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Car 'write of' question/quandry
Sorry for the title mistake- meant to put 'write off'
Just looking for a bit of advice/opinion on what to do in this scenario and would appreciate anyone taking the time to read this and comment.
Im posting on behalf of my nephew. He had a bump in his car. It was a low impact, low speed bump and the other car driver has had his looked at and the damage is just a crack on his rear bumper.
My nephews car however has a cracked front bumper, loose headlight fitting and the bonnet has a dent in it and does not fasten down properly. He drove it home and contacted his insurance company. They arranged for it to be taken to one of their garages for repair.
At the time the car was collected he had a discussion with the garage guy who told him the damage appeared to be supperficial but 'depending on which insurance you are with we may be able to do a patch up job (he said they could probably get a new bumper from a scrapyard) but that some insurance companies prefered to write off an older car as the insisted that they price for all new parts'.
My nephew told him that he would be happy with 2nd hand parts as the most important thing was not how the car looked, but that he still had a car.
The guy from the garage said that if the insurance company did write it off then he should tell them that he wanted the car back as he could take it to a local garage and get a cheaper job done and get it back on the road.
2 days later he gets a call to say the car is written off for economic reasons. The car is an 04 Ford. He told the insurance he was happy to settle for the lower figure they offered if he wanted to keep the car. They then told him to liaise with the garage about getting it back.
The garage is 20 miles away and he contacted them and asked if he could come and collect the car. He was told that he couldnt collect as the engineer who assessed had gone home for the weekend and so they couldnt release the car as it may need to be reassembled! and until the engineer gave the go ahead it couldnt be released. They also said hat 'if it did need to be reassembled there would be a fee for this. He has since rung the insurance company who said they will get invoiced for that.
They have also said that they will not return the car to him and he will have to collect it but thy have also said they may not allow him to drive it away if the engineers report says it need work doing. They have also said that there will be a fee for every day it is kept there.
Now the questions-
Can they charge a fee for keeping it when he was perfectly prepared to pick it up within an hour of getting the phone call from the insurance company saying they were not going to repair it? As it was Friday afternoon it is not his fault that the engineer is not available till Monday.
He has asked if he can see what the engineers report says but has been told he has no right to that so he is now in a quandary as to whether to get the car back or not. If he accepts the lower figure he can get it repaired with the money but if he gets the bodywork done and there is something mechanically wrong then has wasted his time getting it back.
Can they stop him collecting it and driving it away without them doing any work as he wants to bring it back to a local garage?
Has he got any right to find out what is wrong with it from the report?
They told him he could have the car back but now seem to want him to pay £195 for them to bring it back to him, X amount a day for storage until they do on top of charging to put the car back together again, although we are not sure they have actually taken it apart!
He's wondering if he i better to cut his losses and accept the higher settlement figure which was £180 more and let them keep the car.
He just has this feeling they may be putting all these obstacles in the way in order for him to let them keep the car.
Any advice or opinions would be helpful. Thank you for reading.
Just looking for a bit of advice/opinion on what to do in this scenario and would appreciate anyone taking the time to read this and comment.
Im posting on behalf of my nephew. He had a bump in his car. It was a low impact, low speed bump and the other car driver has had his looked at and the damage is just a crack on his rear bumper.
My nephews car however has a cracked front bumper, loose headlight fitting and the bonnet has a dent in it and does not fasten down properly. He drove it home and contacted his insurance company. They arranged for it to be taken to one of their garages for repair.
At the time the car was collected he had a discussion with the garage guy who told him the damage appeared to be supperficial but 'depending on which insurance you are with we may be able to do a patch up job (he said they could probably get a new bumper from a scrapyard) but that some insurance companies prefered to write off an older car as the insisted that they price for all new parts'.
My nephew told him that he would be happy with 2nd hand parts as the most important thing was not how the car looked, but that he still had a car.
The guy from the garage said that if the insurance company did write it off then he should tell them that he wanted the car back as he could take it to a local garage and get a cheaper job done and get it back on the road.
2 days later he gets a call to say the car is written off for economic reasons. The car is an 04 Ford. He told the insurance he was happy to settle for the lower figure they offered if he wanted to keep the car. They then told him to liaise with the garage about getting it back.
