Car Insurance Claim Advice

IanD2008

Hi,

Looking for advice on my car insurance if anyone can help me.

Last week I got bumped from behind at a junction, nothing major but scraped the bumper, broke rear light and did something to the exhaust. I could hear that it was blowing out after the incident, was fine before. The other driver took full responsibility and they were insured, so I phoned my insurance and they have dealt with it all.

Just got a phone call from the engineer saying that the bumper and lights have been fixed but not the exhaust, because it is completely rotten through and I quote - 'the impact just finished it off'. He says that my insurance policy doesn't cover wear and tear and that exhaust (in his opinion) would not have lasted another week.

The problem I have with this, is that the car passed it's MOT about 3 weeks ago with no mention about the exhaust. Yes - it may well be rotten etc. (I don't know!) but I would expect the car to be returned to me in the condition before the incident, i.e. with a working exhaust. For all I know it may have lasted months yet.

Anyone have any advice? Do I have any chance of complaining and getting the insurance to pay up for a new exhaust if it can't be fixed?

Many thanks,

Ian

V_tricky

If they replaced the exhaust as well, then that would be 'betterment' - ie putting you back in a position better than you were prior to the accident, so it's unlikely you will get the full cost back.

If I were you though, I would be asking (by email/fax probably) whether in the engineers opinion any damage would have occurred to the exhaust, had it been in tip top condition - if the answer is yes, then I would be asking how much that would have likely to have cost to repair, and ask for that amount.

Although you wont get the cost of a whole shiny new exhaust, they can give you a contribution towards, either by working it out as above, or by plucking a figure out of thin air, otherwise they aren't putting you back in the position that you were before.

vij1366

50/50 your insurance comp would struggle to replace it fully ,as the engineer has stated in his report that it was gone,but you can argue that it passed the mot without any metion of this ,push them on this line if not then you may have to sttle that the 3rd party pay 50 and you the other ,
if this does nt work take em to the insrance ombudsman .

IanD2008

Thanks for the replies - yeah totally understand the 'betterment' thing.

I would be perfectly happy if they replaced it with a equally rotten exhaust with no hole in, like mine before the incident.. but just because they don't have a like for like policy, I'm left with nothing instead of something new, doesn't seem fair to me!

Thanks for the advice - I will definitely try and at least get something towards it.