Written off

[Lonsdale73]

Last week, the 'boss' had a bump while driving my car (she is a named driver on the insurance policy). The insurance company want to write it off without even looking at it, offering a payment that won't buy a comparable replacement. Anyone know how I stand with that? At the moment, I've not accepted their offer so does this mean that it's not a write off? It was driven nearly 100 miles after the accident to get it back here although she was a bit of a wreck by the time she got here, saying its handling was 'different'. Been so long since I drove it myself that I can't remember how it's supposed to handle.

Bit annoyed with the insurance company, not just for their cavalier attitude towards the car but I've replied to their offer twice now, seeking some clarification, but not had a reply to either email.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Been so long since I drove it myself that I can't remember how it's supposed to handle ...
Make sure you don't let that slip to the insurance company - your wife should have had it insured in her own name.

 

[Doug71]

A few months ago some old farmer managed to catch the side of my van (07 plate Vauxhaull Vivaro) with a trailer he was towing, didn't look anything serious, a scrape on the wheel arch and a bit of broken plastic trim. Insurance said not worth repairing and wanted to write it off, I wanted to keep it and after a bit of a battle it got repaired.

 

[fezman]

it was a while ago - 2/4/2002 IIRC - i had a shunt in a Renault Laguna, technically my fault as i rear ended a wagon. Car was pretty beat up, and was subsequently written off by insurance company. However, the car (i'd owned since new) was about 15k under average mileage, in pristine condition (due to ill health, it had sat in a garage for over 12 months) prior to the smash.
Insurance co offered me about £1500 less (£4500 compared to £6000) than what i thought it was worth / the cost to buy the same car. After much arguing, i simply sent them a bunch of adverts from autotrader detailing comparable replacements (same spec, mileage, age etc). I asked them either for a settlement of the same value as the cheapest advert, or offered they could get me a replacement comparable vehicle. They caved in and settled up at market value. I do think they were trying it on with the first offer though.

That said, they then did P**$ me around royally in sending the cash through - but thats a whole other story

 

[RobinBHM]

My BIL had his car keyed by some local oiks.

Car went to repairers; owned by the insurers......they then said, its worse than we though, the car will be written off.

After days of chasing the insurers to get the car back, my BIL was then told: 'too late the cars been scrapped'.

Never trust insurance companies.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Some time ago I had an old Mondeo, which had its rear plastic bumper cracked whilst parked. The culprit's insurers offered me about £650 to write it off. I called and asked if I could keep it, they said yes, but only ~£500 payout. But it did mean I had a driveable car to hunt for a replacement in, and got an extra £600 trade in for it.

So, they might be willing to compromise and not declare it written off ? Mind you, if the car drives differently I don't think I'd want to keep it. At very least it might eat tyres, at worst be dangerous.

 

[Noel]

It's an offer, their offer, nothing more. Refuse it and tell them what you want (by registered post and insist all comms are by post if you want) you'll not get what you want but you'll get near it.
As Fezman says, argue with them, it'll be worth it. Other option is to buy it off them and repair it yourself. once you've settled on a figure. Bear in mind it'll likely be declared as a Cat C/D/N (although as S Tony mentioned they may not write it off), and give you a car you know and will last for some time. Ring them and discuss options but as said, get any decisions on paper.

 

[sunnybob]

You need to consider the value of the car before the crash.
Then you need to consider what it will cost to repair.
If the handling has been affected then the repair bill will be eye watering as modern cars are one piece bubbles with wheels attached. Entire areas of the modern car are designed to crumple under impact in order to save lives.

I am NOT supporting the insurance company (got my own horror stories about them), BUT, any chassis repair will easily outdo the cost of a modest medium age family car.

 

[Noel]

You need to consider the value of the car before the crash.
Then you need to consider what it will cost to repair.
If the handling has been affected then the repair bill will be eye watering as modern cars are one piece bubbles with wheels attached. Entire areas of the modern car are designed to crumple under impact in order to save lives.

I am NOT supporting the insurance company (got my own horror stories about them), BUT, any chassis repair will easily outdo the cost of a modest medium age family car.

Since we do not know what damage there is and "handling a bit different" could mean anything (I'm assuming the driver has little mechanical knowledge). It could be as little as a bent arm or leg or tie rod or even a damaged tyre. And a damaged impact zone can be easily fixed in many cases. Best not to generealise. Best also to bear in mind an assessor does not calculate insurance costs solely on damage/repair costs: courtesy car costs, storage and admin are all factor along with hourly/parts repair rates at the higher end of the scale.

 

[Lons]

My BIL had his car keyed by some local oiks.

Car went to repairers; owned by the insurers......they then said, its worse than we though, the car will be written off.

After days of chasing the insurers to get the car back, my BIL was then told: 'too late the cars been scrapped'.

Never trust insurance companies.

That isn't legal! Assuming you have the whole story as it's also surprising they would do that.

