Insurance or other person pay off?

rosie56

My son's parked car has been hit by another car, he has contacted insurance who say as it is an old car it will almost certainly be written off, book value around £600 -700. Usual situation in that the pay out will be considerably less than the car is worth to him and not enough to buy a comparable car.

The other person is keen to avoid insurance and has offered to pay for the car to be repaired or pay an amount to take the car which would enable him to buy another car.

Worry is whether this is a safe route to go down - if they pay a lot more than the book value then it could be a better outcome than an insurance write off but not sure whether there are any pitfalls!

Wonder whether anyone has advice, please.

Quentin

If you get an offer greater than book value in cash then take it! (You are only entitled to its pre-incident market value)


(Assuming he has no other losses)


If he prefers the safety of claiming off an insurer he can go direct to the third party insurer which will save him having to pay his excess and subsequently reclaim it off the third party. (Though if repairs are uneconomical the insurer will only write the car off)


(If he can get it repaired himself at a back street garage cheaply then he can buy back the salvage by getting its value deducted from the pay out)

rosie56

Thank you Quentin for your helpful comments.

At present it looks as though he might be offered more than the book value.