Urgent help car insurance

Starvalley

Hi All
I would appreciate any advice please. My son took out his first car ins on 8th Nov 2016, he is 27, on 28th Jan 2017 he crashed the car, its going to be a write off as its very badly damaged.
The ins was called on Sat and they arranged to get the car picked up, we were told someone from the ins would be in touch, we hadn't heard anything so my son called them today (Tuesday 31st Jan).

The issue: The man explained that my son couldn't get a refund on the remaining months, after paying in full. I have been researching and unfortunately found this to be correct but if the policy was cancelled then it seems he would get a refund - I find this very frustrating. If he buys a car straight away would he benefit by continuing the policy with them or trying not to claim and cancel the policy instead?
He paid £673.65 for the ins, being the first ins and just 27, he paid just £700 for the car and the excess is £250.

He was also told he wouldn't get anything for the car, as it was his fault and by the time they take off the excess, the recovery, the engineer assessment and getting it from the recovery garage etc, he was told there will be nothing left.
Can they take all this into account? Is it normal for these to be taken off the bill? Can he expect to get anything for the car?
The insurer is Admiral through Bell insurance.

A while back we had a car written off but there were no extra charges for recovery etc.

Any advice on how to handle this would be very grateful. Thank you

dacouch

Does he have Comprehensive Cover?

Is there anyone else involved in the accident and will they be claiming from your son?

If you car is worth £700 he would get £700 for the car less his excess, Admiral CANNOT deduct the recovery and engineers costs etc as they are their own costs not yours

Martinlaurence

If its fully comp you should be getting back the value of the car less the excess. If not (e.g third part, fire and theft) I wouldnt be expecting anything back. In this case the insurance is there to make sure any damage done to others is covered (and any cost are paid for).

Aretnap

Starvalley wrote: »

The issue: The man explained that my son couldn't get a refund on the remaining months, after paying in full. I have been researching and unfortunately found this to be correct but if the policy was cancelled then it seems he would get a refund - I find this very frustrating. If he buys a car straight away would he benefit by continuing the policy with them or trying not to claim and cancel the policy instead?

It's a standard that if you cancel your policy having made a claim then you will not get any refund of your premium - and if you were paying in installments then you still owe the remaining installments (so the fact that he paid upfront makes no difference). This also applies where the policy is cancelled because the car has been written off.

As you say if he gets a replacement car then Admiral should allow him to transfer the remaining months to the new car, subject to it being one that they would normally be willing to insure him to drive, and possibly payment of some extra premium if the new car is more expensive to insure than the old one. It is worth checking with Admiral before he chooses a new car whether they will insure it, and whether any extra premium would be due.

Alternatively if he makes no claim then he should be able to cancel his policy on normal terms and get a refund on his remaining months (less a cancellation fee). However "claim" in this context includes any money Admiral have paid out for recovery of his car, damage he caused to any other cars involved in the accident, as well as damage to street furniture etc or the road itself. If they've paid out for things like that then he'd have to reimburse them before he could cancel the claim, which may work out costing more than any refund he'd receive.

EdGasket

By law now they have to allow the insurance to continue on another car; they can't just cancel the insurance on a write off like they used to. However if your son doesn't get another car, he won't get anything back so the best thing would be to get another cheap car that admiral will cover as he has already paid for the best part of a year's insurance.

Starvalley

Thank you for all your prompt responses, its been very helpful and interesting.
Yes he did have full comp insurance. The man yesterday was just trying it on with my sons (and obs mine) inexperience. Today after reading the advice on here I was able to give my son this information and he talked to them with confidence.
The woman he spoke to today, explained they are taking the car away tomorrow (Thurs) and would be intouch with him about the valuation, he was happy he was told he will get something but was told it depends on how much they value it. Is this right?
She also told him that after they value it the policy would be cancelled. So it was interesting to read that they cant automatically cancel it these-days. I managed to persuade my son to ask about continuing with the policy. He found a car in a garage so phoned to ask about insuring it and was pleased when (a different person) they said it would be £53 extra to pay for that particular car. However they did say that he only had a few days to change it to another vehicle or it will be cancelled. He now feels under pressure to get something.

Thank you once again for your help.

EdGasket

I don't think 'a few days' is right either; I thought it was more like 28 days minimum (or none at all) to transfer to another car.

I think the 'cancel' applies to the policy being cancelled on the car being written-off because that car is no longer on the road. However my understanding is that for the entire duration of the policy you paid for, you can add an alternative car to the policy and the insurance will be reinstated + or - any costs due to change of car.

See this (unfortunately I can't find the original Financial Ombudsman Ruling that it quotes):
http://lawyer-consultation.net/car-insurance-cancelled-after-write

Note: Elephant are also part of the Admiral group.

forgotmyname

Wonder what will happen if they buy a car that insurer wont cover?

Or say yes we will cover you on that car for ££££ extra?

EdGasket

forgotmyname wrote: »

Wonder what will happen if they buy a car that insurer wont cover?

Or say yes we will cover you on that car for ££££ extra?

The same applies if you change car mid-way through your policy. I have found Admiral quite reasonable in that situation.

pinkteapot

Re the valuation - they'll offer a really low amount for the car. You CAN negotiate it. You may or may not be successful, but you can try! Look up ads on Autotrader etc for cars THE SAME as the one that's been written off - same age, same mileage, same spec etc - or as close as you can possibly get. And cars as close to you as possible as there are regional variations in prices. Use the prices on there as a basis for trying to get them to increase their offer. In theory, what they pay out (before the excess is deducted) should be enough for you to replace your car with one the same.

Some people on here with more industry knowledge may know if you can threaten to complain or anything about the valuation. There might be other tactics when it comes to the haggling. But insurers seem to playing hardball these days - a couple of friends have had cars written off and could barely get any more than the insurer's first offer out of them.

rudekid48

pinkteapot wrote: »

Re the valuation - they'll offer a really low amount for the car. You CAN negotiate it. You may or may not be successful, but you can try! Look up ads on Autotrader etc for cars THE SAME as the one that's been written off - same age, same mileage, same spec etc - or as close as you can possibly get. And cars as close to you as possible as there are regional variations in prices. Use the prices on there as a basis for trying to get them to increase their offer. In theory, what they pay out (before the excess is deducted) should be enough for you to replace your car with one the same.

Some people on here with more industry knowledge may know if you can threaten to complain or anything about the valuation. There might be other tactics when it comes to the haggling. But insurers seem to playing hardball these days - a couple of friends have had cars written off and could barely get any more than the insurer's first offer out of them.

This isn't correct. The insurer will offer what they believe to be the market value (of the car being written-off) at the time of the incident.
They will do this by using a number of valuation guides (e.g. Glass, CAp etc).
You can try and negotiate with appropriate evidence but remember that adverts in Autotrader and the like are what people are asking for the car - not what it will actually be sold for, so they are not 100% reliable.