motor insurance write off

markwlewis

My car had damage to left front wing and scratches to bumper when a car backed into me on a garage forecourt, insurance estimate £900 car worth £650 it was other party's fault,they have admitted liability my insurance company will be writing the car off.

Can I ask to pay the insurance company the what they would receive for salvage out of the money they pay me for the car as I think it will only cost me max £300 to repair and I really want to keep the car.

harryhound

Yes.

But remember the insurance companies have linked their databases, so if you have another shunt after repairing it, you may have trouble getting opposition's insurance company no2 to pay out again !

At one stage both my daughter and I were running about in written off cars. In her case the damage was trivial but so is the value of a 10 year old Fiesta.

Harry.

TAG

We had this with DH car. He pranged it in the snow, just lost it, no other vehicle involved. Insurance company wrote it off as a Cat C (I think that's the least damage category) we bought it back for £50.

The car had to be repaired re mot'd and inspected by an independent...... god can't remember what their called. But basically it was to give a report saying that the car was repaired correctly and roadworthy.

You also have to tell the insurance company when you come to re insure it. Best to have a chat with the company your with now and check to see if they would reinsure it for you afterwards. They'll only do it TP though.

So having told you all that. DH never did get his repaired.:rolleyes: It sat rotting for 2 years he took the odd bit off here and there. Scrapped it 4 weeks ago. But 2 weeks after scrapping it, he topped up the oil on his new car (same make as the old) then forgot to put the oil cap back on. 4 days and a good 200 or so miles later wondered what all the noise and smoke was coming from under the bonnet. So had to go to the scrap yard and buy another oil cap.:rotfl: :rotfl:

FlameCloud

You'd first off need to find out what category write off it would be, roughly summerised-

Cat A- total burnouts, not legally allowed back on the road.
Cat B- Very heavy structural damage, (i.e. bent chassis), needs a VOSA inspection before being allowed back on the roads.

Cat C- Cars which can be relativly easily repaired, but doing so is uneconomical. Inspection needed.
Cat D- Majority fall into this- cost of other stuff eg hire cars, labour exceeds cars value. Also 'new for old' schemes where the car damaged is less than a year old.