Can a Car Insurance firm offer nothing for a write off?

Hintza

The OP will have other losses.

A small loss on the value of the VED minus the payout for cashing in. Increased insurance premiums for the next 5 years.

give_them_FA

If you correspond with an Insurance Company it will dictate to you.

If you issue a small claim in the County Court you will be the one doing the dictating. Forget all these nit-pickings about the value of the car, old cars aren't quoted anyway as each one's an individual case.

The fact is that provided what you ask for is reasonable, it will be paid. There are two reasons for this.

1. In an arena where they cannot claim for their lawyers' costs it very quickly becomes more expensive to argue than to pay;
2. If you sue the third party (NOT the insurance company as you have no contractual relationship with them) the Insurance Company CANNOT allow their Insured to end up with a County Court Judgment. So they pay it off.

It Works, believe me. It will get you your money in the quickest possible way.

sabretoothtigger

The law is very simple, you will lose nothing from being at no fault in the accident.

Obviously if you lose the car that is a loss, they have to give you another car of similar worth. They cant just say it was nothing, it had a MOT so you are fine.
Just keep claiming till you actually get a working car just like you used to have, the lawyers will tell you anything

If you get car adverts for aprox value, just deluge them with that. You are worse off through no fault, you win every case

dacouch

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

The law is very simple, you will lose nothing from being at no fault in the accident.

Obviously if you lose the car that is a loss, they have to give you another car of similar worth.

They do not need to source and / or replace the written off car

sabretoothtigger

They must allow you the means to do so though. I think he could argue as much, I had a working car and here is some adverts for a similar age working car and I want that much money

Its upto them to prove it wasnt a working car or its so old we dont owe you anything, thats a bs line imo. They start that joke, start one about it being an antique edition of classical value

Cavalier SRI

I always liked those

property.advert

give_them_FA wrote: »

I had this problem once. The simple answer is to take it back to the guy who caused the accident. You are not obligated to deal with the insurance broker/company at all; their purpose is to indemnify their driver. If they are not doing that, write to the guy telling him you hold him responsible for the damage to your car, and that you require him to pay you £600 as being its value. And in default of payment you will issue a claim against him in the Small Claims Court for the losses due to his negligence.

He will then do the job of getting his insurers to pay. If nothing happens, go ahead and issue the claim. I did that and the insurance company paid it in full inside 7 days.

give_them_FA wrote: »

If you correspond with an Insurance Company it will dictate to you.

If you issue a small claim in the County Court you will be the one doing the dictating. Forget all these nit-pickings about the value of the car, old cars aren't quoted anyway as each one's an individual case.

The fact is that provided what you ask for is reasonable, it will be paid. There are two reasons for this.

1. In an arena where they cannot claim for their lawyers' costs it very quickly becomes more expensive to argue than to pay;
2. If you sue the third party (NOT the insurance company as you have no contractual relationship with them) the Insurance Company CANNOT allow their Insured to end up with a County Court Judgment. So they pay it off.

It Works, believe me. It will get you your money in the quickest possible way.

I am around this point at the moment. The clowns at the third party insurers are dragging their feet so I said I'd simply put their insured in court as they were the one who clattered into my car.

"no", "cannot", "we don't allow that" were the useless type of responses received so if it isn't sorted this week a letter goes off to the CEO quickly followed 7 days later by an invoice to the third party with 14 days to pay or we're off to see the judge.

Bariwhites

Thanks for all the replies. I wanted to bring back this thread as I need a bit more advice.

After getting a bit of a bum steer from the broker I reported the accident to the other driver’s insurance company. After chasing them for two weeks I finally had my car inspected today by an engineer.

After inspecting the car he confirmed it would be a Cat C write off and once he had completed all his paperwork and referred it back to the insurance company they would be in touch with me to discuss the settlement. This is where I need some help!

Firstly the engineer said that depending on which insurance company it is if I want the settlement, then they may insist that they take possession of the car and I won’t have the option to keep it (something to do with removing old cars from the road). However, he said other insurance companies will give me the option of keeping the car but will reduce the settlement offer by the scrap value. It all depends on the insurance companies policy on write off’s. I guess this is my first question, is that correct?

Then he said if I do get the option to keep the car and I decide to take them up on it then they will send me an official letter plus a cheque in settlement. At this point the car would be officially a Cat C write off and I would no longer be able to drive it as my insurance would be invalid. I would have to get the damage repaired and have it re-MOT’d before I could drive it again. Is this correct?

I guess I am just trying to way up my options. The engineer seemed to suggest that the damage could mean that as well as the repairs that there could be some work to get it through the MOT.

I’m just starting to wonder if the better option would be to take the full offer and let the car go. Put the money towards another one.

Any advice would be appreciated.

s_b

Bariwhites wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. I wanted to bring back this thread as I need a bit more advice.

After getting a bit of a bum steer from the broker I reported the accident to the other driver’s insurance company. After chasing them for two weeks I finally had my car inspected today by an engineer.

After inspecting the car he confirmed it would be a Cat C write off and once he had completed all his paperwork and referred it back to the insurance company they would be in touch with me to discuss the settlement. This is where I need some help!

Firstly the engineer said that depending on which insurance company it is if I want the settlement, then they may insist that they take possession of the car and I won’t have the option to keep it (something to do with removing old cars from the road). However, he said other insurance companies will give me the option of keeping the car but will reduce the settlement offer by the scrap value. It all depends on the insurance companies policy on write off’s. I guess this is my first question, is that correct?

Then he said if I do get the option to keep the car and I decide to take them up on it then they will send me an official letter plus a cheque in settlement. At this point the car would be officially a Cat C write off and I would no longer be able to drive it as my insurance would be invalid. I would have to get the damage repaired and have it re-MOT’d before I could drive it again. Is this correct?

I guess I am just trying to way up my options. The engineer seemed to suggest that the damage could mean that as well as the repairs that there could be some work to get it through the MOT.

I’m just starting to wonder if the better option would be to take the full offer and let the car go. Put the money towards another one.

Any advice would be appreciated.

everything correct apart from this bit
you would need to get an identity check done at a vosa station
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/DG_4017800

it must be showing at dvla as needing a vic first though before you can book an appointment it costs £41
its up to your insurer if they demand a new mot or not and its probably preferable in case there is a weakened body structure part or a chaffed brake pipe from the accident

expect to pay 10% of payout offer to buy back the salvage

richard734

Honest advice? Take the settlement and let it go. Be sure to strip out anything you wanted from teh car now, such as non oem stereo etc. Make sure you replace though or some companies will reduce payment is stock items are not there (Stereos being a classic case)

Premier_2

s_b wrote: »

...expect to pay 10% of payout offer to buy back the salvage

It really would depend on the payout offered / vehicle value and the amount of damaged caused.

This car was bought for £300 2 years ago, so that's all I can go on.
However, if the vehicle is still drivable, vehicle recyclers will pay about £200 around here, so I can't see an insurance company willing to let it go for £30 or less.