I Think car insurance company is trying to pull one over one me

Mow_3

I don't know if anyone can advise me what to do but I am having trouble with my car insurance company.

About 3 weeks ago, some plonker ran into the back of me at traffic lights and damaged my car. It needs a complete new exhaust system and, the car panel behind the back bumper has been dented in (only a little) on one side.

The other person has admitted total liability (I am fully comp). My insurance company told me to take it to a garage that does repair estimates for them. I drove it there the next day. The engineer looked at the car (he was in shirt, tie and suit trousers), knelt on the ground to look at the exhaust pipe. The car was in the car park of the garage when it was inspected. They did not even put it up on a ramp. When the engineer showed me in the boot where the back panel had been dented a bit, I asked him if it would make the car unroadworthy. He said it wouldn't and said I could drive the car home.

My problem is that I have now heard from the insurance company that the engineer has said it is a category `b` write off and they offered me £300. I more or less told them to stuff it and I have asked for a detailed copy of the engineers report as well as an explanation as to why it is a 'b' and not a c or a d.

I am being pushed from pillar to post trying to get a copy of the engineers report from them. I was telephoned again by the insurance company upping their offer to £450. I thanked them, but told them until I had seen a copy of the engineers report; I was not in a position to settle the claim. I don’t think the car is a `b` write off. If it is that badly damaged, why did the engineer tell me that it was not unroadworthy and let me drive it home?

I know that under normal circumstances, the cost of a whole exhause system (including the cat) would probably write my car off, but I have a friend who can get me an ehaust system (they work for a parts company) for £99 and so if I was able to keep the car, I could get it repaired myself.

Do I have the right to see the engineers report? (I don’t believe that he has actually written a report, I just think that he thought I was a soft touch and just 'told' the insurance people that it was a write off) He only looked at the car for about 2 mins and then had to rush off to another appointment.

Has anyone got any ideas as to where I can go from here?

Astaroth

The engineer may not write a report as such which is why they are unable to give you a copy. If he hasnt seen the vehicle since it is certainly worth asking how a vehicle cannot be safe to ever be on the road again (ie a cat and yet it was safe for you to drive without even having the repairs done.

Personally I would put the complaint in writting to them asking why they either a) have miss classified the total loss catagory of the vehicle or b) why an engineer endangered your/ your families life by saying the vehicle was still road worthy when he was intending to class it as a B - never to be returned to the road total loss

Mow_3

Thank you for that!,

I think if I write to them along those lines, they are stuffed either way!

At the end of the day, all I want is my car back on the road. I know it is an old one but, it has never given me any trouble at all, starts first time even in the winter and the only things I have had to replace on it are tyres and the odd exhaust section (but you expect to have to replace those bits now and again anyway)

Thank you very much! - I will post again to let you know how things pan out.


:T

impy78

I agree, it is more than a little odd that the insurer should allow you to be driving a write off around the streets.

I had this problem with a claim on my vespa - I was told that it would be a category D write off by the engineer, but I asked the garage (bearing in mind this is a specialist vespa dealer as well), and they said that the repairs would come to less than 1/3 of the bike's value, so it was NOT a write off. And I managed to convince the insurance company (zenith) of the same, by sending them a proper report my the garage's mechanic.

I don't entirely trust the opinions of these engineers that they send out, because as you put it yourself, they don't even give the vehicle a thorough inspection to decide whether the vehicle is a write off.

If there is a report - there should be something written down somewhere about how this decision is made, so I think your quite right to hold out until you get some sort of satisfactory explanation as to why they have written off the vehicle as not being able to be on the road though.

If the same person has made the decision to write it of as a cat B and allowed you to drive, I would complain to DVLA!