My Car Has Been Written Off In Arson Attack - Is There Any Support?

saajan_12

sperre said:

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My question is, does anyone know where I sit with sourcing compensation for criminal damage? From the police? Motor Insurance Board?

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Surely there must be some financial support in this scenario as I'm struggling to sleep and I'm also out of pocket by about £35,000 with no car and I'm self-employed in an industry where travel is essential.

Gosh sounds very shocking, sorry to hear this. The people responsible for the crime are the arsonists - not the fault of the police or insurance board. You could sue the arsonists for the damages you suffered - namely the value of your car and some interim costs to get around for the initial few days. 

However notwithstanding the valuation difference, it sounds like the insurer is covering most of that. If they do cover a more reasonable valuation and costs, then you are made hole and no longer out of pocket. That £[33]k was depreciation over the last 11 years so it was already lost before the fire. 

elsien

sperre said:

elsien said:

I am struggling to see why you think you’ve got a £40,000 car and the insurance company thinks it’s only worth 6000. 

Where does your £40,000 figure come from?

The car was £40,000 in 2014 when I bought it. There is only one or two similar cars to mine available in the UK at the moment with the same make, model and mileage. They're listed for £7,500 - £9,500.

I've requested a revaluation from my insurance company and contested their figure but my car was in excellent condition and cost me £40,000 (approx).

If I were to buy a similar car brand new again it would cost me £40,000 - £60,000. 

The point here is not necessarily determining the value of my car but the fact that a crime has taken place, the police have been mostly unresponsive and I now I'm at a huge loss with no car due to no fault of my own and I cannot afford to buy a new one.

 Your car may have cost 40,000 but it’s not worth it now. And there are much cheaper secondhand cars on the market if you can’t afford to replace yours with new.

People are referencing the value of the car because you keep saying that you’ve lost 34K when you haven’t - you’ve had 11 years worth of value from your car which depreciated the minure it left the forecourt.

Yes if I were you, I would be extremely miffed that my well looked after car has been written off, but if you are hoping that going to court will give you much more than you’ve been offered, I think you’re clutching at straws. 

vacheron

sperre said:

elsien said:

sperre said:

elsien said:

I am struggling to see why you think you’ve got a £40,000 car and the insurance company thinks it’s only worth 6000. 

Where does your £40,000 figure come from?

The car was £40,000 in 2014 when I bought it. There is only one or two similar cars to mine available in the UK at the moment with the same make, model and mileage. They're listed for £7,500 - £9,500.

I've requested a revaluation from my insurance company and contested their figure but my car was in excellent condition and cost me £40,000 (approx).

If I were to buy a similar car brand new again it would cost me £40,000 - £60,000. 

The point here is not necessarily determining the value of my car but the fact that a crime has taken place, the police have been mostly unresponsive and I now I'm at a huge loss with no car due to no fault of my own and I cannot afford to buy a new one.

 Your car may have cost 40,000 but it’s not worth it now. And there are much cheaper secondhand cars on the market if you can’t afford to replace yours with new.

People are referencing the value of the car because you keep saying that you’ve lost 34K when you haven’t - you’ve had 11 years worth of value from your car which depreciated the minure it left the forecourt.

Yes if I were you, I would be extremely miffed that my well looked after car has been written off, but if you are hoping that going to court will give you much more than you’ve been offered, I think you’re clutching at straws. 

Let me reiterate that I have come here asking for advice on any further support beyond my insurance pay out.

I have no expectation of £40,000 from my insurer. I am aware of depreciation and I am not asking to be unnecessarily criticised by people nit picking moot details.

My question was if there is any additional support, which has mostly been answered as no beyond personally suing the culprit(s) of the crime.

I am quite shocked by forumites attitude and negative, critical and borderline attacking responses. I came here for help, guidance and support. A sign of the social turmoil the UK is currently in, perhaps.

Had your first post been worded slighlty differently then I feel you would have got the answers you were looking for. Many responders read the first post only and post their immediate thoughts based on this.

Your comments of "my £40,000 car is destroyed" and "I am out of pocket by £35,000" are the parts that stand out as needing to be corrected. That was certainly my original take away.

Had these not been included, the replies would not have been so out of keeping with the actual responses you were looking for (which I agree you did repeatedly clarify in your later posts, but not everyone reads the whole thread).

born_again

Would suggest OP has a read of these links. Google is a great tool at getting to the point.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/criminal-injuries-compensation-a-guide

https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/help-and-support/what-you-can-do/compensation/

Of course this all depends on catching the people involved & then having the funds to pay the OP.

sperre

born_again said:

Would suggest OP has a read of these links. Google is a great tool at getting to the point.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/criminal-injuries-compensation-a-guide

https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/help-and-support/what-you-can-do/compensation/

Of course this all depends on catching the people involved & then having the funds to pay the OP.

