Car deemed a "write-off" but it's completely driveable

Pukeko

Does anyone have any experience of their vehicle being deemed a write-off, when it is still totally useable and not at all a hazard?

Our car was rear-ended and the caravan tow bar was pushed in, dinting the rear bumper - but not really badly as dints go! We put a claim in to get it repaired but after valuation etc our car was deemed a write-off. We bought our car for £750 and apparently it would cost nearly as much to repair or replace or whatever the bumper & tow bar (!).

It is now categorised as a "class C" write-off by the DVLA, but after reading the fine print and talking to the insurers I'm not confident that it will still be ok to use our car. We have to send in our MOT so that we can still use the car, but surely there must be some implications... what if we get rear-ended again (or worse) and this time it gets badly dinted? The insurers say that they will continue to cover our car.... but... I don't feel confident that this won't come back to bite us in the particulars at some stage.

I don't want to have to replace our car, there's nowt really wrong with it and hopefully still has lots years of motoring joy left in it, plus (crucially!) we couldn't afford to replace it right now (and I would rile me to have to find the money since the accident wasn't our fault! grr!).

Thanks for any advice

Savvy_Sue

This is the kind of question I'd suggest you post in The Back Room of the Honest John website. You'll have to register, but that's the place for all things car ...

MarkyMarkD

If it can be given a valid MOT, then there's no reason not to drive it if that's your choice.

Most write-offs (especially of older cars) are because they are not economical to bring back to tip-top condition - but that doesn't mean that they are unsafe or undriveable.

I presume that you've had a settlement from the insurer and have retained ownership of the car? Normally, if it was comprehensively insured, your insurer would have paid you on a total loss and taken responsibility for the written-off car, but then you could always offer to buy it back off them.

My wife's car has just been vandalised - for the second time in three months - and is probably a write-off from an insurance point of view, but it's fine to drive and we will keep it until it stops working! There's no point claiming as she has a £200 excess and has no desire to lose her no claims discount.

Raspberry_Ripples

These people make a living out of selling salvage. Here is a brief list of the categories - may or may not be of use.

http://www.universalsalvage.com/categorisation.asp

A reputable repairer will tell you if it's worth (and if it will be safe) repairing though.

sunflower_2

i dont understand

if it wasnt your fault will the other person's insurance not pay for a replacement car?

DavidVince

sunflower wrote:

i dont understand

if it wasnt your fault will the other person's insurance not pay for a replacement car?

what car is it?

alot of my hyundais have been write offs both cat c and cat d which i have repaired.

so many cars over 5 years old are written of for the mimimalist ammount of damage.

btw - avoid buying salvage cars from salvage shops, try and get them direct from your insurance company.

PhiL_P_3

Are you sure the damage to your car isn't more serious than you think? After all the tow car is usually bolted to the chassis, which is where all that impact energy would have transferred to.

I've heard of relatively new cars being written off due to suffering a bent chassis following a rear-end through a tow bar..

ReductionQueen

Pukeko wrote:

Does anyone have any experience of their vehicle being deemed a write-off, when it is still totally useable and not at all a hazard?

I do. Following a wiring fire some years ago, one of our vans was deemed a financial write off. We kept the van, took the payout less the scrap value, and repaired it using parts from a scrapper. I don't know what cat it was set at, as we aren't interested in selling so never had it removed from the register. We still have the van, it's insured along with the rest of our fleet, and the insurance company has never seemed to look into the history (different now to the one that paid out on it, though not immediatley after the writing-off.). Straight after the repair, we had to submit the (new) MOT to the insurers, who did try to get us to get an engineers report, but I put my foot down and insisted that if the MOT test was good enough for the Ministry of Transport, it should be good enough for them.

Phil_P wrote:

Are you sure the damage to your car isn't more serious than you think? After all the tow car is usually bolted to the chassis, which is where all that impact energy would have transferred to.

I've heard of relatively new cars being written off due to suffering a bent chassis following a rear-end through a tow bar..

The MOT tester should have detected any obvious bending on the chasis, and would (should) not have let the car pass the test if it was unsafe. I would be very suprised to find a rear end collision with a caravan attached (centrally to the chasis) would cause serious distortion to even a middle aged car.

Pukeko

Thank you all for your responses, particularly from those who've been in this situation your advice has been very helpful.

I feel reassured now to go ahead and bank the write-off cheque from the other person's company, and we will also double-check with our insurance company any implications on our inurance terms.

In answer to your question sunflower, although we have been sent a £550 cheque for the value of the car (whereas we paid £750, they valued it at £650 then there's the £100 deduction for salvage), it is one of those annoying things that through something that wan't our fault we would have to foot a £200 difference (plus the costs involved in buying a car) just to replace our car with it's like - if we can find it's like at the price we bought it for.

Sorry to hear about your wife's car, MarkyMarkD.

Thanks again everybody.

(Aah the confusing world of insurance...)

alexj2002

Pukeko wrote:

It is now categorised as a "class C" write-off by the DVLA, but after reading the fine print and talking to the insurers I'm not confident that it will still be ok to use our car.

Class C means that the car is repairable but the cost of doing so would probably exceed it's market value. If it was A or B then you wouldn't be able to salvage it but if it's C it's allowed to be repaired.

MarkyMarkD

Pukeko wrote:

Thank you all for your responses, particularly from those who've been in this situation your advice has been very helpful.

I feel reassured now to go ahead and bank the write-off cheque from the other person's company, and we will also double-check with our insurance company any implications on our inurance terms.

In answer to your question sunflower, although we have been sent a £550 cheque for the value of the car (whereas we paid £750, they valued it at £650 then there's the £100 deduction for salvage), it is one of those annoying things that through something that wan't our fault we would have to foot a £200 difference (plus the costs involved in buying a car) just to replace our car with it's like - if we can find it's like at the price we bought it for.

Sorry to hear about your wife's car, MarkyMarkD.

Thanks again everybody.

(Aah the confusing world of insurance...)

Thanks for the sorrow!

Honest John (referred to earlier) always advises in these circumstances that a third party's insurers have no ability to write off your car. You are entitled to have your car repaired to its original condition, at the third party insurer's expense, irrespective of cost - and irrespective of whether they consider it economically viable. You shouldn't lose out as a result of a non-fault accident where the third party is not disputing liability.

You suggest you are losing out by £200 - you aren't. You are getting £550 towards the cost of the repair, if you are choosing to get it fixed yourself, and keeping the car.

Alternatively, you would be getting £650 and losing the car.

Either way, you are only out by £100, or less if you can get the repairs done for less than the £550 (indeed, you could be in pocket).

If you feel like a fight, reject the £550 and demand that they repair the car. Take them to court if necessary (although it shouldn't come to that). Point out that it's their insured's responsibility to put you back in the position you were in before they damaged your car ... and you won't take less than the cost of the repair.