How can I dispute write-off valuation?

Sandtree

Nodding_Donkey said:

The FSA has ruled in the past that writre off offers should reflect retail (i.e. forecourt) prices.

The FSA are basically your last port of complaint.

WBAC pay trade or less

The only FSA that exists these days is the Food Standards Agency and I dont think they have much to say on car valuations.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/insurance/motor-insurance/vehicle-valuations-write-offs) do state that it should be retail price but again we are talking sales price not advertised price. You can only escalate the matter to the FOS after getting a final response from your insurance company (or if 8 weeks pass and they still havent given the final response).

To the OP... is the £1,300 offered before or after your excess? Too many people focus on the net number forgetting the offer is really £1,800 but they went for a £500 excess to keep the insurance price down.

The other thing with Admiral is that all optional extras have to be explicitly mentioned even if they were factory fitted. If you didn't do this then they will be valuing it as the basic model and ignoring the metallic paint or upgraded stereo etc.

Mercdriver

Sandtree said:

Nodding_Donkey said:

The FSA has ruled in the past that writre off offers should reflect retail (i.e. forecourt) prices.

The FSA are basically your last port of complaint.

WBAC pay trade or less

The only FSA that exists these days is the Food Standards Agency and I dont think they have much to say on car valuations.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/insurance/motor-insurance/vehicle-valuations-write-offs) do state that it should be retail price but again we are talking sales price not advertised price. You can only escalate the matter to the FOS after getting a final response from your insurance company (or if 8 weeks pass and they still havent given the final response).

To the OP... is the £1,300 offered before or after your excess? Too many people focus on the net number forgetting the offer is really £1,800 but they went for a £500 excess to keep the insurance price down.

The other thing with Admiral is that all optional extras have to be explicitly mentioned even if they were factory fitted. If you didn't do this then they will be valuing it as the basic model and ignoring the metallic paint or upgraded stereo etc.

The OP has stated a few posts above that the excess is deducted from this.

Mercdriver

treeroy said:

pramsay13 said:

Do you have a figure in mind that you will accept? 
If so maybe put that to them along with your evidence.
If you are sticking at over £2000 it might be a struggle, whereas if you are willing to accept maybe £1800 or so they might relent sooner.

Thanks. I was aiming for £1800. I wrote a long response detailing my rejection, including auction examples, but their "engineer" has re-valued it and come up with the same £1,300. They said this is the upper limit on the Trade Guides of my car at its mileage and condition. I simply believe the trade guide price is incorrect, but it's not like I can argue with Glass's or whomever to dispute this.

I have accepted the £1,300 (£600 after excess)   

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Note above to Sandtree

Sandtree

D'oh        !

AdrianC

treeroy said:

AdrianC said:

Mercdriver said:

To be fair, a type R is a different animal to a Granmothermobile Civic.  

It's a Grandma Civic with a bit more power. It's no more than the quicker version of a generic hatch. Most model ranges have a quick version.

The point is, it's a different car in terms of value. A lot of them, nice examples, sell for £4,000+ when they have over 100,000 miles. They are bought by car enthusiasts who aren't bothered as much by mileage and previous owners and dealer stamps. And its completely different from a normal Civic at this point in time when they have done all their depreciation already and prices are on the rise, which is not the case at all for the cooking Civic.

It's a Honda Civic Type R. They are looking at values for Honda Civic Type Rs. They go to the Honda section, the Civic section, then the Type R section.

Just the same as if it was a Honda Civic EX or whatever, they would look in the Honda section, to the Civic section, and then go down to the EX section.

They are not looking at values for EXs to value your Type R, any more than they would look at values for Type Rs to value an EX. But both are Civics built by Honda.

You appear to be taking exception to the fact that I stated that it's really not a "different beast" to any other Civic. It's just a bit quicker than other Civics.

[Deleted User]

DoaM said:

blueskinnedbeast said:

DoaM said:

[shakes head in bemusement]

Was it the "new" car with FSH and low miles?
Or just the whole post 

The post that this was in relation to (by our "favourite" forum spammer) has gone ... I can't even remember exactly what it said other than it made a wildly incorrect statement about how much the OP accepted, even though the OP had already said how much they had accepted. 🙄

No worries,I read the other post before it was deleted(they have deleted quite a few)
Very strange behaviour indeed.

treeroy

The_Rainmaker said:

Did you fit those Evergreen tyres?  Did they contribute to you hitting the wall?

