my car written off by insurance

[not-a-number]

My beloved 2.0 diesel has been written off by my insurance company after it was shunted in the rear end . The bit that gets me is they have written it off without agreeing a value with me . After my company contacted me with a £700 offer I refused as I couldn't see me getting the same car for the money . It was pointed out to me that" there was one on gumtree for £1000 and it looked in better condition than mine" I did say that I would settle for £1000 but it was not offered .

My worry is that they were able to register my car as cat c or d reducing the value without me completing a claim . If I were to keep the salvage I have to repair it within a month to stay with the same company Either way I can see me being out of pocket!

Advice on Insurance companies obligations needed . Can I insist on my car being repaired

Not looking to make money out of this just being reasonable not taking car hire or anything .

[Guest]

have you tried parkers for eg. see what yr cars current market value is (approx), plus some adverts, could send that to insurer (assuming they are more ) see if they'll up the offer, take it higher up to complaints if necessary.

check yr terms, but i think it wld be up to them whether to 'write off' or not.

why not take the car hire if its included in yr policy?

[oddjobbob]

Ask for a hire car in the interim so that you are in a position to be able to go and find another car

 

 

Keep demanding £1000 for your car and don't give the hire car back till they say yes. They soon will, don't worry.

 

 

You will need to provide proof .. eg ads etc to show the car is worth £1000.

[unclebulgaria67]

Read this link from the FOS

 

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

 

The amount the Insurers should pay is the market value i.e what it would cost you to replace it with similar. Get some info together from car ads and also see what the value is in Parkers or Glass.co.uk

 

Insurers will always tend to write off, if the repairs are likely to exceed about 70% of the market value. The reason being is that once work is started, garages often find additional works at more cost and with a vehicle of lowish value, they can end up paying more than the car is worth.

[caro]

You really need to check your policy for your insurance company's obligations as they all vary.

[unclebulgaria67]

If you car was shunted in the rear end and you have a liable third party, it might have been better claiming from the third party insurers. If you claim against your own policy, they will deduct the excess and possibly any remaining premium due for the year if you pay monthly. You will then have a delay in claiming back your excess from the third parties insurers.

 

You might not qualify for a hire car, with your own Insurers, unless you paid for optional cover. If you claimed against the third parties insurers, they might provide a hire car for a couple of weeks, while they sorted out an agreed settlement with you.

[not-a-number]

thanks for your thoughts They told me I wouldnt get car now as its "too far down the line" 2 weeks from the accident have the would you believe . They certainly have all the answers if you want to believe them.

[not-a-number]

thanks I have protected no claims so I thought claiming from my company would help me but it seems they are looking carefully at what they will get from the other company so they are not out of pocket. I will check my policy about hire but I don't

[not-a-number]

really want to get involved with hire companies (second half)

[Guest]

if the other driver is at fault, then i'm sure your insurers wld be wanting to pursue them/their insurers. did yr insurers not say anything about that? or are they doing knock for knock, decided not to?

[dacouc]

thanks for your thoughts They told me I wouldnt get car now as its "too far down the line" 2 weeks from the accident have the would you believe . They certainly have all the answers if you want to believe them.

 

Where is the car now?

[not-a-number]

sorry slow reply The other party has admitted liability but if it seems they all work to a set valuation scale . That's fine you lose 8 months of your policy . You have to take time to get another car or you take the sakvage and repair the car for 500 (1800 there estimate) I am sorry I claimed at all because now my car is a cat c or d They did increase the valuation to £800

[ericsbrother]

you can start legal action against the driver of the other vehicle and their insurer. Name just the driver/insured in your letter before action. You have their address from the accident dont you?

If you do this you would be surprised how quickly their insurer will want to take over the matter for damage limitation.

[Slimm]

The other drivers insurer (TPI) won't pay out more than your car would have been worth if you sold it the day before the accident. Your insurers, not unreasonably, don't want to be in a situation where they give you £1000 and find that the TPI only give them £800, leaving them out of pocket.

 

 

No need for a letter before action at this point, just ring the TPI direct, tell them your own insurers are being difficult and ask if they will take over the claim instead. If you suggest you are considering credit hire (regardless of whether or not you really are) you may well find that the TPI is far more helpful than your own firm. Of course this varies from company to company.

