My Car was written off, 7 days without a car?

Spacechimp

My car was written off recently in an accident, luckily no one was hurt but my car, a 2005 Vauxhall Astra enjoy 1.4l 16v (75K miles), had the two passenger side doors damaged beyond repair along with a few scuffs to the paintwork. Enough to write it off apparently.

My insurance company, Hastings Direct, offered me £1,600 for the vehicle which I rejected via email along with a valuation from Whatcar valuing the vehicle at £2,600. I have £95 excess to pay and I only insured the car for £2,500.

Their next offer has come back at £2,100. Providing they waver their excess I'm tempted but the problem is they want to take the car first then it takes 2 days for payment to be processed, then a further 3-5 working days for the cheque to clear. Meaning i could be without a car over Christmas.

Hastings have asked me to provide my Log book and service history. I seem to have misplaced them... I phone up to get a replacement logbook but they told me that the insurance company will be able to get one since the vehicle has been written off. I also don't really want to spend £25 just for fun.

Can I demand they pay before they collect the car?
What chance do I have of getting the full £2,500 minus excess ?
Will a lack of Log book effect my valuation?

Thanks in advance
Spacechimp

paddedjohn

If the car is still usable then tell them you will take £2000 and keep hold of your car

InsideInsurance

Lack of a log book isnt an issue, you just sign a form to confirm the sale. The loss of service history is more of an issue because it does impact the valuation and without it then its worth what a car without any service history is.

I am not sure what tool on WhatCar you used, if it is just a high level valuation or one that goes into the details of optional extras etc and if you were looking at the Private Sale, Garage Forecourt price etc.

You cannot demand that they pay first, your policybook almost certainly says you must comply with the claims processes and so you cant call the shots. If you say the damage isnt much then it may be worth considering keeping the salvage and taking a reduced settlement. You'd need to discuss with them if they'd be willing to do it as a Cash in Lieu rather than as a t/l but even if they wont you can still keep it but would need to check with them what safety tests or otherwise they'd want done before they'd allow the policy to recontinue.

Obv if it is total lossed once but you continue using it and your involved in another accident then the second settlement would be much lower as its worth little more than scrap

Spacechimp

Firstly Thank you Paddedjohn and InsideInsurance for your incredibly quick answers.

I've turned the place over looking for my service history I had it recently but I have no idea where it is now, everything is normally filed away very neatly its not at all like me to lose something like that. I'll have to assume I have no service history.

@InsideInsurance The Whatcar tool is here whatcar.com/valuations/ quite useful for those who haven't seen it before. I went on the Garage Forecourt price since I would want the guarantee, I can't afford to buy a lemon.

The car is still on the road but my policy has been reduced from fully comp to third party only. If I kept it I'd most likely sell it on as a Cat D on ebay or gumtree. @Paddedjohn Would the scrap value of the car be as low as £100?

InsideInsurance

Whilst it is a good tool to see what you'll need to pay to get a replacement unfortunately you are not a garage and presumably you have owned the vehicle for a while so it wont have been in the condition that a garage forecourt would have it in (nor have the warranty).

The FOS generally uses the commercial version of Glass Guide when judging if valuations are fair which uses different terminology but looking at WhatCar you are probably better looking at a value closer to the private sale than forecourt unless you had very recently purchased it

Spacechimp

Private price, according to what car, is £2,340.
Dealer price is £2,665.
Part Exchange is £2,295.
Trade price is £2,125.

All things considered the £2,100 offered doesn't sound to bad I guess. I suppose I will keep it till after Christmas and then do the deal.
In its current condition Webuyanycar will pay me £486 I'll see how much Hastings charge me to buy the car back and could potentially make up the difference with a hassle free sale through them.

apesxx

Tesco wouldnt pay me when my car was written off until they had recieved the full service history as there final offer was on the basis of the full service history. I then recieved a phone call about 2 months later from the salvage company that had bought it asking for log book, a key for the car and the service history as apparently tesco told them i hadnt forwarded it on. They wernt right happy to hear that i didnt have it and tesco def had it as i couldnt get my pay out until they had recieved it.

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 from your insurer

There is also a requiremnt to treat the punter fairly as well as making a reasonable offer in a reasonable time. To me offering 1600 when the guide says £2600 and then immediatly increaing that by 30+% when challenged smacks of unfair "trying it on" which might also be worth a complaint

mattyprice4004

keep the car as salvage, repair it cheap and you'll be quids in.

did this with my old ZS, paid £1800 for it, idiot learner crashed into it, paid out £1500 minus £150 to keep it.

ran it for another year, sold it for £500.

neilmcl

Spacechimp wrote: »

Will a lack of Log book effect my valuation?

Thanks in advance
Spacechimp

Lack of serivce history might. A write-off valuation should be based on current market value. Have a look on autotrader to get a more accurate picture of what your car's value is, then think about how much you'd pay for a car without any service history.

fannyadams

I just tried the valuation tool it doesn't like that I've done 169K in my 51 plate diesel estate!
Oh well.