Purchased car from copart as descibed Cat N, but V5 states Cat S

Mad_house

Brought a car from Copart as listed and described as a Cat N, when V5 document was received it is a Cat S. Copart are stating under their terms and conditions they are not reasonable. Can anyone help with advise to whether we have a claim for the structural work which was carried out to the car only

DullGreyGuy

Auction? Had an opportunity to go in person irrespective if you did or didnt?

Okell

Mad_house said:

Brought a car from Copart as listed and described as a Cat N, when V5 document was received it is a Cat S. Copart are stating under their terms and conditions they are not reasonable. Can anyone help with advise to whether we have a claim for the structural work which was carried out to the car only

What can anyone say to that?     

tacpot12

Do you have Home Insurance? If so, do you have Legal Expenses Cover? If you have this cover, the Legal Helpline provided by yopur inurer will help you work out if you have a claim or not, and might represent you to Copart.

Arunmor

How long after you applied for the V5C take to arrive?

Did you not calculate the cost of repairs before bidding?  If not you were flying in the dark before you bid for the car.

I bought my daughter's car as Cat S salvage, but when the V5C arrived it was a CAT N  which was a pleasant surprise considering the number of panels I replaced.                                                                                                               .

DullGreyGuy

Arunmor said:

I bought my daughter's car as Cat S salvage, but when the V5C arrived it was a CAT N  which was a pleasant surprise considering the number of panels I replaced.                                                                                                              

It would be unusual for panels to be structural.

The idea of going from C/D to S/N was to get away from the category being based on if it was a relatively close call total loss or significantly over the vehicle value to if the write off was structural or not which gives people a better idea of the complexity  of repair. 

That said, given how many cars are written off based on a couple of photos because its only worth £1,000 and so almost any repair will exceed that value in a professional bodyshop, I would question how reliable the categories are. 

Arunmor

DullGreyGuy said:

Arunmor said:

I bought my daughter's car as Cat S salvage, but when the V5C arrived it was a CAT N  which was a pleasant surprise considering the number of panels I replaced.                                                                                                              

It would be unusual for panels to be structural.

Absolutely,  I was lucky and got even luckier when I was able to source all the panels from a relatively close flood damaged car in Dumfries (headlights still have a bit of silt in them).

But it did look a lot worse than it was.  I bought in April 2020 at the start of Covid and saved about £1,500 then too compared to what it would have cost only 6 months later.  All in it cost me £3,000 to buy and repair a 4 year old 16 plate Fabia Monte Carlo Estate.  One of my better salvage buys.