Maybe a bit of a stupid question but anyone with knowledge of how it works can let me know I’d be obliged…….

Is it when the repair costs are more than the market value or is it when the repair costs are more than a certain percentage of the market value?

Unfortunately claiming of the ‘other party’ isn’t an option as they decided that they had more important things to do and didn’t want to stop, even though at fault.

We are covered by protected no claims but I’ve heard people say that even with the protection the next years premium goes up following a claim, especially I reckon as we’ve no ‘other party’ to claim against.

Therefore I’m debating if we should pay to get some ‘make do’ cheaper repairs done or claim through the insurance? The value of the car isn’t that high maybe £1,500?

TIA

Cars normally get written off when repair + hire car costs hit 70-75% of the car’s book value. The %age depends on the exact insurer.

Whether to write off or not is determined by the assessor – the bodyshop give an estimate, and the assessor a) decides if the bodyshop is bumping up the bill and b) whether it’s economic to repair the car.

Several things to look out for:
1) Assessors are busy. Make sure the valuation takes into account all the options on your car, condition, mileage and whether it’s a higher powered TD / Turbo or not. A lot of the time they’ll just take the standard Glass’ price without punching in all the detail.

2) They are working for the insurer. As a rule, they’ll try and pay you around 75% of what Glass’ lists as their first offer. Use evidence to get the right price.

3) Glass’ guide is not the be all and end all. Some cars – RS Turbos, 309 Goodwoods, older Golf GTIs etc. are drastically undervalued by the price guides. An extreme example would be something like a tidy RS Turbo, which would do well to fetch a grand according to Glass’, but will easily change hands for £3k or so in the real world.

4) Autotrader / paper ads / owners club forum ads can be used as evidence to prove Glass’ wrong. For really rare stuff (ie, Yank, Jap imports), Autotrader will be their source of values. Ebay never used to be accepted as a source of values, as it’s an auction, and the motor trade thinks auction = trade sale.

5) Any import will have something like 10-20% knocked off the book price of a UK model.

6) If you own something that’s difficult to get parts for / old / lightly damaged, consider cash in lieu of repair.

JDM stuff (ie, Skyline GTRs) are pretty easily written off by the standard insurance process, as Nissan will tell you it’s a 12 week lead time for parts from Japan, the parts won’t be cheap, and then you add on 12 weeks of car hire for the insurer.

Old stuff can easily be written off by daft things like a pair of headlamps coming in at £400 from the dealer. See point 6 about cash in lieu of repair.

7) As for whether to claim or not, that hinges around one thing – was it your fault, and is it easy to prove it wasn’t? If it’s a cut and dried accident – someone ran into you, someone pulled out in front etc. then claim. If your car’s lightly damaged, you can go for Cash in Lieu and have a wedge to fix it AND keep your motor.

If it was your fault and the car’s driveable, I wouldn’t bother.

Edit: Re-read OP. You must tell the insurer that you’ve had an accident, you don’t need to claim, assuming the car is still roadworthy. It’s possible that it’s not worth bothering claiming, unless you have specific cover for this sort of circumstance.

and not sure now, but it used to be that if the car was written off you lost the remainder of the premium…

Tron has it perfectly correct.

I’ll just add that estimates can be ‘seasonal’. In summer with little work the Trade will often estimate lower just to keep the staff busy. Opposite after a week of black ice in winter.
Hth
Marko

Many thanks Tron very helpful.

The car is just an average one nothing fancy.

Re point 7 you mentioned, It has been reported to the police but as nobody would stop, even though it’s a busy junction, and offer to be a witness let alone see if the other half was ok, we cant prove the other driver was at fault, even though he clearly was. So this would affect any claim I’m sure?

If your car’s lightly damaged, you can go for Cash in Lieu and have a wedge to fix it AND keep your motor.

Do you mean only go down this road if claiming off somebody else and not as in our scenario?

I’ve got to trawl through the insurance small print and will visit a couple of body shops and get some quotes to get a clearer picture.

I remember from quite a few years ago that a friends car was written off as was too expensive to repair, he was paid out and also bought the car back from the insurance company for a nominal amount. I don’t know if this still current practice?

Did your airbags go off? If they did its probably a write off.

Without a third party it will be a claim on your insurance, youll get paid the value of the car, less the excess and outstanding premium.
Do you have any ncd? If you do and its notprotected youll loose a couple of years and even if its protected or you dont have any youll still have fault claim on your file which will increase you next premium a lot.

May not be worth claiming on a 1k car.

Was it a hit and run type event or bump in car park?

There is always teh Motor Insurance bureau. We managed to claim when a stolen, or reported stolen car hit my wife and false details were given. They paid out more than we paid for teh car and we sold it on ebay for repair

I would agree with Ian, Protected No-Claims seems to be a complete nonsense & waste of money. My car was parked and hit in a carpark but the driver did not leave their details. My insurance company listed the ‘accident’ as my fault as they had no-one to claim off, then the following renewal my premium went up by nearly £200 as I had claimed. Was told PNCD did not count unless I went to another insurer, but they now classed me as a higher risk becuase of a claim on my history. Also the ‘ass’essor refused to pay out the full repair claim despite me having two similar qoutes, becuase they refused to pay for the new panel to be blended in. This was with More-Than – dont use them!

Cash in Lieu would be available on any claim I think, although we dealt almost exclusively with no fault claims, so I might be wrong.

You’d still have a claim on your insurance record, and as others have said, your insurance will almost certainly go up – you still have your NCD, but because you’ve claimed, you’re a worse risk, and the discount is taken off a bigger premium.

+1 for the Airbags. No end of small Renaults get written off after minor bumps because they’re full of airbags. The other major daft thing that will keep your car off the road is if the tailgate isn’t sealing properly. Apparently exhaust fumes can get back into the car – sounds very unlikely to me, but that was the line taken.

It would be worth knowing the type of car and level of damage to be honest.

Thanks all for input.

I’ve just read through insurance details and it does say that even though we have PNCD, next premium would go up. Sorry, they reserve the right to increase the premium following a claim……

No air bag damage. Front wing small crease and dent, dont know if the crease would come out, needs new headlight, and dent in bumper which would probably be filled I reckon.

Partner was cut up by the young gentleman driving with 2 or 3 of his young gentleman friends with him in the car. They sped off like the clappers so she only got a partial index of number plate and no make of car so we’re stuffed really. No doubt when the young gentleman got home to look for his insurance documents he would have contacted the police I’m sure….

Will get some quotes for repairs in next couple of days to see how to proceed but I’m hedging towards getting it done ourselves unless it’s really expensive.

DIY seems an option that’s most sensible here.

Car crashes suck. Wrote my car off this week, this thread has been interesting. I’m gona take the pay off and buy a new car… If it’s just bodywork it could be cheapish, my cR wad a write off for all the hidden damage, it looked just like bodywork though…

tron – Member
The other major daft thing that will keep your car off the road is if the tailgate isn’t sealing properly. Apparently exhaust fumes can get back into the car – sounds very unlikely to me, but that was the line taken.

This is true. The air at the back of a car circulates (hence spray going on the back window) aand most manuals state what to do if you need to drive for short distances with the tailgate/boot open.