My car's been written off by insurance

mustmakealist

I was involved in an accident just before christmas (not my fault) and have heard today that my car is being written off by the insurance company.:( It was fairly old and had high mileage so their intitial offer is not very much. However, I did get it serviced every year that I had it. It also had a tow bar and roof bars that I used quite often.

Can I use these to try and increase the amount that they offer as I will need to ensure that a replacement car also has a tow bar and roof bars?

Any help gratefully received.

mattyprice4004

You need to ask them to either return the roof bars and towbar to you, or add them to the value of the claim.

Also, fight until you're happy with the payout.

Trebor16

Its still your car so you have every right to remove the tow bar and roof rails.

They won't add much to the value of the car but what will help is to search Autotrader, Ebay and other sources to see what prices your model is going for and use that for negotiation with the insurers.

petrolhead69

wear the loss adjuster out, call every day and send in lots of documentation to prove the car was a well looked after example and that to replace it with an equivalently well looked after car would cost x and the amount they are offering would only buy a banger.
I had a vectra written off by a third party and as it had a high mileage they only offered buttons but after getting into several heated discussions and sending in receipts and photos of the jobs in progress for parts to bring it up to a better standard than many low mileage examples they upped the offer from £575 to £1050. It took about three weeks of badgering the loss adjuster daily but it was worth it, especially since I had just been made redundant and was skint at the time. I had only finished the full engine rebuild 3 days before the accident and had just fitted brand new bilsteins and had 4 wheel alignment done but luckily they let me keep the salvage for £120 so I stripped it and sold it in bits

suki1964

I had a car written off last year which had a tow bar fitted. I asked for the tow bar to be taken off and returned and they refused because the car had been in an accident. Said it was dangerous to put a tow bar that had been in a write off onto another car. All my damage was to the front of the car - no structural damage whatsoever so go figure ( written off as the car was brand new and the repairs were too high)

petrolhead69

and since they love to put you on hold for ages at a time dont forget to send them an itemised copy of your phone bill and claim back the price of the calls to them. It also focuses their mind on settling if you are in a curtosy car furnished by them.

TrickyWicky

If you're not happy with the payout you don't have to accept it. Haggle until you're happy. If you want your towbar etc back then its down to you to demand them. Until you accept their settlement there isn't much they can do about it - either negotiate or give you back the bar. Even then you can still cancel the claim later.

I made a claim in 09 and didn't get on with the insurers. Multiple letters later flowing in both directions, a lot of heated phone calls and one uncashed cheque later they were forced to meet my demands and cancel the claim and return my NCD after 1.5 years. I don't think they knew what hit them having a claim cancelled after so much time but I'd never cashed the cheque and it had expired (I've still got it now!). I also got a nice little refund back for the increased premiums I'd paid over the last 1.5 years too.

As for the car, they'd tried hard to take it claiming it was a contractual right etc. It's still sat on the drive now

mustmakealist

Thank you everyone for your replies.

I might not replace the car with the same make/model, but I will need a towbar and roofbars on whatever I do get, so will negotiate to be able to get them fitted to the replacement car. I will do a bit more looking on ebay/autotrader to see what value similar cars are going for.

The car is sitting in a garage about 200 miles from where I am and I've already asked about getting the roofbars back but was told 'no'. I'm not sure that asking for the towbar back is an option as I would still need to get it fitted and am not sure that anyone would want to fit a used one to a car.

I'll see what they say.

Trebor16

On what basis have they refused your request for the return of the roof bars? After all, it is still your car.

Mrs_Imp

I was told that my car was a write off after an accident, but I refused to submit a claim, and got it repaired myself for far less than they quoted it would cost. The garages my insurance company used were charging sky high prices and including work that didn't really need doing, including a front-end respray so that the paint would match! Then a few years later, when they told me that they wouldn't cover my fire damage under my '3rd party fire and theft' insurance as it was the 'wrong kind of fire' I changed insurance company!

What have they quoted you for repairs? Can you get quotes from elsewhere and see if it's feasable to repair it?

I'm not sure they can refuse to return your items, as the car is still yours until you've got the money from the insurance company. Although you might have to drive up to the garage to collect them.

TrickyWicky

mustmakealist wrote: »

The car is sitting in a garage about 200 miles from where I am and I've already asked about getting the roofbars back but was told 'no'.

It's not down to them to refuse it. If you've already agreed a settlement then they can deny you these items however if no settlement has been reached, the car is still yours and you can have what the hell you want from it regardless of what they say.

I was in a similar situation to this a few years back after an accident/claim, they tried to do the same thing and then when I ordered them to cancel the claim they tried very hard to keep the car saying that they would be writing it off and its their right to impound it and refuse to release it.

Two days later it was back on the drive :rotfl:

Seriously, they'll say anything that makes their life easier. Remember removing your towbar will cost them time and money and thats what they're trying to scrimp on.