car wrote off- not my fault- insurance paid finance company

jennifer197831

Hi guys, i would appreciate and help or advice you can give me.

I was recently rammed from behinde on the motorway, The driver who hit made said it was his fault, he didnt see my brake lights, he was rushing to the hospital. I was in A+E for 4 hours, i had and im still suffering from whiplash.

My car is on finance and the insurance company said the car is a right off and will be scrapped. They have informed me the money will go direct to the finance company.

I am on disability living allowance and rely on my car for my carer to help me etc. I wont get any credit from anywhere, so basically i have lost my car and its to be scrapped due to someone hitting me . This has been a great shock to me and i really do not know where i stand legally and if the insurance should be paying me the book price of car, so i can buy a new one and still continue paying the finance company for the loan. I understand the car is still legally theirs and not mine as i have not made a final payment to the car. So where does this leave me?

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated
thanks guys!
merry xmas

Jennifer xx

mattymoo

If the claim was made against your own insurance company then they are required to settle the o/s finance first and any left over goes to you.

You could get around this by making the claim against the third party insurers but this will normally take longer. They will also deduct the value of the salvage so the payout will be lower. You then sell the salvage and hopefully make up the difference.

If you are on the higher rate disability allowance will you not qualify for a Motability vehicle?

jennifer197831

thanks for this i am not really sure how it all works to be honest as this is the first accident i have had and with it not being my fault either. was told that my insurance claim his and then the finance will be settled in the event of a write off. kinda seems a bit unfair tho considering i was not a fault in the 1st place and now will lose my car as well.
as for the disability motor u only get this is you receive higher rate mobility which i don;t it is the care bit i get.

this has all been a nightmare and right at this time of year too i can't beleive this has all happened.

lisyloo

Hi Jennifer,

Yes I agree it does seem unfair.
It sound like you have "secured" finance which means the loan is secured with the car. If anything happens with the car then the loan must be paid off.
It's not like a seperate completely unconnected loan - which is called "unsecured".

The way the law works is that you are compensated for financial loss only.
If the loan is paid off but you have no car then financially you won't be worse off than if you had a car with a debt.
Sadly in practice you are much worse off, but the law only looks at the financial side.

Do you know how much the car was worth and how much the loan is.
I think they will only pay to the value of the car and not clear the loan which in some circumstances can leave a shortfall (sorry if that's bringing more bad news).

Sorry I can't help, jsut thought I'd explain the law bit.

xmaslolly76

Hi have you always paid the car payments on time if you approach the same finance company they may be more leanient than other lenders in allowing you to refinance. :-)

yellowbird

Hello

this has happened to me. the car was written off, through the motability car insurance cover you should be entitled to a courtesy car. when the car is written off and money paid to finance you will then be able to chose another new car under the motablity scheme. you need to phone your motability insurance and find out more.hope this helps

lisyloo

through the motability car insurance cover you should be entitled to a courtesy car. when the car is written off and money paid to finance you will then be able to chose another new car under the motablity scheme. you need to phone your motability insurance and find out more

But jennifer doesn't qualify for motobility

FH_Brit

Effectively - yor finance company own your car until you pay the last penny! The accient was their loss (financially) and they are the owners of "your" car - that's why registration documents state "Registered Keeper" (they are not proof of ownership).

Have you asked thet finance company to re-finance you for a replacement? As long as you have been a good customer you'd still probably get it.