What are my rights to salvaging a car

Oaktreebee

Our 3 year old car was classed as a write off by the insurance engineer and we were told it wasn't salvageable by 3 different people. We stated we really wanted to keep the car and have it repaired if possible but were told that the chassis had shifted and it could never be repaired. Today we received a letter off the car's new owner asking us to forward any documents and any spare keys that we may have! We have contacted the insurers to query this. They stated that Coldparts salvage company, who were employed to take the car away, must have repaired it, put it through an MoT and sold the car intact instead of selling it off for spare parts. Is this legal?
The insurance customer service person submitted a verbal complaint form to action an investigation today but we wonder what other action we could take for being misinformed and ending up loosing our car? We have emailed the new owner to find out who they bought the car from and what history they had been given about the car to help in the investigation. Can anyone advise anything more, and if we ought to be compensated should it be found that the car was salvageable?

powerful_Rogue

Im sure someone with more knowledge of this situation will be along soon.

You already have been compensated. They insurance company I presume have paid you market value for your old vehicle. As such the vehicle belongs to them and they can sell it as they see fit. What additional compensation do you want?

You say the garage that have carried out the repairs has MOT'd the vehicle, meaning its roadworthy. As long as they sell it as a cat d/cat c then its perfectly legal what they have done.

hollydays

The three people who told you it wasn't salvageable. What kind of business were they?

bris

There are different levels of salvage, most common are Cat D cosmetic only, Cat C cosmetic but also frame, chassis damage, these need to be VOSA inspected when repaired and are not your typical DIY jobs and CAT B which is breaker only and can never go back on the road.


What yours was sounds like CAT C but the insurers would never be happy giving you it back as salvage. The salvage companies have contracts with the insurers to auction all their write offs, Copart (not coldparts) are one of the biggest.


Bottom line, insurers pay you and you have no rights after that as they become the new owners.

Oaktreebee

Thank you for your comments, it was the insurance representative and their contractors whom we spoke with. However I feel it is wrong to state that we couldn't keep our car if we were able to find and use a reputable VOSA registered garage to repair our car. We were led into believing that the car was not salvageable and would be scrapped, that we had to accept the only way forward was to accept the insurance payment. With over 60 years of non-accidents between us we've never had this sort of experience before. A deer sprang out into the car causing us to hit an embankment on a narrow country road. We were also not aware that there are different levels of salvage or where to turn to for support.

InsideInsurance

What category of total loss was the vehicle?

You have already been paid in full for the car and so the salvage became the property of the insurer. They sold the car to a scrap yard and the car then became the scrap yard's property.

Depending on the category of total loss it may well be possible to return it to the road and its a free choice of its current owner, ie the scrap yard, if they break it for parts, sell it as is, repair and sell it etc.

I'm not aware of any insurance that gives you an automatic right to buy the salvage back, though most insurers are willing to entertain the idea. You say you've already made a complaint but given you've been compensated in full already you will only get a token apology payment assuming the car was a cat C or D. If it was an A or B then it shouldnt be back on the road and questions will be asked of the breakers yard though ultimately that their risks to take not the insurers doing

JJ_Egan

Read this as the OP thinks the insurance engineer who wrote off the car should have given them more details of their ability to buy the write off from the insurance company if possible .
They now want compensation for xxxx for whatever .

bris

The insurer paid full value out for the "write off" its now their car, some will, if asked sell the previous owner the salvage, some wont.


The assessor is the one who decides, if he/she feel it's to risky to sell the car to anyone other than a salvage yard then that's their choice to make. There is no complaint.

vaio

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html#16 is the FOS view which includes the phrase.....

.....If we think that the policyholder was unfairly deprived of the salvage, we may tell the insurer to pay compensation for any financial loss or distress and inconvenience we think the consumer has experienced.....