cat c or cat d write off help

eaglesrjh

Hi guys.

My car was recently involved in a bump

Basically i was parked and someone reversed into the front passenger door.

It's a 52 plate avensis worth about £1500

The insurance company are saying it's uneconomical to repair , (obviously this is taking into account a brand new door and replacing lots of other ancilliary bits)

They say it's a cat c write off, however i have spoken to the garage who have inspected the car and they say that the door itself is repairable and their is no structural damage to the frame of the door.

Do i therefore have a position to get it changed to a cat d write off?

We would then do the repair ourselves (with a mechanic friend) and either repair the door or fit a second hand one.

There would therefore not be any official paperwork for repair.

If it's a cat c then i need a VIC check before it's allowed back on the road and is insurable, however a cat d does not need the vic check so is it always still insurable??

For insurance purposes how would an insurance company check if the work had been done or not to a cat d vehicle in these circumstances.

Please understand I'm not wanting to con them or anything, but as i know the history of the car i am considering buying it back from the insurance company for the salvage price.

A cat d will just be slightly easier for me than a cat c and have less effect on the potential selling price in the future (though i'll probably keep it till it dies anyway!)

so in summary
do i have grounds to ask for cat d not cat c?
IF cat d, does it continually remain insured?
would the insurance company demand some proof repair had been done?

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

s_b

you have a choice
tell insurer you are canceling your claim and get the door repaired locally
let insurer pay you out for car and wait for man in big lorry to come and take it away
this is the scenario with most insurers who follow the abi code of practice and are based on shore in this country
the days of getting the lolly and paying the 10% to reclaim your jallopy have gone
incidently i priced up a fuel tank for one of these this week £400 none available in the breakers because under eu directive bla bla they all get the pick in them so the juices can come out safely so we dont get them in the land not fit for pigs

eaglesrjh

well the car is at the garage.

the insurance company have offered to pay me out the write off value minus the scrappage value. so in effect it gets written off, i get the money and buy the car off them at the scrappage price.

It's not yet gone anywhere near a scrappers yard, its still at the garage so nothing been done to the petrol tank at all.

Certainly not cancelling the claim, just want to buy it back at the reduced cost and get it repaired.

TrickyWicky

Cancel the claim. It'll be far easier for you in the long run.

eaglesrjh

I've now had a hire car from the insurers for 2 weeks though on a credit hire basis.

If i cancel the claim will these costs not be mine to incur?

TrickyWicky

Ah, yes they will and when I gave that advice, I was unaware of that.

Only thing you can do then is get in touch with the insurers and speak to them about it. Now you've had the hire car you can't cancel without incurring large costs.