Car accident No MOT - Please help

immi_geez

Hello Folks,

Need some help here….

I had an accident 2 weeks ago as I was driving my car to the MOT centre (the day after it expired), when I went into the back of a 4x4 whilst approaching a roundabout (my bad). As I accepted the blame for the accident my insurance company has accepted the liability to the third part on 100% fault basis.

My car was collected by Copart after 5 days of accident who declared it a write off. My insurance company sent me an initial offer of £2700, which I declined straightaway. My car is a BMW 5 Series Saloon 2008, 525i SE manual patrol, with 80k miles on the clock. The car has been well looked after and it comes with FSH (last serviced by BMW end of April, 2019) and has lots of extras like exclusive red leather Nappa seats, nav, metallic paint etc.

After I declined the offer my insurance company mentioned they have deducted about 10% of the value and if I was aware of this. They were also keen on me giving them a value for the car which I was a bit reluctant about. Anyhow I spoke to a Claims Handler and when I told him that I was in fact driving to the MOT centre he said I shouldn’t be deducted any penalties for not having MOT at the time of accident. I was told my case has been escalated to an engineer who would re-evaluate my car.

Got a call from the engineer yesterday where they have increased the offer to £3800 after a deduction of 10%. I explained to the engineer about driving to the MOT centre, but he didn’t have any of it and said they will have to deduct the amount. I researched online for similar sort of age and millage cars and they are averaging £5200, but the engineer was very persistent with the value on offer.

I enquired regarding an independent assessor to which he said they don’t offer one, I will have to get one on my own. He was also super confident that their evolution is spot on and the independent assessor won’t be changing the price that they are offering.

I am in no rush as I have my mate’s spare car and I personally wouldn’t mind taking this up with Financial Ombudsman. Any suggestions or advice from the gurus here would be really appreciated.

Apologies for writing a long story.

Thanks,
Immi

P.s my insurance company is Hastings direct

molerat

Driving to an MOT centre is irrelevant, their offer is based on the market value of the car at the time and a car is worth less without an MOT. What do you think the market value of the car is then and how much would that be without a current MOT ? That is why they want you to come back with a value.

kingstreet

What are they offering you for the return of the car plus cash?

Boggles190

Hi, have they specifically said that the 10% deduction is because there was no MOT in place at the time of the accident? Not heard of such a deduction before, but if it's in their T&C's then so be it. As an aside, the engineer shouldn't be making decisions on deductions like this their role is to value the vehicle, the claims handler makes the decision on deductions.

As has been said, the presence of an MOT or otherwise should have no effect on the value of the car.

The value of a write-off was always a huge sticking point when I dealt with motor claims, there was always a difference of opinion over value between the engineer and the customer. One option you could try is ask your insurer that if you get an independent assessor to value the vehicle and they come back with a higher value, will they pay the assessor fee? If the assessor agrees with the insurance company engineer, you pay the fee. This was the deal we used to strike with customers when we got to deadlock over a value and most customers thought it was a fair way forwards.

Firsttimebuyer26

I guess it's a matter of opinion.

bigisi

Firsttimebuyer26 wrote: »

I guess it's a matter of opinion.

Fantastically helpful contribution there :T

MovingForwards

If you think your car is worth more the you need to evidence it.

Find the same car (make, model, interior, mileage, condition etc) as yours, screen print the adverts and send them to your insurance company with a request that they revalue it.

Quentin

Although no mot is irrelevant as far as the insurance policy and cover is concerned, the valuation when a write off is involved is based on market value immediately prior to the incident

On that definition, the lack of a current mot will mean it's market value is less than if it did have an MOT

Kernel_Sanders

immi_geez wrote: »

I had an accident 2 weeks ago as I was driving my car to the MOT centre (the day after it expired)

Were you driving there with the intention of asking them if they could MOT it that day?

Rainbowgirl84

Quentin wrote: »

Although no not is irrelevant as far as the insurance policy and cover is concerned, the valuation when a write off is involved is based on market value immediately prior to the incident

On that definition, the lack of a current mot will mean it's market value is less than if it did have an MOT

Indeed...would you expect and be willing to pay more for a car that has a 12 months MOT compared to one the has 30 days left? There is value in the length of the MOT.

immi_geez

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your comments.

As some of you have already mentioned and I agree 100% it's difficult to evaluate a car, but if I look around definitely I would not be able to replace my car with what they are offering for something similar age and mileage.

I also take the point on board regarding the MOT and if I am getting a car and it has got 1 years MOT I may think of it as being worth a little more than one with no MOT. The reason for questioning there deducting 10% is also coming from what I read from their policy document. Please see below:

You must give your Insurer access to examine your Car and if asked send them evidence
of a valid MOT and/or evidence your Car was regularly maintained and kept in a good condition.

My car has been regularly serviced and I can prove that from the service history book, this enforces my belief that I can challenge there 10% reduction for MOT claims?

@Boggles190 Very good suggestion mate however they said they wont pay anything and restated that any assessor would find the car value to be what they are offering, very stubborn.

Does anyone here has any idea on Financial Ombudsman's timeline if I were to challenge this and lodge a formal complain/review?

Thanks a lot for all your help.

Regards,
Immi