Car written off - help needed with insurance claim please

Babbler

Hello all,

My OH recently "wrote off" (economically rather than damage thanks to insurance company) her N-Reg automatic Micra.

The insurance company said she could have a courtesy car but that was before they wrote it off (in the mean time they left her with no car!). They took 2 days to pick the car up and another 3 to tell her its a writeoff (but unoffcially - she had to wait for engineers report). All that time they didnt give her a car either! So she lost several hours work.

They then took 3 days (well, she had to call) to make an offer of £700 BEFORE excess. The insurance contract says they have to get back to her in 48 hours so they breached their end there.

She declined (obviously) as we had tried to find an exact same car and found them to be anywhere between 1600 to 3000 for an equivelant one!

More than 3 days later (again breaching contract) they came back with an offer of 900 (she declined) which they then changed to £1000 there and then. They proceeded to say she needs to see an "ombudsman" or something to get more than that from them if she declines it.

Also the garage she took had it taken to initially (the insurance approved garage) said to her when it was brought in she should get at least 1200!

Now - in the meantime she bought the exact car (milage/nreg/auto) but automatic for 1400 - though it needs some work. So she would be fairly out of pocket with that offer (especially with lost hours of work/petrol travelling 50 miles to buy this car!). Also - was forced into settling on a car thats probably worse than her last one.

Where does she stand and what can be done to up this? Does she really need to go to this "ombudsman" or whatever it is they want her to do?

All help appreciated!

PS - This is lloyds TSB insurance. Avoid. Staff very friendly - procedural side awful!

Loss of work alone cost her around £100 in the week. If not more.

Astaroth

Courtesy car is easy to cover off.... from their website:

Subject to availability and repairs being made at one of the insurer’s recommended repairer centres

As no repairs are being done (it is beyond economical repair) you have not met their criteria for a courtesy car

Have looked in their policy wording and cannot find anything in there about 48 hours so where have you got your "breach of contract" from?

The Financial Ombudsman Service is the independent, government established body set up to resolve disputes between insurance companies (and banks etc) to resolve complaints where the customer and insurer cannot come to an agreement.

If Lloyds have pointed you in this direction then they have said that they have given their final offer and if you dont accept it you need to ask the ombudsman to adjudicate who is correct.

To be honest I dont know where you are getting your pricing from.... looking at a P reg 1.3 SLX micra auto (you have to pay for older cars) they give a £850 price in good pre accident condition.

If you give more details on the model/ engine size/ numb doors/ optional extras etc then a more accurate figure may be possible

Babbler

Thanks. However, on the courtsy car situation - it took them a week to write it off, which is a bit out of order imo.

Where can you find this micra at that price? Look at all car ads online and I think you would struggle. We spent over a week looking and all the 800 ones (well, we found 1) had 80000 milage (hers had 48000) and were in a very bad state!. Thats why we ended up driving 50 miles. Auto micras are few and far between as they get snapped up and can be sold easily.

Babbler

http://www.motorstoday.co.uk/results.aspx?locationid=31565&location=Southampton&county=Hampshire&x=441930&y=112370&defaultradius=5&ispartialpostcode=False&ispostcode=False&extrainfo=&sitecode=POMP&sitecodemilesfromlocation=15&keywords=automatic&manufacturerid=39&manufacturername=Nissan&modelid=405&modelname=Micra&minage=-1&maxage=-1&minprice=0&maxprice=4000&maxmileage=-1&radius=20&type=3&sortorder=4&page=1

and

http://froogle.google.co.uk/froogle?q=nissan+micra+automatic&price1=&price2=2,000.00&lnk=prsugg

Astaroth

I used the Parkers guide (cos it is free and given the age of the vehicle it is most likely what the insurer used - Glasses which is the industry standard charges £2.50 for a lookup and tends not to go that far back)

The key thing to remember is that the advertised price is never the price it will sell at, it is simply the starting point for negotiations. Secondly you need to look at private sale prices rather than forecourts

1 week isnt that bad for a write off, especially at this time of the week. Back in my claims days most insurers aimed to do a write off within 28 days where was we targeted ourselves with 14 days and most insurers thought that that would be totally unachievable but the annual average was about 11 days (summer is generally lower when there is less accidents to garages are quieter and engineers have more time. Around Xmas is terrible as many garages close for over a week causing backlogs and with the bad weather it is also when there is a much higher frequency of claims)

Even on your own link they have a private sale car for £900 so realistically you should get at least £100 off after negotiations if not more.

mattymoo

Go to Vauxhall website and select Owners - Value my Car - this will give you a free Glasses guide valuation.

Link - http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/vx/home.do?referrer=http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=vauxhall%20uk&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-29,GGLG:en

Babbler

Thanks for the answers.

That private listing was a 1 off. She was selling cheap (we wrang her - car obviously gone- that was 1 week ago -ad still there).

Most private listings we've seen still charge 1500 - so 1400 after haggling. Whichis what she paid for her new car. After haggling.


Thanks for the glasses guide link- assomeone said though they dont allow for older cars

Im sure if we had the time then maybe (though unlikely) we MAY getlucky and find one at that price. But as I said - lost work hours also!

Think we should get 1200 at least. Is it worth it for them to go to ombudsman for the extra 200 or will they settle at that do you think if we mad a point of it?

Astaroth

unfortunately the glass only goes back 9 years which if I count my fingers and thumbs correctly is a 98 S reg where as the OP's car is a few years older than that at a N reg

Astaroth

Babbler wrote:

Think we should get 1200 at least. Is it worth it for them to go to ombudsman for the extra 200 or will they settle at that do you think if we mad a point of it?

Only you can say if £200 is worth going through the ombudsman or not given that they may simply say that the £1000 was more than generous enough - you have to build your case in the same way as the insurer will and it obviously takes time for which there would be no compensation