Door Dent

Scrapit

Third party insurance can't make you write off your vehicle on a financial basis alone. Equally you can't make them do anything but the balance is in your favour.

AdrianC

Scrapit wrote: »

Third party insurance can't make you write off your vehicle on a financial basis alone.

Yes, they can.


They may offer you an in-lieu alternative, they may offer you buy-back of the salvage. But writing it off is certainly within their scope as part of any settlement. And they do not need to ever offer more than the pre-collision value.


If repairing non-structural panel damage costs a grand or more on £500-worth of car, you are just as likely to end up going CatN from a third-party claim as direct to your own insurer.

Scrapit

AdrianC wrote: »

Yes, they can.


They may offer you an in-lieu alternative, they may offer you buy-back of the salvage. But writing it off is certainly within their scope as part of any settlement. And they do not need to ever offer more than the pre-collision value.


If repairing non-structural panel damage costs a grand or more on £500-worth of car, you are just as likely to end up going CatN from a third-party claim as direct to your own insurer.

No body said anything about betterment.:huh:
And if they decide to write off a car cos of a door dent does the OP have to accept that?

AdrianC

Scrapit wrote: »

No body said anything about betterment.:huh:

Well spotted.

But it's hard for there not to be an element of betterment when you're replacing a damaged part, because it's more expensive to fake 15yrs of patina, fading, scratches, dinks on a new panel than just to paint it "straight".

And if they decide to write off a car cos of a door dent does the OP have to accept that?

Yes. Or cancel the claim.
What's the alternatives?
They don't have to pay more than the value, and the fact a car's only worth £500 doesn't mean that the parts and labour and materials involved in a £1k+ repair are somehow reduced.

A "write-off" simply says that the car was in a claim, and the insurers involved decided not to repair it, but to pay out the value instead.


"Cat N" simply says that there was no structural damage, while "Cat S" says there was structural damage. No financial balancing act against value is implied. Theoretically, the dividing line between CatN and CatS is exactly the same on a £500 vehicle as a £5k one, once the decision's made not to repair.


That's a big turn-around from the old situation, where "Cat C" simply said that the damage was more expensive to repair than the value, while "Cat D" said it was cheaper but the insurer still chose not to. No damage extent was implied. The decision between the two was entirely down to comparing two numbers, and the dividing line would be very different depending on the value of the vehicle.



What the owner - or any hypothetical future putative buyer - chooses to read into that, above and beyond the definition, is somebody else's problem.

Scrapit

The OP does have to accept it? Didn't know that.

casseus

Scrapit wrote: »

The OP does have to accept it? Didn't know that.

The OP doesn't have to accept the settlement, But cannot dispute it being entered onto the register as a write off.

Rekusu

Thanks for the various replies. Didn't know about Cat N, etc. and although I don't mind having it, I would mind the hit to future insurance premiums.

I'm not intending to sell the car in the foreseeable future and I doubt that a replacement door would be a 'betterment.' The door are no longer made, which is why his insurance would write the car off. A replacement will have to come from a breakers yard and the rust status is likely to be worse than mine current is, since there is no rust.

I have registered with some breaker-yard web sites and am receiving door up-dates. Unfortunately, they are not too specific on the colour, all marked as 'Blue';mine is Ink Blue. A door that is not the same colour will be as expensive to repaint as getting the dented one un-dented.

If I could get one the same colour, I would replace it myself as it is not a complex job. And I'm sure the other driver would be happy with the lesser cost.

LandyAndy

What car is it?

Just being nosy as to what 15 year old car has no pattern door skins or doors available.

Rekusu

Mondeo mk3 hatchback, 2003.

Would be great wonderful to get a replacement door skin but I would have thought the removing the damaged one, replacing with new and spraying is also an expensive job?

Comms69

Surely you'd just accept £100 of the guy and forget about it.


The car is on it's last legs.