Car Stolen - Cat N - Insurance Claim

CheekyMunkey

Hi Guys,

Im in a bit of a bind. Well, it might not be but I maybe overthinking it all. Wondering if anyone else has been in the same situation or could share some advice.

I purchased a car back in December. An E class Merc W213. It was a damaged category N car from Copart. We fixed the car ourselves. It was hit in the front left passenger side. We fitted a new rack end, replaced broken the headlight, repaired the wing and did some repair to the bumper. It was all driving and fine. Damage wasnt to bad to be honest. Largely cosmetic. I had been out over the weekend for a night and returned home. Car was stolen overnight when I noticed it was missing off my drive in the morning. This was a couple of weeks ago.

Reported the police and insurance company. Insurance have come back with a bunch of questions which I need to respond to regarding purchase price/invoices/pictures. Here is what they need. When I managed to purchase the car at auction I got it for a decent price.

-Purchase invoice for the vehicle - I can provide this.

-Proof of payment for the vehicle ie. bank statement - I can provide this.

-Image of the vehicle key next to the front page of the V5/log book - I have 1 key which is all that was given when I purchased the car so I can show this to.

-Any images of the vehicle that you have - We never actually took any pictures of the repaired vehicle. The only pictures I have is from the auction website which shows the damage. Do I just tell them I dont have any pictures or show the damaged car pictures? or show them pictures of where their isnt any damage? I guess if they wanted to go back to Copart they could get pictures too.

-Invoices for any work done on the vehicle - This is where Im a little confused. I feel like here they might be asking about any mods/upgrades or work that was done to the car. BUT as the car was damaged are they asking about invoices for work that we did to the car to repair it? like purchasing parts/labour etc. I sourced the parts via sites like Ebay/Facebook Marketplace and it was all cash in hand when I collected the items etc. So I have no invoice's. So Im really not sure what Im supposed to disclose here? If I show them damaged car pictures I will then have to say what I had fitted/fixed on the car. Also, the parts I purchased were second hand eg light which looked like new etc so cost a lot less then say a light from Mercedes.

Say the car has a market value of £14/15k but I spent 11k on it. Would they only be looking to pay me what I paid for it or what the actual value of the car would be? Maybe Im being a little fussy here and I should be happy if they gave me back what I paid for it. Im just not sure if they would offer market value. For example say I bought a car from a dealer. It was worth 15k but the dealer offloaded it to me for 10k and it got stolen. What would the insurance company payout be?

Apologies for all the questions. Im pretty straight as an arrow. I have never had to go through a car insurance claim before. Im more than happy to be upfront about what we did to the car in regards to parts/repairs/labour but without pictures I feel they could say we have no proof of having done any repairs on it. Also, it still had a valid MOT which was not due to the end of this year.

Still soo annoyed. Literally had the car on the road for a month and it got pinched. Now having the deal with the aftermath.

Thanks in advance guys.

Cheeky.

facade

Some people buy a damaged car and find that they are unable to afford repairs, but luckily the car and any repair parts get stolen and they claim the value of a repaired car from their insurance. The insurer is looking for proof that you are not one of those people.

So if you paid someone to do the repair work, those invoices are part of the proof.

Datestamped photos of the shiny repaired car are lovely, but you don't have any.

An MOT pass with no mention of any of the recorded damage would help, but you didn't get one..

Expect a bit of a fight with the insurer if all you have are receipts for only a few of the parts.

They should pay out the market value of a CAT-N vehicle that has been repaired.

CheekyMunkey

facade said:

Some people buy a damaged car and find that they are unable to afford repairs, but luckily the car and any repair parts get stolen and they claim the value of a repaired car from their insurance. The insurer is looking for proof that you are not one of those people.

So if you paid someone to do the repair work, those invoices are part of the proof.

Datestamped photos of the shiny repaired car are lovely, but you don't have any.

An MOT pass with no mention of any of the recorded damage would help, but you didn't get one..

Expect a bit of a fight with the insurer if all you have are receipts for only a few of the parts.

They should pay out the market value of a CAT-N vehicle that has been repaired.

This was my concern. That without photos they may assume it was never fixed. Even though it was. I had actually driven back from a weekend break the night before. 

Soo annoying. We only bought this car because we had to scrap our old one due to Ulez. 

Guess I will just provide what I can. I have the neighbours video of when the car was actually stolen showing the thieves. You can see the vehicle in shot but it's a grainy black and white video at night. So not sure how useful that would be but it shows the car and when they approached it. Hopefully that will show it was definately road worthy etc.

