car an insurance write off

seekaywun

Help! I am confused... a few weeks ago in the bad storms part of the roof of my rented garage (rented from council) fell in on the roof of my ageing car. Car is 10 years old and the damage is cosmetic really as apart from a couple of dents its mostly paintwork affected...
I am insured fully comprehensive with protected no claims. I have rung the insurance company today as I had not heard from them in regard to the claim. The helpline said my car is being declared a write off. I have a £150 excess to pay in the event of a claim. I will get peanuts from the insurance cos of the age of the car but as I said its mechanically ok.

I have heard of people buying back the car from the insurance.. how does this work? is my car still insured? If I want to do this is it a case of I have to forfeit any money they give me to in effect buy my own car back?

Can somebody explain how it works cos I am really confused!

Alternatively can I claim against the council for the damage to my car?

I have reported the roof to the council so that they fix it, to date I have heard nothing regarding the roof being repaired. Surely they are obliged to repair the roof as they would not be able to rent it out to anyone new in the state its in. Would I be able to withhold the garage rent until they fix it? (similar to how you can do with a house rent?) Advice needed please!

Thanks seekaywun

SnowyOwl_2

Hi there

What rotten luck regards your car.

I am rather surprised that your insurers haven't been chasing the council themselves and putting the liability onto them - the last thing insurers ever want to do is to pay a claim themselves. Maybe it would be worth speaking to them about this. I suggest this because if the car is written off and there is no liable party, then the liability will actually end up with you in terms of increased insurance (yeah forget about protected no claims etc they will whack it up at renewal anyway and cheerfully tell you your protected no claims bonus is unaffected!), so it's definitely in your better interest to get the insurers to chase the council.

When my car was stolen and then recovered (wrecked) the insurance wrote it off. In effect what writing a car off means is that when they make the payment to you they are buying the car from you and you have to send off your DVLA forms etc to reflect this. You will have no rights to the car and your insurance will stop at that point. I wouldn't touch a car that has been written off with a 10 foot barge pole!! The insurance I suspect would sell it via an auction, but as it'll not be your car then I doubt if they will tell you where they are going to sell it. And if you did manage to buy it back it's doubtful if they will insure it again with it having been a write off!

I think it'd be your better option to get the insurers to chase the council rather than you chase them yourself - this, I think, would be the only way to avoid a stain on your car insurance claim record.

Sorry that this isn't so positive, but good luck with it anyway.

Snowy Owl.

jockettuk

insurance companys write cars off because financially its better for them.. my friend bought her car back from the insurance company no problems she even got some money from them as well.. again her car damage was cosmetic and a prang in the door she bought the car off the insurance company because she trusted her car mechanically.. the only down side to buying your car off the insurance company is that they will only insure you third party.. as for the council tell them you going to sue them for damages if they dont get the roof fixed as im sure your car and other items in your garage are getting wet and in danger of being stolen.

dougk_2

If the car is worth little - I would ask them to drop the claim totally and not make one.

That way protecting yourself and despite having a no-claims bonus protected you will probably see an increased premium next year. And no excess to pay. Maybe it has gone to far for that though - speak to them and find out.

Personally (and you will know this for next time) if the car is worth under say £500 its never worth claiming for - best to just take the hit.

If the car is fit to pass an MOT and is safe (i.e no structural damage) it can still leagally be used thus why worry about the cosmetics? Thats as long as you can persuade the insurance company not to register it as a write off.

Cat72

Hi
Our car was written off last year. Your insurance is IMMEDIATELY cancelled by the insurance company once they decided it is a write off, and you accept this.You probably will find your insurance policy is dearer but as it was not a crash and not your fault if you shop around you might not be too badly effected. As for the car ,yes ,you can easily buy it back usually at a very low price. The insurance company will send a salvage company to collect your car - take their details and you can contact them directly.If not you can ask your insurance company but sometimes they can be awkward.The problem you might find is that your settlement is very low -you can check the value you are likely to get with this co. http://www.parkers.co.uk/. After this amount the insurance company will deduct your excess.Also the will work out what either you owe or they owe you from your payments to your present insurance policy.So if you know someone who could fix the car at a reasonable price it might be worth getting this done instead - or insisting that the insurance company pursue the council and dont go for the easiest option for themselves.
Financially you will lose out plus it can take months for the insurance co. to pay out leaving you with no car in the meantime.This process can be very awkward for you ,as ours asked for all our car reciepts for repairs and wrote to the DVLA. So have a think about what you feel is best for you. Sorry this has happend.

WeirdoMagnet

I had a similar thing happen to me a while back. A car crashed into my bumper, causing some cosmetic damage to the back panel and boot. I told the insurance co, and got some quotes from the approved garages, which were massively inflated, and were listing things that didn't need replacing (like fully intact lights etc, saying "ah, but they might not work"! even though they were fully functional).

Because of the cost of the repairs against the value of the car (about £1k), the insurance co 'wrote it off'. I had a right old game with them. They said 'just send us your ownership documents' - erm, NO WAY!!! I was a student at the time, and could not possibly afford another car, and there was essentially nothing wrong with my motor.