Thank you. These are the kind of things I was looking for. Victim support were useless. I asked for help and they told me they can't do anything for the stress, anxiety and potential PTSD from the incident. They told me to speak to my GP.

I will research the criminal compensation guide. Thank you!

Brie

Yes - your GP is the first port of call for anything for stress etc.  Beyond that you could look to local self help groups - you might find something via a local FB group or through NextDoor or simply googling victim support naming your general location.  

Beyond that let me wish you an uneventful time in the future to give you time to recover.  And congratulations on the wedding - it's a lot all at once!

marcia_

sperre said:

born_again said:

Would suggest OP has a read of these links. Google is a great tool at getting to the point.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/criminal-injuries-compensation-a-guide

https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/help-and-support/what-you-can-do/compensation/

Of course this all depends on catching the people involved & then having the funds to pay the OP.

Thank you. These are the kind of things I was looking for. Victim support were useless. I asked for help and they told me they can't do anything for the stress, anxiety and potential PTSD from the incident. They told me to speak to my GP.

I will research the criminal compensation guide. Thank you!

 Criminal injuries wont be an option to you. It is available to individuals who have been victims of crimes that have sustained personal injury. Cars being damaged don't qualify 

Aretnap

sperre said:

born_again said:

Would suggest OP has a read of these links. Google is a great tool at getting to the point.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/criminal-injuries-compensation-a-guide

https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/help-and-support/what-you-can-do/compensation/

Of course this all depends on catching the people involved & then having the funds to pay the OP.

Thank you. These are the kind of things I was looking for. Victim support were useless. I asked for help and they told me they can't do anything for the stress, anxiety and potential PTSD from the incident. They told me to speak to my GP.

I will research the criminal compensation guide. Thank you!

Sorry for your situation but I suggest that you will need to temper your expectations on this front. There's a taxpayer funded compensation scheme for criminal injuries but no equivalent scheme for property damage - the thinking being that property damage is something that can largely be sorted out by insurance companies, so not something that public funds are needed to put right. 

So your only hope of compensation other than what you can get from your insurance company is that the arsonists are caught, that the court makes a compensation order, and that they are able to pay and actually do pay. The chances of all those things happening are rather slim to be honest. And even if miraculously they did happen, the court would value your car in much the same way as your insurer, and your insurance would have first dibs on any money recovered beyond your excess under their subrogation rights. (The same principle that says that if someone writes off your car by driving into the back of it you can't claim it's value from your own insure AND collect it's value again from the third party insurer - you only get paid once for the car).

So realistically your only route to a better deal than the £6000 your insure has offered is to dispute their valuation, and that's where you should concentrate your energies. See here for information on how it should be valued.

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

Spendless

Over 20 years ago my parents were subject to an arson attack as they slept. Youths (presumably) put crunched up newspaper in the conifers that surrounded their property which backed on to a green space, and set it alight. They were saved by an off duty policeman who returning home from a nightshift went to investigate what the blaze was and called the fire brigade out who in turn roused my parents out of bed. They were oblivious. Fire brigade told them they were 10 mins away from the eaves of the bungalow catching alight and then it would be unlikely that their smoke alarm would work and rouse them as the fire would be coming from the top of the house not smoke rising up. They were fortunate to escape with their lives.

No one was ever caught for it. My parents received nothing for it because as said they had not been personally injured. The insurance company paid out for the damaged trees but the whole lot had to come out because it was a straight run of them and after that experience they weren't replacing just the burnt out trees -plus they'd have needed time to grow to match the rest. My parents paid for the whole area to be fenced instead - putting the insurance money from the burnt out trees towards the cos

So no unfortunately there is nothing. The chances of someone being caught for it are probably slim. I sometimes wonder if any more effort to find the culprits would have been made if my parents had died and it had become a murder/manslaughter situation. It wasn't targeted, it was just someone (or more than one) setting fire to trees 'for fun' (there had been a couple of other incidences prior to this). Go to your GP if you need something for the anxiety etc.

On a seperate note years ago when I had my car stolen my insurance company offerred me an amount I didn't think fair. I disputed it and the offer was upped (which I accepted). It seemed common at that time that insurance would make a low(ish) first offer and you had to dispute it to hopefully get a higher offer.