Options for avoiding car being written off (after not my fault accident)

Pennywise

Very briefly, my car parked outside my house.  Neighbour opposite (sloping drive) doesn't apply handbrake properly.  When both cars unattended, neighbour's car rolls down and collides with mine - minor damage, but a couple of panels are dented and light cluster broken - highly unlikely to be any "structural" damage.  No doubt as to who is to blame.  Neighbour accepts blame and apologies immediately and gives me their insurance details.

I've just phoned my insurance company, and because it's an old car, worth just a few hundred pounds, they want to write it off and just give me a cheque for it's value less excess, so I'd probably just get a couple of hundred pounds.  Thing is, the car is worth a lot more to me.  I bought it new 13 years ago, it's in pristine condition, very low mileage.  My insurance company just say that I can probably get the excess back from the neighbours car insurance.  From experience with my other car and bodywork repair garage, I'd say, maybe £1,000 for the body shop to smooth and respray the panels.

I'm looking at options.  Can I just simply not claim on my own insurance, given I'm 100% not at fault, and claim directly on neighbour's car insurance?  If so, would they apply the same philisophy and write it off for just current (low) market value, or is there any way of getting them to pay for the full costs given that if it had been my other car on the road that day, it's worth about £10k so they'd have paid the repair bill?  It just seems unfair that the amount the other insurance will pay is dependant upon how much my car is worth. especially given it's their client's fault.

My own insurance firm is keen to provide me with a hire car for a few weeks whilst I buy a replacement car, and they'll claim it from the other party insurers, so surely if they're going to spend several hundred/thousand pounds on a hire car, it would be better for them just to pay for the repair to my car which would take probably just a few days in the body shop?

I'm going to phone my legal protection insurance tomorrow to ask for their advice, but just wondered if anyone here had any advice/suggestions.

Aretnap

You can't claim more than the value of your car from either your own insurer, or the third party. Either as cash, or as repair costs. Sorry, but that's just the way it is.

What you can do, if the car is important to you and you think its repairable, is ask them to deduct the scrap value from the the settlement figure, and keep the car. Then you can get it repaired yourself if you like, and put the settlement cheque towards the repair cost. If your willing to use second hand parts, or put up with a few dents or an imperfect colour match you might even end up with money left over afterwards.

If you claim directly from the third party insurer you can insist on keeping the car, if you claim from your own insurer they may or may not agree to it depending on their own policy. 

Petriix

In a similar situation I went straight to the third party insurers. They offered me the value, I haggled a bit, they were going to scrap it, I deducted the scrap value from the settlement and kept it. I drove around with a dent and spent the cash on other things.

Pennywise

Thank you both.  I'm phoning the third party insurers today so will see what they say.

After the insurance firm declare it a write off and give you the value (less scrap) does it affect future insurance premiums would you know.  I seem to recall a question on insurance proposals asking if the car had ever been written off.

Aretnap

Pennywise said:

After the insurance firm declare it a write off and give you the value (less scrap) does it affect future insurance premiums would you know.  I seem to recall a question on insurance proposals asking if the car had ever been written off.

I don't think I've ever been asked the question of whether the car has previously been written off. A handful of insurers do mention in their assumptions that "the car has not previously been declared a write-off", so read those carefully, but they are a small minority. In most cases it makes no difference.

The write-off marker will affect the resale value of the car - but if you're planning to keep the car until it dies anyway, that's not really a major consideration. And in the event that it were written-off again after you'd repaired it the insurer would be entitled to make a deduction to the market value to reflect this, but as it's already a low value car that's not going to add up to much.

motorguy

Pennywise said:

Very briefly, my car parked outside my house.  Neighbour opposite (sloping drive) doesn't apply handbrake properly.  When both cars unattended, neighbour's car rolls down and collides with mine - minor damage, but a couple of panels are dented and light cluster broken - highly unlikely to be any "structural" damage.  No doubt as to who is to blame.  Neighbour accepts blame and apologies immediately and gives me their insurance details.

I've just phoned my insurance company, and because it's an old car, worth just a few hundred pounds, they want to write it off and just give me a cheque for it's value less excess, so I'd probably just get a couple of hundred pounds.  Thing is, the car is worth a lot more to me.  I bought it new 13 years ago, it's in pristine condition, very low mileage.  My insurance company just say that I can probably get the excess back from the neighbours car insurance.  From experience with my other car and bodywork repair garage, I'd say, maybe £1,000 for the body shop to smooth and respray the panels.

I'm looking at options.  Can I just simply not claim on my own insurance, given I'm 100% not at fault, and claim directly on neighbour's car insurance?  If so, would they apply the same philisophy and write it off for just current (low) market value, or is there any way of getting them to pay for the full costs given that if it had been my other car on the road that day, it's worth about £10k so they'd have paid the repair bill?  It just seems unfair that the amount the other insurance will pay is dependant upon how much my car is worth. especially given it's their client's fault.

My own insurance firm is keen to provide me with a hire car for a few weeks whilst I buy a replacement car, and they'll claim it from the other party insurers, so surely if they're going to spend several hundred/thousand pounds on a hire car, it would be better for them just to pay for the repair to my car which would take probably just a few days in the body shop?

I'm going to phone my legal protection insurance tomorrow to ask for their advice, but just wondered if anyone here had any advice/suggestions.

There should be no excess to pay as you will be claiming off your neighbours insurance.  Make sure you are not claiming off your own insurance, OR if you are, make sure they are pursuing your neighbours insurance company for this claim.  This is not your fault.  This should not be incurring an excess charge.

They will pay out market value.  You cant ask / expect them to pay out repair costs if it not financially viable for them to do so.

Make sure you are getting market value and be prepared with adverts, etc for similar cars which is ultimately your cost to replace it.

