I need some advice please

Jodi

Hi,

My partners car was in a car crash last week by a garage employee (its just one of these thing that happen) and it is going through the garage trade insurance, his fault he was driving etc etc....

The car is less than three years old (we bought it new) we had done a lot of mods to the car, and it looks like the car may be getting written off due to the crash, has this happened to anyone else at any point, will it be a case of fighting with the insurance company for the cost of the car then mods or will it come under the same thing ?? Do we need to contact a solicitor now to get them on the case? I am quite worried that this is going to take a while, in the meantime the car has been crashed by someone else and it wasn’t our fault.

Any help advice etc etc would be great......

burbs_2

Firstly did you declare all mods that you made to the insurance company? If not then bye bye car and bye bye payout, you stand absolutly no chance.

If you did tell the insurance company about the mods then it is a different ball game. They will pay out on the book value of the car for starters. What mods have you got? Can they be salvaged from the car?

Jodi

Thanks for your reply.

It wont be touching our insurance any way as we didnt crash the car, it was the garage employee that did crash it. Its all going through the garage insurance which is trade.

Sorry it looks like I didnt post that too clearly, I'm still abit new at doing this.

There were alot of engine mods and also the bonnet was'nt standard.

Any more help would be great !

burbs_2

Jodi wrote:

Thanks for your reply.

It wont be touching our insurance any way as we didnt crash the car, it was the garage employee that did crash it. Its all going through the garage insurance which is trade.

Sorry it looks like I didnt post that too clearly, I'm still abit new at doing this.

There were alot of engine mods and also the bonnet was'nt standard.

Any more help would be great !

Take it you didnt declare them then. As you are going through the garage insurance then doubt it will be a problem but you will get paid book value for the car. The mods wont be taken into account in my experience.

Jodi

All mods have been declared on our insurance, sorry I think you may be a little confused. The garage employee picked up my partners car to take it to the garage for work to be completed on it. While the garage employee was on the way to the garage he crashed the car. His fault. Therefore that it why it is going through the garage trade ins.

Sorry it looks like I hav'nt made this clear, sorry.

I am just looking for alittle advice on how this kind of thing works......

Any advice is welcome though, thanks.

burbs_2

Jodi wrote:

All mods have been declared on our insurance, sorry I think you may be a little confused. The garage employee picked up my partners car to take it to the garage for work to be completed on it. While the garage employee was on the way to the garage he crashed the car. His fault. Therefore that it why it is going through the garage trade ins.

Sorry it looks like I hav'nt made this clear, sorry.

I am just looking for alittle advice on how this kind of thing works......

Any advice is welcome though, thanks.

I do understand and your posts are very clear. The reason i asked was due to the fact that you should be insured like for like as long as you have declared to your insurance company. If you didnt declare to your insurance company then you will get book price on the vehicle.

If you have declared all mods then the garage traders policy should pay out book price on the car and like for like on the mods.

nej

Write to the garage, and maybe their insurer, detailing the cost of the mods. If they don't include them, then reject the offer. If we're talking thousands then it might be worth talking to the CAB or even to a solicitor.

I think you have a strong case. If you gave them a car with a book value of £5k, plus £2k of mods, I'd be damned if I was going to take less than that for something that was their fault!

Tahiti

Have a word with the garage owner. Trade insurance is likely to have a large excess on it whatever happens (probably £1000). You might find that they would repair it for you properly instead of the car being a total loss.

I'd personally get legal advice. It sounds like you've spent a few quid on modding the car which frankly the insurers are unlilely to care about. That is unless you had an agreed value through your insurance. Either way, I'd get proper advice on where you stand.

What's the car, and are the garage the place that did the mods?

DavidHM

The OP is right on this one Burbs - whether or not the mods are declared has not the slightest bit of relevance to whether or not she gets a payout. Even if the car were completely uninsured (not a good idea btw) the garage would still be liable to her.

You'd be right if the mods weren't declared and she'd stacked her own car, and also right that book value of the car won't be affected by the value of the modifications. You're also right that many insurance companies limit their liability to the value of the car, not the mods, but they do this by contract whereas here, the garage's liability is tortious and the insurance company merely indemnifies them for this (if they choose to claim).

The one problem that the OP should have is that she is entitled to be put back in the position in which she was before the accident. If she'd spent £5k on a car and £2k on mods, she wouldn't have a £7k car, however: potentially she would have a £5k car on which she happened to have spent £2k for mods, but which might not add value to the car any more than if she'd replaced all the original parts not with modified ones but with new factory original ones.

Therefore it may be difficult to persuade the insurer that the value of the car is greater because of the modifications. I wouldn't say it'd be impossible - because the remedy for the tort is to have the position restored and if the car is genuinely unique it may be the case that the OP is entitled as a matter of law to have compensation for the modifications, but if the settlement is simply that she should be no worse off financially as a result of the accident then the modifications may unfortunately not be taken into account.

What this means in practical terms is that the OP, in finding a figure for which she would be prepared to settle, should look for second hand, modified cars that are selling for more than the replacement cost of the car without the modifications. Evidence of this nature may be very important in persuading the garage's insurer to give you an adequate payout.

Jodi

Thanks for your long and informative post DavdHM, the info has helped me and my partner a great deal, the value (even book of the car as standard is far more than 5k) and the mods are much more than 2k (I understand these figures were put up as examples) do you think it would be better to wait and see what the ins is going to offer us for the car plus mods or do you think we should start the search for a solicitor now before any offer has been made?? We have all the receipts for the mods, which will hopefully help. The car due to the mods which are on it is unique, only two bonnets like it were made etc etc....

Tahiti

Do you have legal cover with your insurance? If so, I'd have a word with them.