Insurance claim

MattMattMattUK

Starbrite said:

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 

You need to accept you are not going to get the car back so you have two choices, drag the process out, or not, one of those seems a far better option to me. 

DullGreyGuy

In most cases they'd have paid over their offer irrespective of if you accepted it or not, unless you were obstructive and refused to give details for them to be able to make payment. If they dont and the ombudsman upholds the case you would get 8% on the full amount from when the offer was made to when the ombudsman instructs them to increase the offer whereas if they pay out the initial amount up front then the 8% only applies to the uplift and not the whole. Obviously if you were obstructive then you have no one to blame but yourself. 

Why do you think they'd want to pay to have it moved to your place and then pay for it to be moved a second time to the salvage yard? If you want it home you arrange your own recovery and they will then pay for the one collection to the salvage yard. 

Ultimately you dont have the right to buy the car and presumably even if you dont agree with the settlement you do actually want to proceed with it rather than cancel the claim and have the damaged vehicle back? So unless you are willing to lie and go to the ombudsman about that then you cannot document a financial loss or material distress so technically you cannot complain. 

Starbrite

DullGreyGuy said:

In most cases they'd have paid over their offer irrespective of if you accepted it or not, unless you were obstructive and refused to give details for them to be able to make payment. If they dont and the ombudsman upholds the case you would get 8% on the full amount from when the offer was made to when the ombudsman instructs them to increase the offer whereas if they pay out the initial amount up front then the 8% only applies to the uplift and not the whole. Obviously if you were obstructive then you have no one to blame but yourself. 

Why do you think they'd want to pay to have it moved to your place and then pay for it to be moved a second time to the salvage yard? If you want it home you arrange your own recovery and they will then pay for the one collection to the salvage yard. 

Ultimately you dont have the right to buy the car and presumably even if you dont agree with the settlement you do actually want to proceed with it rather than cancel the claim and have the damaged vehicle back? So unless you are willing to lie and go to the ombudsman about that then you cannot document a financial loss or material distress so technically you cannot complain. 

I’ve not been obstructive, insurance company hasn’t even asked for my bank details! 

Aretnap

The Financial Ombudsman's position is that the insurance company should not scrap the car without informing you.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/insurance/motor-insurance/vehicle-valuations-write-offs

The problem is going to be that the compensation that you'd be due for the insurer scrapping the car without your agreement is going to be... the value of the car. Which you are already going to receive as part of the write off settlement. You might get a small extra sum for the inconvenience this has caused you, but realistically you can't claim hundreds or thousands of pounds extra because of the sentimental value of the car, or because you liked it and didn't want to change it.

So you can put in a complaint if you want to, but don't expect very much to change because of it. 

Gsaver1

Once you get your money go on the Copart site and find yourself another Audi A1 with Cat N damage. You might find that this one is better than your old one. 

Mildly_Miffed

Starbrite said:

Unfortunately I crashed my car in March 2024

Starbrite said:

The crash was March 2025

Ooookay. And only three months since it was sold on, the month after the crash.

So a 14yo A1, not 13yo. The principle remains the same.

The write-off is agreed. There is no legal requirement to offer you the salvage.

You are simply arguing about the payout.