To be honest it is very hard to find the same specs that my car did for around £15k as it had a few specs that are slightly harder to find eg white car with red leather and X drive which is also auto, it was also bought from a reputable dealer which are hard to come by and so I know the car pre accident was in very good shape.

Thanks for your response, the accident was non fault and as the car that hit me was insured I had to pay my excess of £600 which was deducted from the settlement of the car.

Sorry guys I’m back, still in discussion with the insurance regarding retention value. I have been told I have to pay £6k to get the car back. From what I have read online the retention value is 10% for a Cat B (which is what they said my car was) and so should be closer to 1.6k and for a cat S it is 15-25% so approx 3.2k. However they have quoted me closer to 40%! What are my options I feel like I am being mugged off from all aspects of this claim. The car value is 15,850.

Thank you again for your response. You are right in saying I could buy a similar vehicle for the money I was paid out but for the exact same specs it would be slightly more, (white car with red leathers and xdrive). There were also some very minor improvements I had made to the car but none totalling more than £300. I think the reason why I would like the car back is I believe I may be able to fix the car for significantly cheaper, I am still in the process of getting quotes from pictures I have. Is there anyway Hastings could allow me to view the vehicle before I purchase of them?

When I spoke to the insurance today they told me that they weren’t sure why the engineer looked at the car again and changed the category, they said they have tried to contact him but unable to, fishy!? My idea is that they decided to change the category as they knew they won’t be able to make any money from it being a cat B car and if they change to cat S they could make some money back. and nope nothing rare about my 4 series

Thanks Basically I was involved in a non fault accident where a drunk driver hit my car and ran away. My car is is bmw 4 series, mileage at 57k 2015 plate, which I purchased for £16k having only had it for 4 months the accident happened and the car was taken away by the insurance. They had taken it to a garage who the said it was a cat B and the damage repair exceeded £20k! I asked to keep the car and they told me I can’t as it was a cat B and it would be salvaged for parts. They then valued my car at 12k! I instantly rejected to them be given a new valuation at £16k, however they had taken away my excess of £700. Before I finished my case I had asked who the salvage company was and was told it was copart. Fast forward 2 months (yesterday) I was on copart and see my car being sold on auction as Cat S as mentioned in my post. I do really want my car back but paying 5.3k sounds like a lot to me especially as they said that it was 5.3k as that’s the price they believe it will be sold on auction! I am happy to pay closer to 2k as if it could cost be anything between 5-10k to fix. Can the insurance company change the retention value they give? What do you guys suggest me next cause of action to be. thanks in advance

Thanks everyone for your responses, I’ve spoken to the insurance and they’ve told be after they made my settlement they had another engineer look at it and they categorised as cat S and hence the sale of copart. They now are saying they can sell it to me for £5.3k which is a crazy price, as the vehicle is worth 15k and the first engineers report said the cost of repair would exceed 20k. They have admitted that they should have informed me when they changed the category of the car and for that they will compensate me £100! I obviously did not agree and they have escalated to a formal complaint and in the meantime they have taken it off auction.

Long story short, my car was written off following a non fault accident. My insurance company (Hasting) sent it to a garage who them valued the damage and then I was told the car was deemed CAT B and so I couldn’t buy it back and it would be salvaged via Copart, however 2 months later (today) I’ve had a look on copart for my car and there it is selling under CAT S!!!! I have email proof from my insurance company stating it was a Cat B. What do I do, I really want the car back but feel like I’ve been mugged off from my insurance, the bid ends in 2 days! please advice!

