hmm insurance company failing me

gerad_way

briefly my daughter has had her car written off by another driver , she has a witness for her and states that the other driver over took him illegally after he had slowed down to let her out of a junction\. his car had a tiny scratch hers is written off. He isnt admitting responsibility. our problem is they r offering us a few hundred pounds for her car which we paid more for\....what do we do????

DomRavioli

The amount offered is based on their valuation of the car, not what you paid for it; this is in the Key Facts document of the insurance taken out (usually) and if not there in the full t&Cs which whoever purchased the insurance will have said they read, and confirmed they would adhere to.

There is very little you can do about getting any more money for a write-off, perhaps speak to the insurers for further clarification, but nowhere in any insurance policy does it state you are guaranteed to get the full amount of money paid for a total loss claim - you may get a replacement with some home policies, but you wouldn't ever get your value back.

System

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

dacouch

Are you claiming off your own Insurers or claiming directly from the other Insurer.

londonTiger

it's a pain in the !!!! when your own insurance company will screw you over like this even for a non-fault accident.

The truth is, they take a nice cut from the third party insurer, and they will try to give you as little as possible.

vaio

DomRavioli wrote: »

The amount offered is based on their valuation of the car, not what you paid for it; this is in the Key Facts document of the insurance taken out (usually) and if not there in the full t&Cs which whoever purchased the insurance will have said they read, and confirmed they would adhere to.

There is very little you can do about getting any more money for a write-off, perhaps speak to the insurers for further clarification, but nowhere in any insurance policy does it state you are guaranteed to get the full amount of money paid for a total loss claim - you may get a replacement with some home policies, but you wouldn't ever get your value back.

not exactly right, the FOS view is that for recently bought cars the purchase price is assumed to be the value of the car.

However they don't then define "recent" so one month/three months/six months? Who knows but if the OP has had it less than six months it's certainly an argument I'd be considering

DomRavioli

Vaio - FOS are an ombudsman. The FSA set legal guidance and statute, and anything FOS do can only constitute case law, which is a whole new ball game from actual law.

I've never seen an insurer give full market value in a long time, apart from brand new (less than a month old) vehicles, and even then its a very long battle.

vaio

DomRavioli wrote: »

Vaio - FOS are an ombudsman. The FSA set legal guidance and statute, and anything FOS do can only constitute case law, which is a whole new ball game from actual law.........

yep, FOS are an ombudsman (so nothing to do with "case law") whose remit is to ensure customers are treated fairly (often even if this goes outside the strict letter of the contract/law.) Their decisions are binding on insurers but not on consumers who can reject and go to court if they want.

Write off valuations are something they deal with and the mechanism & principles they use for determining value are laid out in the link given in post #3. Basically punters should get retail replacement value (as published in the guides) with an additional proviso for recently purchased cars as given in my previous post.

FSA doesn't exist any more but even when it did, it didn't get involved in individual cases or making statute/case law (which is the job of the government & judiciary)

DomRavioli wrote: »

......I've never seen an insurer give full market value in a long time, apart from brand new (less than a month old) vehicles, and even then its a very long battle.

Apart from the FOS requirement to give retail replacement value, the norm among insurers is new for old in the first year of a cars life so (generally) if a new car is written off in the first year the punter gets a brand new one.

thefishdude

look for eveidence of what it wouldcost to replace your car exactly. find adverts locally for the same car. evidence is they key. you probably wont get as much as you paid but there is a good chance you cn get them to go up a bit.

wierdly when my car was written off a couple of years ago a i got b it more than i paid for it, i have no idea why but needless to say i bit there hand off.

Sonny_Bill

If you disagree with the valuation the insurance company and their engineers have placed on your vehicle, you can argue for an increase however, you will need to provide evidence. This is as simple as going on Auto Trader or Ebay and find adverts of the same make/model/age/mileage of your own car and sending it to them.

Insurance companies ALWAYS under value the vehicle, and most people just accept it. They are a business after all.. Yes they are never going to pay what you bought it for, because you get paid what is known as 'Pre Accident Market Value'.

Good luck, but you should be able to get more out of them if you provide sufficient evidence that the car is worth more