Thanks for your response. 

chrisw

Do the neighbours have any video of the car when you've been driving it in the daytime? Have you parked anywhere near a camera doorbell?

CheekyMunkey

chrisw said:

Do the neighbours have any video of the car when you've been driving it in the daytime? Have you parked anywhere near a camera doorbell?

This is what I've been doing today. Obviously their camera is focusing on their driveway but it shows our car on the other side of the wall. They have a motion camera. I obviously have a 10second clip of the car being approached by the thieves at night. I've asked to have a look today. Lots of videos of the car being there during the day. Some where it's moving and driven later in the evening with it's lights on etc. So hopefully that shows it was all up and running. I also have an invoice when I went to get some tracking done on the tyres etc. I'll just give them what I have. I literally have nothing else. 

Nobbie1967

Does the video show the repaired side? They may get a bit sniffy about you only having one key unless you have had the missing one coded out. Any buyer history from EBay of the parts you purchased? A screenshot of this would help, or did you complete the sales with cash outside the eBay system?

I can see how the insurance company could get difficult over this, so just try and get as much corroborating evidence of the repair as possible. Did you get it resprayed, or just buy matching panels?

I think you are likely to receive a lot less than market value of an undamaged car. It’s Cat N which they’ll knock a large percentage off for, plus a bit more as they have no proof of the quality of the repair, so could be mismatched panels, badly aligned, unrepaired damage to the inner wing etc.

Good luck, I have a feeling you’re going to need it.

CheekyMunkey

Nobbie1967 said:

Does the video show the repaired side? They may get a bit sniffy about you only having one key unless you have had the missing one coded out. Any buyer history from EBay of the parts you purchased? A screenshot of this would help, or did you complete the sales with cash outside the eBay system?

I can see how the insurance company could get difficult over this, so just try and get as much corroborating evidence of the repair as possible. Did you get it resprayed, or just buy matching panels?

I think you are likely to receive a lot less than market value of an undamaged car. It’s Cat N which they’ll knock a large percentage off for, plus a bit more as they have no proof of the quality of the repair, so could be mismatched panels, badly aligned, unrepaired damage to the inner wing etc.

Good luck, I have a feeling you’re going to need it.

The only camera view I have of the damaged side is from my neighbours camera and it's not close etc. Or shows much detail. But that's all I have. I bought the part outside of the Ebay system because we were communicating via WhatsApp. I still have the convo and the price etc. Also has the guys address etc. 

The parts we repaired we did ourselves with some panel work, filler and some air spray as the areas that needed repainting were quite small. No cracks. Then blended it through to the door/bonnet etc. And fixed the bumper. We didn't end up buying any extra panels. The rack end was new. Swapped out old with new etc. Overall it was a decent job. Perfect? No but it was good enough for us and most would not notice. 

To be honest the car overall was bought below market value and even with the repairs the cost to me was below market value for a cat N car by about 20% compared to others for sale. If I get what I paid for it back even though that is less than what it's worth I would be happy with it. Just want to move on with this. Plus don't want to stress out my folks. 

Thanks for the good luck vibes. 

CheekyMunkey

Just an update on this. After following up with the insurance having had my initial email ignored they were willing to settle the claim. They paid me market value for the car. Which is a great result for me. Now on the look out for another car. Issue is Ive been put off buying anything remotely fancy. But lets see. Thanks for all the feedback guys. From my experience if you buy a car take pictures of it asap. Also, if its damaged and repaired, again take pictures of it and also hold onto any receipts. 

Bigphil1474

Thanks for the update - my tip, buy something boring that thieves won't want, or spend money on better security - posts on the driveway? Or clear out the garage if you have one and park it in there. The scroats will probably still nick it if they are determined, but they may be put off if it's too much like hard work (kids today!)

CheekyMunkey

Bigphil1474 said:

Thanks for the update - my tip, buy something boring that thieves won't want, or spend money on better security - posts on the driveway? Or clear out the garage if you have one and park it in there. The scroats will probably still nick it if they are determined, but they may be put off if it's too much like hard work (kids today!)

Cheers mate. I may well be starting a new job and need a new car pretty quickly. May just get a mid range motor. That is reliable and gets the job done for now. I think a post might be a deterrent too. Looks like soo  many homes have them now on there driveways. As you say if they want it badly they will get it put it should put them off.