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Car insurance – arguing against total loss
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ebygommFree Member
Has anyone had any success insisting on a repair when an insurer is trying to write off the car as a total loss? For background, costs of repair has come in at approx. 60% of the value of the car at the time of the accident
stueyFree MemberI’ve ‘bought cars back’ from insurance companies – and had them repaired myself.
Last time I tried they wanted me to get an engineers report after the repairs – to declare the car ‘road worthy’ – until I did this the car was ‘un insurable’ – and it was a two week wait to book a test at the dvla.
greyFull MemberI have.
I smashed the front of my Landy up and they wanted to write it off.
I told the insurance company I was happy for the coach builder to use OEM or used parts to fix it and they were happy with that.
They used Landy original parts and labour to price it originally, it would have cost three times as much 😯 .hopkinsgmFull MemberYes – but only because it was a relatively uncommon car that was reasonably in demand, so market value/replacement cost was a fair bit over their assumed “book” value. After I provided details of similar cars for sale at ~20% over their valuation, they accepted that they’d undervalued it and upped their offer. Repair costs were then a lower proportion of car’s value which tipped the balance from write off to economically repairable.
ebygommFree MemberPresumably the benefit to them of writing it off also means they don’t have to fulfill the remainder of the 9 months insurance policy either
funkynickFull MemberWell, you have to keep paying for the rest of the year as you can’t now cancel the policy, but you can put another car onto the insurance policy.
I went though all this last year when I was trying to buy back a car which got written off after hitting a deer. In the end I accepted a higher offer for the vehicle, but the new car we bought was put straight onto the same insurance policy.
ebygommFree MemberInsurance is paid up front so no need to keep paying but didn’t realise policy would be transferable.
ebygommFree MemberRepair costs were then a lower proportion of car’s value which tipped the balance from write off to economically repairable.
Do you know what the proportion was, online seems to say 50 – 80% depending on where i look?
legendFree MemberSHARE
ebygomm – Member
Insurance is paid up front so no need to keep paying but didn’t realise policy would be transferable.It probably isn’t, check your policy docs
hopkinsgmFull MemberDo you know what the proportion was, online seems to say 50 – 80% depending on where i look?
I think they suggested repair costs ~65% was the tipping point. Of course, in most cases the cost of the repairs is only one element of the total cost of the claim.
funkynickFull MemberLegend…
Why would it not be the case? If the car wasn’t written off the insurance would still be valid. There might be a fee to change the vehicle etc, but you still have paid for cover for a year.
When I was looking into buying the old car back off them and repairing it myself, all that was required was a new MOT to get back to fully comp, before that they were perfectly happy for me to drive around in it with just third party insurance, as long as it was roadworthy of course.
In any case, that was how it worked with Direct Line.
ebygommFree MemberOf course, in most cases the cost of the repairs is only one element of the total cost of the claim.
What other costs are there in a non fault claim if no hire/courtesy car?
jimdubleyouFull Memberbut you still have paid for cover for a year.
Not if you pay in instalments.
I have never had to claim for a write off, nor paid in instalments but I guess it could be an issue that you were continuing monthly payments without a car to insure…
munrobikerFree MemberIf you pay up front you can request a refund for the remainder if you cancel- we have done this when we sold a car and didn’t replace it.
You can buy the car back and have it repaired. If a third party’s insurance is paying you can demand to have the car repaired anyway.
ebygommFree MemberIf a third party’s insurance is paying you can demand to have the car repaired anyway.[/url]
Are there any links to support this?
munrobikerFree MemberIt’s something that’s come up pretty regularly on here I think, I’d have a search through google of STW and the proper answer will come up.
CougarFull MemberAye. There was a similar thread a few days ago IIRC.
How’s this “buy back” thing work? You’re buying something you already own?
BFITHFree MemberHow’s this “buy back” thing work?
If the car is written off they are essentially paying you out for the car which is then theirs to deal with.
Mine was recently written off (Cat C), They offered me £2500 for a car which I couldn’t have sold privately for much more than £1500. I asked if i could buy it back from them, they wanted £500. So I got my car and £2000. Had it repaired for £400 (cosmetic damage only – although the insurers repairers wanted £3500! which is why it was written off)
Result in my favour!
(This time)GreybeardFree MemberAsk your insurers, if they write it off, can you buy it back, and if so, how much. I bought mine back for 23% of their nominal value for it, and repaired it myself for a fraction of their estimate. I only needed to get a new MoT for it and they put it back on the policy – nominally fully comp but with the write-off value limited to what I’d paid them for it – but since I had already had most the difference in cash that I hadn’t had to spend, that wasn’t a problem.
deviantFree MemberJust been through this myself, the car was worth £3k, the repairs (apparently) came to £1500 and they wanted the car written off….i disagreed and priced the job up myself using pattern parts and not OEM Suzuki parts, came to £500…they still wouldn’t budge and wanted the car written off….
…fair enough, I got the car back from the body shop who had priced the job up (it was mechanically sound and perfectly drivable, just cosmetic damage)…that way it was in my hands and not theirs when it came to negotiating a settlement, the body shop tried to get me to sign a form before I left their premises saying the car wasn’t drivable….i refused, they can’t enforce this they can only call the police on me if they think it’s genuinely unroadworthy…they didn’t.
They tried to shaft me firstly by cancelling my insurance and refusing a settlement as the car had xenon headlight bulbs and was therefore ‘modified’….really petty of them but that’s insurance for you…at this point they thought they still had possession of my car via the body shop….the offered me the chance to buy it back meaning they got to both cancel my policy avoiding a payout and pocket however much from me to buy it back.
