Car wrote off but still on finance not my fault...

TheUnluckyOne_2

Right I am new to this and it is a long story but I shall explain it all so the advice I gain will be more relevant so here goes.

In February I bought a car from Arnold Clark on finance around the value of £8288. Great no problems got the VRI and everything but by November I had that many problems with it, It had become so unreliable I had to get rid and when the fan belt snapped that was the end.

So I went back to Arnold Clark spoke to them about the situation and ended up buying another car for around £7000 however finance was harder to get as I had negative equity and no doubt my monthly payments would go up but in order to get finance I had to take the extras off such as VRI and warranty which wasn't a problem at the time.

My payments were going to go up and I thought I just had to get on with it which wasn't a problem.

However on friday at a hotels car park possibly due to the snow a tree collapsed and fell onto my car crushing it.

I phoned my insurance and they have recovered it and took it to their first garage declaring it a total loss they have now taken it to a second place to make sure it is a total loss.

In this time they have done nothing to attempt to claim from the property's insurance ? So I had to pass on the details to my insurance and ask them to try too.

If my car is classed as a total loss I understand that they will write a check for my vehicle per accident minus my excess and pass this on to my finance company. However this could be around £6000 or less when the the total finance amount in September was £9995. So I will be demanded to pay £4000 I don't have hence getting the Car on finance. And my next insurance quote will be sky high.

I am only 20 and am a a student at Uni without the access to this sort of money.

Anyone any experience or knowledge, sorry for the long story.

Idiophreak

TheUnluckyOne wrote: »

Right I am new to this and it is a long story but I shall explain it all so the advice I gain will be more relevant so here goes.

In February I bought a car from Arnold Clark on finance around the value of £8288. Great no problems got the VRI and everything but by November I had that many problems with it, It had become so unreliable I had to get rid and when the fan belt snapped that was the end.

So I went back to Arnold Clark spoke to them about the situation and ended up buying another car for around £7000 however finance was harder to get as I had negative equity and no doubt my monthly payments would go up but in order to get finance I had to take the extras off such as VRI and warranty which wasn't a problem at the time.

My payments were going to go up and I thought I just had to get on with it which wasn't a problem.

However on friday at a hotels car park possibly due to the snow a tree collapsed and fell onto my car crushing it.

I phoned my insurance and they have recovered it and took it to their first garage declaring it a total loss they have now taken it to a second place to make sure it is a total loss.

In this time they have done nothing to attempt to claim from the property's insurance ? So I had to pass on the details to my insurance and ask them to try too.

If my car is classed as a total loss I understand that they will write a check for my vehicle per accident minus my excess and pass this on to my finance company. However this could be around £6000 or less when the the total finance amount in September was £9995. So I will be demanded to pay £4000 I don't have hence getting the Car on finance. And my next insurance quote will be sky high.

I am only 20 and am a a student at Uni without the access to this sort of money.

Anyone any experience or knowledge, sorry for the long story.

I'm confused - why did you have 10k of finance on a 7k car?

DCFC79

So your a uni student with a car on finance, wow thats alot of mullah to be repaid for the car. Never known a student to have a car on finance. Could you nto haved up during the summer to buy a car ?

BertTheRaccoon

If you owe more on financce than a car is worth then unfortunately you cannot claim the shortfall from a third party.

Your only hope would be if you had Gap Cover.

vaio

Not even sure if gap cover would make up a shortfall caused by negative equity generated on a previous car.

The only hope the OP has is if the owner of the tree was negligent in some way

ILW

Wind up.

who would give a 20 year old student a ten grand loan on a car?

chanz4

act of god

BertTheRaccoon

The bottom line is that even when you can establish that your loss arises from the negligence of a third party, you cannot claim for the shortfall between the amount of finance and the "market value" of the vehicle in question.

The method used to finance the vehicle is a separate financial arrangement and the person responsible for writing the car off does not owe any duty of care to the method by which the car is financed. All they are required to do is settle the market value of the vehicle, subject to them accepting liability.

The student in this case, unless he got legged up for gap cover by the commission hungry dealer is going to be left paying the outstanding finance to the finance co, net of the total loss settlement.

dacouch

You may be able to argue to get the same amount as you paid for it...

"9. vehicles recently purchased second-hand

If the policyholder only recently bought his car second-hand, we are likely to assume that the price paid was the market value, unless the insurer can provide sufficient evidence to the contrary."

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

forgotmyname

Whose name is the loan in? Whose name is the insurance in and whose name is the car in?

Looks like your going to be out of pocket no matter which way it goes.

vaio

BertTheRaccoon wrote: »

........The method used to finance the vehicle is a separate financial arrangement and the person responsible for writing the car off does not owe any duty of care to the method by which the car is financed. All they are required to do is settle the market value of the vehicle, subject to them accepting liability.........

Plus any consequential costs which might include early redemption costs on a finance deal so the method of financing does (or at least might) come into it.

Basically the innocent party should be put back in the position he would have been in had the accident not happened.