Car accident

lottieholder

At the beginning of this month my car was parked on the side of the road near my house and someone ran into the back of it.  The other driver completely admits culpability and we exchanged details.  The vehicle behind her happened to be a police car so there are credible witnesses.

After several hours on the phone and form filling with my insurance company I made a claim.  My insurance company left me without a car for 4 days.  They were supposed to inform me when they were picking my car up and delivering the courtesy car, they didn't and the car transporter appeared without notice.  Whilst I was reporting the accident I asked what would happen to my car in the event that they couldn't repair it and was told that I would be given the option of buying it back.  I heard nothing from them and I had been told that I only had the courtesy car for 2 weeks.

I rang them on friday to find out what was going on. On hold for over 30mins, then transferred and on hold again, then transferred to the engineers dept.  Engineers report with engineer involved who isn't available but arranged for him to ring me back at 3.30pm.  Waited until 4.45pm and rang them myself.  They've deemed the car unrepairable, fair enough, but I can't have it back!  Why? because I might be tempted to put it back on the road.  

The reason for this posting is that I would like to know if the car still belongs to me.  The insurance company are giving me scrap value for it even though I've just spent nearly £2000 on it as I like the car and wanted to keep it.  Getting it back and stripping it for parts will net me far more than the insurance is offering.  The engineer said and I quote "This is how we make our money".  

So the insurance company are getting money from the insurance of the person who ran into me, devaluing my car to scrap value and then stripping it for the new parts I've just paid for and leaving me with insufficient funds to buy another car.

Spies

Insurance is a right scam, they should have to put you back in the same situation that you were before the accident. 

Could you not get the car repaired after buying it back with what's left over from the payout? 

Sandtree

They should be providing the pre-accident value of the vehicle less your excess and less the scrap value if you wish to retain the vehicle and they allow this.

Unfortunately putting £2k of new parts on an old car doesnt mean its suddenly worth another £2k and thats not "insurance being a right scam" but just the realities of the economics of secondhand/older cars.

The third party insurers will only repay your insurers what their net outlay is and so if they pay you £500 with your keeping the car or they pay you £1,000 and get £500 from their scrap merchants then the TPI will be repaying them £500 either way.

If they havent given you the option to retain/"buy" the salvage when they said you could at FNOL stage then log a complaint

lottieholder

I did get the engineer to tell me where the car is going.  I'm not allowed to buy it back but I know someone who can.  I'm just p1ssed off that an insurance company can leave the innocent party in this position and are actually ripping me off.

I'm lucky that my family can help me out. There are a lot of people out there without that support.

lottieholder

I'd still like to know if I still own the car and if what they're doing is theft.

Sandtree

lottieholder said:

I did get the engineer to tell me where the car is going.  I'm not allowed to buy it back but I know someone who can.  I'm just p1ssed off that an insurance company can leave the innocent party in this position and are actually ripping me off.

I'm lucky that my family can help me out. There are a lot of people out there without that support.

What category total loss is it? There is clearly issues if its a Cat A/B total loss. If its S or N (formally C/D) then you've the complaint route and avoid the scrap merchants profit margin if the agent said you could buy it back

Sandtree

lottieholder said:

I'd still like to know if I still own the car and if what they're doing is theft.

Have you agreed a settlement figure? Have they paid what they think is fair value already? The exact point of transfer of title is always not as black and white as you'd think and certainly the police arent going to be interested in your reporting it as "theft".

lottieholder

Sandtree said:

They should be providing the pre-accident value of the vehicle less your excess and less the scrap value if you wish to retain the vehicle and they allow this.

Unfortunately putting £2k of new parts on an old car doesnt mean its suddenly worth another £2k and thats not "insurance being a right scam" but just the realities of the economics of secondhand/older cars.

The third party insurers will only repay your insurers what their net outlay is and so if they pay you £500 with your keeping the car or they pay you £1,000 and get £500 from their scrap merchants then the TPI will be repaying them £500 either way.

If they havent given you the option to retain/"buy" the salvage when they said you could at FNOL stage then log a complaint

I absolutely understand this.  The reason I spent the money on the car is because it holds its price. I've been spending my spare cash on making my house up to scratch and decided that making the car usable for at least the next 3 years was a good investment, which it was until someone ran into it.  I'm just angry that the insurance company are making money out of my misfortune whereas they should be putting me back to where I was.  The car was valued in December at £2000.

Sandtree

lottieholder said:

Sandtree said:

They should be providing the pre-accident value of the vehicle less your excess and less the scrap value if you wish to retain the vehicle and they allow this.

Unfortunately putting £2k of new parts on an old car doesnt mean its suddenly worth another £2k and thats not "insurance being a right scam" but just the realities of the economics of secondhand/older cars.

The third party insurers will only repay your insurers what their net outlay is and so if they pay you £500 with your keeping the car or they pay you £1,000 and get £500 from their scrap merchants then the TPI will be repaying them £500 either way.

If they havent given you the option to retain/"buy" the salvage when they said you could at FNOL stage then log a complaint

I absolutely understand this.  The reason I spent the money on the car is because it holds its price. I've been spending my spare cash on making my house up to scratch and decided that making the car usable for at least the next 3 years was a good investment, which it was until someone ran into it.  I'm just angry that the insurance company are making money out of my misfortune whereas they should be putting me back to where I was.  The car was valued in December at £2000.

In theory they will lose money from it not make money... if they retain the salvage then the salvage value has to be netted off your settlement and thats what they'd get back from the TPI which on paper puts them in a neutral position but in reality they've had to pay their call centre staff, engineer etc and these are below the line expenses that arent associated to a single claim and are unrecoverable.

Some insurers do structure themselves with sister companies charging fees etc which can move some elements above the line but best case you're typically talking sub £100, normally sub £50 "profit" and that all can easily be eaten up if the TP insurer disputes that they should pay the sister companies fees and so an argument happens costing more in employee time, letters, phonecalls etc.

Norman_Castle

lottieholder said:

  The insurance company are giving me scrap value for it

"The car was valued in December at £2000".

Exactly how much are they offering you? Scrap value for a written off £2000 car is about £200.

[Deleted User]

The pay out is never enough. It's usually better to go to the third party insurance as then you have a bit more leverage, but it's too late now.