Category C write off question

Danosaur

Hi,
My car was recently bumped outside my house by a supermaket delivery van. It seemed 'open and shut' and the driver took full responsibility.
There was a dent on the rear wing, but nothing serious and I have been using it to go to work.
I have just received a cheque from the claims dealer with a letter which follows.

"We refer to the above incident and now enclose a cheque in settlement of the total loss of your vehicle in the sum of £1210.00 which represents the Pre-Accident Value of the vehicle less the value of the salvage that remains your property. We enclose a copy of the engineers report for your consideration.

Please forward to us a copy of the V5 (log book) and the current MOT certificate, if applicable.

Your vehicle should be disposed of, if this has not been done already, within the next seven days as we will not be responsible for any storage charges beyond this point.

Please ensure that you are aware of the legal status of the salvage of the vehicle, should you wish to return it to the road. As your vehicle has been deemed category C, you will need to know the legal requirements pertaining to each category.

Category C: A category C vehicle will have a VIC (Vehicle Identity Check) marker placed on it and until it has undergone a VIC check at an authorised VIC site, the DVLA will be unable to issue a replacement log book (V5). This may cause inconvenience should you wish to sell the vehicle and the DVLA will also be unable to issue a Vehicle Licence Reminder (V11) for the car.

We look forward to receiving details of any remaining losses along with the documentation in support of the same."

I have been trying to pick the bones out of this and from what I can see they have written the car off as a category C. Which is fine because it seems to be still my property.

My question is this.
The car is due to have a service and MOT tomorrow and I can't see any reason why it still shouldn't go ahead. However, I am worried about the legal implications of driving this car, but I need to get to work and public transport is not an option.
Where do I stand ? Can I drive my car? or do i need to take certain steps before I drive it again? eg. repair, report or anything else you can think of.
I would be very grateful for advice from anybody with previous experience of this or a clever legal person.

TIA

topdaddy_2

They have written it off and paid out? If so then its not yours anymore.

Rolandtheroadie

topdaddy wrote: »

They have written it off and paid out? If so then its not yours anymore.

They've paid out the vehicle value less the salvage value so the car still belongs to the OP.

Danosaur

Thanks for your quick responses. It took me a while and a lot of googling before I started to get my head around this.
The car has been sold to me as 'salvage' for £135 apparently, according to the engineers report.
I was not expecting this outcome as the bump was minor. I'm still not sure if it is a headache or a good thing.

topdaddy_2

scotsman4th wrote: »

They've paid out the vehicle value less the salvage value so the car still belongs to the OP.

Oh yeah, it even says that in the op.

Hintza

You will need to get it VIC checked at some point. Sounds as if you have had a win here. Send it in for it's MOT first and then decide how to proceed.

topdaddy_2

Whats the actual damage? Have they given you a report/reason to write it off?

Danosaur

Hintza wrote: »

You will need to get it VIC checked at some point. Sounds as if you have had a win here. Send it in for it's MOT first and then decide how to proceed.

Thanks. I hope your right.
I have this nagging feeling that I should ring my insurance and ask them how I should proceed. I am scared that if I do that it might open a can of worms, but it is the legal aspect that bothers me more at the moment.

Danosaur

topdaddy wrote: »

Whats the actual damage? Have they given you a report/reason to write it off?

I have a full engineers report here and it is very in depth. It was a dent and paintwork damage just under the tail lights and on the bumper.
Basically the repair is worth more than the car, so it's classed as 'Beyond economical repair', which I get but wasn't expecting the cost to be so high.
The car is over 10 years old and Japanese so parts are probably difficult to source.

topdaddy_2

Danosaur wrote: »

I have a full engineers report here and it is very in depth. It was a dent and paintwork damage just under the tail lights and on the bumper.
Basically the repair is worth more than the car, so it's classed as 'Beyond economical repair', which I get but wasn't expecting the cost to be so high.
The car is over 10 years old and Japanese so parts are probably difficult to source.

If your happy with the car in its current state then no reason not to use it as long as the parts you need are availible, would you repair it your self as labour will be included in the reasoning behind writting it off?

Hasbeen

Hintza wrote: »

You will need to get it VIC checked at some point. Sounds as if you have had a win here. Send it in for it's MOT first and then decide how to proceed.

You only need to pay the extraorbinat fee for a VIC check if you sell it in the future only downside is you do not get auto tax disc reminders. If you keep it why bother!