Car repairs more then cars worth

juser1234

So I got hit in a car park there was witness  there insurance have excepted liability so I get a email saying they pay me out and pay extra for car to be salvaged but my car is drivable and I like to keep my car and take to garage to repair myself  so can I still keep my car and drive it and use the payout for repairs when I mention that they said settlement would be less as it’s not wriiten off still drivable got report to say so 

Brie

start negotiating. 

If they say they'd pay you £1k to write it off and £800 if you keep it then you need to find proof that your car would cost £1500 to replace and so you should get £1200 to keep it.  Go on to Parkers, Autotrader etc to find your make, model, year, previous condition and see what that would cost.  

Most companies expect you to just roll over and take the cash.  

facade

What is your question?

The insurer has given you two choices.

1) they buy your damaged car off you for what they say it was worth undamaged.

2) You keep the car and they pay you what they say it was worth undamaged, less what it is worth now as salvage, so you get the difference paid out to fix it with or not bother if it is just cosmetic. (and your effective payout is the same, just part of it is in goods, not all cash)

They don't think that it is cost effective to pay for your car to be repaired, as there are car hire fees, storage etc. and their repairer will only use the finest new parts each one lovingly hand fettled and fitted.

Your garage may repair it for you personally and only charge a fraction of what the insurer would have had to pay, that is how the business works.

You can't force them to pay for repairs that are uneconomic, only to give you what they say the car was worth.

Car_54

facade said:

You can't force them to pay for repairs that are uneconomic, only to give you what they say the car was worth.

Also, you can't force them to let you keep the car. They can simply pay you the full settlement, and the car becomes their property. That puts them in a much strong negotiating position than you.

Nobbie1967

Car_54 said:

facade said:

You can't force them to pay for repairs that are uneconomic, only to give you what they say the car was worth.

Also, you can't force them to let you keep the car. They can simply pay you the full settlement, and the car becomes their property. That puts them in a much strong negotiating position than you.

They appear to be dealing with the 3rd party insurer rather than their own, so they can force them to let them keep the car. The 3rd party insurer has no right to the car.

Aretnap

Car_54 said:

facade said:

You can't force them to pay for repairs that are uneconomic, only to give you what they say the car was worth.

Also, you can't force them to let you keep the car. They can simply pay you the full settlement, and the car becomes their property. That puts them in a much strong negotiating position than you.

Depends on whther he's dealing with the third party's insurer or his own. If dealing with his own isurer the contract he has with them would indeed give them the right to do this. 

However the third party's insurer has no contract with him which would give them the right to keep the car - so the default position would be that they pay the difference between the pre-accident value and the salvage value, and he keeps what's left of the car.

The OP says "there insurance have excepted liability" but it's not clear whether that's through his own insurer or whether he's dealing with the TPI direct.

Arunmor

Sounds like OP still has the car in his possession for the insurer to collect and deliver to Copart etc their is hassle and a cost that gives the OP a little bit of leeway (but not a lot).

DullGreyGuy

Arunmor said:

Sounds like OP still has the car in his possession for the insurer to collect and deliver to Copart etc their is hassle and a cost that gives the OP a little bit of leeway (but not a lot).

The salvage agent collects it not the insurer and thats baked into the mechanism for valuing the salvage so its no leverage against the insurer and they won't reduce the salvage value to reflect no one has to collect it.