Car insurance settlement claim

bozzy18

Urgent advice please:

Recently, I was involved in a road traffic accident and whilst trying to get my car repaired the insurance company had my car inspected by an independent engineer and decided that the car is "uneconomical to repair". The insurance company has offered me a settlement of £750 less the policy excess. They said the amount is based on research on similar cars currently on sale both privately and through the motor trade. I am not sure this is accurate as I did a little bit of research myself and find the average price to be around the £1,500 mark. Its a Volvo 940 Turbo N registration with around 140k on the clock.

Has anyone ever rejected the offer and what wordings do you use to reject this offer and what happens next?

They also said that my "car will shortly be moved from its current location to a place of free and safe storage however it cannot remain there indefinitely. I will be disposing of your car in fourteen days time therefore if you have any objections to this, please let me know as soon as possible. " This is mightily inconvenient for me. The car is still drivable and I need to use it - is it possible to accept the money, keep the car and dispose of the car myself at a later date?

Any advice you could possibly offer me would be very much appreciated.

Thank you all.

Boz.

rishishah

You can reject the offer and instead put forward your own offer based on your findings. However do make sur eyou have done your homework and can find other adds showing the price you are hoping to get.

I did this once a few years ago and got what i wanted as i managed to get three adds that shower they had given me a very low price for the car.

j69ant

Send the insurance company copies of other cars for sale at that price, and insist on a higher offer..

Regarding your car.. Is it drivable. I suggest you collect it ( you still own it ) and bring it back to your house. At the moment, they are in control and ive heard lots of stories of insurance companies selling cars to salvage yards without even settling a claim !!!

Least if you have the car, you you can use that as leverage. If you have the car, and they refuse to settle a reasonable price, inform them that the car is now at a storage facility of your choosing, and you bill we billing them a storage fee of £36 a week.. i did this a few years back, ( and a friend also did it on my advice ) and they not only upped the offer, but paid out the next day - worth a shot... They may even let you keep the car, which you can flog on ebay as spairs / repairs or get repaired yourself

dacouch

8. advertisements

We do not usually find advertisements for similar vehicles very persuasive. A vehicle may often be sold for less than the advertised price. And small differences in mileage, year of registration, model type etc can significantly affect the value. But they may provide some assistance, if they are treated with caution.
In a few cases, where the vehicle does not feature in the readily-available guides, advertisements may be the only evidence available. Examples include vehicles with foreign specifications which have been personally imported into the UK. And where a vehicle has been heavily modified, there may be a specialist market for it – which may affect its value (upwards or downwards).



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

j69ant

Err - Charging for storage is ridicolous ?

Why ? - They are already being charged by the facility that is holding the car - Insurance companies dont keep rows of smashed up cars on their car park... They pay places a daily rate to store a car... I didnt say bill them - i said it was leverage - call it what you will, but ive been dealing with salavge cars for 10 years, and used this as a leverage tool ( and a friend did at my recommendation ) -

No - we didnt get any money for storage, as we never invoiced them, but we basically informed the insurance companies who were making daft offers that we would be charging a storage fee, if they didnt pull their fingers out and settle the claims - at the end of the day, yes they were our cars, but the only reason they were is that the insurance companies werent playing ball.. Suprise suprise, the offer increased and once i accepted, the cheque arrived the day after !

j69ant

Mysolicitorisbetter,

why dont you reregister as MrNegative or something more suiting to your attitude. You have done nothing but post negative on this whole topic ( and various others from what ice read).



What has he got to lose by sending in copies of other cars at a higher price ? The cost of a postage stamp.

What has he got to lose by collecting his car back if drivable ? - an hour of time ?

My argument has ample bearing - i have been in that situation...Least i am trying to help cboswell. - okay, you think my info is crap - but its not you whos asking for help... im sure cboswell has noted your opinion, but i dont see what he has to lose... if you must reply, why not add something posotive to this situation :j

vaio

Mysolicitorisbetter wrote: »

And the charges being paid to someone else will be passed onto the customer if the claim isnt settled.

The OP is still the owner of the car until he agrees a settlement and is liable for the costs involved.

He cannot charge for storing it. If he settled and they didnt collect the car he then could.

Your argument had no bearing on the settlement and was coincidence. Stop giving out crap advice that will make the situation more difficult to work out

If there is a dispute about the value of the car then it needs to be retained in storage until that dispute is resolved as it might need to be inspected by a truly independent engineer. As long as the OP acts reasonably in the matter all storage costs will be paid by the insurance company.

OP, what you need to do is collect evidence of the true value of your car and present them to the insurance company. These can take the form of adverts for similar cars together with any bills for yours that will demonstrate it was in above average condition/maintained (if this is the case, but remember all cars should be averagely maintained).

If the damage is cosmetic and the car is roadworthy or easily repairable so it becomes roadworthy then you can ask for the option of retaining the salvage (basically buying it back off the insurance company). On a car like this I’d guess the cost wouldn’t be more than a couple of hundred quid.

Finally, if the accident was the fault of a third party, I’d suggest you ask them for a hire car until the matter is resolved, you are entitled to a car of similar size and the thought of paying for this (even at the discounted rates they pay) will concentrate their minds on making you a sensible offer.

dacouch

I would not rely on adverts from Ebay as the Insurers will look at completed Ebay sales which are showing at between £600 and £950 (There are quite a few at circa £400)