Car written off due to bin lorry causing collision

xxluckyxx1976

On 23rd December, my car was parked on my drive unoccupied. Another driver smashed in to my car due to being hit by a council bin lorry.
My car has been written off and was still in finance , I had only had the vehicle 5 months I absolutely devastated.
My insurance is going to pay out less than what I owe in finance , I didn't have gap insurance and even if I did there is no guarantee they would have covered the shortfall.
I am now £700 in debt to my finance company, I have been left with no deposit or part exchange vehicle to out towards a new car. I have been left with significant financial loss. I can get a new car on finance but it is going to cost me significantly more as I will need to loan the full amount of the car.
I am going to make a claim against the council for financial loss. I will obviously claim for the £700 of debt I've been left in, but what else should be claiming for ?
Is it the value of what my car would have been worth In 5 years at the end of the financial agreement, when I would have owned it and would have had it as a deposit towards a new car ?
Or should a claim for the value of what a like for like car would currently cost?
I have proof from the other partie's insurance that the bin lorry driver definitely is liable for the collision, I want compensation to put me back in the position I was in before their negligent driver's actions.
Advice please ? What would you claim for ?

Shaun_of_the_Dead

I stand to be corrected but you're claim is against the driver of the vehicle that hit yours not the council.

xxluckyxx1976

I thought the same but no, because he didn't cause the collision, the bin lorry driver was at fault.

Shaun_of_the_Dead

But as it stands you have an at fault claim against you until your insurance company recover their costs.

Car_54

Sorry, this isn’t going to help you.
Unfortunately, whoever is judged to be at fault is only responsible for the replacement value of the car, which presumably has already been paid to the finance company. The fact that you are in negative equity is hardly their fault. This is what GAP insurance is for.

xxluckyxx1976

Surely you should be able to claim consequential costs from the at fault party, so that as an innocent party you are put back in the position you were in before the incident.

Aretnap

xxluckyxx1976 wrote: »

Surely you should be able to claim consequential costs from the at fault party, so that as an innocent party you are put back in the position you were in before the incident.

The debt you owe the finance company is not a consequential loss - it is a debt that you already owed before the accident.

In other words, before the accident you had a 5 month old car worth £X and a debt that needed paying. A payment of £X (which is, or should be, what you've already had from your own insurer) puts you back in the same financial position that you were in. You can't claim for the debt, or for the fact that the car was worth £Y 5months ago when you bought it, still less the fact that it might have been worth £Z as a trade in at some point in the future.

Sorry,.not what you want to hear, but you are on a hiding to nothing on this.one. If you had an excess on your own.insunce policy then that's claimable from the bin lorry's operator/insurer, but that's about it.

unholyangel

xxluckyxx1976 wrote: »

Surely you should be able to claim consequential costs from the at fault party, so that as an innocent party you are put back in the position you were in before the incident.

The issue is that this part:

xxluckyxx1976 wrote: »

I am going to make a claim against the council for financial loss. I will obviously claim for the £700 of debt I've been left in, but what else should be claiming for ?
Is it the value of what my car would have been worth In 5 years at the end of the financial agreement, when I would have owned it and would have had it as a deposit towards a new car ?
Or should a claim for the value of what a like for like car would currently cost?

So unfortunately you can't claim for the cost of the car because the car belonged to the finance company and they have already been compensated for their loss when they received the value of the asset they have lost.

Also, the negative equity/£700 is not a loss caused by the accident, thats why its not recoverable. You had that negative equity before the accident occurred.

DUTR

xxluckyxx1976 wrote: »

I thought the same but no, because he didn't cause the collision, the bin lorry driver was at fault.

Perhaps someone who is in the business can clarify, however your case handler will clarify.
Your claim is a against the vehicle policy that collided with your car, there is likely to be some portion to the rear most vehicle policy.
As for the financial loss others have pointed out there is a risk in taking a policy out for that.

Arklight

xxluckyxx1976 wrote: »

I thought the same but no, because he didn't cause the collision, the bin lorry driver was at fault.

Well, Lucky, how much was the car worth at the time?

As long as the council put you back in the position you were before the accident I am not sure what additional loss you have suffered. You have an equivalent car, you can claim for hire cars and other additional costs you had to incur, and you have the same £700 debt to repay to the finance company.

AdrianC

xxluckyxx1976 wrote: »

On 23rd December, my car was parked on my drive unoccupied. Another driver smashed in to my car due to being hit by a council bin lorry.

You claim from the other car's insurance. They pass that claim on to the bin wagon's insurance.

My car has been written off and was still in finance , I had only had the vehicle 5 months I absolutely devastated.
My insurance is going to pay out less than what I owe in finance

Your insurance pays what the car was worth at the time of the collision.

I didn't have gap insurance and even if I did there is no guarantee they would have covered the shortfall.

That's precisely what gap insurance is for...

Or should a claim for the value of what a like for like car would currently cost?

Which is what the insurance is paying out. Unfortunately, for you, you owed more than that.

I want compensation to put me back in the position I was in before their negligent driver's actions.

Which is precisely what the insurance does.
Let's say your car was worth £15k at the time of the collision. The insurance pay out £15k.
You owed £16k+. You still owe £16k+. The £15k payout reduces that debt to £1k+.
You are in the position you were in, except that the car no longer exists so the position has been crystallised.

You don't have any equity in the car because the car depreciated much more rapidly than you were repaying the debt.

Gap insurance is precisely intended to cover any shortfall in your finance at the time of a write-off collision. The other car's insurance is not liable for your finance debt.

Shaun_of_the_Dead wrote: »

I stand to be corrected but you're claim is against the driver of the vehicle that hit yours not the council.

The bin wagon operator is unlikely to be "the council". Most local authorities outsource their refuse collection.