Car Maybe Written Off - Still Paying Off Hire Purchase?

Goudeskitchen

Hello all,

Am new here and was wondering if you could guys could give me some support.

My car (a Peugeot 206 05 Plate) had an accident Thursday evening where it rolled from my house and bumped into a tree (not wanting to pass blame but my wife forgot to put the handbrake on). I have contacted my insurance and I am fully comp. They have informed that they believe it would be an 'uneconomical repair' and was already trying to send it to storage when I told them, my preference was to keep the car as I haven't finished paying the Hire Purchase on it (yes, I was a fool and bought it from Carcraft!). They are now sending an assessor to look at it.

I have already had an independent garage (who do insurance work) look at it and they told me they don't believe it is a write-off so I have asked for a written quote to see how much it would cost them to fix.

I plan on ringing my insurers tomorrow and telling them I am getting an independent quote for repair, as I am afraid the assessor will still say it's a write-off.

Now what I'd like to know is, firstly, can I cancel my claim and have it repaired myself? If so, what would I need to tell my insurer if going down that route.

Secondly, is there a way where if the garage bill will be more to fix than the insurer will pay, can I pay the remaining repair costs to get my car back?

Finally, if the car is written off - do the insurer's pay me the settlement or the Hire Purchase company (which is Creation)? In either case, I don't think the settlement will be enough to pay off the Hire Purchase and so will the HP company let me continue to pay off the debt in monthly installments or will I need to pay the total debt in full. If the latter is the case, how long would I look to, on average, have to get the money?

As you can tell, extremely stressed out and my wife is besides herself with worry as we are not the most financially well off at the moment.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated!!

dacouch

\did carcraft sell you gap cover?

Quentin

You can cancel your claim and pay your repairs yourself.

If it's a write off, and you want to keep it, speak to your insurer about buying the salvage.

You will need to check your agreement to see what it says about a write off not clearing the debt, and how it must be paid off.

forgotmyname

Lots of IF's

Probably not HP, My sister bought one from them, Turned to be a personal loan.

If its considered a write-off they may not allow you to buy the car back. Some will some wont.

The garage may not have factored in the higher charges garages quote for insurance jobs, and hire car charges etc.

If they write it off they may pay the finance off directly. So you would need to dip into your pockets to buy the car back and pay for repairs.

How much do you owe compared to its current value?

Christopher7

Hi OP

Don't panic just yet, you have just spoken to a Claims Handler who will be looking at some basic tool to help them decide whether to send the car to an approved repairer or straight to salvage. This is not the final decision, that will be up to their motor engineers.

If I was you, I would get a value for your vehicle. The insurers will probably use Glasses Guide so that will be best but if not, you can pick up What Car or Parkers Guide from newsagents/supermarket.

I would roughly say a 206 in average condition would be somewhere in excess of £3,000.

Next get two quotes from body repairers of your choice to estimate the repair using a recognised estimating system such as Audatex/Glassmatix. If the repair cost comes below your value, it is your right to demand the insurer repairs your vehicle.

You may ask why would they write it off, if it is cheaper to repair. Well, they would sell the car in its damaged state (the salvage) to a salvage company for up to 40% of the value of your car. Therefore it may be commercially better for them to pay you the value of your car and claim back this salvage value. However it is your right to demand that they repair up to 100% of the value of your car.

vaio

Christopher7 wrote: »

......However it is your right to demand that they repair up to 100% of the value of your car.

Is it?

I thought most (all?) policies gave insurers the choice to repair or write off as they see fit.

Obviously this will be subject to the fairness requirements of the FOS but I can't see any problem with them setting a % limit beyond which they write off particularly given the possibility of the damage being more extensive that first though once they start the repair and the closer to 100% they set the write off limit the more likely it becomes that the repairs will exceed the value of the car if additional damage is found.

The only exception I can see to this is those companies who end a policy with no refund on a total loss payout.

It's a pretty extreme example but consider spotty youth in his £1k Corsa paying £4k for insurance. A few weeks into his policy he reverses into a post and smashes a rear light which will cost £60 to repair.

In that case an unscrupulous insurer might be tempted to write it off, pay him the £1k the car is worth but get to keep the almost £4k remainder of his premium plus the probably £300 they would get for the salvage.

Luckily all our insurers are squeakily scrupulous & fair but the rules need to cater for all eventualities.

Quentin

vaio wrote: »

......The only exception I can see to this is those companies who end a policy with no refund on a total loss payout. ......

Anyone considering making any insurance claim (not just this nonsensical scenario over claiming for a £60 repair) should make the decision based on whether or not it will be cost effective to claim!!

(This includes taking into account the impact a claim has on the policy/ncd/future premiums/excess etc).

jamhun

If the cost of the repairs are more than 60% of the value of the car then the insurer will write it off as a total loss. The post from Christopher 7, is totally wrong, you cannot demand that they repair the car to 100% of it's value. If the vehicle is classed as a ct C or D then you will have the option to buy the vehicle back, or take the vehicle and a cash in lieu payment (depends on the insurer). The best thing to do, is have chat with the insurers engineer and see if you can work something out. Beleive it or not, insurance companys would rather repair than write off where possible. With regards to your finance, if it is hp, then they would pay the finace company and you would receive the remainder (if any).

James