car accident insurance question

FleetwoodMac_3

Hi,

Two weeks ago I was in an accident when another car drove into the side of my car, the person accepted liability straight away. Last week the other persons insurance company wrote my car off and today a cheque arrived for £480 which is less £25 if I was to scrap it. My car is a T reg saloon proton persona and was in very good condition with 52600 miles on the clock. Is this a fair price for the car?..I am not going to scrap it as its working fine but my door and the back passenger door have to be fixed. Also I thought that they offered a price and then you refused it and then they usually raised the offer. However if the above price is what its worth then so be it.

Many thanks in advance for any replies

Unstoppable_2

Golden rule is to refuse the first offer. You need to find adverts for cars of a similar age and condition to yours and also get together all the service history to prove it's worth more. But TBH, it's probably about right. If you accept the £480, you don't have to scrap the car and I'd get it repaired if it's OK otherwise.

mcjordi

you could always ask them to increase the offer but be prepared to back it up with adverts for similar cars/spec mileage etc to yours

JonathanA

The trade price for your car is slightly less than they have sent you a cheque for, so not sure if they would increase their offer or not. You have nothing to lose by trying! Can you get it repaired for less than that amount? If so, then you may be better to let sleeping dogs lie.

Hintza

Do not cash the cheque and contact them to say you are not accepting their offer. You are within your rights to ask to be put back in the position you were in prior to being hit by their client.

You could therefore demand they repair the car. Having said that you have to be reasonable.

So you want to figure out how much it will cost to replace and how much the repairs would be.

I imagine you will be hard pressed to get one for that price to keep the pressure on them.

raskazz

Hintza wrote: »

You could therefore demand they repair the car. Having said that you have to be reasonable.

So you want to figure out how much it will cost to replace and how much the repairs would be.

There's no point in doing this, they are not obliged to repair the car if it's not economical to do so. They can choose any method of providing indemnity. They will clearly not choose repair in this case as it would easily come to over a grand, which is most definitely more then the car is worth, even if it was in absolutely spotless condition.

A better use of the OP's time would be to read this:

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

and then to gather evidence to support a higher valuation.

Rolandtheroadie

You cannot demand they repair the car.
I'd get back to them and say you have been without a car for 14 days and have incurred additional expense due to this. Get like for like prices for the Proton as well and supply these to them. I'd then buy new doors (hopefully the same colour from partsgateway or similar online breaker search engine) and put them on myself.
Dad once had a mk3 escort that was written off (about 15 years ago!). Got a poor offer but wrote back saying about being without his car. They gave him £25 per day for being without a car. They also witheld £60 as scrap value. It had 11 months MOT and I ran it for the 11 months without ever replacing the front passenger door (the reason for writing it off).
Looking at autotrader, the value seems about right tho.

McKneff

To be honest, i couldnt be bothered. If you have been given the right amount of money, just get it mended if needs be, and move on. No more faff, no more stress.

Hintza

raskazz wrote: »

There's no point in doing this, they are not obliged to repair the car if it's not economical to do so.

That's why I said the OP had to be reasonable. But if OP can't replace the car for the money offered then he should be chasing for more.

And assuming OP is being accurate the Insurance Company just sending a cheque is a bit cheeky.

FleetwoodMac_3

Many thanks for all your replies and help, i want to be over it too but i will refuse the cheque and see what happens.

Thanks again

raskazz

Hintza wrote: »

And assuming OP is being accurate the Insurance Company just sending a cheque is a bit cheeky.

Why is it cheeky? Sending the cheque with the offer is best practice, so then if the insured accepts the offer - or even accepts the payment as an interim payment - there are no more delays in the policyholder getting the cash to buy a replacement.