Car written off / Buying from insurer??

firesidemaid

Hi all.

Wonder if i can pick your brains please?

If a car is deemed as a write-off by an insurer (as in not economical to repair) and an offer is made, how do you then go about buying the car off the insurer?

ie. i would imagine that the insurer might pay you, say £800 to replace your car. but could you buy it back for less, because there is damage to be repaired at your own cost?

i ask because the car in question has been deemed as a write-off/not economical to repair, but the damage is really cosmetic and safe to drive.

thanks in advance for help, thoughts and comments

Hammyman

You've summed it up quite well. They will work out a salvage value, deduct that from what the payout would have been and send you the difference.

On what basis are you making the determination it is safe? Safe doesn't just mean it drives in a straight line and all the lights work. Safe also involves how well the safety systems, including strengthening bars and crumple zones, will function in another accident.

Have you had it inspected? What is the damage?

firesidemaid

Thanks for your helpful reply.

I'm posting this on behalf of a friend. Unknown driver 'slid' past his stationary car causing the damage and knocking off the wing mirror.

we will take the advice of the garage/report - just wanted to be prepared for talking to the insurance company.

s_b

a lot of insurers wont offer you the chance to buy the damaged salvage back as they can get more for it from eastern european buyers who also load their wagons up with stolen copper cable and lead from my roof

redux

I've been in this situation a couple of times - a few years ago, and right at the moment (both entirely the other party's fault).

Last time, with a previous insurer, they they made an offer of the value of the car, and I could buy it back for a small proportion. I suggested that the value was a bit low, sent in a letter with clips from Autotrader and Exchange & Mart and suggestions that the 3 most likely jobs to need doing on a car like that and that age had already been done on mine. They improved the offer, and the buyback was 8% of that, andless the excess as well, which came back from the other insurer a bit later.

This time it's a little more complicated. The repair estimate adds up to above the value, but it's taken a bit of persuasion. The problem is that if the car is written off, this particular insurer will not insure cars which have been written off, so I'd need to move elsewhere to insure this car, and still have the pro rata remainder of this policy uselessly running out. So I asked if they would consider a cash offer in lieu of repair without writing off. Well, it took a while of arguing, as they overlooked this and sent a message they were collecting the car, and recorded it with the DVLA as written off. After a terse discussion, with me pointing out I own the car until I accept their offer, they eventually agreed to delist it with the DVLA, and improved the cash adjustment figure. I still need them to convince me they are doing more to claim against the foreign insurer though.

So to summarise, and sorry that's a bit long, you should be able to get an offer and buy back the salvage, but also check the terms of continuing the policy in that circumstance, and don't be railroaded by comments like they've got a duty of care to get cars like that off the road

fivetide

Will certianly depend on the insurer. Mine sold my car through a salvage site before they made me an offer! Went ballistic at them for it but did mean they coughed up the right amount of cash for it.

5t.

redux

fivetide wrote: »

Will certianly depend on the insurer. Mine sold my car through a salvage site before they made me an offer! Went ballistic at them for it but did mean they coughed up the right amount of cash for it.

That is also possible. Someone I know had a car stolen and it was recovered to a local salvage yard, with engine parts missing

He was ill for a couple of days, and by the next time he spoke to the insurers the car was about 80 miles away, and he never heard back about the personal property which had been reported as still in the back seat.

That's why I was annoyed by my insurer's comments about getting mine off the road, and the false allegations it was unsafe. I'd renewed the MOT a few days after the accident, anticipating they might get stroppy.