Potential car write-off following accident

manc187

Hi all,
I was involved in an accident last week where my car had a rear tyre blowout, span across the carriageway and crashed into the barrier on the hard shoulder.


Fortunately nobody was injured and unbelievably I didn't come into contact with another vehicles.


However, my vehicle was very badly damaged on the driver side.


The insurers garage rang me today to say that the cost of repairs would be c. £5.8k and would take a month to complete.
They are just waiting for my insurer to approve the repairs - or not!


My car is a 2014 Vauxhall 1.6 Limited edition with 7.5k on the clock and I bought it 2 months ago for £12.5k


Based on the repair estimate + courtesy car for a month + recovery costs on the motorway I'm starting to think that the insurers will write it off.


What do you all think?


If it was to be written off how much do you think I will receive? - there are similar vehicles (spec, mileage and age) for sale by traders on autotrader for c. £12k.

rs65

manc187 wrote: »

If it was to be written off how much do you think I will receive?

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html#9

manc187

rs65..
so according to point 9 below am I right in thinking that I should expect to receive somewhere in the region of £12-12.5k less my excess?
9. vehicles recently purchased second-hand
If the consumer only recently bought their car second-hand, we generally assume that they paid the market value price – although we will consider any evidence the insurer can provide that this was not the case.

dacouch

Unless you've paid extra for like for like hire car then the courtesy car is normally provided by the garage free of charge to the Insurer.

The recovery charge is the same for the Insurer whether they write the car off or not.

So the courtesy car cost and the recovery costs will not necessarily be taken into account when assessing whether to write the car off.

Who are your Insurers?

manc187

esure


I am just worried that should it be written off I am going to receive a few thousand pounds less that the £12.5k I paid only two months ago
Having done some research when I initially bought the car and following the accident I have no reason to believe that £12.5k wasn't fair and accurate market value.
If the car was written off I would expect to receive an amount of money that enabled me to go out and buy a car similar to the car I had seconds before the accident and therefore be in the same position I was just before the accident - less my excess costs of course - but I may be being a bit naïve here.

dacouch

E sure are not my favourite company however this may work in your favour.

They're likely to ignore the Ombudsmans guidance on recently purchased cars. So when assessing whether to write off or not they may use a lower figure as a value which means they're more likely to write the car off. (Insurers tend to work on a circa 65% to 75% of the repair costs against value of the vehicle to decide whether to write the car off).

Should they decide to write the car off you can then put your arguments forward about the car being recently purchased. It's worth bearing in mind that the Ombudsman does not define "recently purchased" so it's open to interpretation.

If e sure tell you that the policy ceases with no refund when the car is written off, let us know as section 17 of the link RS provided should prevent them doing this.

I recommend you read the link RS provided a few times as it explains how esure should handle a written off car and how the car should be valued. If you understand it you'll find it handy to use against the Insurer if they deviate from it

manc187

thanks dacouch and thanks rs65 for the link which I have been reading through since you sent and found very informative and potentially very useful depending on how my claim progresses.

manc187

dacouch - yes will definitely bear in mind section 17 as you pointed out.
It is highly likely that I will be purchasing a very similar vehicle should my car be written off so according to the article I would expect esure to transfer the policy to the new vehicle +/- any change in premium based on vehicle spec/type etc.

dacouch

manc187 wrote: »

dacouch - yes will definitely bear in mind section 17 as you pointed out.
It is highly likely that I will be purchasing a very similar vehicle should my car be written off so according to the article I would expect esure to transfer the policy to the new vehicle +/- any change in premium based on vehicle spec/type etc.

That's how the FOS has worded it.

The FOS changed their guidance on this matter relatively recently (They used to accept Insurers cancelling with no refund after a write off) so there's a good chance e sure will still be working on the old basis.

manc187

even so, I would still put a case forward

dacouch

manc187 wrote: »

even so, I would still put a case forward

Definitely, I mentioned it as many Insurers still operate on the old basis and the frontline staff are not aware of it. I was forewarning you as if any Insurer is going to try and cancel after a write off it would be e sure.