The garage is 20 miles away and he contacted them and asked if he could come and collect the car. He was told that he couldnt collect as the engineer who assessed had gone home for the weekend and so they couldnt release the car as it may need to be reassembled! and until the engineer gave the go ahead it couldnt be released. They also said hat 'if it did need to be reassembled there would be a fee for this. He has since rung the insurance company who said they will get invoiced for that.
They have also said that they will not return the car to him and he will have to collect it but thy have also said they may not allow him to drive it away if the engineers report says it need work doing. They have also said that there will be a fee for every day it is kept there.
Now the questions-
Can they charge a fee for keeping it when he was perfectly prepared to pick it up within an hour of getting the phone call from the insurance company saying they were not going to repair it? As it was Friday afternoon it is not his fault that the engineer is not available till Monday.
He has asked if he can see what the engineers report says but has been told he has no right to that so he is now in a quandary as to whether to get the car back or not. If he accepts the lower figure he can get it repaired with the money but if he gets the bodywork done and there is something mechanically wrong then has wasted his time getting it back.
Can they stop him collecting it and driving it away without them doing any work as he wants to bring it back to a local garage?
Has he got any right to find out what is wrong with it from the report?
They told him he could have the car back but now seem to want him to pay £195 for them to bring it back to him, X amount a day for storage until they do on top of charging to put the car back together again, although we are not sure they have actually taken it apart!
He's wondering if he i better to cut his losses and accept the higher settlement figure which was £180 more and let them keep the car.
He just has this feeling they may be putting all these obstacles in the way in order for him to let them keep the car.
Any advice or opinions would be helpful. Thank you for reading.
0
Comments
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Yes they charge by the day for storage at least £15 sometimes a lot more.
Yes they can charge for work done to inspect the vehicle, yes they can insist that he collects it and not deliver it back, if they did deliver it then expect a bill for a few hundred for that pleasure.
They dont get to keep the car his insurance will send it off to auction after paying the garage bills.
.He will be getting the car back for £180 + costs. If its not worth it then let them take it, if he wants it back then he can go and collect it on a trailer.Censorship Reigns Supreme in Troll City...0 -
It's his car he can drive away in it if he wishes to.
There is no report, just an estimate of what parts are needed and a labor figure.
If they continue to hold the car while charging for its storage, call the police and report it stolen."Love you Dave Brooker! x"
"i sent a letter headded sales of god act 1979"0 -
Thank you for the reply and help.
The biggest issue is getting to know if there is anything mechanically wrong as the damage looked cosmetic. Do the garage holding it have to give him this information or not, as this is what he rally needs o know in order to make the decision as to whether to have it back or not.?0 -
Thank you for the reply and help.
The biggest issue is getting to know if there is anything mechanically wrong as the damage looked cosmetic. Do the garage holding it have to give him this information or not, as this is what he rally needs o know in order to make the decision as to whether to have it back or not.?
If the insurance company paid for the report, then only the insurance company has a right to see it.If it sticks, force it.
If it breaks, well it wasn't working right anyway.0 -
If the car has been partially dismantled in order to properly assess the damage (is it just the light, or is the panel it fits onto bent?), then it may well not be roadworthy, due to missing lights/sharp protrusions etc. If it isn't roadworthy, then it cannot legally be driven away.0
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OP states that the bonnet is dented and does not fasten securely. In view of this the vehicle is unroadworthy and should not be driven on a public road until the bonnet is repaired. OP is proposing that they drive the unroadworthy car 20 miles home with the insecure bonnet.
Entirely plausible that during this 20 mile run the bonnet could release causing it to competely block the drivers view at which point a further accident is extremely likely, who would then be liable, certainly the driver for driving an unroadworthy car but possibly the garage as well due to them allowing the car to be driven in an unsafe condition. The insurance would be invalidated due to the car being unsafe to be on the road.
If I were the garage I would insist that the vehicle was removed from their site on a trailer. If op then takes it off the trailer and drives it anyway it is not the garages problem as they have met their duty of care.0 -
Nothing a ratchet strap won't cure.0
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