[not-a-number]

thanks for your thoughts . ericsbrother and Slimm I have already tried asked the other drivers insurance to make a reasonable offer . Initially the were keen but when the saw the car had been cat c or d by my insurance they went cold on the idea . Perhaps the valuation would be fixed in a standardized calculation . For me the simple way was for them to make an offer to cover my insurance cancellation and time dealing with this and the car value .

It seems the mistake I made was claiming from my own insurance instead of just going out and hiring a car etc .

I must say my insurance used the argument they might not get all the money back from tpi but to me I insured with my vehicle with them not anyone else .

[not-a-number]

would it be that your own company has the right to "write off" but tpi can be made to repair the damage. just a thought !

[dacouc]

Where is your car at the moment?

 

Is it still in your possession or have the Insurers taken it away?

[not-a-number]

I have the car Sorry missed your reply see you are on line now

[Slimm]

A TPI is not forced to repair a car, that could lead to a very silly situation where a car is worth £200 but costs tens of thousands to repair. Cat A and B damage cannot even be legally repaired - those are scrap and spares respectively.

 

 

OP, if both companies will not agree your value I'm afraid you have limited options available. The fact the car is Cat C/D is not relevant, those are normal for an older car involved in an accident and probably account for a good 30% of accidents these days (at a guess). I'd suggest another call to the TPI, make it clear that if they cannot come up with something close to acceptable you will be sending the aforementioned legal warning and subsequently proceeding to court. They aren't going to want to go to trial for £1000 - instruction counsel alone will cost them £400+. There's not really any standard calculation - all insurers will consider 'Glass guide' values but also for common vehicles something like an Autotrader check for similar vehicles then knock 10% off the price (as vehicles, like houses generally don't change hands for the full asking price).

 

 

Neither insurer is likely to cover an insurance cancellation fee or inconvenience, unless it's a Scottish law case. It might be worth doing some research yourself - whats the cheapest similar vehicle on Autotrader worth for example? Try a free valuation :- http://www.glass.co.uk/

[SuperVillain]

thanks for your thoughts They told me I wouldnt get car now as its "too far down the line" 2 weeks from the accident have the would you believe . They certainly have all the answers if you want to believe them.

 

Seriously, if any of my clients were on the receiving end of a credit hire claim with a hire start date 2 weeks after the accident I'd be advising straight off the bat not to pay...

 

What I don't get here from any of the posts is why you are adamant your car is worth £1,000.00 and not £700 or £800?

 

What's the reason for your increased valuation vs their lower one?

[kregrs]

Cat A and B damage cannot even be legally repaired - those are scrap and spares respectively.

 

 

 

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I don't wish to be awkward, and I'll provide links when I can get on the pc, but there are a few members on another forum that I frequent, who will disagree with you on those points. Of course, if you can point me in the right direction as to where it's stated that to do so is illegal, I can pass it on to them.

I don't think they were meaning putting a cat A car back on the road, but certainly cat B.

[unclebulgaria67]

I believe what Slimm has posted to be the correct position. Although it is not illegal to put back on the road any category of write off. But of course any written off car would have to go through a re registering process and the car would be subject to extensive safety checks.

 

http://www.rac.co.uk/community/blog/rac-blog/september-2011/what-is-an-insurance-write-off

 

The max the insurers will pay, is the market value of the car.

[Slimm]

Probably getting a bit off topic - I'll make this my last post on the issue. I admit I'm not familiar with case law in respect of write offs but would suggest driving a previous Cat B or Cat A vehicle whilst certainly theoretically possible would be a poor idea for several reasons - first of which is I imagine you would struggle to get even vaguely affordable insurance and if you lied about it any claims could be rejected on the grounds of deliberate misrepresentation of a material fact:-

 

 

https://www.abi.org.uk/~/media/Files/Documents/Publications/Public/Migrated/Motor/Code%20of%20practice%20for%20disposal%20of%20motor%20vehicle%20salvage.ashx

 

 

'Salvage disposers should use best endeavours to ensure that Category A and B vehicles do not reappear on the road. '