[Closed] What does cat B mean for a crashed car?

First hit on google brings up this thread here.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=78817

Check with insurance company you use and consider what happens when you sell it as well......

Spam?

glupton what are you on about spam ???

I'm sure Cat B Write Off means it can't be used on the road.

renton - the link you have posted up is to a car that is undamaged and has no mention of being cat anything. It would almost appear that you are astroturfing to get some traffic pointed at that auction.

Glupton did you read the listing.... it says its cat b recorded about halfway down.

hence why I am asking the question ???????

Category A: A vehicle that should have been totally crushed, including all its spare parts.
Category B: A vehicle from which spare parts may be salvaged, but the bodyshell should have been crushed and the car should never return to the road.
Category C: An extensively damaged vehicle that the insurer has decided not to repair, but which could be repaired and returned to the road.
Category D: A damaged vehicle that the insurer has decided not to repair, but which could be repaired and returned to the road.
Category F: A vehicle damaged by fire, which the insurer has decided not to repair.

Right so is the seller talking out of his arris then ??

Just skimmed the listing - missed that bit. Sorry.

My understanding was Cat B was a rightoff but maybe it is not as simple as that. BTW you have to declare what Cat the car is when getting insurance and it can affect price.

Dunno, down in the eye-blistering red and blue caps it says...

'RECORED CAT B'

Which could be Brummie for something else

I think I will give it a miss, if it looks to good and all that.

That's cheap for a 59 car.

It's a lot for a scrapper though. Don't walk away; run.

I don't think you do need to declare the write off to an insurer if you're not asked.

Whilst technically all insurance operates on the basis of 'Utmost Good Faith' (which means you must tell the insurance company anything that may affect their underwriting considerations), with personal lines insurance it was decided this was unfair on consumers as generally people have no idea what 'Utmost Good Faith' is and its relevance.

So, whilst the fact a car was a write off if may affect the underwriting, it is up to the insurer to ask you all the questions they need to know the answers to and not the proposer to volunteer information not asked for.

I have never been asked whether my car is a write off or not and therefore I do not need to tell them.

Cat B = walk the hell away!

"I have never been asked whether my car is a write off or not and therefore I do not need to tell them. "

Id like to see you defend that in a court of law if your chassis snapped mid drive........

dannybgoode - Member
I don't think you do need to declare the write off to an insurer if you're not asked.

But would you be able to get a Cat-B taxed and MOT'd?

No - you couldn't tax a Cat B as it would be recorded as written off and not to be used on the road.

@legend - it would be simple. The FCA (formally the FSA) rules on these things are very clear and an insurer cannot repudiate a personal lines claim based on facts they did not ascertain at the time the policy was sold.

Further, a chassis on Cat C or D write off shouldn't snap. Cat C needs a roadworthiness certificate (like an MOT on steroids). Cat D just means it was cheaper for the insurer to hand over some cash than fix the car and can be very minor damage.

Cheers

Danny B

and there was me thinking the discussion was about the CAT B car in the advert.

Back to the post then - I'd be asking why it is Cat B. If there is no damage it seems very odd for it to be Cat B written off.

@t_r - insurance implications are (IMHO) entirely relevant to an enquiry about a potential purchase of a potentially written off car.

Cheers

Danny B

Walk away, especially with your car purchasing/selling history based on your STW threads 😉

"I'd be asking why it is Cat B"

Id be too busy walking away.

Ive said it before and ill say it again , buy it on Condition and service history - then negotiate on the price

not milage/age and price.

erm muke..... care to explain ?

trail rat.... thats why I was asking, going by the few pictures on ebay it looks to be in very good condition !! but they could of been took before it was cat b'd

Yes happily
You seem to post quite a lot about buying/selling or having problems with vehicles.
That is all not, taking the P, just an observation.
or maybe I have the wrong person.

unfotunantly just the very fact its been Catagorised damaged would be enough for me to consider it in not very good condition - unless i was buying it for > 1k and basically buying the mot and tax.

call the dvla??

Probably not worth getting for that sort of price.

a lot of people advertise as "went straight through the VOSA check"
The fact is it's a paperwork check to match V5 with chassis number. They [b][u]DO NOT[/u] [/b]check for road worthyness or standard of repair

Cat B cannot be returned to the road.

So, whilst the fact a car was a write off if may affect the underwriting, it is up to the insurer to ask you all the questions they need to know the answers to and not the proposer to volunteer information not asked for.

Not informing them would be categorically stupid if you have to claim and they then discover it was a previous write off then your insurance would be void. Meaning any expense caused by the accident you'd have to cover.

I have never been asked whether my car is a write off or not and therefore I do not need to tell them.

I'm pretty sure I've nearly always seen it asked but it's been awhile since I had to sort my own insurance.

Typo?

Either way - forget it and save your money.

So, whilst the fact a car was a write off if may affect the underwriting, it is up to the insurer to ask you all the questions they need to know the answers to and not the proposer to volunteer information not asked for.

I have never been asked whether my car is a write off or not and therefore I do not need to tell them.

Nope, it's up to the insured party to ensure that they have read and understood the policy booklet including all the exclusions. It's also up to the insured party to inform the insurer of anything that may affect the policy e.g. a car being written off mid-policy

Its quite clear that a cat B car cannot be returned to the road. It can only be used to salvage parts from. I don't know the mechanism of how this is policed - is it checked at MOT test? would you be able to get the V5 registration form (log book) issued against the car? I don't know but either way you should walk away and it might be worth reporting the seller. I'm pretty sure that a seller selling a Cat B car should be required to make it clear that the car can only be purchased for the purpose of breaking it down for parts and not as a road legal drivable car - which it isn't. There is a difference between buyer beware and intentionally misleading a potential buyer.

Cat C and D are financial write off's and are fine, so long as you are satisfied with the repairs, though you still need to declare them to the insurance company. I had a 1987 Porsche not so long ago and I was rear ended. The car was worth circa £6500 and the cost of repairs came to about £5500 for a rear bumper and rear panel (Porsche parts are V expensive as you can imagine). The insurance company initially tried to write the car off even thought the damage was cosmetic. I told them no way and managed to talk them into repairing it. If I hadn't done that, the insurance company would have paid out and I could have bought the car off them and repaired it myself -though it would have been a cat C or D write off.

A mate of mine has bought and run several cat C & D write off's and had no problems and has bought some pretty tasty cars cheap as chips.

But cat A and B? leave well alone - significant structural and irreparable damage has been caused to the car and as such it is no longer road legal. Cat A is basically only good for scrap metal, and Cat B only if you want to break for parts.

Insurance wise, its your responsibility to ensure the car is road legal (mot'd, roadworthy etc) and I don't see any way a catB can ever be road legal unless it had been incorrectly recorded due to a clerical error and subsequently re classified.

Cars are Cat B on your driving licence BTW. Just to add some more confusion.

It's also up to the insured party to inform the insurer of anything that may affect the policy e.g. a car being written off mid-policy

Not so - the FSA (now the FCA)decided that a person buying insurance in a personal capacity could not reasonably know what a material fact may or may not be (material fact = a fact that would influence the decision of a prudent underwriter whether and on what basis to offer terms).

They therefore put the onus on the insurers to ask any questions that they deem to be material at the quotation stage. Insurers cannot refuse to pay out if they discover a material fact if they a) did not ask the question and / or b) if they did that it was answered truthfully or if the answer was ambiguous did not seek to clarify.

There is no longer an onus for a buyer of personal lines insurance to volunteer material information on the basis they may not know whether it is material or not.

Cheers

Danny B