New for old car insurance not paying out

Altior

I am an avid watcher of Salvage Rebuilds UK, and as the name suggests, they are in the business of putting 'write offs' back on the road.

It's pretty obvious that since covid, vehicles appear to be written off using remote photos or video inspection only. Like they will get a vehicle from auction that had a settled claim and had a bald tyre. They often get vehicles that are written off as structural damage, with no structural damage. Even big ticket stuff. Newish models are tougher to restore as second hand parts are much harder to come by. And new parts are not only more expensive but often on back order. So it's not just the cost of the available parts, but availability. As insured repairs can't use second hand. 

Woodstok2000

Longwalksbest said:

Ok, what would be your opinion on the engineers report for the repairs stating that there is a possibility of further unidentified damage costs? I interpret this as meaning if they had repaired the car there could likely be significant further damage that could well have pushed repair costs over the 60% mark.
They have refused the claim on a guess and definitely not fact or an accurate final estimate as the engineer has confirmed this was not possible.
Surely to be a decision of this magnitude it should be a final and accurate cost of repairs? 

You could try and push this angle, but it might be challenging. Possibly more damages isn't the same as likely more damages, and they're not going to spend time and money to strip a car and identify every fault when it's already a write off so it will always be an estimate to some degree.

No harm in continuing to push the complaint - hopefully they can be persuaded to change their mind.

MyRealNameToo

Longwalksbest said:

Ok, what would be your opinion on the engineers report for the repairs stating that there is a possibility of further unidentified damage costs? I interpret this as meaning if they had repaired the car there could likely be significant further damage that could well have pushed repair costs over the 60% mark.
They have refused the claim on a guess and definitely not fact or an accurate final estimate as the engineer has confirmed this was not possible.
Surely to be a decision of this magnitude it should be a final and accurate cost of repairs? 

Engineer reports always say this, its butt covering, because 99% of the time the engineer inspects before the vehicle has been disassembled. The fact its there doesnt deem if its 1% of a tiny amount of extra work needed or 99% chance of a lot of work needed. 

The saga policy takes a notably different approach to others, most only offer new for old on Motor for cars under 12 months old where you are the first registered keeper. In those cases they payout on any total loss but with Saga's there is the potential for a payout on an older vehicle or if you bought a pre-reg etc so its swings and roundabouts on which is better.