No fault accident, total loss, buying back

couriery

Hi ! I recently had an accident and my insurer (Haven insurance 😡) is playing games so to avoid any payment for the claim.Firstly they advised me since my van will be written off and I think it’s repairable they asked me to call the other party insurer and tell them since it was not my fault they should pay for the damages and they might offer me cash in leiu payment. This did not seem right to me as I always thought insurance company owe handle claims among themselves.
Secondly I said to them I won’t call the other insurer and I will accept total loss claim and let me know the value they will offer me and to that they said their engineer will come and see the van and then value it. But I won’t be allowed to buy it back.
I know van is repairable and I wanted it back.
any advise please 😳

400ixl

You can go directly to the 3rd party insurer and make your claim there. You do give up some rights such as the ability to go to the motor ombudsman if you dispute what they value it at. It is easier for your insurer if you deal directly with the 3rd party, but you do not have to.

Typically, once the insurer pays you for a total loss, the vehicle is owned by them, they do not have to allow you to buy it back from them. Many do but they do not have to.

That is also assuming it is given a category which allows it to be returned to the road.

It may be that the 3rd party insurer may well allow you to buy the car back from them, so that may be a benefit if your insurer will not and you want to. You have to balance the benefits vs risks for yourself.

Aretnap

If you claim from your own insurer, your rights are determined by the terms of your contact with them. The contract will generally say that in the event of a total loss, the insurer will pay you the market value of your vehicle, and the vehicle will become their property. The insurer might agree to sell you the van back - but they don't have to, and if they won't there's not much you can do about it.

If you claim from the third party insurer the situation is completely different. You have no contact with the third party insurer and your rights are governed by tort law which requires the third party to compensate you for the loss in value your van has suffered. In other words, their responsibility is to pay the difference between what your van would have sold for immediately before the accident, and what it would sell for immediately after the accident. Buying the vehicle back doesn't really come into it; the default outcome is that you keep the salvage and deal with it as you see fit. The third party insurer might well offer to buy the salvage off you or dispose of it for you, but you don't have to accept.

So if you want to keep the van and your own insurance company won't play ball, going through the third party insurer is indeed a decent option. There are pitfalls to be aware of though - notably that if you don't like the valuation your own insurer offers you, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman. Whereas if you go through the third party insurer you cannot use the ombudsman as you are not a customer of the insurer - if you don't like the valuation your only way of forcing the issue is to take them to court.

Petriix

Just go through the third party insurers. You can negotiate over the value. If they aren't reasonable then you can get your own insurers to take them to court, which they will do if there's a 'good chance' of success. The third party insurers know this so will endeavour to be reasonable so as to minimise legal costs.