Car insurance claim. Cat D but cant Cancel claim

steven.b11

my girlfriend had a crash on new years eve. the car has been at the body shop since awaiting instruction from the insurance company.
on Monday i rang the insurance company to find out what was going on and to clear up some option. the car is a 316i bmw face-lift 2001 model and is worth about £4000. the cost of the repair exceeded this so i know it would be an economic total loss. however on Monday i phone to check that if the car was written off my options. i was told these were
Take the settlement
Take the settlement and keep the car (- salvage fee)
get another repair quote
take payment in lieu and repair myself
or cancel the claim.
i phone to clarify that if i cancel the car would not be a write off. i was to that i could cancel at any point and no action would be taken.
on Tuesday the car was declared a write off. and was place on the MIAFTA (or something) register. i am now told that the car is a write off even if i repair it and it will always be a Cat D.
if they had told me this i would have cancelled the claim before hand and fixed it out of my pocket.
my question is, if i cancel the claim then would the car be a Cat D write off? because if the claim is cancelled then no claim has been made against the car.
if i take any other option i will loose money, and because its a Cat D its now more or less worthless. they deceived me and im now out of pocket no matter what.
what can i do?

lisyloo

Why are you out of pocket no matter what?
The settlement should pay out the amount of the car value (minus excess).
IN this climate you should be able to get a bargain.

steven.b11

hi thanks for the reply.

yeah if i take that option. however i would really like to keep the car it has alot of sentimental value. wish i know is silly because its jsut a car.

my problem is they told me if the claim is cancelled then the car would not be cat D write off because no claim has been made but now they tell me even if i cancel the claim it is still a Cat D.

nomoneytoday

A CAT D means it can't be economically repaired, and will usually knock 10-25% off the value once repaired. It won't make it worthless.

Can you repair the car yourself for the £4000 ?

steven.b11

hi. yeah i could personally repair it for about £650 parts and £600 paint. my labour is free and i can do the paint prep myself.

but if i cancel the claim will it still be Cat D? i thought the MIAFTA (or whatever) register was only if a claim was made.

lisyloo

my problem is they told me if the claim is cancelled then the car would not be cat D write off because no claim has been made

I'm guessing a bit but it sounds to me like that was true at the time as the car had not been put on the database.

but now they tell me even if i cancel the claim it is still a Cat D.

Because it's now recorded on the database.

Why don't you take the payment in lieu and hunt around to get it repaired slightly cheaper.
Giiven it's not a £20K or £30K car then could you take it to a non-dealer to save money.
Almost certainly the insurer has not got the cheapest quotes possible.

I suspect you could repair it yourself without losing out much.

How about your girlfriend?
If the accident was her fault and she's damaged your property then shouldn't she compensate you? even if it means a second job?

LadyIndecisive

OP may find this document useful.

http://www.abi.org.uk/Display/File/Child/387/Motor_Salvage.pdf

An entry cannot be removed from MIAFTR (Motor Insurance Anti Fraud & Theft Register) 'other than to correct data inputting errors'.

It is now too late to take the entry off. It was correctly placed on MIAFTR as there was a claim made.

raskazz

LadyIndecisive wrote: »

OP may find this document useful.

http://www.abi.org.uk/Display/File/Child/387/Motor_Salvage.pdf

An entry cannot be removed from MIAFTR (Motor Insurance Anti Fraud & Theft Register) 'other than to correct data inputting errors'.

It is now too late to take the entry off. It was correctly placed on MIAFTR as there was a claim made.

This is right. Whether you claim or not, the fact remains that the vehicle has been involved in an accident that resulted in damage which meant that the vehicle was uneconomical to repair. So it will stay on MIAFTR.

andycash1990

Just for the use of everyone referencing back to this post in the future. Due to the fact no monies were transferred between the Insured and the Inusrer they have no legal right to place a marker against the vehicle on the MAIFTR website. Alot of the insurance systems will automatically place a marker on the website upon recieval of the engineers report.

The insurance company does have the ability to remove a marker from MIAFTR if it has been incorrectly placed their. Discuss this with your insurance company and they should be able to sort it.

raskazz

andycash1990 wrote: »

Just for the use of everyone referencing back to this post in the future. Due to the fact no monies were transferred between the Insured and the Inusrer they have no legal right to place a marker against the vehicle on the MAIFTR website.

Under which principle of common law or statute would it not be legal for an insurer to place a category C total loss on MIAFTR in such circumstances?