Will refusing insurers offer for write offer effect claim from 3rd party's insurance?

Zaslit

Hello All,

I was involved in a car accident last week where the third party hit me and failed to stop, all his fault, I have witnesses and his registration details its now in the hands of the police.

I have gone through my insurers on the advice of the police as they said it could be some time before they get the other party to admit liability and my car was letting in water. My insurers have written off my car as its quite old (and so now my insurance on it is invalid) and so say they will imminently make me an offer for it - which I know will be the cars value, fair enough but at the same time nowhere near what the car is worth to me.

My query is can I refuse this offer from my insurers, thus keeping the car and hold out to claim from the third party (in the hope they do admit liability - the evidence is quite damning!) and demand they offer at least the costs of repairing the car? will the fact my car is no longer insured due to the write off by my insurers affect this?

I feel by accepting the payout by my insurer I will be losing out financially - and I don't think I should have to! Is it not the responsibility of the third party to restore my situation to what it was pre-incident?

I appreciate this is all dependant on them accepting liability and also it could take a while! I don't need the car luckily for commuting or anything - and I'm also very much up for a fight...court if necessary.

Any advice would be very much appreciated! Richard

jonesMUFCforever

Your valuation is of no use!
They will use Glass's guide or equivalent (unless you had made changes to the car enhancing its value which you would have needed to disclose).

Take the money - see if you have legal assistance cover and whether you have a case to sue the other party for your 'losses'.

Zaslit

Thanks for the prompt reply, I appreciate its 'value' to me is of no relevance to the insurance companies, however if the third party accept liability is there no way they will be compelled to reinstate me to my car situation prior to the accident? or will their insurer only still pay the book value of the car?

The situation I am in a fear is one experienced by many, huge inconvenience and out of pocket due to some moron who shouldn't be on the road, and the amount offered by the insurers will not ensure I can replace the car with one I know is reliable - I sure don't have any more money to put towards a new car (and there's no reason why I should have to!)....my feeling is for the sake of rejecting the circa £500 they are likely to offer I am prepared for a fight to ensure I do not lose out herein any way...

jonesMUFCforever

That is the way of the world sorry to say!

vaio

Has the other driver been positively identified?

Was there any insurance on the other car?

Zaslit

Thanks JMUFCF, Hello Vaio, Yes I immediately checked online to find the company who owns the van is insured, and the police and my insurers have since confirmed this. I have not heard yet of a positive ID on the driver this seems to be an ongoing part of the police investigation...

loracan1

Even if the other party paid up they'd only cough up the value of the car - it does seem unfair because a car you know the history of and have looked after and know to be reliable far outweighs its monetary value - unfortunately it just isn't reflected in the insurance value.

InsideInsurance

The TPI will follow the exact same valuation process but they (1) have no "customer loyalty" to consider and (2) you have no protection from the FOS for a claim against a TP Insurer so if you dispute their valuation you'd have to go to court to get an extra £X. As others have said, you cannot force them to repair it.

You may also run into issues with your own insurers as they will almost certainly have incurred costs for the vehicle valuation and if you switched to dealing with the TPI these costs would be duplicated and thus your insurers barred from recovering them meaning it COULD count as a fault claim.

You are better off arguing what you feel is a fair valuation from your own insurers than trying to redirect to the TPI at this stage.

thenudeone

You could inform your insurers that you wish to withdraw your claim and will pay for the repairs yourself, but as you have already set the train in motion it may be too late for that. But you can ask. The loss of a NCD life, the extra premium next year because you now have a "claim" in your history, and probably the loss of rest of the year's premium, isn't worth the money you will receive from the claim, after taking the excess into account.

You didn't have to make a claim on your insurance policy (although that's the obvious thing to do). When someone hit me and failed to stop many years ago I knew it simply wasn't worth going through my insurer so I just had it repaired myself, although in that case I didn't get the registration number so there was no chance of recovering anything from anyone else.

On the plus side, as long as the driver is traced by the police you should eventually be able to recover some costs from the MIB under the uninsured driver agreement
http://www.mib.org.uk/Customer+Services/en/Accidents+in+the+UK/Uninsured+Drivers+Agreement/Default.htm

Zaslit

Many thanks for the replies everyone very much appreciated. Although I know it is a risk I am going to refuse my companies offer and theirs, and take them to court if needs be for the full cost of repairs. The simple reason being I'm just sick and tired of being screwed out of money left right and centre by seemingly everyone you have to deal with these days - the third party caused me all this trouble through no fault of my own and I'm going to fight them all the way on it.

I appreciate I may lose out on this, may get no money back and may end up selling the car for scrap but I think I'd rather do that and know I tried everything to force the other side to restore me to my situation prior to the crash.

Thank you for all the replies though, I think if I had more to lose car value wise or if I was more level headed I may think twice but I'm just so angry at the situation I'm going to fight it all the way.

Thanks again! Rich

rs65

Zaslit wrote: »

I appreciate I may lose out on this, may get no money back and may end up selling the car for scrap but I think I'd rather do that and know I tried everything to force the other side to restore me to my situation prior to the crash.

You may also pay legal costs of both sides and court costs.

What numbers are we talking about? Repair costs and vehicle value?