value a vehicle at what you would sell it for to a dealer, not what you would pay to buy the same vehicle.

sometimes you can get past this with a rare marque by insisting they find another one for you to put you back in your original position

and then they tend to pay a truer value because they cant be bothered to go round looking for a replacement.

Thanks for all your help guys.

The insurer came back and offered £1100 which I think is a much more accurate reflection of the car's value so I'm going to accept that.