A Fair Write Off Value

Paulee

My wife was driving, with our elderly mother's, to a wedding last Saturday when our Citroen C5 estate was rear ended by a Land Rover Freelander. She was actually outside the church, having just stopped to let a car coming in the opposite direction through. All three occupants suffered mild to medium bruising and stiff necks/backs etc but fortunately are not seriously injured after having check ups at the hospital and the local doctors. The other driver has admitted responsibility but, unfortunately, our car was severely damaged and is a write off.

Our car is a 2003 2.2 Exclusive C5 estate in excellent running order, but with the usual small scratches and dents. We have had it from 9 months old, it is super reliable and we intended to keep it until it died a natural death! I had it logged on our insurance certificate as being worth £4000 and we have been offered £3000 by our insurers. They have admitted that they have found it difficult to value because there are only one or two similar cars currently for sale nationwide and I have to agree with them. The similar cars that I have found range from £2990 for a 2002 model to £3995 (2003) and £4850 (2005 similar, but smaller engined model).

Does anyone have any advice on the ways that I can argue for a better deal and is it possible to claim for any shortfall from the other persons insurance company? We certainly don't want to replace it with a similarly aged car, with an uncertain background, and this means spending considerably more money than we would like to, especially in the present economic climate. It seems very unfair that we are faced with loads of hassle and considerable expense through no fault of our own!

Thanks very much for any help, Paul.

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Never accept their first offer. They've come in with the cheapest they can find - so you tell them you want the most expensive you could find, which would be £3995. The final result should be around the middle.

Silk

Agree with Pew,
Do not accept first offer or 2nd for that matter, they have admitted it will be hard to replace due to scarce availability etc.
Heres a few that you can use for the battle


http://www.preloved.co.uk/fuseaction-adverts.showadvert/index-2000321058/25b79ef1.html

http://www.preloved.co.uk/fuseaction-adverts.showadvert/index-2000279762/5f429ae8.html

http://www.preloved.co.uk/fuseaction-adverts.showadvert/index-2000249281/0e8283cd.html

http://www.preloved.co.uk/fuseaction-adverts.showadvert/index-2000184165/0eb7857b.html

http://www.preloved.co.uk/fuseaction-adverts.showadvert/index-2000036307/850516c5.html

dacouch

Send your Insurers the prints of the adverts.

Bear in mind just because a car is advertised for a certain price does not mean it actually will sell for that price, so the prices set in the adverts will serve as a guide.

If you have a claim the Insurers will value the car for the market value and this is the amount you will receive. You cannot go to the other Insurer and ask them to make up the difference between what your Insurers pay and the market value as your Insurers should have already paid you the market value.

Obviously you can claim from the other Insurers any "Uninsured Losses" eg your excess, injuries, loss of earnings, alternative transport, cost of calls etc

Be reasonable when evaluating the value of your car as it is very common for people to believe their car is worth more than it is and the value of second hand cars has reduced considerably over the last year.

Have you looked at parkers website yet for a guide as to what they think the value is?

Lum

In my experience you pretty much always get shafted in this situation, as you are finding out. Just be thankful you don't have a modified car otherwise it gets even worse.

For example when my GFs car, a 1991 Nissan 200SX which we had recently spend about £3000 on having all the bodywork restored to pristine rust-free condition, and a few grand worth of engine/suspension/brake work and a rebuilt and uprated automatic gearbox, was written off the insurance said it was worth £850. This was based on the Parkers figure but you'd struggle to buy a barely moving rotten 200SX shell for that money.
We eventually managed to argue it up to just under 2 grand, but this was still less than the cost of replacing the car with one in similar condition and with no modifications, oh and it was a manual too.
Ended up having to buy the old car back (so losing another 300 quid) and pay to have pretty much the entire drivetrain (apart from the rear diff and driveshafts as these were knackered) swapped into the new car, then sell off the bits. We still have a perfectly good engine sat in the shed from all of this.

Anyway enough of the rant, I fared slightly better when my car was written off, and here's my #1 tip:

Always be nice to the assessor, they are supposed to be independant but if you annoy them too much they aren't going to want to help you out. Find out when they are coming, have a large selection of ads (that paint the picture you want to paint) printed out ready as well as a list of what is wrong with the car and any pictures of it in it's previous condition that you may have.

Ultimately it's for the assessor to decide what your car is worth, and how much it's likely to cost to repair, get that part right and you'll do a lot better.

Paulee

Thank you to everyone who has replied, that's all useful help.

I can't be nice to the assessor Lum, it's already been done! I took it to the local repair centre chosen by my insurance company and they prepared an estimate for the cost, but told me straight away that it would be written off as it was really badly bent. The insurance company phoned me the next day with the bad news.

I do accept that we all expect our cars to be more valuable than they really are and that prices have fallen dramatically over the past year. The thing is, my car would do everything that a newer and much more expensive one will do and I still feel that we really do lose out financially.

Thanks again, Paul.

flyingscotno1

Paulee wrote: »

Thank you to everyone who has replied, that's all useful help.

I can't be nice to the assessor Lum, it's already been done! I took it to the local repair centre chosen by my insurance company and they prepared an estimate for the cost, but told me straight away that it would be written off as it was really badly bent. The insurance company phoned me the next day with the bad news.

I do accept that we all expect our cars to be more valuable than they really are and that prices have fallen dramatically over the past year. The thing is, my car would do everything that a newer and much more expensive one will do and I still feel that we really do lose out financially.

Thanks again, Paul.

To be honest it is better written off it is badly damaged as well. My Dad's works car was in a bad smash when I was younger. Everyone was O.K, faulty set of traffic signals took the blame, but the car was only 5 months old an on a lease. They repaired it taking weeks, but it was never the same car, never felt right. Eventually the leasing company took it back.

KimmyCustard

Paulee,

I'm in almost exactly the same position as you!

Was fast asleep after night duty on Sat morning, when the neighbours banged on our front door to inform me that a young man had hit my parked Astra straight up the rear end, whilst parked in front of our house. :eek:

Took the car to the garage recommended by my insurers, they rang me the next day to inform me it will cost £3600 to repair. Needless to say, a 2002 Astra 1.6 SXi with LPG conversion isnt going to be worth their while repairing, the front and rear bumpers are broken, boot wont close, bonnet is creased and they also say the framework of the car is fractured in two places. Hence they've informed my insurers to write it off.

How do I price up a reasonable amount for an Astra thats had an LPG conversion (that I'm still paying for??!), does anyone know please?! It had done about 102,000 miles but I'm still car-less and will have to buy another one, also through no fault of my own - I wasnt even there!

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Lum

I would get 3 quotes for an LPG conversion done, the price has probably changed since last time due to the fact that the kits are usually imported from Europe.

Once you have a market value figure that you're happy with, make sure they then add on the costs of the LPG conversion.

Again I'd go through a separate claims outfit rather than through my own insurance if possible, but it seems like you're too late for that.

Paulee

After speaking to the Total Loss Department, I did collect and send in several bits of information that suggested that my car was worth more than the £3000 offered by my insurance company.

Today they revised their offer to £3705; I think is a much fairer value and I have accepted it.

Thanks, once again, to everyone who offered me their advice, I really appreciate it.

Paul.

Silk

Well done Paul, glad you got a result !

Its nice when posters update with results