No Fault Claim - Advice Neeeded

AndyBSG

Hoping someone can advise here.

First off, sorry for the length, I did debate three separate posts for each of the three questions so if people think I should do that let me know and i'll delete and repost. Also, not sure if it is better suited in the Motoring section?

My wife's unoccupied vehicle, parked in a valid parking bay, was reversed into in a car park by an 18 ton DHL lorry resulting in a no fault claim.

They've admitted liability, our vehicle is with them to be repaired(or more likely written off).

I'm already preparing to be ripped off and after some advice on 3 points.

- The damage was very extensive and IMO even after repair the vehicle will not be the same. The vehicle was purchased just 6 weeks ago for 13K. What sort of value of damage will need to have been incurred on a 13K vehicle before we can realistically get into negotiating a total loss write off settlement?

- If they do write the vehicle off, how will the settlement be estimated? We paid 13K for the vehicle 6 weeks ago but got a fantastic deal. If I look for the same make, model, year and mileage vehicle online they're all coming up in the region of 15-16K. Will I even need to tell them what I paid for it or do I just insist on market value for a similar replacement.

- Finally, we need to replace the child seats we had as they were both damaged. One car seat cost £170 plus another £135 for the iso fix base but is no longer in production. The other car seat cost £130(Do not have receipts but have evidence of the old web pages with prices stated). I'm still trying to get a straight answer out of the insurance company who just keep saying we should replace them then send them the receipts and they will refund us. I'm assuming they have to replace them on a like for like basis and if I spend £450 they can't turn round and say "Well, you can get car seats for £50 so that's all we'll pay". I don't care what you can buy cheap ones for, we spent a lot more money for a reason based on reviews and our own preferences

Aretnap

(1) Ultimately it's up to the insurer whether to write the car off or repair it - you can insist that the repairs be done to a good standard, but you can't insist that it be written off because of a vague worry that the car might not be the same after repair. (If the repairs are done to a high standard, it should be the same). But I believe that many insurers will start to look at writing it off once the repair estimate gets to 60-70% of the market value, especially if there's a risk of finding further damage once they start work on it, or if parts are going to take a long time to source and they're on the hook for hire car costs in the meantime.

(2) You should be entitled to enough money to buy an equivalent car from a reputable dealer - regardless of what you actually paid for the car that was written off. So if did get an unusually good deal, you might expect a bit more than you paid for the car. However be aware that adverts for similar cars are not generally accepted as very god evidence of a car's value, as the fact that someone advertises a car for £15000 doesn't mean that it will actually sell for £15000. And to be fair, if the last car was advertised for (say) £15000 but you managed to haggle the dealer down to £13000, there's nothing to say that you wouldn't be able to do that again, so £13K might be a fair price. Insurance valuations are generally based on trade guides, which are based on actual selling prices rather than advertised prices.

For further information on how a car should be valued see here. Note that if you're claiming directly from the third party insurer the Ombudsman's guidance is not technically binding on them, because the Ombudsman will only deal with a complaint you make about your own insurance company. However in practice the third party insurer should still follow the same process.

(3) The seats should be replaced like for like - or a close equivalent if the exact model is no longer available. If you had a high end model before, you are not expected to replace it with a cheap and nasty one (any more than you would be expected to replace a BMW with a Ford Focus, because it's cheaper)

AndyBSG

Aretnap wrote: »

(2) You should be entitled to enough money to buy an equivalent car from a reputable dealer - regardless of what you actually paid for the car that was written off. So if did get an unusually good deal, you might expect a bit more than you paid for the car. However be aware that adverts for similar cars are not generally accepted as very god evidence of a car's value, as the fact that someone advertises a car for £15000 doesn't mean that it will actually sell for £15000. And to be fair, if the last car was advertised for (say) £15000 but you managed to haggle the dealer down to £13000, there's nothing to say that you wouldn't be able to do that again, so £13K might be a fair price. Insurance valuations are generally based on trade guides, which are based on actual selling prices rather than advertised prices.

This is where I am expecting problems

Parkers gives an estimate for my vehicle of £11,070 from a franchise, £10,600 from an independent.

However that is based on 50,000 miles and it states there can be a variation of up to 30% based on condition and mileage. Our vehicle only had 23K miles and was immaculate.

I've looked everywhere online and can't find anything with the same year, make, model and mileage under 25K for less than 14K(and those ones coming in at 14K are lower spec than our version).

Actually, I can't find one for our year with such low mileage, only ones coming up with such low mileage are actually 2015 models. The lowest 2013 model I can find has 39,000 miles on it.

We were lucky when we bought it that it was just before the car tax change so the dealership we went to had part ex cars overflowing their lot and simply had no room for more and also it was a friend and business colleague of my dad's so managed to get over 2K off the asking price.

mattk_180

Parkers is all well and good, but remember that is the price that you would get selling your car back to them, not you buying it from them. It's the amount you would have to spend to get the same car again rather than the amount you could sell yours for that you need to look at.


If they do write it off, then wait and see what the offer is. If it's lower than you would like then just show them as much evidence that you can (receipt from 6 weeks ago, online ads etc.) to show why you think you should be entitled to more.