Help with dealing with car insurance claim

Lgbarfc

Hi all,
Could really so with some advice.
A week & a half ago I was in a crash, 100% not my fault, insurance companies in agreement.
My insurance company initially offered me £4000 which was a shock as I paid £7200 for my van 8 months ago. Im fully aware that I paid a bit over the odds for it as its a crewcab, which are goldust, did my full research & spent 6 months looking for it. Its an 08 plate & was spotless with low mileage.
I requested it was assessed, which has only just happened & the garage who did it, visited the recovery company rather than properly examining it at their workshop & have decided it will be uneconomical to repair. Im currently waiting on the report & category of the write off. Im thinking the best thing to do is settle & keep the van to get it repaired if possible but im doubting the £4000 will cover it.

Ive put 10000 on it in since ive had it so I assume this will have an effect but where do I stand when it comes to getting more money?

neilmcl

This would be better placed in the Motoring forum but as a quick response you are entitled to the market value of your car/van.

glentoran99

Lgbarfc wrote: »

Hi all,
Could really so with some advice.
A week & a half ago I was in a crash, 100% not my fault, insurance companies in agreement.
My insurance company initially offered me £4000 which was a shock as I paid £7200 for my van 8 months ago. Im fully aware that I paid a bit over the odds for it as its a crewcab, which are goldust, did my full research & spent 6 months looking for it. Its an 08 plate & was spotless with low mileage.
I requested it was assessed, which has only just happened & the garage who did it, visited the recovery company rather than properly examining it at their workshop & have decided it will be uneconomical to repair. Im currently waiting on the report & category of the write off. Im thinking the best thing to do is settle & keep the van to get it repaired if possible but im doubting the £4000 will cover it.

Ive put 10000 on it in since ive had it so I assume this will have an effect but where do I stand when it comes to getting more money?

Couple of points,


You wont get 4000 and the van, the scrap value of the van would be deducted from the 4000, You can try and argue for a higher settlement, You need to start researching and find a similar car and similar mileage to enable you to be put back in the same position before the crash

ssparks2003

Have a look on auto trader and the similar websites and search for your vehicle (year, mileage, spec, etc) and find out how much they are selling for, that is the guide as to how much you could get for the van, but oyu won't get the money and the van.

reason2

a lot of insurance companies use parkers guide to check market value, so maybe worth looking at the criteria and pricing parkers states and any evidence of a similar make model milage and condition would help you get more if that is the case

Lgbarfc

Hi all,
Just incase this will help in the future, after we had the van assessed by their mechanic, he stated the worth of the van was £5700, however the insurance company had assumed we had claimed the vat back as it's in my partner's name & he's self employed, we hadn't so we're offered £6900. Which is only a £400 loss in the 8 months we've had it. So am very pleased. We had our garage look through the report & part costs had been listed as new & it is economical to repair with second hand parts. Insurance company first stated scrap value as 35% which equates to £1900 but we explained the situation & they lowered it to £1300.
So it's most certainly worth haggling & getting it assessed. However lesson learnt is that we could have saved time by taking it to our garage to be assessed as is our right & it may not have been written off.
In addition a couple of days after the accident, a letter arrived from the other insurance company to say we were entitled to a rental from them for the duration of the claim. We had a weeks free rental in our policy so immediately arranged this. However we then went on holiday so missed the letter. When we returned the other company wiggled out of the rental by saying we'd already got one from our insurer & that should be extended. So I went back to our insurer & they said their replacement rental was under a credit hire scheme so the other company should honour their offer. The other company then said they could give us a weeks rental but no more.
To be honest by this point I didn't argue & took it. My van will be off the road for about a month whilst parts are sourced & our garage is busy so will fit us in when they can.
Overall I am pleased we'll get our van back & got a decent settlement.
Thanks all for your advice