Insurance lied about my car write off category !!!

[BankFodder]

Quote

Dear Sir/Mdm

Formal notice of: Questionable provenance of vehicle registration XXXX on sale by auction today date XXXX – auction reference number XXXX

I was the owner of the above vehicle which was damaged in an accident. My insurers, Hastings insurance informed me in writing that it was a Cat B write off but I see that you are now offering it for sale as Cat S.

Please note that I am formally notifying you that there is a problem with the provenance of the above vehicle and that it should be withdrawn from sale immediately whilst the matter is clarified.

If it turns out that the status of the vehicle has been misrepresented to me then it is likely that I will be involving my insurer in a legal action and if you proceed with the sale then you will also be involved.

I'm sending a copy of this email to Hastings insurance.

I'm sending you a copy of Hastings insurance email to me informing me that the vehicle is a Cat B write off so there is no doubt that you have been informed.

Yours faithfully

 

[BankFodder]

Good. Well done.

Now the thing to do is to understand what your losses are if anything. I'm sorry to admit that I don't really understand anything of it that we want to make sure that you don't come out the loser on this.

So let's have some of the story.

Your car was involved in a non-full accident which apparently wrote it off. It turns out not to be written off at all. What kind of car is it, mileage, model, age – et cetera?

On the basis of a write off – the insurance company settled with you for £XXX?

The replacement value of the car should be £ZZZ.

What are these values, and do you feel that you got the full replacement value?

What is the cost of repairing the vehicle now that you know it is not written off?

And of course you're dealing with Hastings insurance company who quite frankly I getting a pretty poor reputation around here. If you would find a way to trust pilot and a Google and anywhere else and start putting up the reviews about them and what they are trying to do to you.

It's extraordinary that the assessment of its condition was so wrong – and of course in their favour. And it's extraordinary that they "forgot" to let you know about the change in assessment.

Well done on picking it up in the first place.

 

[BankFodder]

I think you need to send an SAR to Hastings immediately. This should produce everything – including the reports and any internal comments.

I need to have a think about your financial position here and I'll come back with a further post later on

[BankFodder]

I'm trying to work this out as I go along.

The first thing to do is to think about this not as a car – but simply as a £value. This is especially so as you have said that it is not a rare BMW. This means that you could purchase another one and it would mean just the same to you.

You bought the car for £16,000 – and presumably that was the value you gave to the insurance when you bought the policy – is that correct?
If that is the value you gave to the insurer then on my understanding of these things, that is the maximum you would be entitled to claim.
This is the amount you got so although you lost the car (£16,000), it was fully replaced by the payment of £16,000 – minus, of course, the excess – but that was part of the deal anyway.

I've looked at the RAC website for the meaning of the various categories - https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/buying-and-selling-guides/changes-to-insurance-write-off-categories/

 

I see that a Cat S means that there could be structural damage. Cat B means that the car must be broken for parts.

You say you would like to get the car back because you consider that it can be repaired. Personally I think I would be very worried about this because if there has been one inspection which is rated it as a breaker and the second one rates it as having possible structural damage – but repairable – it seems to me that there is a huge risk involved. Supposing you got the car back and proceeded to repair it but in fact found that there was some structural distortion so that the geometry of the car made it difficult to drive. You would then have a real lemon on your hands – and of course you would have allowed a fair amount of money and trouble into getting it going.

Apart from the fact that Hastings behaviour is all rather suspicious – I'm struggling to see what loss you have taken on this.

You would have had to pay the excess anyway – in any event. You have now received £16,000 payment so you are in a zero-loss situation and you could simply go out and hunt around for another car for the same money.

The only thing that I could see which could complicate matters is if you come back and tell us that in fact the car was a huge bargain and that it would cost you more than £16,000 to replace it. But in that case I would have to ask why did you only insure it for £16,000?

The second complicating factor might be that in the four months that you had it, he spent a lot of money on improvements and you have managed to recover that.

Maybe you could let us have your comments on this and also let me know if there is anything which I've misunderstood

 

[BankFodder]

Okay, I hope you won't mind me saying that what we have here is that you have received the insured value for the vehicle and now you are hoping to buy it is a wreck and to make a profit from it. I don't have any problem with this – it is completely legitimate.

However, apart from Hastings rather suspicious handling of it, I can't see that you suffered any particular disadvantage or that they enjoyed any particular advantage – other than they hope to make a bit more from the car at auction than they might otherwise have done.

The most important thing which concerns me is whether you have lost out – and it seems to me that you haven't lost out at all in terms of the insured value. I gather I'm correct in saying that you insured it for £16,000?
If you confirm all of this then it seems to me that you don't have a problem and there is nothing more to say.

So what you are really saying now is that Hastings have a damage car for sale – and they have offered it to you for a particular price – and you are interested in buying it but you would like to reduce the price and is it likely that they would give you an opportunity to inspect the car first.

I can't imagine that they would refuse you the opportunity to inspect the car if they think they are going to sell it. You should certainly inspect it and you should have it inspected professionally – particularly in terms of examining the geometry of the car. However you are still taking the risk – but hopefully you know what you're doing.