Car Insurance - Additional Compensation

Optimusf

Unfortunately my car was hit by another car whilst it was parked outside. The Third-Party has admitted full fault.

The insurance company is trying to negotiate a pay off, as i understand you can negotiate this by providing similar spec car being sold by dealerships.

However i spent quite fair bit on MOT, Suspension, Brakes, Service slightly prior to this accident. I have spoken to a lawyer and they are saying it would be quite trick to make this claim? However i do not see why i should lose out on money for an accident that was not my fault. Also i do have receipts to back this up.

Has anyone had any similar experience?

Optimusf

I have spoken to a lawyer and they advice me that the money spent on the above, "It is maintenance costs, and costs that would have had to been paid out to maintain the car " By this it is very unlikely the insurance company will pay out? A bit of a sucker punch

Car_54

The lawyer is right. You are entitled to be put back in the position you were in before the collision, i.e. driving a car valued at £x. That value assumes the car is roadworthy and in reasonable condition for its age/mileage.



The money you spent was necessary to keep the car in that condition. If you hadn't spent it, i.e.. no MOT, dodgy brakes, etc., then the car would have been worth considerably less

facade

They are correct, it is unfortunate that you had just paid for these, and it likely wouldn't have been worth much less without them.


You aren't actually out of pocket though, as you would have spent the money anyway.

EdGasketTheSecond

I've had this problem in the past with a well maintained but old car having negligible book value. I'm afraid the insurers go by book value and not how reliable, much loved and cherished the car is. I did get the value up a little by arguing but not by much.

foxy-stoat

Can you not get paid out (less salvage)and keep the car - take all the new bits off and scrape it? Assuming you will be replacing it with the exact same car/spec/year.

System

Optimusf wrote: »

However i spent quite fair bit on MOT, Suspension, Brakes, Service slightly prior to this accident. I have spoken to a lawyer and they are saying it would be quite trick to make this claim? However i do not see why i should lose out on money for an accident that was not my fault. Also i do have receipts to back this up.

Has anyone had any similar experience?

Not a chance in hell. You had to do those things to keep the car in a roadworthy condition and had you not got it MOT'd it would be a car without a MOT needing brakes and suspension and be worth the sum total of scrap money so that is what they would have paid you out. So in a roundabout way by paying market value they are compensating you.

Aretnap

As above, you will not get much, if any, credit for money you've spent on repairs. Any car of a certain age will have had a fair amount of money spent on maintenance over the years and will have some new or nearly new parts - so that is already factored into the valuation to a large extent.

Were you to go out and buy a replacement car from a dealer you would expect it to come with year's MOT and a recent service, so you certainly haven't lost out by having those things done. And while it's doubtless a pain having a car written off just after you changed the shock absorbers and brake pads, there's nothing to say that the equivalent cars you're looking at don't have new shock absorbers and brake pads too, so it's not obvious that you've actually lost out there either. And if your replacement car doesn't have those things, it might be that it has a new clutch, while unknown to you yours only had a few months left in it, so what you lose with one hand you can end up gaining with the other.

debtdebt

So rather than listen to the advice of a legally qualified representative, you’d prefer to seek counsel from annonymous internet posters?

Car_54

debtdebt wrote: »

So rather than listen to the advice of a legally qualified representative, you’d prefer to seek counsel from annonymous internet posters?

It hasn't made much difference - we've all agreed with the lawyer!

Optimusf

debtdebt wrote: »

So rather than listen to the advice of a legally qualified representative, you’d prefer to seek counsel from annonymous internet posters?

Lol the whole point of this thread (and forum) mistake me if im wrong..... is to see what other peoples experiences are and see if there any helpful advice ....???