car 'uneconomically repairable' after shunt. Optio

Rotor

Hi ,quick potted history ;- Wife's car ( focus est.'08 ) was hit while it was parked on the road. Driver drove off but witness left their tel.no.and car's reg plate.
They are happy to be witness and police have been informed.

Wife's insurer put her in contact with 'Claimfast' claims handler who verified other driver was insured, organised a hire car whilst garage assessed damage. Car has been found to be 'not economically repairable'

Which is where we are now. (7 days car hire at the moment)


Claimfast have told my wife to accept the first offer from the other party insurance in order to keep hire car then negotiate the actual worth of the car later. This seems dodgy as if you accept an amount that is what you'll get surely?

We don't really want to rush into buying a new car (thinking nearly new ie 6-18 months old from the likes of motorpoint) . The focus is driveable and as long as the boot door opens and shuts ( we didn't check just in case it wouldn't reshut) -can we keep driving that and then get the insurance money once we have found a car we like?

Or alternatively , how long might it be 'reasonable' to keep the hire car?

What's the best way to proceed from here?

Thanks

Bigphil1474

The last time I had a car that was written off (2012), they allowed me to keep the car and knocked off it's residual value off the amount they gave me - about £23 value. The car was usable so I drove it for a couple of weeks, then scrapped and got £75 - in 2012 I think.
If the car is roadworthy and usable, ask if you can keep it and they deduct the value off the pay-out. You don't have to buy another car unless you want to. Worth getting a mechanic to check it out though. I think it will go down as a write off for the V5, but given its age and value, won't make much difference. If you do sell it on, you'd need to be clear about that, or scrap it eventually and it won't matter.
Once you get the car back, the hire car can be returned. Best to minimise the car hire IMO as the claim company will charge a fortune for it (to the other insurer).

BJV

Ok so this is where insurance companies and claims teams can make lots and lots of money for themselves so be careful.

The person who hit the car will of now been contacted. Your insurance company will now be on a kick back from the claims company. They will in turn be charging the other drivers insurance a silly amount for the car hire.

That said not of that matters to you. You just need to make sure that you get the best offer you can.

No one ever likes to think that the car is worth a trade value and it will most likely of been worth a lot more to you in real terms. So instead get as much evidence as you can to show what the car was worth. Use Auto Trader, check local adverts for like for like cars for sale. Also if you can try something like glass's guide or even CAP. This will show you what the car is currently being sold for and after all the insurer is responsible for giving you a fair amount. The idea being if you want to go and buy another car exactly the same you should be able to.

Get evidance. They might be offering you the correct amount already but I would not accept anything unless I had checked first.

Ref driving the car.... MMMMM I would not there may be damage that you may not know about perhaps even structural. I know that some people are ok with this but I would never knowingly put my family in a car which had been written off. Safety always first!!!

Good Luck.

facade

Rotor wrote: »

Claimfast have told my wife to accept the first offer from the other party insurance in order to keep hire car then negotiate the actual worth of the car later.

Once you accept an offer, they expedite you a cheque or do a BACS, and you lose the hirecar.

System

Do not think you've an open ended hire agreement. There are a lot of people who have ended up being billed silly amounts and it is up to you to mitigate your costs. If the car is perfectly usable with just cosmetic damage then you're in that dodgy area where you've got a hire car and a perfectly usable car so therefore don't have the right to the hire car.

I would be returning the hire car as fast as you can.

System

BJV wrote: »

Ref driving the car.... MMMMM I would not there may be damage that you may not know about perhaps even structural. I know that some people are ok with this but I would never knowingly put my family in a car which had been written off. Safety always first!!!

Good Luck.

My wife's old Vauxhall Nova got written off because of a very small dent in the rear arch after someone in a parked car pulled out as she was driving past. Old cars get written off because the cost of repairing them is more than 50% of their value and it takes very little to get to that amount. If someone had taken a nail and scratched the OP's car all over it would be a write off as the cost of the respray would be more than the car but quite clearly scratched paint doesn't make a car unsafe does it?

Rotor

Keeping the car seems the best option if it's not too much more than scrap value. If the insurance won't sell how quickly do we have to come to payment and so lose the car - can we string it out or do we have to accept a reasonable offer when it is made?

Warwick_Hunt

Rotor wrote: »

Hi ,quick potted history ;- Wife's car ( focus est.'08 ) was hit while it was parked on the road. Driver drove off but witness left their tel.no.and car's reg plate.
They are happy to be witness and police have been informed.

Wife's insurer put her in contact with 'Claimfast' claims handler who verified other driver was insured, organised a hire car whilst garage assessed damage. Car has been found to be 'not economically repairable'

Which is where we are now. (7 days car hire at the moment)


Claimfast have told my wife to accept the first offer from the other party insurance in order to keep hire car then negotiate the actual worth of the car later. This seems dodgy as if you accept an amount that is what you'll get surely?

We don't really want to rush into buying a new car (thinking nearly new ie 6-18 months old from the likes of motorpoint) . The focus is driveable and as long as the boot door opens and shuts ( we didn't check just in case it wouldn't reshut) -can we keep driving that and then get the insurance money once we have found a car we like?

Or alternatively , how long might it be 'reasonable' to keep the hire car?

What's the best way to proceed from here?

Thanks

Have they accepted liability yet?

Rotor

An update just to let you know how things panned out.
As you know Claimfast declared the car a write off and ended their involvement, however Axa said they had a different write off limit to Claimfast (i.e. a higher % of the car's worth ) and took it to their own garage.
This caused a hiccup in the car hire contract as it was initially done through Claimfast but after wading through both their bureauocracys we kept the same car ( initially said that 'couldn't be done')

Axa also wrote it off and offered £2300 (for a 170k '08 focus) which we accepted. Assume the other driver's insurance has admitted liability as we also received our excess back. Could have done a buy back for £530 but thought that was a bit much and didn't want the hassle of selling it later.

We were then given a week of car hire (from money transfer day)to find another car and rental went back yesterday (well was available for them to collect - still sitting on our drive)

Rotor

When the police were notified they told us they would contact the other party about the driving away but we wouldn't be notified of the result for up to 6 months.

So are cases like these usually prosecuted or is it not worth the police time and ignored? ( Obviously it may depend on what excuse he comes up with - but , in general, - prosecuted?)

Warwick_Hunt

Rotor wrote: »

When the police were notified they told us they would contact the other party about the driving away but we wouldn't be notified of the result for up to 6 months.

So are cases like these usually prosecuted or is it not worth the police time and ignored? ( Obviously it may depend on what excuse he comes up with - but , in general, - prosecuted?)

Depends on where you are in the country.