Aviva - how to challenge their car payout offer please?

110owner

Earlier this month I believe I was the victim of a 'cash for crash' scam and Aviva (my insurers) have told me that they are investigating it as such. I need help with regard to the settlement of my claim please.

My car will cost me approx £13,000 to replace with one of an equivalent age with similar mileage. This may be a low estitmate as many of the cars I have looked at are older or higher mileage or both. Aviva have said the car is beyond economical repair and have offered me £9,425 - £525( for pre-existing body work dents and scratches).

I have checked my policy and it clearly states they will pay the market value of my vehicle at the time of the loss and they define market value as ' the cost of replacing your vehicle with one of the same make, model, specification and condition'.

Can anyone help with any advice please? Many thanks.

InsideInsurance

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

The above shows how the ombudsman would approach it should you complain and then escalate your complaint to them.

Realistically, write a letter of complaint stating what you think the correct market value should be and provide evidence to support this - normally adverts of cars being advertised. Remember of course that advertised price is not selling price so I'd expect your asking settlement to be at least a little below that of the evidence you're providing

[Deleted User]

110owner wrote: »

Earlier this month I believe I was the victim of a 'cash for crash' scam and Aviva (my insurers) have told me that they are investigating it as such. I need help with regard to the settlement of my claim please.

My car will cost me approx £13,000 to replace with one of an equivalent age with similar mileage. This may be a low estitmate as many of the cars I have looked at are older or higher mileage or both. Aviva have said the car is beyond economical repair and have offered me £9,425 - £525( for pre-existing body work dents and scratches).

I have checked my policy and it clearly states they will pay the market value of my vehicle at the time of the loss and they define market value as ' the cost of replacing your vehicle with one of the same make, model, specification and condition'.

Can anyone help with any advice please? Many thanks.

Hi 110owner,

I'm happy to liaise with our Claims team on this for you. If that's ok, feel free to drop me an email at social@aviva.co.uk with the following:

• Your full name
• Date of birth
• Postcode
• Policy or Claim number

If you can also note your MSE username or a copy of this post in your email so I can connect the two, that'll help, along with anything else you'd like to add.

Many thanks,

Marv
Aviva Social Media Team

Dave_Charnley

110owner wrote: »

Earlier this month I believe I was the victim of a 'cash for crash' scam and Aviva (my insurers) have told me that they are investigating it as such. I need help with regard to the settlement of my claim please.

My car will cost me approx £13,000 to replace with one of an equivalent age with similar mileage. This may be a low estitmate as many of the cars I have looked at are older or higher mileage or both. Aviva have said the car is beyond economical repair and have offered me £9,425 - £525( for pre-existing body work dents and scratches).

I have checked my policy and it clearly states they will pay the market value of my vehicle at the time of the loss and they define market value as ' the cost of replacing your vehicle with one of the same make, model, specification and condition'.

Can anyone help with any advice please? Many thanks.

Please let us know how this resolves 110owner. Perhaps naively I assumed that holding a policy with a big name insurance company means that you can at least expect ombudsman rules about like-for-like replacement valuations to be met. Hopefully your claims handler was just being "over-zealous" and you'll get a fair settlement offer now someone is looking at it in detail. As the big names are rarely the cheapest on price comparison sites, they need to maintain a good rep in cases like these to compete!