Accident management companies

mookev

Last week,  my wife's car, which although a 2013, was in excellent condition, was hit and severely damaged by a recycling lorry what parked safely outside our house. The driver admitted liability.. Then car is comprehensively insured. From the start our insurance company feels as if it is ' managing us'. They are assuming it will be written off, but are defensive almost like I would expect the lorry insured to be. We are expecting an outcome offer early this week,  and I fear this will not reflect the increase in used car prices and allow us to replace the car with a similar age and condition vehicle. I am prepared for a fight. I have always shunned accident management claim companies but wonder if this may be the time to engage one should the insurance not negotiate and come through. Your advice please.

KimJongUn88

AMC will not really be interested in arguing the toss over the value of your vehicle. They only want to give you a credit hire vehicle and making a personal injury claim for you. Both things which will make them a fat profit.

Bigwheels1111

I would look on eBay,Autotrader,Exchangeandmart etc.
For your car, with the same condition milage etc.
Find todays prices and screen shot them or take pictures.
At leat you have some proof of value in current market.

Grey_Critic

*****car is comprehensively insured.****** We are expecting an outcome offer early this week,  and I fear this will not reflect the increase in used car prices and allow us to replace the car with a similar age and condition vehicle.******

This recalls a recent discussion on how much we pay in (annually increasing) premiums whilst our vehicles lose value. One does not reflect the other.

Earlier I was reading about the changes (from Jan 1st) governing insurance companies and the cheap deals to drag us in. As one person commented the suggested £4.1 billion loss to insurance companies will be made up somewhere.

born_again

This recalls a recent discussion on how much we pay in (annually increasing) premiums whilst our vehicles lose value. One does not reflect the other.

Payouts are not just on car value. They also cover temp hire cars, legal expenses & personal injuries.. Of which the car payout will be the cheapest part. Just got my renewal. Not bad considering I have had the car a year & it is now worth £2K more than I bought it for, from the dealer that sold it to me 🤣 We're offering you this renewal price in line with the latest regulations.

Your new price will be: £313.01 a year Last year’s price was: £322.17 a year

Premium includes Insurance Premium Tax at the appropriate rate Please note that you have made changes to your policy which may have affected last year’s price and/or the price you will pay this year. If the change related to last year, the last year’s premium shown above includes what you would have paid if it had applied to the full 12 months. But still going to see if I can get cheaper 👍

Sandtree

mookev said:

Last week,  my wife's car, which although a 2013, was in excellent condition, was hit and severely damaged by a recycling lorry what parked safely outside our house. The driver admitted liability.. Then car is comprehensively insured. From the start our insurance company feels as if it is ' managing us'. They are assuming it will be written off, but are defensive almost like I would expect the lorry insured to be. We are expecting an outcome offer early this week,  and I fear this will not reflect the increase in used car prices and allow us to replace the car with a similar age and condition vehicle. I am prepared for a fight. I have always shunned accident management claim companies but wonder if this may be the time to engage one should the insurance not negotiate and come through. Your advice please.

An AMC (aka AxM) will put you in credit hire, get an engineers report and will then pass it to the third party insurers... they wont care about what value is put on your car because its the third party insurer that will pay what they see as appropriate and your credit hire stops about a week after that cheque is received. They make £30 on the engineers report and nothing on negotiating the valuation with the TPI.

With your own insurers you have a right to complain to the Ombudsman if you are unhappy with the valuation but via an AXM or directly with the TPI you dont. 

Settlement should be based on the vehicle value 1 second before the collision happened. 

Brie

When I was in a similar situation and the payout offered was laughable I simply sent them a link to an AutoTrader almost exact match to my car  - it was a year older than mine and was selling for twice what i was being offered.  The insurer revised their offer very favourably.  Took just a few minutes of my time (& a week or two of chasing of course)