Cat C write-off: questions

gcoopermax

Hi

Recently someone bumped into the rear of my car (Ford Fiesta, 5dr, 2004 registered and 65k miles) with his Alpha Romeo and his insurance kindly accepted full liability. Car was MOTed and serviced in this June, has two set of keys and has a new Sony stereo installed. The rear bumper suffered a crack but didn't deform and the car was perfectly drivable. The garage of insurance company's choice picked the car up and 3 days later I received call from insurance company that the car is a Cat C write-off they and price it at £1200 before the damage, with £48 as salvage value, so I can have my car and £1152 cash.

What do I do? If I accept the writeoff and cash and get it repaired with second hand used parts, I may be eft with some money but as a result there are some difficulties I may face:

1) My insurer will bump up the premium because they may convert my comp insurance to third party or straightaway refuse to insure the car?
2) I may need to get the car MOTed which is additional cost.
3) I don't know what price it will fetch if I were to sell it in future, as a result of Cat-C stigma. The reduced price I get, coupled with the expenditure I have to incur as a result of repair, MOT, and increased premium may be more than £1152 I get now, leaving me worse off- through no fault of my own
4) If I agree on write-off, how do I know they valued the car correctly?

Would appreciate some suggestions on this, as the insurer wants a decision soon. I know they can't coerce me into any decision but I want to be clear in all options available to me.

paddyandstumpy

If you're unhappy about arranging repairs and the reduction in value of the car as it's a now Cat C; ask for the market value of the car to be paid to you instead of getting the car back.

Look on auto trader and use guides like Glasses and Parkers to work out the value of the car in the pre accident condition.

And ask for your Sony stereo back if that's important to you.

Aretnap

gcoopermax wrote: »

1) My insurer will bump up the premium because they may convert my comp insurance to third party or straightaway refuse to insure the car?

Insuring a car which has previously been written off is not usually a problem. A small number of insurers (Swiftcover or eSure spring to mind, though I could be misremembering) won't insure them, but the majority don't even ask if it's previously been written off. The main difference it makes would be that if it gets written off again after you've repaired it, the payout would be reduced slightly to reflect the fact that the write-off marker reduces its market value

Check with your insurer what their attitude to repaired Cat-Cs if you're not sure.

3) I don't know what price it will fetch if I were to sell it in future, as a result of Cat-C stigma. The reduced price I get, coupled with the expenditure I have to incur as a result of repair, MOT, and increased premium may be more than £1152 I get now, leaving me worse off- through no fault of my own

That's only really an issue if you sell the car in the reasonably near future - are you planning to? If so, you might as well take the cash and replace it now. If you were planning to keep it until it's worn out, then sell it/trade it in for a couple of hundred quid, the effect of the write-off marker on the price will be trivial.

4) If I agree on write-off, how do I know they valued the car correctly?

See here. The value will be based on the trade guides, which are compiled from actual selling prices rather than advertised prices, but you can get a rough idea by looking at what similar cars are being advertised for on AutoTrader or an equivalent site. From a quick look myself, £1200 for a 2004 Fiesta doesn't seem outrageous.

mattk_180

Do you HAVE to repair it? Just because it's a write off, doesn't mean to have to do anything to it, just that it would have cost the insurer more than they are willing to pay against the value of the car.


If it's still in a roadworthy condition, just get it MOT'd (which you have to) for £35. Your insurance premium isn't going to go up a lot, if at all, considering the third party have admitted liability and paid and generally Cat C write-offs are less desirable but not seen as much of a problem in this day and age.


Even if you get it repaired, you're going to end up with your car in the same condition as before and at least (I imagine) £500 in your pocket.

paddedjohn

mattk_180 wrote: »

Do you HAVE to repair it? Just because it's a write off, doesn't mean to have to do anything to it, just that it would have cost the insurer more than they are willing to pay against the value of the car.


If it's still in a roadworthy condition, just get it MOT'd (which you have to) for £35. Your insurance premium isn't going to go up a lot, if at all, considering the third party have admitted liability and paid and generally Cat C write-offs are less desirable but not seen as much of a problem in this day and age.


Even if you get it repaired, you're going to end up with your car in the same condition as before and at least (I imagine) £500 in your pocket.

The existing mot certificate is still valid for the vehicle

mattk_180

paddedjohn wrote: »

The existing mot certificate is still valid for the vehicle

I was always under the impression that once written off a vehicle had to have an VIC (now no longer in place) or an MOT before it could go back on the road.


You learn something new every day, hey?!

gcoopermax

If you're unhappy about arranging repairs and the reduction in value of the car as it's a now Cat C; ask for the market value of the car to be paid to you instead of getting the car back.

Look on auto trader and use guides like Glasses and Parkers to work out the value of the car in the pre accident condition

The value will be based on the trade guides, which are compiled from actual selling prices rather than advertised prices, but you can get a rough idea by looking at what similar cars are being advertised for on AutoTrader or an equivalent site.

I paid for Parker's evaluation (24 horus) of the car and it values the car at £1385 as a Franchised dealer price when adjusted for 66k miles. Considering the fact that the car has 7 months' MOT remaining, has undergone service this June and has full service history, had only one owner before me, has two new tyres, a Sony stereo and a spare key.. Isn't it reasonable to ask for a higher payout - £1400 etc?