I surprised them by informing them the car was on my driveway and I could see it from the kitchen window….they didn’t like that, I then said if they were cancelling said policy they have no claim on the car and I’ll either continue driving it, sell it for spares or repair or fix it myself and insure with someone else….they really didn’t like that!
Long story short, they buckled, offered me a fair settlement….and I keyed every remaining good panel and poured water into the engine before it was collected….if they were willing to royally bend me over they should expect the same in return….good luck to them trying to get it back on the road as a cat-D for reasonable money which is what they intend to do and how they make extra profit from their customers ‘total loss’ cars….scum the lot of them.
ebygommFree MemberIn a case where the value of the car exceeds the cost of repair, why not just pay for the repair rather than writing it off, making a settlement and making you buy it back?
munrobikerFree MemberThey sell them for salvage and give you the full payout, which can work out as more profitable than paying to fix it.
alisonsmilesFree MemberMy van was Cat D write off this July. The insurance companies have set percentages they work to, and because there was an element of the repair unknown (will it need a gear box) there was no possibility of appeal against the write off decision although the known repairs would have fallen under the decreed number. I hadn’t taken up a hire car. I gather that if I had, the ongoing cost of the hire would have increased the likelihood of a write off as it accrues costs while the car is in being fixed.
I did, however, have a discussion with the insurers about the price at which they’d sell me the salvage. Again, they had set rules. I asked them to advise me of their formal complaints system because without having exhausted that the insurance ombudsman can’t get involved. I found the insurance ombudsman good to have a conversation with, they were good at saying what I needed to do if I felt things were unjust. Your AA or RAC legal cover could also be useful places to give advice. I did manage to argue down how much I paid for the salvage.
My outcome was I now own the written off van for an agreed salvage value. The balance between the salvage cost and the value of the van is now mine and it’s in the bodyshop getting repaired. It will always be classed as a Cat D write off and subsequent resale is likely to be affected. It’s also likely to limit who will insure me as not every company do Cat D insurance.
k-sugdenFree MemberThis would be what they term a constructive total loss the ombudsman will support you and say you are entitled to have it repaired up to its market value
milky1980Free MemberMy dad crashed his Berlingo and they declared it a write-off so we tried to do the buy-back as salvage route as it only needed a bumper, 2 headlights, a grille and a radiator. I wanted it as a bike van, couldn’t care less about cosmetics. They said it needed to go to their assessor’s place to ensure it wasn’t dangerous to repair as the garage that had done the repair valuation wasn’t able to check a few things (apparently..). It went up north somewhere and we waited for the verdict. A week later a cheque arrived as full settlement, for much below market value and we rejected it asking for the vehicle back. They’d already stripped it and scrapped the shell!! Took a long fight through the ombudsman to get the correct amount of compo for that, cost them £3500 instead of the £1800 we valued it at originally.
Don’t trust Direct Line is the motto of the story 👿
ebygommFree MemberRidiculous that insurance companies want to drag this thing out for weeks and keep offering me a hire car when they could just pay for the bloody repairs!
Car is already showing as a category D write off despite no discussion let alone agreement!
FantombikerFull MemberHad similar argument with direct line. The problem is that although you can get the car repaired it is forever classed as a cat d car so the resale value is affected. Direct line told me that they would sell me the car back fir 10% of its market value which was too much.
hopkinsgmFull MemberWhat other costs are there in a non fault claim if no hire/courtesy car?
Well, quite often there *is* the hire car (whether wanted or not), costs from claim handlers, assuming the vehicle ended up unroadworthy/undriveable then there’s towing and storage charges. Sometimes you’ll get personal injury claims too…
Are you insured fully comprehensive? If so, the costs are usually met by your insurance and then those costs plus your excess claimed back from the at fault party. This *should* help you get back on the road in your own car as quick as possible, and the insurance companies can pick up the pieces and argue about the money in their own sweet time. On the one hand, this can be a good thing – especially in cases of disputed liability, it means you either get a payout or a repaired car back an awful lot quicker than might otherwise be the case. On the other hand, the claim won’t be recorded as “non-fault” until every last penny has been reclaimed, and that all takes time and can cost money. Especially if the at fault driver is a foreign HGV driver that sideswiped a stationary vehicle whilst going through a red light, and the claim handler decides that it’s too much hassle to even contact the haulage company using the contact details provided. Go on, ask me how I know this…
rocketmanFree MemberHas anyone had any success insisting on a repair when an insurer is trying to write off the car as a total loss?
Erm yes a couple of times
One was a stolen & recovered where the insurance company just assumed I wouldn’t want it back the other was a rear-end with a fair bit of expensive cosmetic damage to an otherwise decent motor.
Both times the ‘assessor’ turned out to be a mythical being and it took a number of phone calls to the insurance robots to get things sorted. I got the impression that it was unusual to want the car back.
jiFree MemberIf you do buy it back, check acrefully that all the removable bits are still there (stereo, spare wheel etc). Not unusual for these to go missing, or be replaced with lesser quality ones somewhere in the process.
ebygommFree MemberReluctantly accepted that the car is probably going to be written off and there is no ‘value’ in the fact that the car has had one owner from new, and the repair cost v. likely salvage cost isn’t going to make it economical to do it that way either.
Now should I go through the third party insurance or continue through insurance and pursuing additional losses. Costs for transferring a private plate or 9 months left on the insurance policy aren’t covered.
In my mind I should be put in the same position as I was before the accident, which is a car insured for a further 9 months.
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