Car insurance write off

djr2031

Not sure the forum covers this but our car has been written off by the insurance company follow a lorry clipping a steel wire causing bricks to fall on car smashing headlights. Company have said it is a cat B case,  ie only suitable for parts but I disagree.(decision reached by photos only) Does anyone know if the write off category impacts the amount of the payout?  Not had an insurance write off before. Sorry if this is outside the scope of the group

Brie

If they want to write off the vehicle start by getting an idea of what it would cost to replace.  Autotrader and similar are good to give the cost to buy the same make, model, year, mileage and that could be your starting point.  

Get your own mechanic to look it over and see if they think there is more damage that isn't obvious in a photo.  If your person says "I can fix that for £X" and the offer is more than that maybe you can take their offer but keep the car and get your person to fix it.  You get to keep the extra.

Misslayed

I've asked admin to move your thread to the insurance board, lots of very knowledgeable, helpful folk hang out there. 🤗

DullGreyGuy

djr2031 said:

Not sure the forum covers this but our car has been written off by the insurance company follow a lorry clipping a steel wire causing bricks to fall on car smashing headlights. Company have said it is a cat B case,  ie only suitable for parts but I disagree.(decision reached by photos only) Does anyone know if the write off category impacts the amount of the payout?  Not had an insurance write off before. Sorry if this is outside the scope of the group

The valuation of your vehicle is independent of category as it represents the pre-accident valuation. 

Assuming you dont retain the vehicle then the settlement will be valuation, less excess, less any outstanding premiums. If you have the car on finance then the settlement gets paid to the finance company.  This therefore is agnostic of the total loss category 

If you did want to keep the salvage then the settlement is reduced also by the value of the salvage and the value of the salvage is impacted by the total loss category... a car that can be returned to the road is worth more than one that has to be broken for parts or crushed. Its harder to get agreement for you to retain a Cat B and almost impossible for a Cat A

djr2031

Thank you.  Although we were not looking to change car pre incident we don't want to keep the car.  Just wanted to check if the write off cat made any difference before challenging what we have been offered 

DullGreyGuy

djr2031 said:

Thank you.  Although we were not looking to change car pre incident we don't want to keep the car.  Just wanted to check if the write off cat made any difference before challenging what we have been offered 

If you dont want to keep it, makes no difference at all to you