Help! Worried about a car insurance claim

LondonDiva

Help!

Further to my post a few weeks back, we are making slow progress on my insurance claim. My parked car was the victim when two cars crahsed into each other & landed on mine:mad:

I'm v miffed because the drivers that wrote off my car also meant that I lose out big time in terms of hassle and convinience. I was going to buy a new car in July & even though I paid for a full year's road tax in Oct, I paid for 6 months parking from the council so I could sell next month.

The car's a write off and I can't buy a new one under the scrappage scheme. I was wondering if I could ask the legal cover that came with the fully comp insurance to pursue the two drivers involved for the fact I now can't take advantage of the scrappage scheme.

Sorry to ask such stupid questions, but we are still trying to agree a value on the car and the insurance / legal company are being uncommunicative to say the least.

Will / should the legal cover include that and what else could I press for. I really feel as though I'v been sh@fted and presented with a £350 cheque that won't buy an adequate replacement & not happy.

Do I need to prove I was going to buy another car in July (how do I do that?) or is it a case of where I was at the time of the accident in Feb?

Help! There's been literally two line letters from both insurance and legal co and I don't know if I'm being greedy or not.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1628905&highlight=

Silk

Hi,
Just read your post and my first thoughts are don't accept the offer and try to find ads for similar cars to yours and use 3 or 4 to prove a higher markey value.
As for the scrappage angle the only way I could see that working is if you have an order placed and you have a valuation put against your car being worth £2k etc.
Were the other drivers traced you should be able to claim excess losses from them

dacouch

Just because you find adverts for cars at a higher prices does not mean the Insurer has to pay this amount out. The adverts are offering the cars for this price, it does not mean they actual sell for the price of the advert.

The adverts can help as a guide, but bear in mind they are only a guide

Hintza

Why are you paying an excess if it wasn't your fault, so that should not be deducted. But don't expect to get anywhere near £2k your aim should be to get as close to £1k as you can. The other £1k you should be able to negotiate in discount if you are lucky.

But what you are trying to do is negotiate for consequential losses and I doubt anyone will wear that.

dacouch

Silly question, but are you still in the Credit Hire bearing in mind the Accident was in March / April

Silk

dacouch wrote: »

Just because you find adverts for cars at a higher prices does not mean the Insurer has to pay this amount out. The adverts are offering the cars for this price, it does not mean they actual sell for the price of the advert.

The adverts can help as a guide, but bear in mind they are only a guide

Quite right dacouch just because they are higher does not mean that the insurers will accept that they are an indication of the market value :rolleyes:

Are you saying the OP has been offered a fair price ?
Are you saying the OP shouldn't try to make a case as to higher value ?
Maybe you would suggest finding adverts with a lower price to suggest the insurers are making a generous offer :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

dacouch

I'm not saying the price is fair as I do not know the exact car.

I'm concerned that her original post was mid April and refered to a claim in March and that she is in a hire vehicle which I assume is a credit hire. If they had made her an offer in April and she refused it then if she is in a credit hire vehicle someone is going to lose a lot of money. It could be the other Insurers who end up paying it, the credit hire company who can't claim back all of it or possibly the OP if it is proved she has acted unreasonably.

The cost of a credit hire vehicle is generally between £50 and £150 a day for a normalish car, so since March/April that is a lot of hire costs.

My post on the adverts, is to just bear in mind that the Ombudsman advises the advert prices are an indication only as they offer cars at a price and do not mean cars are actually selling for that price. So do not think because you have adverts for say £1000 that is the amount you should get

mattymoo

The other problem is the need for a time machine.
Accident was in Feb and it is the value of the car at that time the insurers should be paying. We are now a third of a year on - prices will have depreciated so are not a true picture of the Feb value.

Silk

dacouch wrote: »

My post on the adverts, is to just bear in mind that the Ombudsman advises the advert prices are an indication only as they offer cars at a price and do not mean cars are actually selling for that price. So do not think because you have adverts for say £1000 that is the amount you should get

It's true that it's only an indication. which is what is needed, the OP in not accepting the first offer will have to give reasons for not accepting it if they were to collect 10 examples of similar vehicles ranging between say £700 and £1000 the average price would be taken to be £850 which is what the OP would be asking for.
Any further evidence showing recent services money spent etc etc would also help to make a case. The term "Market Value" is what similar cars in similar condtion are available for in the market place at the time.
From the fact that the excess has been deducted I would imagine that the insurers have not been able to recover any losses from the other parties and this needs checking out.
I would also be checking the situation of the courtesy car, if this is or has been on credit hire holding the OP responsable for the fees at a future date ?????

dacouch

Silk it won't be a courtesy car as the posters car is a write off, its almost certainly a very expensive Credit Hire Vehicle.

As Matty has stated the time elapsed since the accident will mean the adverts are not neccessary an accurate indication as prices will have changed (In a lot of cases second hand car values have increased).

With regard to going for an average price between the £700 and £1000 example you gave, it will not neccessarily be the average between the prices that is the market value from the adverts. As stated before the Ombudsman regards the adverts as a guide only as he regards the prices on the adverts as a starting price for negoiation.

Please also beer in mind that sending receipts in for recent services / tyres etc will not neccessarily increase the value of the car as Insurers expect you to maintain your vehicle, however they will help demonstrate the car was maintained in a good condition

Silk

So what are you suggesting then Dacouch, ignore the offer from the insurers and just accept it without contest ???
If you are going to contest it what are you going to use instead of valuations ?
You seem intent on putting the OP off going down this route ???

PS the whole idea of receipts to show it "was in good condition" is to argue the point it should be valued at the top end rather than the bottom end of the market !