To cut a long story short, I told them there was no was I was going to relinquish my car, and that we would have to go about it another way. They eventually said if I could get it done for less than £700, they would pay for it. I got a chap who did bodywork for my Dad (well, for his cars) to do me a quote. Insurance OK'd it, car got fixed.

If it's any help, they called it a class D write off, the most minor write off you can get apparently. I think it means that it is still roadworthy, but not economically viable to repair. It was an F reg, and I had the car until April last year - insured every year, so there can't have been anything on the insurers database to say it was a write off.

Would persue the council - they must be insured for the building. Could you get the insurance co to chase the council too?

HTH

Good Luck.

Nile

We've recently been through this process, helping the father-in-law. He was involved in a side on crash, the insurance company said the cost of repairs exceeded the value of the car.......so it was written off.

He told the insurance company that he could get repairs done and wanted to keep the car on the road........so he got a payment for the car and got the work done. The insurance company advised him that the car is 'marked' at the DVLA as a write off and he'd need to contact them.

That's when the real fun started. We contacted the DVLA to enquire about the status of the car, they refused to disclose it to us.

We went to the nearest gov offices to enquire. They told us to go to another gov office VOSA (Vehicle & Operator Services Agency centre) to book an appointment for car to have a (VIC) vehicle identity check.

Why does the car need an identity check you're wondering? From 7th April 2003 all accident damaged and/or substantially repaired cars notified to DVLA must pass a VIC before they can be legally returned to the road.

F-I-Law was panicking by this stage. We got the relevant forms to fill in and take them to the VOSA to book a VIC appointment for his car to be examined.

We were advised that his car could be driven (even though it is without insurance cover) to the VOSA centre for examination.

When the completed form was presented to the VOSA office, we finally got to know the status of the car..............and discovered that the insurance company had misled the F-I-Law........the car wasn't marked and didn't need a VIC after all. Nightmare!

If you're in a similar situation, be very careful that your car can be legally returned to the road.

seekaywun

The more I hear the worse it gets!! I am a mature student single parent.. if I lose my car I have no hope of getting another one as I just dont have the money spare. I appreciate all the comments and advice from you guys, and thanks for sharing some of the horror stories too... I really hope it doesnt get to that point!

The damage is merely cosmetic so there is nothing wrong with it mechanically, I spoke to somebody tonight who suggested I contact Citizens Advice and see what they thought or if they could suggest anything else.

I wonder if I can just withdraw the claim? I claimed because I had no idea they would do this to the car. I tried to check the car price on the parkers site someone above suggested and because its old, an L reg 94 I can't check it but I have no doubt knowing my luck at the moment it wil be barely enough to cover my own excess (£150)

MarkyMarkD

Maybe they'll let you withdraw the claim.

You should have gone about this differently!

Given a low value car and a £150 excess, it was never worth claiming. Ignore protected NCD - and indeed, don't pay for it if you want my opinion - as the gross premium will rise anyway if you claim.

Given that the insurance will let you drop the claim, you should claim against the council yourself for the damage as their property damaged your vehicle. And then the car won't be registered as a write-off, and you'll save a huge amount of hassle.

And why are you insured comprehensively with a worthless car? Change to TPF&T and it'll make no difference to any settlement you are likely to get.

Cat72

Dont worry !! You will be ok. Withdraw your claim - remember the insurance company are being paid by you. You are the boss not them. If they dare to give you any hassle just come back on here - there is plenty of people who will help. People sometimes forget that the insurance company are working for them, you pay your money - you dictate.Its your car, your money paying the policy so you can call the shots.I have seen insurance companys back down a lot when thy realise that people know their rights.

BungleGirl

Our VW Campervan was written off two years ago - it was a D Class write-off (ueconomical). It was a bit of a battle to sort it out but not the end of the world.

We first had a bit of battle to agree on a value (don't accept their first offer!). There was no problem with them agreeing to us buying it back from them, and I understand 10-20% of the value they put on the car is about what you will pay. I remember a VW enthusiast telling us that somewhere on the paperwork there is a bit that you tick to allow them to recover the vehicle - and he said to NEVER agree to let them take it away as you're not likely to get it back.

I think we had to send off the MOT certificate but I can't remember, which would make sense as you have to prove that the vehicle is roadworthy again - but it was a while ago and I can't be sure.

The insurance ceased as soon as we made the claim but we reinsured it with the same company and oddly the premium was less than before the claim (it was a no fault claim).

If it is a D Class write off, then you do not need to get it inspected before you can drive it again. We did not have to return the V5 to the insurance company either - I understand you only have to do that if it is written off under a different class as it is not safe to go straight back on the road, to stop dodgy cars being driven around.

Oh - they sent an inspector round to check the camper over and even though it had suffered an engine fire due to an electrical fault, the inspector checked the tread on the tyres. Just goes to show that they will do anything to get out of paying out!

I hope some of this helps - keep your chin up and think positive - you'll get there in the end. There seems to be loads of people on here who have experience of this sort of thing, so I'm sure you'll find out all you need to sort this out!

Good luck!