Car 'written off' - best way to get fairest ins payout??

LondonDiva

Also worth paying the £3/4 for the online Glasses guide valuation.

When this happened to me, I was able to point out that my car was in good nick and that their offer didn't match Glasses for poor condition, let alone allowing me to get back to the position before the accident.

They first refused so I asked them to repair the car or pay the reasonable cost of the replacement - sorted out to my satisfaction within a couple of weeks and taknig into account the cost of the online quote I made about another £800.

dacouch

Simon_Winns are you aware it's against MSE rules to tout for business for your employer.

Also it's specifically against consumer law for you to tout for business for your employer on the internet without clearly declaring your interest eg you work for x company.

I suggest you edit your post and remove your recommendation to your employer.

To anyone reading this, as a general rule of thumb you will receive a higher settlement value and normally far quicker from your own Insurer or possibly by going direct to the other Insurer than using a claims management company. The reason for this is the claims management companies make money from injuries and also putting you in an expensive credit hire car for which the longer you're in the car the more money they make. Obtaining high write off values is not high on their list

SevenOfNine

Interesting, when we contacted our insurer re the crash they passed us on to a company called Albany, who promptly said we'd need a credit hire car, & that we'd also need us to take out an insurance policy in case 'the other side' refused to pay the bill!

Didn't like the sound of that so said no, maybe just as well.

Anyway - update is Hastings (& we agree with dacouch's view of them in a different thread) have offered £4500 which we consider too low (we would I suppose). Looked in various trade mags but not many of our model/year out there for sale. Parkers Guide gave an even lower price so panicked a bit then.

Took good advice of LondonDiva and paid the small cost to get the fine tuned valuation from Glasses (the freebie one was too broad priced).
Dealer Retail Price came up as £5050, coupled with dacouch's Ombudsman link which says they use Glasses DRP as well, we hope we will be successful when we refuse the £4500. If push comes to shove we're happy to proceed to the Ombudsman anyway.

Think I might add 1 month of tax we won't be able to reclaim, and 1/4 tank of petrol which is still in the car!

Thanks all for helping.

Lum

To add to the points already mentioned. Be sure to go down to the garage and get your tax disc. Send it off to the DVLA for a refund. (Edit: I see you've mentioned both of those)

If you're a real scrooge, siphon out the petrol tank too.

Be prepared for a fight though, at the end of this you'll probably come to realise why so many people in your situation end up claiming for whiplash as well.

dacouch

Google Albany or do a search of MSE to see what a lucky escape you've had.

Might be worth paying another of the guides for a valuation as it might have a higher price which could help. As per the ombudsman link they may use the average between the two valuations