You could potentially buy the car back off them and have any repairs made yourself.  Depends what the car is worth (and thus how much they pay out) and how bad the damage is as to whether that is economically viable.

Sandtree

motorguy said:

Pennywise said:

Very briefly, my car parked outside my house.  Neighbour opposite (sloping drive) doesn't apply handbrake properly.  When both cars unattended, neighbour's car rolls down and collides with mine - minor damage, but a couple of panels are dented and light cluster broken - highly unlikely to be any "structural" damage.  No doubt as to who is to blame.  Neighbour accepts blame and apologies immediately and gives me their insurance details.

I've just phoned my insurance company, and because it's an old car, worth just a few hundred pounds, they want to write it off and just give me a cheque for it's value less excess, so I'd probably just get a couple of hundred pounds.  Thing is, the car is worth a lot more to me.  I bought it new 13 years ago, it's in pristine condition, very low mileage.  My insurance company just say that I can probably get the excess back from the neighbours car insurance.  From experience with my other car and bodywork repair garage, I'd say, maybe £1,000 for the body shop to smooth and respray the panels.

I'm looking at options.  Can I just simply not claim on my own insurance, given I'm 100% not at fault, and claim directly on neighbour's car insurance?  If so, would they apply the same philisophy and write it off for just current (low) market value, or is there any way of getting them to pay for the full costs given that if it had been my other car on the road that day, it's worth about £10k so they'd have paid the repair bill?  It just seems unfair that the amount the other insurance will pay is dependant upon how much my car is worth. especially given it's their client's fault.

My own insurance firm is keen to provide me with a hire car for a few weeks whilst I buy a replacement car, and they'll claim it from the other party insurers, so surely if they're going to spend several hundred/thousand pounds on a hire car, it would be better for them just to pay for the repair to my car which would take probably just a few days in the body shop?

I'm going to phone my legal protection insurance tomorrow to ask for their advice, but just wondered if anyone here had any advice/suggestions.

There should be no excess to pay as you will be claiming off your neighbours insurance.  Make sure you are not claiming off your own insurance, OR if you are, make sure they are pursuing your neighbours insurance company for this claim.  This is not your fault.  This should not be incurring an excess charge.

They will pay out market value.  You cant ask / expect them to pay out repair costs if it not financially viable for them to do so.

Make sure you are getting market value and be prepared with adverts, etc for similar cars which is ultimately your cost to replace it.

You could potentially buy the car back off them and have any repairs made yourself.  Depends what the car is worth (and thus how much they pay out) and how bad the damage is as to whether that is economically viable.

The OP said they were speaking to their own insurers and as such their policy terms stand that the excess is payable, most insurers do waive it as a guesture of goodwill are not obliged to. It is recoverable from the third party insurer and if you have Legal Expenses cover then your insurers will have this done for you.

To the OP - the "hire car" is almost certainly a credit hire vehicle for which they get a fee for selling passing your details on to them. If you dont know what credit hire is then google on here.

You cannot have a grown up conversation with them on total loss + credit hire > repair + credit hire because they are only paying one component of it. If you were to approach the third party insurer and ask the same then it is in theory possible however they will offer you a hire car themselves, not on credit terms, and insurers tend to get exceptional prices so 2 weeks hire could be £210 for them meaning its only if its borderline total loss and no chance of additional damage that they'd consider an uneconomical repair over a total loss.

Insurance a car thats been written off in the past isnt an issue, naturally it impacts the value of the vehicle, particularly before the repairs are done, but thats the same as if you decided to sell it afterwards.

[Deleted User]

Have a look around for similar vehicles on Autotrader and the like. You might be surprised, right now used car prices are insane and you may find it's worth a lot more than you think.

Pennywise

Is there any benefit/difference in claiming with my own insurance company rather than the third party's?  I have protected no claims bonus.  Does it make any difference re future premiums, car hire whilst vehicle off road, etc??  Presumably with it being third party fault, my own insurance company would claim all from third party anyway?

[Deleted User]

Pennywise said:

Is there any benefit/difference in claiming with my own insurance company rather than the third party's?  I have protected no claims bonus.  Does it make any difference re future premiums, car hire whilst vehicle off road, etc??  Presumably with it being third party fault, my own insurance company would claim all from third party anyway?

Not really. You will have to pay your excess and then they will try to get it back off the 3rd party. The only real benefit is that you can complaint to the FSO if you need to, but hopefully it won't get that far.

I'd start with the 3rd party's insurer and see what they say. They will be keen to make you happy because if you decide to go back to your own insurer it will cost them a lot more.

The damage is done to your premiums, you need to claim the increase back off the 3rd party.

Sandtree

Pennywise said:

Is there any benefit/difference in claiming with my own insurance company rather than the third party's?  I have protected no claims bonus.  Does it make any difference re future premiums, car hire whilst vehicle off road, etc??  Presumably with it being third party fault, my own insurance company would claim all from third party anyway?

You can mix and match too

As already said, own insurance gives you FOS rights if things go wrong and in a few rare circumstances your own policy may go beyond indemnity (eg the new car replacement if your the first keeper and car is under 12 months old).

Your insurers are likely to sell refer you to a credit hire company if you mention you need a more suitable replacement car than the Group A car you get as a courtesy car (which most likely wont be available on a total loss). Search on here if you want to see some horror stories about credit hire.

The third party insurer will directly hire a car for you and so there is no uncertainty over cost or ball ache dealing with it after. Its possible to get your insurers to deal with your vehicle and the TPI to give you a hire car.

Yes, in a non-fault accident your insurer inherits your right to claim from the third party and the third party insurer steps in to indemnify their client and so reimburses your insurer for directly attributed costs (ie they can reclaim the repair, they cannot reclaim the salary for the claims advisors you've spoken to on the phone etc)