Insurance claim

Starbrite

Hi everyone, 

I'm looking for advice on where I stand legally and to vent a bit too. 

Unfortunately I crashed my car in March 2024, went up the back of someone, was told there and then on phone car a write off I was like how you have not even looked at it. sent photos over still told its a write off we will offer X amount, I refused the offer, got the ombudsman involved.

The ombudsman looked into all and agreed x amount is a fair offer. I've then called my Car Insurance company to settle up and find out how to buy my car back so I can get it fixed etc, It was/is a Cat N, she's a good car Audi A1, 2011, 65,000 miles semi auto Sline. 

Man put me on hold for ages.... emptied washing made tea while waiting! when he returned he was all apologetic and informed me the car was disposed of in April and sold at a car auction! 

The claim is still open, I am within my legal rights to buy my car back yet they sold my car in April. He said on the phone he will raise a complaint and have it escalated and I will be compensated. (not sure if he meant the x figure or compensated differently) 

My main question is how can a car insurance company legally sell a car when the claim has not been closed, settled etc?  

I am fuming as was hoping to buy her back and get her fixed 

Not sure where I stand, what to do etc, I am fuming and was in tears earlier over a hunk of metal, i know!

If anyone has been in this situation, has any words of wisdom or knows anything please let me know, 

thanks xx

MattMattMattUK

Starbrite said:

Hi everyone, 

I'm looking for advice on where I stand legally and to vent a bit too. 

Unfortunately I crashed my car in March 2024, went up the back of someone, was told there and then on phone car a write off I was like how you have not even looked at it. sent photos over still told its a write off we will offer X amount, I refused the offer, got the ombudsman involved.

The ombudsman looked into all and agreed x amount is a fair offer. I've then called my Car Insurance company to settle up and find out how to buy my car back so I can get it fixed etc, It was/is a Cat N, she's a good car Audi A1, 2011, 65,000 miles semi auto Sline. 

Man put me on hold for ages.... emptied washing made tea while waiting! when he returned he was all apologetic and informed me the car was disposed of in April and sold at a car auction! 

The claim is still open, I am within my legal rights to buy my car back yet they sold my car in April. He said on the phone he will raise a complaint and have it escalated and I will be compensated. (not sure if he meant the x figure or compensated differently) 

My main question is how can a car insurance company legally sell a car when the claim has not been closed, settled etc?  

I am fuming as was hoping to buy her back and get her fixed 

Not sure where I stand, what to do etc, I am fuming and was in tears earlier over a hunk of metal, i know!

If anyone has been in this situation, has any words of wisdom or knows anything please let me know, 

thanks xx

Take the money, they will offer you a token gesture off the back of your complaint (somewhere from £50-250 at most), move on with life, stop referring to a car as "her", buy a new car. You can either expend a lot of energy getting nowhere, or you can move on.

Arunmor

Not much help to you OP but but if at all possible have the car dropped of at home until all sorted out, you then have control..

The problem you have is the car is not coming back so you will just have to argue your corner with the insurance company over the value and something for an unauthorised sale (might struggle with that).

Starbrite

Arunmor said:

Not much help to you OP but but if at all possible have the car dropped of at home until all sorted out, you then have control..

The problem you have is the car is not coming back so you will just have to argue your corner with the insurance company over the value and something for an unauthorised sale (might struggle with that).

I asked for it to be brought back to mine, alas they refused as I only have communal off street parking

paul_c123

What happened in between the accident and the car being disposed of in April? Did you drive the car back home then allow someone to collect it?

Hoenir

Starbrite said:

Arunmor said:

Not much help to you OP but but if at all possible have the car dropped of at home until all sorted out, you then have control..

The problem you have is the car is not coming back so you will just have to argue your corner with the insurance company over the value and something for an unauthorised sale (might struggle with that).

I asked for it to be brought back to mine, alas they refused as I only have communal off street parking

The insurance company will be liable for storage charges. They've a vested interest in mitigating their own losses. You need to have provided an alternative option. 

Mildly_Miffed

Starbrite said:

Hi everyone, 

I'm looking for advice on where I stand legally and to vent a bit too. 

Unfortunately I crashed my car in March 2024, went up the back of someone, was told there and then on phone car a write off I was like how you have not even looked at it. sent photos over still told its a write off we will offer X amount, I refused the offer, got the ombudsman involved.

The ombudsman looked into all and agreed x amount is a fair offer. I've then called my Car Insurance company to settle up and find out how to buy my car back so I can get it fixed etc, It was/is a Cat N, she's a good car Audi A1, 2011, 65,000 miles semi auto Sline. 

