Car deemed a write off - insurance not offering much!

cakeface26

First post for me on this site...here goes! Sorry if this is long winded!

At the weekend I was involved in a car accident (other drivers fault). My car was significantly damaged and my insurance company contacted me today to say it is uneconomical to repair and so will be a write-off.

I originally bought my car from a main dealers, it had a full main dealers service history, was well below average mileage and was very well looked after. My insurance company have said they will be sending me a cheque for £2000. I went into the dealers yesterday to ask them about a valuation - they used the Glass's guide which showed that my car is worth at least £2750. They said that if I was to buy the same car from them today it would cost me at least £3400 as they would add their own mark up.

I told the woman who phoned me today from LV car insurance that I was unhappy with their valuation and I would not accept it. She insisted that she was sending me out a cheque for £2000 regardless and that I had to go through their appeals procedure. She was quite unpleasant on the phone and so I got very shirty as well - it felt like total bullying. I stood my ground and told her I would not accept the cheque and would not be cashing it. Apparently the appeals procedure involves me having to use autotrader to find similar cars, of similar mileage in a 50 mile radius of my home and provide those quotes to the insurance company. I have several concerns with this. First, why have I got to spend my time trawling through auto-trader basically doing their job for them - what do I pay them for? Second, there is a HUGE disparity in prices between a private seller and a main dealer seller. I bought my car from a main dealer - I will be buying my next car from a main dealer - therefore they should consider main dealer base prices in their valuation! It is unfair for them to base market value on a private sale when this is not comparable to the real situation. I told them I already had a quote from the Glass's guide and the dealer had confirmed it to be correct as their base price but this woman was not shifting! I felt VERY pressured to just take the offer - but I won't!

My insurance will be providing me with a hire car, although I am only able to have this for 2 or 4 days (they weren't clear) from the date that they write the cheque. Bit of a problem - I will not be accepting the cheque and the appeals/dispute process will be taking a while but I will not be able to have my hire car, unless I pay for it...which I can't afford and I can't get to work without a car!!!! :wall:

I feel that this is all a ploy to get me to accept an unreasonable offer. It feels like bullying and it's very upsetting - I have enough trauma to deal with resulting from the accident without this!:mad:

Has anyone got any advice? Has anyone else been in this situation? How can I get this sorted quickly and fairly?

Thanks for reading!
cakes

mildred1978

Stop your claim with LV and claim direct from the third party insurers.

But what you have described is normal practice for a write off.

mildred1978

BTW, cashing the cheque is not acceptance of their offer. You can still fight fOr more but you'll have to do the legwork.

vaio

Read http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...valuation.html

it covers pretty much all you need to know re fair valuations

Dealer price is what you should get

cakeface26

Mildred - Thanks for this. LV are meant to be sorting this with 3rd party insurers but this is still going through. I have also started a claim for personal injury and uninsured losses so I may have to add the hire car to that - if I can find the money to pay it upfront that is!

Vaio - That was really useful, thanks. It basically stated EXACTLY what I was arguning on the phone earlier! Think I'll print that off, highlighting section 2 and include it with the Glass's printout and letter from the dealers and send them that! With a note that if the next offer coming my way is not reasonable then I will be contacting the ombudsman directly to complain about LV. Got a feeling this is not just LV that operate this way? It's really intimidating and bullying - disgraceful behaviour. As if you don't have enough to deal with you have to do battle with your own insurance company too! Bunch of cowboys!

dacouch

mildred1978 wrote: »

Stop your claim with LV and claim direct from the third party insurers.

But what you have described is normal practice for a write off.

If you do this you can't rely on the Ombudsman or threaten them with the Ombudsman

adamc260

mildred1978 wrote: »

BTW, cashing the cheque is not acceptance of their offer. You can still fight fOr more but you'll have to do the legwork.

It depends, if it states full and final settlement on the letter with the cheque then yes it is. If it states without prejudice then it's not.

thegirlintheattic

They will send out the cheque, you do not cash it and appeal. You are unlikely to get more than glasses price for it though.

mildred1978

dacouch wrote: »

If you do this you can't rely on the Ombudsman or threaten them with the Ombudsman

But you have a stronger argument (potentially) against the car being written off (if you don't want it to be).

vaio

cakeface26 wrote: »

.........Vaio - That was really useful, thanks. It basically stated EXACTLY what I was arguning on the phone earlier! Think I'll print that off, highlighting section 2 and include it with the Glass's printout and letter from the dealers and send them that! With a note that if the next offer coming my way is not reasonable then I will be contacting the ombudsman directly to complain about LV. Got a feeling this is not just LV that operate this way? It's really intimidating and bullying - disgraceful behaviour. As if you don't have enough to deal with you have to do battle with your own insurance company too! Bunch of cowboys!

you have to go through the insurers complaints procedure (final decision or 8 weeks from complaint) before you can formally refer to FOS, (you can of course ring them for informal advice at any time.)

Keep track of any costs you incur as a result of the low valuation/delaying paying and add those too

oscarward

vaio wrote: »

(you can of course ring them for informal advice at any time.)

When I contacted the FOS for information/advice they confirmed my phone conversation and the nature of the complaint in a letter to me, including a case number, with a copy to the MD of the insurer concerned. They have a list of all the Head Office and MD of every financial organisation,

That got someone's attention alright!

This was before I had reached the end of the insurers complaint process but it got the them to react very quickly before it got to a formal complaint through the FOS.