Written off car

Jint

Hi everyone, writing on behalf of a friend who I feel has been ripped off, but interested to know if this is normal. She's Polish, a cleaner with 2 kids. A bus hit her car, no injuries but damage to a 10 year old Merc A Class. Bus company admits liability, she claims through her insurance. They ask her for the £500 excess (which she struggles to find but manages to), then they decide the car is a write off and they're coming next day to collect it. She says no (she's now £500 down and no car, meaning no work as she drives to the houses she cleans) so eventually they agree to 'sell the car back to her' and once they've settled the claim and 'sold the car back to her' she ends up with £200 cash (and at some point they'll return her £500 excess). She also knows, because they mentioned it in a call, that the bus company paid £1300 to settle the claim. So she's now got a damaged car, that by their reckoning would cost £500+ to repair, which is officially written off, therefore worthless for resale, and presumably harder to insure, but she's only received £200 and the insurance company have got £1300!
Can this really be right? An accident that is not her fault and she's way out of pocket but her insurance company have profited.

Faith177

She hasn't received just £200 she also has the car. Had she allowed them to keep the car she would have got the salvage cost for the car plus her excess but as she kept it she won't get this. That is standard practice in insurance

The money the insurers got may also include other costs that they have incurred such as paying for an engineer report, police reports and perhaps storage costs as well.

agrinnall

She could have made a third party claim against the bus company (or their insurer) and received the £1300, although they would have then had ownership of the car. She didn't, so she either accepts her insurer's offer or disputes it in an attempt to get a better one.

csgohan4

how much is the car worth before the accident, you won't get more than the value of the car.

Jint

Thanks everyone, I think it was worth between £500 and £750 before the accident and she wouldn't expect to get more than it was worth pre accident but I would have thought she'd end up no worse off than she was previously, given it wasn't her fault. Faith, even if she'd gone for salvage cost that's still not putting her back in the position she was in before the accident, it would leave her with, let's say £200 salvage costs and no car, rather than a car worth let's say £500, and the excess is neither here nor there as in a no fault accident she shouldn't have to pay the excess. So surely, whatever way you look at it, she's significantly worse off than she was pre accident, even though it was not her fault. I would have expected them to say it was worth £500 pre accident so either write it off and give her £500 or repair it?
If my house was burned down I wouldn't expect them to choose whether to give me money for the rebuild or take possession of the house and give me the value of the land (i.e what's left after the fire rather than before)

Faith177

Have you asked the insurer what they valued the car at not what you think it might be worth? If she feels they have undervalued it then challenged it with examples of the same car, similar mileage ect

You may find that if it had high mileage or pre existing damage ect it is worth a lot less than you thought It is worth looking the car up online on somewhere like parkers

Jint

Thanks Faith, my husband did that for her and the online valuation was £500-£750. To be honest I'm just a little shocked at how it all works. I guess I'm naive but to have to hand over £500 and have them take your car away seemed a very odd way for insurance to work. But maybe that's how the car insurance industry works.

Faith177

Jint wrote: »

Thanks Faith, my husband did that for her and the online valuation was £500-£750. To be honest I'm just a little shocked at how it all works. I guess I'm naive but to have to hand over £500 and have them take your car away seemed a very odd way for insurance to work. But maybe that's how the car insurance industry works.

Definitely contact them and see what they valued it and see if you can challenge it to get a bit more for her.

I know when mine was written off I got another £200 by sending it adverts from autotrader ect to justify the value

She should get her excess back if it has been found to be not her fault worth chasing that up with them too

Jint

Thanks, I'll do that xx

takman

Jint wrote: »

Thanks everyone, I think it was worth between £500 and £750 before the accident and she wouldn't expect to get more than it was worth pre accident but I would have thought she'd end up no worse off than she was previously, given it wasn't her fault. Faith, even if she'd gone for salvage cost that's still not putting her back in the position she was in before the accident, it would leave her with, let's say £200 salvage costs and no car, rather than a car worth let's say £500, and the excess is neither here nor there as in a no fault accident she shouldn't have to pay the excess. So surely, whatever way you look at it, she's significantly worse off than she was pre accident, even though it was not her fault. I would have expected them to say it was worth £500 pre accident so either write it off and give her £500 or repair it?
If my house was burned down I wouldn't expect them to choose whether to give me money for the rebuild or take possession of the house and give me the value of the land (i.e what's left after the fire rather than before)

The would have wrote it off and given her the £500 but she chose to keep the car so she has the salvage money deducted from it. If she wanted the £500 she shouldn't have asked for the car back!.

dacouch

If she claims off her own Insurance then she has to pay her £500 excess, that's how it works.

She can recover the excess from the Bus Company / Bus Companie's Insurers. She simply sends a letter along with written confirmation from her Insurers that she has paid the excess (Normally the letter they sent her settling the claim as this will show the deduction of the excess). Your letter should ask for reimbersement of her excess of £500 as their driver was liable due to X (Eg he drove into the back of her).

If you have been speaking to the Bus Company on the phone, it's often quicker to ring them, explain she needs to reclaim her excess and she needs it asap due to financial problems. The person may suggest you send the letter to them personally and they will rush the payment through the system. This does not always work but if you're friendly and polite will normally work

I assume she was also paying the premium via instalments, if this is the case, her Insurer will normally deduct the remaining instalments from her claims settlement.