My options if insurance offers write offs category N for my car

Afrapp88
Afrapp88 Posts: 21 Forumite
edited 18 September 2019 at 4:18PM in Insurance & life assurance
Hi,

I apologise in advance because I posted a similar question before but here I'll be more direct and hopefully I'll get a clearer idea about my problem, I got very confused by the material I read online.

Fact: I filed a no-fault claim after my car got hit by a lorry while parked in my street. It tore off the the wing mirror and left some purely and utterly cosmetic damages (micro scratched and some indentations on the door). My girlfriend and I spent a lot of time for this car, which we bought second hand by a trusted dealer. It never failed us in our multiple road trips, it's extremely well maintained (looks new) and works perfectly and we love it. Its value on Autotrader is around £3,000.

Question: what are my options if the insurance tells me they deem it a Cat N? I really have a very highly confused idea of what this means. If I want to repair JUST the WING MIRROR, and this repair falls well below the anti-economical price threshold for the total loss, what can I do? Can I push the insurance to pay just that? Will the car still be categorised? I have no intention nor the time to enter into a difficult negotiation process with the insurer about the price of the car, nor I want to look for another similarly-priced car as I am aware in this price range, used cars are a gamble, and I don't want to give up the one that turned out to work. I could well buy a second car with the insurance payoff that breaks down full of problems a few months after the purchase.

Thank you so much, and again apologise if I sort of repeat my question but I'm deeply confused. I read somewhere that any negotiation for a write off need to be done quickly and I need to be prepared. Meanwhile, I sent pictures of the damage to my trusted garage to get an idea of how much it would cost.

Best wishes to you all,
Andrew

PS: I have comprehensive cover with Admiral. I cannot find anything about salvage retention in the policy booklet. Does it mean it won't be possible? If it's the case, what does it mean? That once they say it's total loss, I automatically lose ownership of the car?? This is so bloody confusing. Isn't more economical for the insurer to go via salvage retention for a Cat N car? They have to pay less money.

Comments

  • If they want to write it off and won't sell you the salvage then all you can do is cancel the claim and pay for the damage yourself. A neighbour of mine had to do this and had the car for 4 more years with the dent unrepaired. Seems a bit of a scam if you ask me; insurers want to write-off car, pay you peanuts and sell the car on.



    If you want them to repair it and they won't; raise a complaint with Admiral and then, if necessary escalate to the FOS.
  • If they want to write it off and won't sell you the salvage then all you can do is cancel the claim and pay for the damage yourself. A neighbour of mine had to do this and had the car for 4 more years with the dent unrepaired. Seems a bit of a scam if you ask me; insurers want to write-off car, pay you peanuts and sell the car on.



    If you want them to repair it and they won't; raise a complaint with Admiral and then, if necessary escalate to the FOS.

    Thanks for the reply. Yes, if it's the case that Admiral won't sell me the salvage, it's quite frustrating and feels like a scam. I saw no mention to salvage retention in the policy, though I remember the agent telling me about the option of keeping the categorised car so at this point I'm confused. Anyways, back in Italy my father and brother both work in insurance and say it's so much easier there: the insurance just pays you the value of the car minus excess and the cost of retaining the salvage and you repair the damages yourself, there is no such thing as the insurance keeping the car without offering this option.
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