Please help! Insurance Car Claim following drunk driver writing off my car

Adamsh

Hi

Unfortunately, a drunk driver crashed into my parked car in the early hours of last weekend. It’s being assessed currently but it was an absolute mess so I think it’ll be written off. We got this car brand new under a PCP plan and we got it by Trading in our car and putting in 2k which equated to 5k as a deposit, this really helped bring the monthly cost to a manageable amount.

I am really worried.. the driver has been caught by the police and we now have his details but I am worried that worst case scenario it is a write off, the insurance company will only give us what the car is worth which may only pay off our PCP loan.. leaving us with nothing and not allowing us to put a deposit on another PCP deal so we are back at square one but worse off. We’ve had the car 1 year and got it from new, this will be a massive loss for us because of some idiot drink driving.

Has anyone out there been in this scenario or have any tips on this? I am new to the PCP system and unfortunately we didn’t take out the GAP insurance, we just havenormal Admiral inaurance.

If anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it.. this has been such a nightmare so far, we only have/had one car, my wife needs it for work and we need it to take our 1 year old child to child care etc

The car we had was a Kia Sportage, from a Kia garage.

Thank you very much

Adam

AndyMc.....

Adamsh wrote: »

Hi

Unfortunately, a drunk driver crashed into my parked car in the early hours of last weekend. It’s being assessed currently but it was an absolute mess so I think it’ll be written off. We got this car brand new under a PCP plan and we got it by Trading in our car and putting in 2k which equated to 5k as a deposit, this really helped bring the monthly cost to a manageable amount.

I am really worried.. the driver has been caught by the police and we now have his details but I am worried that worst case scenario it is a write off, the insurance company will only give us what the car is worth which may only pay off our PCP loan.. leaving us with nothing and not allowing us to put a deposit on another PCP deal so we are back at square one but worse off. We’ve had the car 1 year and got it from new, this will be a massive loss for us because of some idiot drink driving.

Has anyone out there been in this scenario or have any tips on this? I am new to the PCP system and unfortunately we didn’t take out the GAP insurance, we just havenormal Admiral inaurance.

If anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it.. this has been such a nightmare so far, we only have/had one car, my wife needs it for work and we need it to take our 1 year old child to child care etc

The car we had was a Kia Sportage, from a Kia garage.

Thank you very much

Adam

You'll get market value for the car and to be honest you're not entitled to anymore. If the car has lost five grand in a year you'll be out of the deal without debt. If it hasn't you may get a few quid. Anymore than a five grand loss and gap insurance would have helped.

m0bov

If its less than 12 months you should get a new car replacement.

Adamsh

Thanks for your honesty

Adamsh

Thanks M0bov, it is unfortunately just over 12 months.

EdGasketTheSecond

You might have a claim for any shortfall from the Third Party if he has assets to pay; if you have legal cover with Admiral ask them about it or when you have final figures, decide if it is worth pursuing a claim yourself.

DrEskimo

Does your policy offer you new for old replacement for the first 12m? Are you the first registered keeper (is it brand new, not pre-reg or ex demo?).

Unfortunately the worst case scenario is that the market value is worth less than the outstanding finance...that means no car, no money for a deposit, and debt to pay....This is not uncommon as the depreciation is heaviest in the first year. If you got a good discount, then hopefully that is not the case with the £5k deposit.

I think it was worth doing more research on PCP...it is very likely that you would have ended the PCP agreement and the car would have been worth the estimated balloon payment. Where was the next £5k deposit for another car new PCP coming from? Are you able to save alongside the PCP payment? Did you intend to buy the car?

AndyMc.....

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

You might have a claim for any shortfall from the Third Party if he has assets to pay; if you have legal cover with Admiral ask them about it or when you have final figures, decide if it is worth pursuing a claim yourself.

If he's paid market value what's the third party liable for above that?

Aretnap

Your best hope is probably that the car is repairable.


You're correct that in the event that it is a write-off, the driver's liability (and therefore his insurers') will be limited to the market value of the car at the time it was written off. This will obviously be significantly lower than the price of a brand new car, and depending on how much is left on the finance you may be left with little or nothing once the finance is paid off.


This might sound unfai, but it follows from the general principle that the purpose of compensation is to put you back in the financial position you were in before the accident. In other words before the accident you had a car that was worth (say) £10,000 and a debt that needed paying off. If the insurer gives you £10,000 and your debt still needs paying off then you're back where you were - in financial terms at least. The debt doesn't represent an additional loss that you've suffered as a result of the accident, and if the insurer paid the debt off as well as paying you for the car, you'd be better off than you were before the accident (though it might not feel like that).


To get around the problem it's advisable to take out GAP insurance when buying a car on finance... though it's a bit late to say that now.


In fact insuring with Admiral may have been a mistake as well with hindsight. The majority of insurers will replace your car with a brand new equivalent if you've owned it from new and it's written off in the first year of its life - but Admiral, being positioned firmly at the "cheap and cheerful" end of the market, are one of the few insurers not to offer this feature.


Sorry not to be able to offer anything more positive. You can at least brush up n how the car should be valued - see the Financial Ombudsman's notes here.

Aretnap

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

You might have a claim for any shortfall from the Third Party if he has assets to pay; if you have legal cover with Admiral ask them about it or when you have final figures, decide if it is worth pursuing a claim yourself.

This is wrong on two levels.



(1) You don't have a claim against the third party for the shortfall in the finance; your claim is for the market value of the car at the time of the accident and



(2) If you did have such a claim then the third party's insurers would be responsible for covering it - they are responsible for ALL the third party's liabilities arising from the accident and there's never a case where you can claim against the other driver personally, but not his insurers

foxy-stoat

Thats the one uncontrollable problem that you face in PCP or any sort of borrowing, where the debt is more than the market value at the time of the loss - GAP insurance is your only save guard.

Hope you can get it sorted in your favour.