Claiming for car reapair's. Need some help.

mrkip

Hi.
I'm wondering if anyone could please help me with a little problem me and my girlfriend are having with an insurance company we're trying to claim off. Cheers.
Here's the problem.

A couple of weeks ago our neighbour reversed into the rear of my girlfriends car. Now there's was quite a bit of damage to the back quarter and the bumper and after an estimate by a local garage the cost of repairs is approx £750.
Our neighbour has admitted it was his fault and has told us to make a claim of his insurance company (Direct Line).

So we rang Direct Line and they eventually sent someone round to inspect the damage to the car. Now this is where our problem lies;- After inspecting the car Direct Line rang us up to tell us that we can either do two things;-

1. They will write the car off and give us £387.
2. They'll take the car away and repair the damage, however due existing damage on the bumper we will have to put £70 towards the cost of the new bumper.

The existing damage they talk about was done ages ago. This damage consists of a small chunk which is missing from the opposite side of the car (opposite side to damage our neighbour caused). The car passed the MOT with this little bit of damage and was therefore was road safe. But because of this damage Direct Line are trying to get this £70 towards the cost of the new bumper.
They also say this is the reason why there will only give us £387 instead of more if the car is written off.

Now the value of the car (if fully repaired) is approx £1000.

Can they do this to us?
If we don't agree with the offers they're making us what can we do? What course of action should we take?


Any help or advice would be appreciated?

BritBrat

Our neighbour has admitted it was his fault and has told us to make a claim of his insurance company (Direct Line).

I would not mention that to them as admiting fault can invalidate their insurance.

So it looks like they have valued the car at £457, I am not sure what you can do lets hope others have some advice. Are you a member of the AA or RAC sometimes they can give advice.

mattymoo

Get the repairs done and pay the £70. Small price to pay for effectively having 2 repairs done at the same time. If you do not think it is fair, consider it from the other perspective.
Say you or your GF hit someone with a beat up old car with bumpers bent out of shape. Would you be happy to pay (or for your insurers to pay) for a brand new shiny bumper?
Bumpers cost in the region of £200 to £1000 depending on type of car so the £70 isn't so bad.

mrkip

mattymoo wrote: »

Get the repairs done and pay the £70. Small price to pay for effectively having 2 repairs done at the same time. If you do not think it is fair, consider it from the other perspective.
Say you or your GF hit someone with a beat up old car with bumpers bent out of shape. Would you be happy to pay (or for your insurers to pay) for a brand new shiny bumper?
Bumpers cost in the region of £200 to £1000 depending on type of car so the £70 isn't so bad.

Hmmmm. I never thought about in that way.
I suppose £70 isn't that bad for two repairs. It did annoy me a little bit though as the other damage wasn't done by me or my girlfriend. We never found out who caused it.
It did annoy me that we're finally having to pay for damage we didn't cause , but hey i suppose thats another problem of having a car.

Cheers for the help and advice.
James

zappahey

BritBrat wrote: »

I would not mention that to them as admiting fault can invalidate their insurance.

I'm getting like a stuck record here but can you offer a reference for that?

zappahey

mrkip wrote: »

2. They'll take the car away and repair the damage, however due existing damage on the bumper we will have to put £70 towards the cost of the new bumper.

The existing damage they talk about was done ages ago. This damage consists of a small chunk which is missing from the opposite side of the car (opposite side to damage our neighbour caused). The car passed the MOT with this little bit of damage and was therefore was road safe. But because of this damage Direct Line are trying to get this £70 towards the cost of the new bumper.

That's pretty much the norm and is known as betterment, i.e. the repaired car is in better condition than it was before the mishap so the insurer requests a contribution.

ccygirl

Contact an accident management company and they will deal with direct line for you. Your local body shop will have some numbers.