Disputing value of an insurance claim

AJRBADGER

I was involved in a not at fault accident during the early evening in late January. I was in my van, towing a car transportation trailer, on a dual carriageway. Other party joined from a slip road, seen my van - never seen my trailer - and joined the carriageway clipping my trailer. I lost control with the hit, went down a small embankment. Van, trailer and car on trailer were write offs. But.... Most importantly, I walked away completely unhurt, not even a bruise.

Anyway, I do Motorsport. The car on my trailer was 24yrs old, but was a competition only car that had been built, mostly by myself, over many years. My van is also semi converted to a mobile garage, partitioned in the back, and a basic sleeping/cooking area in the front. Nothing fancy but carpeted out with a bed, a night heater, 230v supply and a fridge. As said it was partitioned, and you opened the rear doors to racking and drawers for tools. It was basic, but done to a decent standard.

Anyway, where the issue is. The other parties insurer is a little bit low in the valuation of my van, I couldn't find a 10yr old LWB van with 75k miles for what they are offering, let alone find and convert one. 

However, the main issue is, they are a long, long way low in the valuation of the race car. If I put the registration of that car into webuyanycar, they offer £600. However.... It's obviously not a road car any more, and to buy another and put it back to the specification I had it, even with salvaging parts from the wrecked car... Maybe £15k-20k, with parts, garage fees and then 120-160hrs of work from myself.

I understand this is an unusual case, but any advise welcome.

caprikid1

You need to find like for like cars for sale and provide those as valuations. You will never get an insurance company to pay for development time to get a car to the same position.

I appreciate the car is written off but as it was not running at the time there should be no engine damage etc what is the cost to reshell it ? and replace any damaged suspension components etc. There is a huge difference between building a car from scratch to doing a parts transfer. It's difficult to know how quick and complex this is as if it was a MK2 Escort a couple of skilled mechanic with a ready motorsport shell might do it in a few days but if they had to prepare the shell considerable longer where as a car like an M3 might be considerably longer to reshell

There will be a route through you just need to produce sensible acceptable evidence. 

Sandtree

Claiming directly from the third party insurer means you have no right of complaint/escalation to the Financial Ombudsman as you are not their customer. You need to substantiate your claim of the valuation of the vehicle, this can either by commissioning an independent engineer's report (someone with appropriate qualifications not your local mechanic) or by finding evidence of what other similar cars have sold for (and sold for rather than advertised for is more important)

What was your own insurance on the car? Is it a guaranteed value policy? If it is then it should be a consideration if its best to continue with the TPI rather than claiming off your own policy.

AJRBADGER

caprikid1 said:

You need to find like for like cars for sale and provide those as valuations. You will never get an insurance company to pay for development time to get a car to the same position.

I appreciate the car is written off but as it was not running at the time there should be no engine damage etc what is the cost to reshell it ? and replace any damaged suspension components etc. There is a huge difference between building a car from scratch to doing a parts transfer. It's difficult to know how quick and complex this is as if it was a MK2 Escort a couple of skilled mechanic with a ready motorsport shell might do it in a few days but if they had to prepare the shell considerable longer where as a car like an M3 might be considerably longer to reshell

There will be a route through you just need to produce sensible acceptable evidence. 

There aren't many like for like cars sadly, much less for sale 

It's a little roadster from the 90s. It has a custom built space frame, with moulded fibreglass panels based on original panels, with a clamshell for easy access to engine.

The cylinder head casting has been badly damaged and is unusable as the exhaust manifold and turbo essentially has been ripped off it, internals of the head will be ok. Block appears ok.  Car had a custom made suspension from a company called Ohlin, the nearside is destroyed. 

As said I built a lot of the car myself, so it is hard to quantify. I never expected it to be involved in a not at fault RTA.

The car is insured for £30k with Reis's Motorsport Insurance - although that covers fire, theft, third party, etc.

Herzlos

Was the car insured at all? If not, then you can always try taking the other insurer to court for a suitable value but it's too big a figure for small claims. Otherwise they are likely to stubbornly offer you the sale value of the base car.

Was the van insured as modified with an assigned value?

Sandtree

AJRBADGER said:
The car is insured for £30k with Reis's Motorsport Insurance - although that covers fire, theft, third party, etc.

Then why not claim off your own insurance? They will counterclaim off the TPI

NBLondon

Random thought:  Should the other party's insurer be valuing the race car on the trailer as if it was a vehicle involved or as property that was damaged?  If it had been antique furniture on the trailer, surely that would be valued as the cost of replacing it with a similar item at auction.  So the racecar should be equally be valued at replacement cost in the condition it was in immediately before the accident - which will be the value that an specialist insurer has already placed on it.

Sandtree

NBLondon said:

Random thought:  Should the other party's insurer be valuing the race car on the trailer as if it was a vehicle involved or as property that was damaged?  If it had been antique furniture on the trailer, surely that would be valued as the cost of replacing it with a similar item at auction.  So the racecar should be equally be valued at replacement cost in the condition it was in immediately before the accident - which will be the value that an specialist insurer has already placed on it.

They have, the OP doesn't like the value

NBLondon

We don't know what the value being offered is?  I'm reading it as two problems:

a) the insurer is valuing the van as a standard value of a similar model van of the same age without the modifications.  OP might not be able to do anything about that as the value of the modifications is hard to quantify.

b) the insurer is valuing the car on the trailer as a standard value of a similar model car of the same age without the modifications.  As caprikid said above; the OP perhaps needs to find the price of a similar car in race-ready condition as a comparison.  He won't get the cost of his time back but he should be put back in the position he was before the accident.

To go back to my furniture analogy.  If I have a Chippendale desk on my trailer and someone else smashes it to pieces - their insurance should be paying me the price of buying a similar desk at auction - not the price of a desk from Staples - not the price that Chippendale sold it for in 1723.

Herzlos

NBLondon said:

Random thought:  Should the other party's insurer be valuing the race car on the trailer as if it was a vehicle involved or as property that was damaged?  If it had been antique furniture on the trailer, surely that would be valued as the cost of replacing it with a similar item at auction.  So the racecar should be equally be valued at replacement cost in the condition it was in immediately before the accident - which will be the value that an specialist insurer has already placed on it.

I don't think it'd matter, the value would be calculated in the same way. It's just with cars insurers have databases with values already, rather than having to do any additional work.

OP - are you also claiming for damage to the trailer?

Sandtree

NBLondon said:

To go back to my furniture analogy.  If I have a Chippendale desk on my trailer and someone else smashes it to pieces - their insurance should be paying me the price of buying a similar desk at auction - not the price of a desk from Staples - not the price that Chippendale sold it for in 1723.

The issue thought, seeing as you are keen on analogies, is that it isn't a chippendale on the back of your trailer but a bespoke table you've made yourself using an Ikea table as the base.

It would appear that they aren't pricing it as a Staples table but as the base Ikea table and appear not to think that the OP has added significant value to it or have not been made aware of the mods. Clearly the OP thinks their upgrades/changes are worth more.

I suspect that the OP probably has added value however not everyone's mod do add value... the bean can exhaust, the whale fin spoiler crudely bolted to the roof (and leaking), the parcel shelf replaced with MDF with speakers/subs etc (ie what half my school friends did to their 106/Saxo in the 90s)... they may have spent a few grand or more on the mods but certainly didn't add value