If it's still in a roadworthy condition, just get it MOT'd (which you have to) for £35.

The existing mot certificate is still valid for the vehicle

I was always under the impression that once written off a vehicle had to have an VIC (now no longer in place) or an MOT before it could go back on the road.

There are conflicting discussions on this. If car has valid MOT for 6 more months, is it (legally) necessary to get it MOTed after the write-off? There also are mentions of VIC which I think has been scrapped now. Government website doesn't mention either of these. I can't post a link because I am a new member but a google search of a query "insurance write-off government" will take you there. So essentially all I need is a new logbook (V5C) for the car?

Even if you get it repaired, you're going to end up with your car in the same condition as before and at least (I imagine) £500 in your pocket.

This is the thought I am wrestling with. Suppose I get it fixed for £650 using used parts, I am left with close to £500. Later on if I sell the car after 2 years it may be worth £300 because of CAT-C stigma, thus total payout of the car I will is £500+£300=£800. Instead, if there was no accident, the same car may command more than £800. I understand there is no way of knowing how much it will sell for, so that's what makes my decision difficult. I will try to ratchet up the price, hopefully the insurance company will be considerate of my position. They can put a price on estimated value of the car before accident, but what about the time and energy I will have to invest to get a new car or get the same car back to its pre-accident state? Is there no accounting for that?

EDIT:
Also, how long do I have to agree on the car value? Will insurance company wait until I have enough information to make a decision? A few days maybe? Also, what if I find a local garage that can get it done cheaply - say £600.. can I just send the bill to insurance company, thereby avoiding a write-off?

Aretnap

gcoopermax wrote: »

I paid for Parker's evaluation (24 horus) of the car and it values the car at £1385 as a Franchised dealer price when adjusted for 66k miles. Considering the fact that the car has 7 months' MOT remaining, has undergone service this June and has full service history, had only one owner before me, has two new tyres, a Sony stereo and a spare key.. Isn't it reasonable to ask for a higher payout - £1400 etc?

Certainly point the insurers towards the Parkers valuation and ask why theirs is lower.

In terms of getting a higher value than the Parkers figure though... probably not. You won't get credit for things like new tyres - any 12 year old car will have had bits replaced over time so will have some new or nearly new parts, and that's already assumed in the valuation. Likewise if I were buying a car from a franchised dealer I'd expect it to come with an MOT, a recent service and a spare key, so those things don't really make yours stand out from the crowd. I wouldn't expect a stereo to add much to the value of a car that age either, but if it has significant resale value you could always take it out and either sell it separately or put it in your next car.

There are conflicting discussions on this. If car has valid MOT for 6 more months, is it (legally) necessary to get it MOTed after the write-off? There also are mentions of VIC which I think has been scrapped now. Government website doesn't mention either of these. I can't post a link because I am a new member but a google search of a query "insurance write-off government" will take you there. So essentially all I need is a new logbook (V5C) for the car?

No MOT needed I believe - you don't need one after any other repair, so why would you need one just because the cost of the repairs exceeds a slightly arbitrary value? The VIC has now been scrapped - originally it was just a check that the car you were putting back on the road was the one which was actually written off, to stop people passing off stolen cars as "repaired write-offs".

I will try to ratchet up the price, hopefully the insurance company will be considerate of my position. They can put a price on estimated value of the car before accident, but what about the time and energy I will have to invest to get a new car or get the same car back to its pre-accident state? Is there no accounting for that?

Not really I'm afraid. The (third party) insurer's responsibility is to pay you a fair value for the car, and once they've done that their responsibility is basically discharged and it's up to you what to do next, in terms of repairing the car, replacing it, blowing the money on the horses etc. While you can claim for certain consequential losses, such as the cost of a replacement car for a reasonable period if yours is unusable, that doesn't extend to intangible things like the general faff factor of looking for a new car. And certainly not to the time and effort you choose to put into doing the repairs yourself - the point of a write-off is that the repairs are deemed to be not worth doing. Ultimately being in a car accident is always going to be a pain in the backside - and there's a limit to how much of that you can put a value on.

gcoopermax

Thanks Aretnap, you have been a great help. Could you perhaps also comment on one of the questions I added at the end of the post by editing it?

"Also, how long do I have to agree on the car value? Will insurance company wait until I have enough information to make a decision? A few days maybe? Also, what if I find a local garage that can get it done using used parts for a small price - say £600.. can I just send the bill to insurance company, thereby avoiding a write-off?"

gcoopermax

Thanks all, just wanted to update on this. I was able to get the insurance company to agree on valuation of £1500 and bought the car back for £60, so not too sore from this experience. But haven't heard from them since. How long does the payout take? And can I claim the compensation for public transport for duration of the date they collected the car to the date I receive the cheque?

Quentin

Yes you can claim all your costs this incident has caused you.


Ask them how long you have to wait for the money, and if you need one, ask them to provide a replacement car for you till the money has cleared (usually when they provide a replacement for a write off it's till 7 days after they issue the settlement - not the day the cheque arrives)