Cancel At-Fault Claim

pauljrowland

Hi,
On Wednesday, I was involved in an accident where I lost control of the car on a corner and snapped the suspension / wishbone hitting a curb. This was reported to the insurance and taken away for assessment. Nobody else was involved. 
The car was worth £6,700 when purchased and the repair bill has so far been estimated at £5,300 - safe to say it will probably be written off.
QuoteMeHappy are not budging giving me timescales as to when a decision will be made - even though they have the repair figure on their system. I am getting increasingly worried that as time goes on, the chances of repair are slimming and they may declare it a loss. I have had the car 2 months and it is on 5-yr finance without GAP insurance. The most expensive part is a new bumper - but it’s safe to say, I don’t mind a few months of driving with a ruined bumper if it means i still have my car for many years to come. Can I agree which bits the insurance pay for (i.e. they make it roadworthy and I get the cosmetics sorted independently?). 
At what point am I entitled to withdraw the claim, take the car back and repair it myself? If it is written off, does it automatically become the property of the insurance company or do I need to agree first? I understand there will be recovery fees, admin fees and garage fees etc to pay back etc. if I do take it back - but when I have family who are mechanics, it’s a small price to pay over losing my pride and joy. 
Let’s note, this is not a way of taking the claim off my record, merely keeping the car.

pauljrowland

DUTR

You can keep the car in any event (at least buy it back off the underwriters) .
Note for future don't try and get around the corner as if it has LSD.

pauljrowland

DUTR said:

You can keep the car in any event (at least buy it back off the underwriters) .
Note for future don't try and get around the corner as if it has LSD.

Thanks DUTR
When does it become the property of the underwriters?

chrisw

If you don't wish to claim and it's being repaired you can take the car back any time up until repairs are under way. However, there may be other fees to pay such as towing and storage fees.

If it's written off, they own it once you've agreed a settlement figure with them and agreed to transfer it to them whereupon they'll pay you out. You can ask them to sell you the salvage so you will get paid out the agreed write off value less the price of the salvage so you get to keep the car to do with as you wish. However some insurance companies have agreements with salvage companies and can refuse to sell you the salvage.

Flight3287462

Not much wrong with that bumper that a skim of filler and respray won't fix.  Looking at the photos I reckon you could get that fixed for £1k (assuming no damage to drive shaft and gearbox)

Scrapit

Too late you have informed them. No advantage in cancelling the claim. They will hold it on record regardless. Take the claim, its what you pay them for. Buy a replacement and crack on.

ontheroad1970

I think the OP is more concerned about the gap between the write off settlement and what the finance company will want as a settlement figure, hence mentioning the lack of GAP insurance

AdrianC

Hunyani_Flight_825 said:

Not much wrong with that bumper that a skim of filler and respray won't fix.  Looking at the photos I reckon you could get that fixed for £1k (assuming no damage to drive shaft and gearbox)

There is no way a lower arm, wheel/tyre, bumper alone on a vanilla Skoda would be five grand plus...

So it's safe to say there is other damage not shown - whether it's gearbox or subframe is the important question.

OP - if your insurer don't want to repair the damage (viewed in total), then your only choice would be to let them write it off and pay you the value, less a salvage element. You then keep the written off car, and repair it yourself.

This is dependent on the type of finance in place, though...

If it's a PCP, lease, or HP, then you don't own the car. Your financier own it.
If it's a simple loan, then you do.

ontheroad1970

AdrianC said:

Hunyani_Flight_825 said:

Not much wrong with that bumper that a skim of filler and respray won't fix.  Looking at the photos I reckon you could get that fixed for £1k (assuming no damage to drive shaft and gearbox)

There is no way a lower arm, wheel/tyre, bumper alone on a vanilla Skoda would be five grand plus...

So it's safe to say there is other damage not shown - whether it's gearbox or subframe is the important question.

OP - if your insurer don't want to repair the damage (viewed in total), then your only choice would be to let them write it off and pay you the value, less a salvage element. You then keep the written off car, and repair it yourself.

This is dependent on the type of finance in place, though...

If it's a PCP or lease, then you don't own the car. Your financier own it.
If it's a simple loan or HP, then you do.

Are you sure about that?  HP is normally secured on the car and you don't own until the final payment is made.

AdrianC

ontheroad1970 said:

AdrianC said:

Hunyani_Flight_825 said:

Not much wrong with that bumper that a skim of filler and respray won't fix.  Looking at the photos I reckon you could get that fixed for £1k (assuming no damage to drive shaft and gearbox)

There is no way a lower arm, wheel/tyre, bumper alone on a vanilla Skoda would be five grand plus...

So it's safe to say there is other damage not shown - whether it's gearbox or subframe is the important question.

OP - if your insurer don't want to repair the damage (viewed in total), then your only choice would be to let them write it off and pay you the value, less a salvage element. You then keep the written off car, and repair it yourself.

This is dependent on the type of finance in place, though...

If it's a PCP or lease, then you don't own the car. Your financier own it.
If it's a simple loan or HP, then you do.

Are you sure about that?  HP is normally secured on the car and you don't own until the final payment is made.

Mea culpa. Corrected.