Car crash

Minkus74

My car - Honda Civic (£5k value) was parked in the street and someone dunched into it.

They are at fault and their legal reps are handling the claim. They have assessed the damage at over £2,500 and have offered to repair.

I've not signed or agreed to anything yet - but I'm not happy. The damage is so great I was expecting them a write-off. Now I'm going to have a repaired car with an accident history on it.

This will affect the value of the resale. It seems grossly unfair that I'm the aggrieved party here and I'm going to be out of pocket.

Anyone got any advice?

spacey2012

You will also be riding round in a car with a weakened safety shell, they call them crumple zones for a reason.

reason2

i would ask for a breakdown of how they arrived at that figure.. does it include labour etc..

each insurance company has a different method for write off.. some say repairs must be more than the value of the car.. some say 50% or more..

if they say the parts are £2500 but not include labour id get those costs added on too.. plus they may be extra that they havent considered

ballyblack

Try to get them buy the car off you and they can fix it/dispose of it

even if its repaired it will be difficult for you to sell again

vaio

if they repair it properly then why should there be an effect on resale value?

More generally, you aren't obliged to let them use their own repairer, you can pick your own who might well come up with a different cost (and don't forget to add in hire car etc)

ballyblack

if they repair it properly then why should there be an effect on resale value?

it will show up on HPI and will affect its value

vaio

nope, it will only show on HPI if it gets written off

facade

A prospective buyer will ask if it has been in an accident, I would, because I don't want a car that has been repaired either.

motorguy

facade wrote: »

A prospective buyer will ask if it has been in an accident, I would, because I don't want a car that has been repaired either.

Not sure what the issue is if its been professionally repaired and documented. Shouldnt impact value. I would say quite a few cars out there on forecourts have had paintwork / accident damage.

And at what point do you draw the line of "not wanting" to buy a car thats been repaired?

OddballJamie

I've with Motorguy on this, nothing wrong with a car that's been professionally repaired by an approved repairer.

Whereas a CAT C/D car that's been bought off the insurer and bodged together with scrap parts and duct tape, I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

InsideInsurance

Minkus74 wrote: »

Now I'm going to have a repaired car with an accident history on it.

This will affect the value of the resale. It seems grossly unfair that I'm the aggrieved party here and I'm going to be out of pocket.

There will be no history on the car itself, only total losses get recorded to any public database.

You can claim for devaluation of the vehicle as a separate head of claim against the third party but would need evidence in the form of an independent engineers report to confirm the vehicle has lost value. In the vast majority of cases a car is repaired to the standard that it doesnt impact the value of the vehicle.