Hi all following a request for a re-evaluation below is the outcome email: As I have not been able to make contact with you today regarding the valuation of your vehicle I have detailed my report for you to review and reply back to your claims handler. As you may be aware we use the motor trade guides and follow the Financial Ombudsman Service stance on achieving values for vehicle so it may also be worth looking at the FOS website as it explains the process in full and we follow that as best practise. To decide whether an insurer's valuation is reasonable, we compare it with prices in specialist on-line motor trade guides called Parkers , Glass’s, CAP. We’ll generally look to see if the insurer’s valuation is in line with what the guides say. We might also use engineers' reports to help us decide whether the insurer's valuation is reasonable. These can give useful information about the condition of the vehicle. We don't usually find adverts helpful to judge a vehicle's value, because the selling price usually turns out to be lower. But they may be if the car’s a classic or rare model.’ The FOS would use an average of the guides to be seen to be fair as they consider the guides to be independent and the values are derived from the subject matter experts. It may also be worthwhile for you to look at the FOS website which would explain their view on achieving a fair value. http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html Upon review I am in a position to offer an increase on the value of £15850 which is based on the highest of the most consistent guide values with no further increase available. Please see attachment. If you feel that you can now accept the value offered then please let me know and I will get the file back to our claims team to consider raising payment or contact xxx directly please. ———————————- I called and spoke to the guy, what he told me was that he got a valuation from Parker’s glasses and CAP, and 2/3 was a valuation of 13.5 and one of them was 15.8k. He said the FOS usually would want us to give and average of the 3 but in your case I have given the highest outcome. He then said if I dispute the next stage is that it will go to the FOS who may even end up giving me the average of the 3 valuation and will be lower, not sure if that was a scare tactic or not. He then told me that when I did my insurance I declared that my annual mileage would be 1k which I assumed it would be at the time, he then said that in fact I had don me 3k, as he said he did a hpi check and checked that I bought the car in July and there was a MOT done the month before and it said 55k on the clock and now your mileage is 57.5k I told him I had to do unexpected runs ect, he then told me I should have informed my insurance as it would usually result in a increase in my premium, I told him I didn’t know that and he responded with I will have to let your case handler know. Part of me thinks he had that conversation with me just to scare me and distract me into accepting a price ASAP as if I have done something so wrong, which I put my hand up I should’ve declared it but didn’t know I would have to. Nonetheless the new offer is over 3k more than the original which just goes to show they try mugging you off at first instance. I had asked him to show me proof of the 3 valuations to which he sent me an email, which tbh wasn’t exactly as he said, it was more like 2 valuations at 15.5 and one at 13.5 the one that was at 13.5 had no details about what car was actually valued (suspicious). I had asked him for more time to decide. What do you guys think should I accept or risk it to the next stage Your responses are always appreciated

Thanks guys, however from what I’ve read on reviews about the FOS, it doesn’t seem promising, apparently they go along with what the insurance say on most cases as they are not an actual government body, but we shall see. Does anyone have any experience of dealing with the FOS?

@BankFodder Thank you so much for your advice, I had started collating evidence to support my claim, I have paid for a valuation from Parker’s which is a lot closer my valuation have also found many auto trader advertisements for similar cars at a similar prices to my valuation. Just waiting on their response not sure on how many times I can decline their offer? Can they force me to accept? As I am in no rush for the payment. @unclebulgaria67 Sorry I wasn’t clear in my first message, I meant to say I had bought it second hand from a private dealer not BMW themselves.

only 5 months ago I purchased my BMW 4 series Gran coupe from a dealers last week a drunk driver decided to plough into my my parked car at 2am! I believe the drunk driver was uninsured (shock)! The damage was bad I assumed it would be a write off and probable a Cat S, however for some reason Hastings has decided to write off my car and categorise it under Cat B and told me I could not buy my car back! I was utterly annoyed as the car I had bought was my dream car with really hard specs to find. Nevertheless I waited to hear back for my valuation, after 5 days I was shocked to receive a valuation of £12,745! With a £700 deduction of my excess (which okay is fair enough) and then a £700 deduction for the remaining cost of my insurance thus leaving me with just over £11k!! The value of my car is in excess of £18k given its specs, I had immediately declined the valuation and had given my reasons why and asked for a re evaluation. My basis was that you could find the same car for around £16k however to find a white car with red leather for that car is a lot harder to find and so a lot more expensive, will they take this into consideration? As from what I have read online the insurance company have to reimburse me enough to be able to replace my vehicle like for like which I cannot do with £16k and would need £18k let alone the £12.7k they had quoted me. please could someone advise me on the likelihood of me attaining the £18k valuation and what could I do if they only budge £1k or so? thanks in advance