Insurance company offering a write-off valuation too low! Help?!

Emmaslw

I wrote the car off - my fault - no disputes.

The car was on finance and our GAP Insurers have said that the valuation offered by our insurance company is much too low. They originally offered £6100, which we disputed and they adjusted the valuation to £7200. The GAP insurers are saying this is still too low as the GLASS's price is around £9000. Our insurance company aren't providing us with any evidence as to how they are arriving at the £7200 figure. But they have said 'we have changed the valuation once, we won't do it again.'

Reading on the financial ombudsman site, if we complain to them, they too look at the GLASS's price (amongst others).

Does anyone have any advice regarding our next steps or any input at all?!

Also, all whilst this is going on, it's costing us the £200 a month finance. Any chance of claiming this back from the insurance company for their messing about?

Thank you for all/any advice.

OnanTheBarbarian

Get as much evidence together such as adverts for identical make, model, spec & mileage vehicles together which will help to show the "market value" of your vehicle and use this to argue your point.

As for the finance payments, these are a separate liability you have and would not be recoverable from the insurers in my opinion.

straighttalker

Never bought a car new enough to warrant GAP insurance but surely it's your GAP insurers who pay the difference anyway to avoid all of this?

InsideInsurance

straighttalker wrote: »

Never bought a car new enough to warrant GAP insurance but surely it's your GAP insurers who pay the difference anyway to avoid all of this?

Yes, and in some ways no. How the gap is measured varies between policies, in some cases the GAP insurer will come up with their own valuation of the vehicle and pay the GAP from it and the outstanding finance/ invoice etc and needless to say that GAP insurers are much more optimistic about vehicle valuations than car insurers.

Ultimately the OP needs to register a complaint and they can include in that the fact the insurers delays have cost them additional finance payments. These are an uninsured loss so not normally covered but evidently poor service can change things.

If you arent happy with their response to the complaint then escalate to the FOS. http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html is their guide on valuations just in case

straighttalker

Thanks for the information. It'll be interesting to see how two different insurers arrive at two different valuations of the same vehicle to suit their own needs.

InsideInsurance

straighttalker wrote: »

Thanks for the information. It'll be interesting to see how two different insurers arrive at two different valuations of the same vehicle to suit their own needs.

Car valuation is an art not a science.

Lets say for example you had a limited edition model of a BMW M3, 15 year old which was a total loss but before this accident it already had a dent in the osf wing. How much off the book price do you take for the wing damage?

The normal practice is to estimate the cost of repair and knock a percentage of that cost off. That opens two questions of do you look at BMW repair rates or back street garage? What percentage do you decide to use which in itself is linked to question like how likely is someone going to want to repair it -v- just live with it, how rare is the car, how accurate are people going to be at estimating its cost of repair etc

Do you consider a 15 year old limited edition M3 a classic car in the making or a rust bucket thats been driven into the ground? Will it appeal to someone who wants it in A1 condition or a barely 20 year old who'll just want it as cheap as possible before they wreck it?

AdrianC

Is there a compelling reason the two insurers can't talk directly to each other, with your permission?

InsideInsurance

AdrianC wrote: »

Is there a compelling reason the two insurers can't talk directly to each other, with your permission?

The better GAP insurers will but require you to complete a form that gives them permission from a Data Protection basis as well as delegated authority to negotiate with your insurers on your behalf.

From the GAP insurers perspective there is a cost involved in doing this, and depending on the terms of their policy it may not create any benefit for them. If its a basement bargain policy and the actual insurance settlement makes no difference to them they simply arent going to provide professional services of negotiating your claim for you.