Car insurance W/O Claim

fred_karno

My wife's car was declared a write off (comprehensive insurance). The engineer proposed a value which seems fair and after a little haggling agreed on the final value. We sent in the documents and I had to phone to chase settlement, having heard nothing for two weeks. NU are saying they will deduct 10%, once they have sorted out their paperwork, because the MOT had run out. We had overlooked it - but it was only 10 days out of date (and there was no suggestion that the car was not in good condition). The policy simply says the most they will pay is the market value of the car. Can they do this? - I cannot see that the MOT being 10 days out of date would reduce the car's market value by £300+, especially as the engineer did not ask when the MOT was due -so in arriving at the original value he put on the car, he did not know whether it had 12 months unexpired MOT or only a few days.

Astaroth

Yes, not having an MOT will significantly affect its valuation - to be honest only 10% reduction is very low.

Technically without an MOT the vehicle should not have been on a public access area and therefore potentially it could have invalidated your insurance unless the claim was for theft/ hit whilst parked when the car was on your driveway etc.

fred_karno

Yes - I appreciate the legality and it was a total oversight, normally we get it done well in advance. I can understand that if you want to sell a car without MOT, it is normally because work needs doing and the sale without MOT is so that the seller does not have to pay for the repairs. In this case the car was in exactly the same condition (and within service guidelines) it was 10 days before when the MOT was still valid - it had probably driven around 100 miles more - so the reduction seems just like a penalty rather than a fair attempt to assess any true change in value.
Policy document is strangely silent on anything that might invalidate insurance -other than terrorism, war etc or having someone driving who is disqualified or not on insurance policy. I would have thought there might have been something about unroadworthy cars,myself.

Astaroth

There normally would be a clause about it having to be legal to be on the road but obviously it doesnt.

Market value is exactly what it says on the tin, how much you would get for it if you sold it on the open market. If you did not have an MOT for it then it would have sold for less than if it had an MOT. Whilst you say it would have passed an MOT with flying colours the engineer just like the prospective buyer has no proof of that and for all they know if could have required thousands of pounds worth of work on it. Unfortunately these things are taken into consideration in exactly the same way that they will have increased the valuation if you had a full service history for it because if it had been sold on the open market it would have got more money for this.

fred_karno

Mmmm - but they did not ask about service history and gave me the valuation before they received the documents - so they obviously were not going to take into account hwethr there was a full histroy. In actual fact there was a full Ford dealer history with stamped book, but they did not know that when they gave me the value, the engineer did not ask, - one reason why I feel it a little unfair to reduce it for the lack of MOT- especially since the MOT has so many exclusions of liability on it regarding using it to confirm a car is roadworthy. The only thing the MOT proves is that the car is deemed roadworthy at a particular date - 11.9 months after the MOT no ones can use it to verify anything, yet the difference between 10 days is deemed to reduce the value by 10%.
However, that's life and I suppose it has to be chalked down to experience.