Car belongs to the owner until such time as an offer is made, accepted and paid. He was naive to let that go without a fight as they would have been forced to pay up and he would have got a decent value to boot.

 

[Lons]

What Noel and others said, you need to get all the facts together and stand your ground. Insurance companies employ the services of a claims adjuster for one reason which is to get the claim settled for the minimum reasonable cost but they aren't all out to screw you it's just sensible practice from what is after all a business.
They do view claims differently than they did in the old days due to the huge increase in fraudulent claims and who can blame them, it's the cheats who spoil it for the rest of us who have an honest claim.

The bottom market value of the car will have been used to compare likely cost of repairs and as soon as those figures don't add up they write off the vehicle, they have an incentive to do that because it also simplifies their own paperwork and time so saves costs. Dig your heals in deep, they're always open to negotiation.

 

[Tasky]

1/. Do not ever accept the first offer.
2/. Get your own guy to look it over, assess the damage and quote for repairs. Don't be too afraid of second hand parts either, as insurance will calculate cost of repair to everything, using brand new OEM parts.
3/. Get real world examples of what the same model of similar conditions/mileages have sold for recently. Not ones currently for sale, but actually sold. Ebay auctions are not submissible, but Buy It Now sales are!
Use that as a basis for your own valuation.
4/. If they write it off anyway, so long as it's a Cat C or D, you can still buy back the wreckage, fix it, MoT it and get it back on the road, and they will resume your insurance.
5/. These companies are stupid, so make sure you declare this accident at your renewal, even though you'd think they'd already note it down in your file...

Case in point:
My bike was valued at £2400, but with repairs totalling £3800.
Insurance offfered £900. I told them to stuff it and threw loads of sold ads at them.
They then offered £1800, with buy-back at £250.
I took this offer, fixed the bike for £600 (including MoT, etc) and have been happily bombing around on it ever since.

 

[LancsRick]

"Write off" doesn't reflect the level of damage to the vehicle, it's just whether the insurer wants to pay for it to be repaired or pay out an agreed value for the vehicle.

As stated above, never accept their first offer, and I'd suggest you get somebody with knowledge to look at it. You don't say what the accident is but it could be something relatively simple to fix (you also don't say what the car is or value so it's hard to offer any quantified suggestions). As other people have mentioned, basis any arguments around market value of comparable vehicles is your best way to proceed if you do want to just get a payout.

 

[Lonsdale73]

Thanks all.

The car is now twelve years old. When I insured it last year I looked up similar models on both ebay and autotrader to arrive at an insured value of £2000. There's obvious damage to front wing, driver's side - not pretty but not the end of the world. As mentioned, there's the 'handling' issue but still not sure how much that is real and how much imagined and I've still not driven it as wasn't sure if insurance deciding to write it off had same or similar implications to a failed MOT, ie, not to be driven.

Insurance offered £700 which was less than half the cheapest comparable model I was able to find online - and that was being sold for spares. They have come back to me saying there offer is based on what they consider to be market value and I'm guessing they look at trade in prices since there's such a disparity between what they want to pay and what a like-for-like replacement. They have asked me to send examples so I have, two same age, one slightly older none with much change from £2000 so some way off both their valuation and estimated repair.

 

[fezman]

Just a thought - how much is it worth on webuyanycar.com?

 

[Lonsdale73]

Peanuts

 

[Tasky]

As mentioned, there's the 'handling' issue but still not sure how much that is real and how much imagined

That's where you get a decent mechanic to check it, including driving it themselves if possible.

wasn't sure if insurance deciding to write it off had same or similar implications to a failed MOT, ie, not to be driven.

Cat C or D is generally fixable. It just means it's likely not safe to drive right now. It's only Cat A or B that are complete write-offs.
https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/know ... write-off/
Sort it, get it a new MoT, get back out with it.

Insurance offered £700 which was less than half the cheapest comparable model I was able to find online - and that was being sold for spares. They have come back to me saying there offer is based on what they consider to be market value and I'm guessing they look at trade in prices

Doesn't matter what some backstreet dealership might give you for it... it's about what the real world cost is to replace what you have lost.

They have asked me to send examples so I have, two same age, one slightly older none with much change from £2000 so some way off both their valuation and estimated repair.

Try and find more like this, as it will only reinforce that real world valuation.
If it's way over their repair estimate, they should then look to the cheaper option of fixing it instead of writing it off!

 

[Lonsdale73]

Third time lucky - well, for them!

They've now offered almost double the original amount bringing it pretty much to where I had hoped to be. In truth, the car owed me nothing. I bought it in December 2008 from a local dealer. It had been their demonstrator car so had barely 3000 miles on the clock and with the generous trade-in allowance on my old car I got it for an outlay of £7500. It's required minimal maintenance outlay, brake pads (twice) being most it's ever needed.

Still a bit sad to see it go but I had expected to one day scrap it so to get a bit of cash back fr it s a result of sorts. Might even have enough left over to get some nice garage doors - for my workshop!