Car crash repair and insurance hassles!!

smreynard

My husband came off the road on black ice and ended up in a ditch. He was only doing about 10 mph, the car will need a new bonnet, one wing, headlamp and wing mirror. The engine was still running as it was -2 degrees and he had to keep warm as he was in the middle of open countryside. The first problem was that our breakdown service wouldn't come out to pull him out of the ditch because it was not a breakdown and he wasn't on the road. So I phoned our insurers, Churchill, and they arranged to send out a tow truck to pull him out. After a couple of hours they finally arrived (so did the Police) they pulled the car out and took it to an approved repairer. The police breathalysed him and then drove off and he was left in the middle of nowhere at 10pm, with no way of getting the 25 miles home. We had to call upon a friend to do a 50 mile round trip in freezing fog to get him! I have since had this out with Churchill who informed me that they do not have any obligation to arrange for the occupants of the car to get home, even if it had been me with our autistic son, we would still have been abandoned!
However, the main problem is that when we visited the repairers yesterday, they have said it might not be economical to repair the car which is a Toyota Hilux Surf Japanese import that we paid £9,000 for only 9 months ago. They reckon they have got the repair costs up to around £4,500 already (they are a very expensive place as they do all the bodywork for Mercedes and have a big plush office building). We think that the work should only cost half that.
Anyway, because Churchills don't know if it can be repaired until their field engineer has assessed it, they won't let us have a replacement vehicle. It says in our fully comp policy that we are entitled to a replacement vehicle while ours is being repaired, but they say that as it isn't currently being repaired we can't have one. This means my husband can't get to work as it about 30 miles away with no public transport. Their field engineer is not going until after the new year. Any advice on any of this would be appreciated.

crossleydd42

It's quite likely that they mean it's an economic write-off.

If the worst comes to the worst, you could always find out if the car could be repaired for less, using certain second-hand parts and the same or a cheaper garage. Then you could accept the offer cost for the car and buy the car back from the insurer. This always pre-supposes that you can get the parts (which might be common to a more common Toyota vehicle imported in the UK) the car can safely be repaired.

smreynard

We know where we can get all the parts new at reasonable cost and with next day delivery. Not sure about how to buy it back though, presumably they pay out a lot less so you end up out of pocket?

crossleydd42

You would pay the write-off value (actually, it's deducted from the payout), and you could probably negotiate something lower then that, too! It's not difficult, I've done this.

flang

You will have to check what Cat the car has been written off under:
* Category A must be crushed.
* Category B salvage is to be broken down for parts only.
* In brief categories D and C are deemed, uneconomical to repair. These are cars which have been involved in a major car accident and are simply uneconomical for an insurance company to repair, or have been deemed a write-off by an insurance company to minimise hire car charges.

Rosamund

I am having the same problem -- well nearly the same. Thames Water were doing some road works in the street where I live. Parked the car in a designated residents car bay came back an hour later and there was some very colourful scraping all along the passenger side. The car will probably be valued at about £3,000 but my guess is that these repairs are going to be about £2,000. I took it to the assessors today and they mentioned something about buying it back -- it is only cosmetic damage. It's only 7 years old with 58,000 on the clock and the engine etc is fine.

Apparently though you have to make sure that the insurance company will insure you if it is a write off.

Of course I changed insurance agents on December 1 and this accident happened on November 23!!

smreynard

Thanks for all the advice, I would think it would be category C or D. Can anyone who has done this give an example of what their buy-back value was? Does it leave you enough to get the car repaired afterwards?

s55shh

Okay. I work for a bodyshop who do quite a few insurance repairs.

Facts are. You have the absolute right to have repairs done at any bodyshop you wish. If the approved repairer won't lend you a courtesy car, take it to someone who will.
Secondly, dependant on the insurance company, getting the engineer/assessor to agree to a cash in lieu settlement to avoid the car getting written off might be easy or difficult. Some of them are very inflexible and bearing in mind the fact that you are currently without transport, delays are not helping you.
In my experience, you will not be able to buy back the "written off" car once it is in the system unless you attend a salvage auction and bid with everyone else.
If you can get the parts for sensible money then I would bring this to the attention of the approved repairer and the engineer as soon as possible as they are probabaly trying to price parts off Toyota and struggling due to its grey import status.

smreynard

Yes, we are going to print off details of where to get the parts and make sure the repairer passes them on to the field engineer when he visits next week. We're hoping the car will be repairable, if not we'll get another quote from another garage.

crossleydd42

Let us know on this thread the eventual outcome.

smreynard

Yes I will, the field engineer is going to inspect it this week. We've had to hire a car at our expense just so my husband can get to work. Hopefully, if they decide to repair it then we can get the replacement vehicle for the rest of the time.