Garage wrote my car off! :(

InsideInsurance

nobbysn*ts wrote: »

First rule of a 'Part 36' offer.

'Be a genuine offer to settle'

If instead you want to use it to scare off a genuine claimant, and 'offering nothing' (and possibly from your user name, you have done), you break the first rule, and it'll probably cost you even more.

You really dont get it do you?

In what way is it not a genuine offer to settle?

InsideInsurance

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Why is that then? You are not obliged to accept a write off offer from a third party insurer. You usually are from your own insurer because it is in the t&cs of the contract you have with them.

A claimant legally must mitigate their losses, ie made as small as is reasonably possible.

If being given the cash to buy a like for like replacement (aka total loss the vehicle) is cheaper than repairing the original vehicle then this is the correct settlement method

dave22

Hi.

In response to a previous reply - yes I have been to see the car.

Update: The insurance assessor has rung me today. He told me just how little he could buy an identical car for - which I was ready for!
Within ten minutes browsing, I have found probably a dozen cars at up to twice that value. I have copied and pasted the details into word docs. I need to ring him back and discuss.

Any thoughts please?

Thanks again.
Dave

dacouch

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Why is that then? You are not obliged to accept a write off offer from a third party insurer. You usually are from your own insurer because it is in the t&cs of the contract you have with them.

Have you been getting from Honest John from the Telegraph, even he now accepts you cannot force an Insurer to repair your car when it's cheaper to pay out the write off value.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

dave22 wrote: »

Hi.

In response to a previous reply - yes I have been to see the car.

Update: The insurance assessor has rung me today. He told me just how little he could buy an identical car for - which I was ready for!
Within ten minutes browsing, I have found probably a dozen cars at up to twice that value. I have copied and pasted the details into word docs. I need to ring him back and discuss.

Any thoughts please?

Thanks again.
Dave

First off the assessor should not be telling how little he can buy a replacement and base his valuation on it. he should be discussing what is wrong with it why they wrote it off and not repair it what settlement figure the deem the pre accident condition value to be and give youtime to either accept or re negotiate.


don't forget with online examples of similar age color miles and pre accident condition they are asking prices and not fixed prices.

Aretnap

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

Why is that then? You are not obliged to accept a write off offer from a third party insurer.

No you're not, but if you don't accept their offer The only way to force the issue is to take them to court, and the court will award you the market value of your car (along with costs to the other side if you declined reasonable offers to settle). The notion that you can insist on your car being repaire regardless of cost is an urban myth with no basis whatsoever in reality. Can't remember the name of the case off the top of my head, but there is case law on that poit going back many years.

TrickyWicky

dacouch wrote: »

Have you been getting from Honest John from the Telegraph, even he now accepts you cannot force an Insurer to repair your car when it's cheaper to pay out the write off value.

But there is the problem.. a 3rd party insurer cannot write off your car hence they're in a slightly sticky situation.

The only insurers that can write off someones vehicle is the insurers who are insuring it.

If I get hit by someone else and make a claim against them / their insurer, that insurance company cannot seize my vehicle - thats theft. They can offer to payout on it and take it but they cannot force that upon me and thus they cannot write it off.

Aretnap

dave22 wrote: »

1. Four weeks ago, I spent £400 with this garage to have the cam belt changed - money wasted. Should they give me this money back?

No, you won't get much, if any credit for recent maintenance unfortunately. Any car of a certain age will have had a fair amount spent on it over the years, and will have some new or nearly new parts, and this is already factored into the valuation. Rather if it had been written off 4 weeks ago the fact that it needed a new cambelt would have pointed towards a lower valuation - if they'd noticed.

Certainly it's frustrating having a car written off just after you've spent a fair wodge on a new cambelt, but if they give you the money to buy an equivalent 8 year old Volvo there's nothing to say that the one you buy won't have an almost new cambelt as well so it's not obvious that you've actually lost out. And if it doesn't have a new cambelt it may be that it will have a new clutch, whereas unbeknownst to you yours only had a few months left in it, so what you lose with me hand you can gain with the other.

dacouch

TrickyWicky wrote: »

But there is the problem.. a 3rd party insurer cannot write off your car hence they're in a slightly sticky situation.

The only insurers that can write off someones vehicle is the insurers who are insuring it.

If I get hit by someone else and make a claim against them / their insurer, that insurance company cannot seize my vehicle - thats theft. They can offer to payout on it and take it but they cannot force that upon me and thus they cannot write it off.

Indeed a third party cannot force you to write your car off.

If you read Aretnap's response it explains what will happen if you refuse their offer.

Note I purposely did not say "write off" but "Write off value"

nobbysn*ts

dave22 wrote: »

Hi.

In response to a previous reply - yes I have been to see the car.

Update: The insurance assessor has rung me today. He told me just how little he could buy an identical car for - which I was ready for!
Within ten minutes browsing, I have found probably a dozen cars at up to twice that value. I have copied and pasted the details into word docs. I need to ring him back and discuss.

Any thoughts please?

Thanks again.
Dave

Tell him you accept his offer to buy you an identical car, with a new cam belt, delivered to your door. And it must, indeed, be identical. Obviously that'll be his 'part 36' offer that 'insideinsurance' insists must be genuine when it comes to it.