Pay excess when 3rd party admits liability?

red_imps_2003

Hmmm, after reading the info at http://www.carbuyer.co.uk/tips-and-advice/114820/cat-d-cars-insurance-write-offs I am even more confused and think I may have misinterpreted what the insurer is offering. The exact wording on the email we received is:

"Please see attached our total loss offer. Please note the figures of £2700.00 if you keep the vehicle and £2025.00 if we retain the vehicle for salvage". The site above states

"Cat C cars can be put back on the road after being repaired, but these repairs (and any auxiliary costs) have been assessed to exceed the car’s pre-damage value." These auxilliary costs apparently include the admin and cost of providing a courtesy car (which my wife actually declined).

The bit that alarms me is the quote:

"The insurer may consider it cheaper to write off the car if these costs exceed its value. The owner will be paid off or even given the chance to buy the car from the insurer so they can repair it themselves. What I understand from this is that they will give us £2,025 to take the car off our hands or we can pay them £2,700 (so we get to keep the car) and then pay on top of that to have it repaired. Is that right? If that is the case it seems almost akin to a Hobson's Choice, right?

Can anybody clarify?

red_imps_2003

Having read around a bit more the option allowing us to keep the car may be as follows:
1. We still surrender our ownership and associated keys/documents to the insurer
2. They pay us the 'market value' (£2,700 in this instance)
3. We use some of that payout to buy it back off them, at a fee they designate, still damaged from the accident. We then get 'ownership' back along with the logbook.
4. We repair it to whatever standard we are happy with (from just roadworthy to better than before the crash) with whatever remains of the payout and foot the rest of the repair bill ourselves if it exceeds what we have left. We also have to accept that the car's market value will be impacted when we do come to sell/trade in because we have to declare it a former category C write-off.

Does that sound about right? I guess the best thing is for my wife to check all this directly with the insurer concerned. I'm just trying to get my bearings.

huckster

Think the figures are around the wrong way. £2700 if they keep the car, as they will get money for salvage. The lesser amount is if you kept the car.

Nothing stopping you getting another repair estimate. If it is mainly panels that need replacing you can do it quite cheaply. There is a massive warehouse near Birmingham where you can source bodyparts for most cars. There will be others around the country. Getting panels sprayed to match colour might not be too expensive. Mechnical damage is where costs can prove too much.

Suggest you get clarification

red_imps_2003

Thanks once again, huckster. When my wife spoke to the bodyshop concerned last week he only mentioned the front bumper (it was hanging down on one side; I don't know about the level of structural or cosmetic damage to it), some damage to a 'plate' behind it (???) and a dint in the bonnet (it didn't pop up or crumple). He did mention a lengthy scratch down the side of the car (which I presume was included in the repair valuation) but that was there before the accident and is not one we are concerned about having fixed.

When you suggest getting 'another' repair estimate, do you mean from the bodyshop it is at (but perhaps with a view to restoring to a lesser standard if they are not beholden to the insurer's obligation to do so it to its pre-accident glory) or do you mean get another repair company over to take a look at it?

huckster

For the car to be classed a write off, there must be a list of what the damage is, so you can get estimates of likely repair. Or you find a garage that offers repair estimates and you get them to go visit the car to see what the likely repair cost would be.

The garage where it is, will be quoting costs of brand new parts and not sourced at cheapest possible cost. You might find second hand parts to fit or that panels can be repaired.

Your choice really. You could just take write off value, keeping the car and then sort out the repair. If the repair then proves too much, you can scrap the car yourself and get the scrap value.

red_imps_2003

Thank you for the swift follow up. My final question (I hope) is am I right in understanding that, if we were to take the vehicle back and get it fixed up ourselves by a trusted local mechanic/bodyshop, we would have to declare it a former category C write-off with future insurers? We would only be keeping it another couple of years anyway but I am anxious to avoid being out of pocket right now if at all possible.

huckster

A class C write off is no issue, but you need to comply with normal requirement i.e car needs to be in roadworthy condition. You should get an MOT after repair.

http://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/know-how/what-does-cat-c-car-insurance-mean/

red_imps_2003

Just to conclude the discussion (for now). Huckster was right; the numbers stated in the email were the wrong way around. The following quote was cut and pasted directly from the email my wife received:

"Please see attached our total loss offer. Please note the figures of £2700.00 if you keep the vehicle and £2025.00 if we retain the vehicle for salvage"

The way the letter they attached was worded didn't help; the salient paragraph reading:

"The vehicle valuation figure is amount you will receive (assuming no finance) on the proviso that we
retain ownership of the vehicle If this is not the case, please contact us to discuss. The valuation you
are offered will be decreased to £2025.00."

(note the poor wording and punctuation). Having explained at length just before that about the various reasons the valuation might not be as high as one might expect, the sentence stating that the valuation will be decreased to the lower amount gave us the impression this is what was on offer. Anyhow; I digress. The confusion mostly arose because of our limited knowledge and experience of such matters, so your contributions have all helped us get a grip on things now.

As Huckster indicated before, the offer is either £2700 with which to buy a like-for-like replacement ourselves (or to contribute to the cost of a more expensive replacement if we wish) or we get the car back in its current wrecked state and £2,025 with which to get it roadworthy ourselves. We have decided to take the higher amount and source a replacement vehicle. From looking around I am happy that this is what the car was worth immediately prior to the accident.