car insurance advice please

TRYINGTOSWIM

my 19year old son had a crash ,he went into the back of someone so obviously no query over it being his fault.
the insurers arranged for the designated ford garage to collect his car for assessment .I called today to see if they had looked at it yet and the lady who read the notes said it looked like a total loss.
she happily read out the details to me and the total bill is £1500 but the parts onlyare £600, she gave me the list of the parts he needs which we know we could get much cheaper from internet/local dealer/salvage yard and my husband is more than capable of doing the work.
as my son has a £400 excess and the car is only worth about £500 bottom book should the insurers write it off he will come out with nothing. his car(apart from the dented front) is a good runner,and just passed its mot. so it seems sensible to not go through the insurance and repair his car himself. I know its still an open claim as the other car will have to be reaired, but we are wondering how we go about stopping his claim..

obviously the garage have now towed his car and also assessed it so presumably will want paying if we just stop the claim, but his friend told him he can buy the car off the insurance? is this correct? how does this work then ..do they write off the car,and then we pay to have it back?

any advice or suggestions welcome please..

Quote

I suggest you address these questions to the insurers. If the third party is claiming against your son there seems little point in not claiming for his vehicle.

TRYINGTOSWIM

the main reason for this thinking would be that after his excess was taken off the right off value of the car he would probably come out with pretty much zero and have to then find around £700 for a new car, however if we did the work ourselves he would then have to find around £300 to get a car back. In both cases his insurance is going to increase on renewal but this way seems logical option as cheaper.
just wondered how it works ready for when insurance engineer calls

vaio

Just ring them and tell them you don't want to claim for your car.

The other possible advantage of not claiming is that some policies end on a total loss payout which can be a serious amount of money to lose for a young driver only few weeks/months into a policy plus you then have the joy of trying to arrange cover for the new car with an open claim against you

vusys1

TRYINGTOSWIM wrote: »

my 19year old son had a crash ,he went into the back of someone so obviously no query over it being his fault.
the insurers arranged for the designated ford garage to collect his car for assessment .I called today to see if they had looked at it yet and the lady who read the notes said it looked like a total loss.
she happily read out the details to me and the total bill is £1500 but the parts onlyare £600, she gave me the list of the parts he needs which we know we could get much cheaper from internet/local dealer/salvage yard and my husband is more than capable of doing the work.
as my son has a £400 excess and the car is only worth about £500 bottom book should the insurers write it off he will come out with nothing. his car(apart from the dented front) is a good runner,and just passed its mot. so it seems sensible to not go through the insurance and repair his car himself. I know its still an open claim as the other car will have to be reaired, but we are wondering how we go about stopping his claim..

obviously the garage have now towed his car and also assessed it so presumably will want paying if we just stop the claim, but his friend told him he can buy the car off the insurance? is this correct? how does this work then ..do they write off the car,and then we pay to have it back?

any advice or suggestions welcome please..

If the car is a category C or D write off you should be able to buy the car back off the insurer. To get the car re-insured you would need a VIC, possibly an independant engineers report confirm that the car has been fully repaired etc and possible a new MOT (this is all dependant who you insure with)

Make sure you dont cancel your current policy until you decide as the Full premium will be due if not already paid due to the claim.