Advice Request - Victim of Non-Fault Accident

angrycrow

So you came on a public forum for advice then disagreed with every bit of correct advice you were given.

Thread is a moan not a request for advice.

Your vehicle is only worth £3000 because 8t has 210k miles a replacement engine and taxi wear and tear. A similar lower mileage car without the wear and tear with its correct engine may well be worth £7000 on a dealers forecourt. You are entitled to the market value of your vehicle.

Insurers don't make these rules the courts decide what is reasonable, the insurers follow these rulings.

NBLondon

AdrianC wrote: »

If it just says "pays market value", then that's probably not the right policy for your needs, given that "market value" is not sufficient to buy you a vehicle you can bring into use.

This is sort of what I was thinking as I read the opening posts; as this is professional/commercial taxi insurance then maybe there were different options and the OP chose (could only afford) a lower level. The principle for private car insurance is to put you back in the same position before the accident - so a significantly newer vehicle wouldn't be an option. In this case, the position is not just "a working vehicle" but "a working vehicle with a valid licence from the local authority". So as Ectophile and angry crow say, there may be a case for arguing that point with the insurance company as there will be an extra cost. Is it a write-off on grounds of "uneconomical to repair" or physical damage? If the former - then is your insurance company thinking about the total cost of repair and then getting it accepted by LA (I'm assuming here that the LA would allow a renewal of the existing licence on re-inspection). If not - then the other path might have to be taking legal action against the other driver for the difference viz. their actions have caused you the extra costs. Dunno how likely that is to succeed but there is a chance that their insurance company may make an offer rather than go to court.

AdrianC

NBLondon wrote: »

Is it a write-off on grounds of "uneconomical to repair" or physical damage? If the former - then is your insurance company thinking about the total cost of repair and then getting it accepted by LA (I'm assuming here that the LA would allow a renewal of the existing licence on re-inspection).

It's entirely possible that the salvage may be available for a repair outside of insurance - but will the LA allow a car with a write-off flag against it to be used as a taxi?


Of course, it's entirely probable that the salvage is now gone.

If not - then the other path might have to be taking legal action against the other driver for the difference viz. their actions have caused you the extra costs. Dunno how likely that is to succeed but there is a chance that their insurance company may make an offer rather than go to court.

There's still that thorny question of betterment, though. The OP has an 8yo 210k mile car that he freely admits has a year or two of licencing left in it. He would be being upgraded to a <4yo car that has many years of licencing left in it. That is not "back to the position he was in". Any settlement is going to inevitably include a hefty cost to the OP to take that upgrade path.

A thought - are already-licenced cars transferable between drivers? If so, then the question is a far simpler one. What would your 210k 8yo taxi be worth being sold to another driver? Because THAT is it's market value. Are any other drivers selling already-licenced cars that you can buy? The insurance paying out market value does not require another car to actually be on the market. Take the situation of a very low-volume car, perhaps an older (but low-value) classic that's badly damaged. There simply may not be an equivalent car in existence. The insurer liability is STILL only the market value... The one exception to that is when there's a contractual obligation to a higher value - perhaps a pre-agreed value in the case of classic insurance, perhaps new-for-old, perhaps an upgrade to a licenceable taxi-suitable car...

stator

What category is the insurance write off?

Car_54

SampleX wrote: »

I guess I’m a traditionalist.

If someone runs over my family member I don’t like the idea that they or their insurers can decide how much compensation to pay based on whether they they think an older or more active relative has less life expectancy or usefulness in society.

Ultimately, they don't. The courts do. As a traditionalist, you should welcome that.

AdrianC

Car_54 wrote: »

I guess I’m a traditionalist.

If someone runs over my family member I don’t like the idea that they or their insurers can decide how much compensation to pay based on whether they they think an older or more active relative has less life expectancy or usefulness in society.

Ultimately, they don't. The courts do. As a traditionalist, you should welcome that.

Nobody would expect an insurer to replace their recently run-over decrepit Granny with a fresh Uni graduate in their early 20s...

Mind you, this whole analogy is a bit flawed, because there really isn't much of a second-hand market in relatives, much less one that allows comprehensive industry-standard price guides to be drawn up and revised regularly. But if there was, you can bet that decrepit Granny would be worth a lot less than that graduate.

Car_54

AdrianC wrote: »

Nobody would expect an insurer to replace their recently run-over decrepit Granny with a fresh Uni graduate in their early 20s...

Mind you, this whole analogy is a bit flawed, because there really isn't much of a second-hand market in relatives, much less one that allows comprehensive industry-standard price guides to be drawn up and revised regularly. But if there was, you can bet that decrepit Granny would be worth a lot less than that graduate.

And that would be the case even if Granny was not decrepit, but had had a recent heart transplant, two new hips and a mouth full of gold fillings.


Not unlike the OP's car, which "has a vast amount of investment beyond its market value."

AdrianC

I s'pose there's some salvage value in Granny... CatB?

CardinalWolsey

AdrianC wrote: »

...there really isn't much of a second-hand market in relatives...

You're just not looking at the right websites...

bigisi

So "traditionalist" is the new word for "racist"?

Every day's a school day!