First time insurance claimer and need some help and advice

[The Lady]

Hello all, im in need of some help as im not getting much from my insurance company.

 

Last week my car was stolen off of my driveway, the theif didnt get very far as he only got onto the road outside of my property and just left the car for whatever reason, the theft from start to finish was caught on cctv and took some 28 mins to carry out.

 

The Police found the car before i did and moved into back on my property as it was so close. on face value the damage didnt lock too bad, paintwork, locks, steering, other bits and bobs, i informed my insurance company within a few hours of the car being taken and then left, and went through the details via the phone with the insurance company and the claims process started.

 

After almost 36hrs after the claim was made the insurance aproved repair company picked the car up, and after another 24hrs they called me and told me that the damage was over £2,500 to repair and that they would inform the insurance company what they had found / what the repair cost was, but due to the age of my car i should expect them to write it off.

 

The same day my insurance company also told me that their engineer now needs to look at the car and make their report.

Everytime i have spoken to my insurance company they have been pretty vauge about the time things should take and im not getting answers to questions, other than they wont let me have a hire car unless they will repair mine (which it looks like they wont)

Im fully comp insured, i went via an agent who went to an underwriter.

Can anyone give me a breif outline of how the claims process works and what should be being done, just so i can get a better idea and be armed ready before talking to anyone further, also what happens about payouts? a couple of people at work have told me that they will offer me a small value of what the cars worth then i will have to "haggle" with them and its likely to take months, is their any truth in that??.

Many thanks

Lady.

[unclebulgaria67]

Normally takes a few weeks for the car to be inspected and then a recommendation to the Insurers as to the situation regarding the car. If it is a write off, the Insurers will ask for the cars documents, V5 registration document, MOT, service history etc. They will then offer you what they think is the market value of the car at the time of the loss. Insurers often use the glass.co.uk guide. BUT Insurers will often only offer you the bottom value and then it is up to you to negotiate a value that enables you to buy another car, that is similar.

 

The FOS guide on this may help you. http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

[The Lady]

Thanks for the information unclebulgaria.

 

Lady .