Man put me on hold for ages.... emptied washing made tea while waiting! when he returned he was all apologetic and informed me the car was disposed of in April and sold at a car auction! 

The claim is still open, I am within my legal rights to buy my car back yet they sold my car in April. He said on the phone he will raise a complaint and have it escalated and I will be compensated. (not sure if he meant the x figure or compensated differently) 

My main question is how can a car insurance company legally sell a car when the claim has not been closed, settled etc?  

I am fuming as was hoping to buy her back and get her fixed 

Not sure where I stand, what to do etc, I am fuming and was in tears earlier over a hunk of metal, i know!

If anyone has been in this situation, has any words of wisdom or knows anything please let me know, 

A 13yo A1... There's 180 of them on Autotrader right now. Half of them are <£5k.

Front end damage - even just wings/bumper/bonnet/lights without the airbags deploying - does not take very long AT ALL to get to that figure, even ignoring any hidden damage to slam panel, crash bar, rad pack, etc etc. And that's before we consider the hire car costs, and the return from the salvage auction, all of which are taken into account in the calculation - basically, is it cheaper for them to write it off or repair it?

So, no, no surprise AT ALL that they're going to just pay out for anything more than trivial cosmetics. The rest is about agreement of the actual amount.

They bought it off you with the payment. There is zero legal right to be able to buy it back, none whatsoever. They may choose to offer it to you, but that would have been a very short term offer - clearly, it was a month before the car was disposed of, and that was fourteen months ago.

Are you really expecting them to have stored it for all that time?
Who would you expect to have paid for that storage...?

DullGreyGuy

Starbrite said:

I'm looking for advice on where I stand legally and to vent a bit too. 

Unfortunately I crashed my car in March 2024, went up the back of someone, was told there and then on phone car a write off I was like how you have not even looked at it. sent photos over still told its a write off we will offer X amount, I refused the offer, got the ombudsman involved.

The ombudsman looked into all and agreed x amount is a fair offer. I've then called my Car Insurance company to settle up and find out how to buy my car back so I can get it fixed etc, It was/is a Cat N, she's a good car Audi A1, 2011, 65,000 miles semi auto Sline. 

Man put me on hold for ages.... emptied washing made tea while waiting! when he returned he was all apologetic and informed me the car was disposed of in April and sold at a car auction! 

The claim is still open, I am within my legal rights to buy my car back yet they sold my car in April. He said on the phone he will raise a complaint and have it escalated and I will be compensated. (not sure if he meant the x figure or compensated differently) 

My main question is how can a car insurance company legally sell a car when the claim has not been closed, settled etc?  

I am fuming as was hoping to buy her back and get her fixed 

Not sure where I stand, what to do etc, I am fuming and was in tears earlier over a hunk of metal, i know!

If anyone has been in this situation, has any words of wisdom or knows anything please let me know, 

You have no "right" to buy the salvage unless it states so in the policy book and I have never seen a single policy which states you do. 

Presumably they did pay you the £X less your excess whilst you were going through the ombudsman process? Insurers will normally pay up their initial offer whilst the dispute is going on. 

If your idea was correct then people could just mess around and go to the ombudsman which would cost the insurer £650 in ombudsman fees and £10-£15 per day + VAT in storage which at 3-6 months for a case to be finished so over £3k. Why wouldnt anyone not dispute their sub £5,000 settlement even if it's very generous given they can threaten their insurer with another £3k of costs if they dont up their offer? 

Mildly_Miffed

DullGreyGuy said:

You have no "right" to buy the salvage unless it states so in the policy book and I have never seen a single policy which states you do.  

It's part of a lot of specialist policies, such as classic car.

DullGreyGuy

Mildly_Miffed said:

DullGreyGuy said:

You have no "right" to buy the salvage unless it states so in the policy book and I have never seen a single policy which states you do.  

It's part of a lot of specialist policies, such as classic car.

Never handled a classic car policy but it doesnt surprise me hence saying check the policy book

Starbrite

To date I have not received any money, I didn’t accept their first offer, they refused to budge on the figures so I went to the omibusman for advice/help look into it all

The crash was March 2025, the man came to crash scene and said they are going to have to take it to a yard as I didn’t have anywhere other than communal parking to store the vehicle. I tired to get them to take it to my address alas they where insistent 

Today I found out the cars been sold without my knowledge, I’ve not signed the car over nor taken any payments