No lol. I wasn't planning on fitting them, they were the ones already on the car. I put new Goodyear Eagle F1s on two weeks ago.

treeroy

AdrianC said:

treeroy said:

AdrianC said:

Mercdriver said:

To be fair, a type R is a different animal to a Granmothermobile Civic.  

It's a Grandma Civic with a bit more power. It's no more than the quicker version of a generic hatch. Most model ranges have a quick version.

The point is, it's a different car in terms of value. A lot of them, nice examples, sell for £4,000+ when they have over 100,000 miles. They are bought by car enthusiasts who aren't bothered as much by mileage and previous owners and dealer stamps. And its completely different from a normal Civic at this point in time when they have done all their depreciation already and prices are on the rise, which is not the case at all for the cooking Civic.

It's a Honda Civic Type R. They are looking at values for Honda Civic Type Rs. They go to the Honda section, the Civic section, then the Type R section.

Just the same as if it was a Honda Civic EX or whatever, they would look in the Honda section, to the Civic section, and then go down to the EX section.

They are not looking at values for EXs to value your Type R, any more than they would look at values for Type Rs to value an EX. But both are Civics built by Honda.

You appear to be taking exception to the fact that I stated that it's really not a "different beast" to any other Civic. It's just a bit quicker than other Civics.

Oh, to the person who said it's a "different beast", yeah obviously they are both civics, in fact there's a lot fewer differences between the Type R and the basic one than on many other hot hatches. It just happens to have a crazy engine in it.

Anyways thanks as usual for your help, shame I could not get what I was expecting and what I know it is worth.

Fortunately I am not in a position where this puts me into debt or anything. I can still afford the next car I want, its just gonna use up all of my bank account.

Just a bit depressing to effectively lose £2,000 from one brief mistake given i have only had the car for two months but such is life.

dacouch

treeroy said:

AdrianC said:

treeroy said:

So i have some questions:
- is Glass Guide valuation the law? like legally I am only entitled to whatever Glass says. I don't know how Glass makes all their valuations but it is clearly wrong for this car.
- How can I get a higher valuation? What routes can I go down to get the correct value for the vehicle.
...
I don't understand how insurance company is allowed to just make up a stupid low figure and I just have to accept it.

Your insurance policy will state that you are entitled to a fair market value for the car.
That fair market value is determined by referring to the industry standard price guides, wherever possible. Glass's is perhaps the best known and most long-standing of those industry-standard guides. So, no, it's not "law", but if it came to the law, then there would be a great deal of credence placed on its figures.

Something as generic as a Honda Civic will most certainly be in those price guides. One with a lot of owners and a lot of miles is going to be at the lower end of the price range for that particular type of car - especially where it's the type of car that lots of owners tends to suggest it's been subject to a fair degree of abuse in its life.

What age of Civic are we talking about here, anyway?

If you cannot come to an agreement with your insurer, you can escalate the matter to the financial ombudsman.
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/complaints-deal/insurance/motor-insurance/vehicle-valuations-write-offs

Thanks AdrianC.
I understand that they use these industry standard guide. But the guide is simply wrong. It is not possible to buy a Type R for £1,100.

If this was just for generic Honda Civic then I would understand. But the Civic Type R and Civic should be listed as different cars I would have thought? As they are registered as different vehicles models on DVLA. Do you know if there is a way to find out if the trade guide is including the Type R in with a regular Civic? 
I would not expect a standard Civic with this age/mileage to be valued at £1,100 which leads me to suspect that they are just considering the Type R on its own.

The car is 2004. 

If you look at for example this one selling on Ebay - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EP3-Honda-Civic-Type-R-Cosmic-Grey/283983993097
It's a 2004 model type R with 145,000 miles, ok slightly less than mine but not much. It's up to £2,100 with 18 bids and I imagine will sell around £3k.

Thank you for the link to the Ombudsman. Reading through that page, it says 

What we look at

We use trade guides as an indication of what a fair valuation should be.

So it looks like the ombudsman would not help. Because the trade guide price is wrong.

It is my understanding of insurance valuation that the valuation should be the amount required to replace the car, yes? If I offered £1,100 to anyone selling a 200,000 mile civic type R, i would be laughed at. 

I look at ebay all the time to see how much other cars sell for, and all civic type Rs sell for over £2,000 even at high 180k+ miles.

I don't know how the trade guides get their prices. How do they actualy know how much private sales are sold for? 
If the trade guide is wrong, is there any real likelihood of me seeing a better price?  

The Ombudsman expects the Insurer to look at the three valuations guides and if they disagree on price he has a formula for disregarding a valuation that is vastly different to the other two guides.
Ask Admiral to source the valuation from all three guides as the Ombudsman expect them to