Car insurance settlement

paul2louise

Mum was reversed into on Sunday and has now received a written off settlement from IMS. I have seen comments on social media saying never accept first offer. The car was low mileage but did have some wear and tear. It is 10 years old. I have told her to wait till I can find out a bit more before we accept an offer. Any advice please. 

MeteredOut

Without knowing the make/model/age/mileage/condition etc of car, and settlement offer, I'm not sure how folk can advise.

paul2louise

MeteredOut said:

Without knowing the make/model/age/mileage/condition etc of car, and settlement offer, I'm not sure how folk can advise.

No I don't want a price I just want advice on how to find out what's fair or whether to say no to see if they offer more. I don't know how it works. It's a 13 reg 5 door fiesta with 29k miles. I looked on webuyany car. They offered 4360. The ims are offering 5320. But how much would it cost for her to buy an equivalent car. 

paul2louise

If I say no can I find out more options or do I only get one offer and if I say no am I left with a scrapped car. 

Ayr_Rage

A 13 plate car is 12 years old not 10.

Look in Autotrader for similar cars for indicative prices.

£5320 from the insurer as compared to £4360 from WBAC looks at first sight very reasonable.

I don't think you have much chance of getting an improved offer.

DullGreyGuy

paul2louise said:

Mum was reversed into on Sunday and has now received a written off settlement from IMS. I have seen comments on social media saying never accept first offer. The car was low mileage but did have some wear and tear. It is 10 years old. I have told her to wait till I can find out a bit more before we accept an offer. Any advice please. 

Insurers base their valuation on book price from the likes of Glass and CAP, these are motor industry guides (not insurance) which show average price of sales based on real transactions reported to them. Unless you have something very exotic then the books typically are fairly accurate - note that they are referred to as books and did used to be physical documents updated every month or so but are now online tools updated more frequently. 

There is still some judgement involved though both in terms of the overall condition of the vehicle and any specific pre-accident damage. 

Ultimately if you arent happy then you would register a complaint and provide any evidence you have to backup the adjustment. Remember however advised prices in AutoTrader are not sales prices and most will be sold under the advertised price. 

Generally the complaint just passes the case to another engineer who will do their own assessment. In many cases the (almost) exact same number comes back, in some cases they may admit they missed something and over valued it and in some cases they will say they accidentally added something and reduce the offer to correct for the fact it didnt have alloys or leather interior or whatever their error was. 

paul2louise said:

If I say no can I find out more options or do I only get one offer and if I say no am I left with a scrapped car. 

As above, your mother registers a complaint if she thinks its insufficient

flaneurs_lobster

paul2louise said:

Mum was reversed into on Sunday and has now received a written off settlement from IMS.

It's been a while since I've made a motor claim, but isn't two days extraordinarily quick for a settlement offer?

paul2louise

flaneurs_lobster said:

paul2louise said:

Mum was reversed into on Sunday and has now received a written off settlement from IMS.

It's been a while since I've made a motor claim, but isn't two days extraordinarily quick for a settlement offer?

I only sent the pics yesterday teatime. 

paul2louise

It probably is a fair offer but I didn't want to just accept without thinking first and getting some advice. 

paul2louise

Ayr_Rage said:

A 13 plate car is 12 years old not 10.

Look in Autotrader for similar cars for indicative prices.

£5320 from the insurer as compared to £4360 from WBAC looks at first sight very reasonable.

I don't think you have much chance of getting an improved offer.

Sorry yes my numbers are a bit out. It's all happening so quick. And just want to do the right thing, as she needs a car but don't want to be rushed into something by not thinking it thro

Brie

So this is all based on pictures, not a mechanic looking at it?  How do they know it's an actual write off??  More likely they are calling it that because it's not economical to repair a car that old.  

So look at Autotrader to see if you can price match.  Tell them to up the price.  Get a real person to look at the car and see if it's moderately repairable.  A car that old might be written off for relatively superficial damage so you/mom might want to accept an offer on the proviso you get to keep the car.  Then mom takes the cash, gets the local shop to bang it back into shape for a £500 or whatever and she can drive off with the car she likes and money in the bank.