Written off car settlement - some questions...

ElCapitanoII

Hi

We had a no fault accident a couple of weeks ago resulting in the total loss of both cars. We haven't had the engineers report back from the accident management company yet so the insurance company apparently can't tell us what category of write off it is.

The car has outstanding finance of around £6300 and the valuation based on mileage goes anywhere from around £5500 to £7500, depending on what condition it is said to be in and whether it is trade, private etc. The finance will be paid off and we will be sent any balance.

We bought it at a garage, need to get car finance (can't get bank loan) and don't have mechanical knowledge so buying privately isn't an option (need warranty). We also had a deposit for the original car in the form of a trade in which was worth a few hundred pounds.

My questions are....

1) What valuation will be used, trade/private/garage and what rights do we have based on the information above to get a valuation of a replacement from a garage?

2) What rights do we have if we disagree with the engineers valuation?

3) What happens if the valuation is less than the finance?

4) Who then owns the original car? It's a total wreck but it's worth a couple of hundred at a scrappy.

Also, any tips re stuff we probably haven't thought about for dealing with this situation would be most welcome.

Thanks in advance.

InsideInsurance

You mention that you are using a claims management company, are you therefore claiming directly off the third party insurer or off of your own?

1) It'll in part depend on the above. If claiming off your own then read http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html This would predominately apply if claiming off the TP but as you are not their customer you dont have FOS protection and are governed by caselaw instread

2) Again depends a little on the above. If its your insurers your claiming from then its all well and good disputing the valuation as the engineer represented them. If your claiming directly from the TPI then the engineer works for you and so disputing your own person is a bit more of a problem. You'd need to speak to the accident management company before they send the report to the TPI

3) Then all the money goes to the finance company and you still have to pay the rest of your loan

4) The insurer that settles the claim owns the salvage. You can buy it back from them by paying them what they value the salvage at - most insurers have a fairly standard 5%-10% deal with their scrap merchants unless its something ultra rare.

ElCapitanoII

Thanks very much for the detailed reply, much appreciated. Yes, we are claiming from our own insurers - this accident management company only deals with repairs and car hire - so the ombudsman site is perfect.

Thanks again.

InsideInsurance

ElCapitanoII wrote: »

Thanks very much for the detailed reply, much appreciated. Yes, we are claiming from our own insurers - this accident management company only deals with repairs and car hire - so the ombudsman site is perfect.

Double check what the AXM is doing, increasingly often insurers sell the details of their non-fault customers to AXMs who then proceed to do the repairs and hire on credit and claim directly from the TPI and not your policy.

ElCapitanoII

Thanks again, it's no wonder insurance is sky high with all this skulduggery going on!