Contacted by unknown accident claims company after accident. Advice please.

Not_Me_Officer · 16 May 2017 at 8:23PM

Not_Me_Officer wrote: »

With the key point being me not wanting to lose my car, I'm unsure what to do next.

Claim via his insurance.
Claim via mine and pay the excess which I may or
may not get back.

I have protected NCDs.

If I have to buy my car back then I'll buy it back but is it a given that will be an option? Since it's only scratches.

I don't really want my lack of experience here having me make a mistake with it where I lose out.

So getting back on topic then...

Was speaking with a regular customer at work about this & he was saying that it's best to claim through the third party insurance and not my own since i wont pay any excess this way & wont lose my NCDs (doesn't apply anyway i guess as said - i have protected NCDs).

Regards the write off, i thought it'd be a case of take the car away (which is what i don't want), give me say £500 for it & then say if you want it back give us £400.
This customer i spoke with said it's more likely to be a case of send an assessor out & then say yes it'd be a write off as repair would equal value of the car so here's £500 for the car & we'll take it or if you're wanting to keep it then here's £250 towards the repair (which is just a paint job).

Is the chap i spoke to about this correct on any of the above?

victor2 · 16 May 2017 at 8:45PM

If the car is an insurance write off, ask the insurers if you can buy it back off them and for how much. That should be the scrap value. You then use the difference between that and what settlement they offer you to put the car back on the road. Not all insurers will let you do that, but I believe many will.
Should you come to sell the car, it will have a Cat D write-off marker against it, putting many potential buyers off and drastically reducing the resale value. But if you want to run it until it dies, then scrap it, no problem.

Not_Me_Officer · 16 May 2017 at 9:10PM

victor2 wrote: »

If the car is an insurance write off, ask the insurers if you can buy it back off them and for how much. That should be the scrap value. You then use the difference between that and what settlement they offer you to put the car back on the road. Not all insurers will let you do that, but I believe many will.
Should you come to sell the car, it will have a Cat D write-off marker against it, putting many potential buyers off and drastically reducing the resale value. But if you want to run it until it dies, then scrap it, no problem.

Yeah that's basically it. I will be the last owner of this car. I plan on keeping it for another 4-5 years and then replacing maybe. Who knows, in another 5 years i may say another 5 years again if it's running well still.

What i want to try & establish is whether i can find out BEFORE claiming if there'll be an option to buy back. I did ask the third party's insurance today when i called them but language barrier meant i wasn't 100% sure the lady on the other end understood (or even listened & wasn't too interested in just reading a script).

The damage is just paintwork. We're not talking panel replacing or knocking out, it's just paintwork. As such i would drive it like it is. I just don't want to let this person get away with what they did. If that means having my car listed as a cat D then so long as i still get to keep the car then so be it.

chrisw · 16 May 2017 at 10:41PM

Not_Me_Officer wrote: »

What i want to try & establish is whether i can find out BEFORE claiming if there'll be an option to buy back. .

Whether there's an option to buy back is purely at the discretion of the insurance company.

If they've paid out on it, they own it and might or might not decide to let you buy it back. Some have deals with dismantlers and all written off vehicles go directly to them.

You could try asking them their general policy regarding buy back but it's likely you will have to await the outcome of the assessment and if they decide to write it off, ask to buy it back then.

Not_Me_Officer · 16 May 2017 at 11:05PM

chrisw wrote: »

Whether there's an option to buy back is purely at the discretion of the insurance company.

If they've paid out on it, they own it and might or might not decide to let you buy it back. Some have deals with dismantlers and all written off vehicles go directly to them.

You could try asking them their general policy regarding buy back but it's likely you will have to await the outcome of the assessment and if they decide to write it off, ask to buy it back then.

So are you saying it's not possible to find out beforehand?

As i say, i don't want this guy to get away with it so if it means going Cat D then fine but if it means losing my car then i wont go ahead with it then.

I can't understand those on the other end of the phone so i'll have to try the email address they gave (which i hope i understood right after we had to go over it 3 times). I was going to ask them right from the off if they offer the option to buy back a write off.

on a side note, do police do anything about people who don't stop or do they just push it on to the insurance to rid their hands of it? As you can tell, i don't want this guy getting away with it at all.

chrisw · 17 May 2017 at 7:37AM

Not_Me_Officer wrote: »

So are you saying it's not possible to find out beforehand?

No, I'm saying there is no definitive way to find out other than to ask them directly. They might or might not give an indication of their policy regarding buy backs.

Abuhelal · 17 May 2017 at 5:48PM

I had a call from heartelligence company too, sounded a little odd and the person I was talking to was in a real rush to get my details, sounded like a scam to me, regardless I signed some document to get some papers sent to me I was then told I'd be called by his supervisor to claim compensation for an accident I was involved in but once he had called I told him I was no longer interested, he kindly apologised and hung up.

Bigphil1474 · 18 May 2017 at 1:44PM

OP, have you considered just dropping the whole thing? If it's just paintwork and you're happy to drive it as it is, it might save you some hassle.
Normally, in a non-fault accident you, as the 'victim' would claim from the other driver's insurance. Do that, and it should be all sorted.
As others have said, expect numerous calls from numerous companies offering to get you easy money for your suffering - think it's up to 3 years from the date of the accident. Personally, I would advise saying no to all of them as you weren't injured, but whatever your conscience tells you.
My car was tail ended in August 2012, and it was only worth £750, and the repair bill was estimated at about £1500 - that's insurance cost, not good local garage cost. They paid out £728 to me and I kept the car which they'd valued as scrap for £22. I ran the car for a couple of weeks, then scrapped it for £50. I got calls from claim companies every other week until some time in 2015.
If it's paint work, it depends on the car but it sounds like you want them to let you keep the car, and give you some money, to possibly get some paintwork repaired that you aren't bothered about?

Mercdriver · 18 May 2017 at 4:48PM

Bigphil1474 wrote: »

OP, have you considered just dropping the whole thing? If it's just paintwork and you're happy to drive it as it is, it might save you some hassle.
Normally, in a non-fault accident you, as the 'victim' would claim from the other driver's insurance. Do that, and it should be all sorted.
As others have said, expect numerous calls from numerous companies offering to get you easy money for your suffering - think it's up to 3 years from the date of the accident. Personally, I would advise saying no to all of them as you weren't injured, but whatever your conscience tells you.
My car was tail ended in August 2012, and it was only worth £750, and the repair bill was estimated at about £1500 - that's insurance cost, not good local garage cost. They paid out £728 to me and I kept the car which they'd valued as scrap for £22. I ran the car for a couple of weeks, then scrapped it for £50. I got calls from claim companies every other week until some time in 2015.
If it's paint work, it depends on the car but it sounds like you want them to let you keep the car, and give you some money, to possibly get some paintwork repaired that you aren't bothered about?

It can be up to 6 years. Mine have only just starte dto tail off after 4.5 years

badmemory · 18 May 2017 at 5:18PM

I'm on my 4th call today. 5 more years of this & I'll have the police round accusing me of making (taking) abusive calls. Definitely going to stop being polite now. It's getting bad when you start recognising their voices, yes voices not accents.

Contacted by unknown accident claims company after accident. Advice please.

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