Have you said if you parked in the right field, there is a farm on the Gower that does parking in a field but you never have to go off through gates.

Yes, I’ve asked this twice now. No answer though…. If you open gates and drive into random feilds so you don’t have to walk so far, then it’s really an issue of trespass rather than paying for the damage.

NFU have good legal assistance for these things so it’ll all come outs in the wash.

No I thought it was a fair valuation, just cant see a 9yr old T5 being worth 9k. It would be worth that if it was a pro conversion probably a lot more. If it was something you have done yourself then just cant see it.
Just an opinion, I think we are allowed those aren’t we

Maybe you don’t know the market, or what a t5 Kombi is ? (Clue: it’s not a campervan, pro or otherwise converted)

You are allowed opinions yes.

They are also allowed to be wrong 😉

It already seems to be getting stressfull tbh. This is the reason we pay for insurance and even a small rise in your premiums on an old VW kombi isn’t going to be such a big deal if things go a little bit wrong for you.

Anyhow,as per my advice you have done the first thing of getting the estimate. You now have to get it to the farmer quick smart before he ‘forgets’ about it.

Then we can sit and digest the amazingly nice or unbelievably horrid response you get from him.

Who is taking the bets on how the farmer reacts?

Are you an expert in T5 values then Neil?

Are you an expert in T5 values then Neil?

I’ve had a couple of T5’s and a couple of T4’s over the years.

Still have a rare T4 Multivan2 now. So I suppose I’ve kept up to date with what they are worth.

A quick look on Autotrader and the cheapest I can find is £7,400 in a private sale, cheapest dealer one is £8,995.

As for a write off, it could be- it depends on the salvage value of a T5 Kombi. Hopefully it won’t come to that. Considering I had damage to a Skoda Fabia along two doors, some trim and the front wing when someone pulled out on me and the average quote was about £1.5k (and I went for one that was less and regret it because the job wasn’t to a good standard) £4k isn’t too much on the high side for all that damage to a much bigger vehicle.

Who cares about its write off value. The interest is what the farmer will do. TBH I have 20+ yrs commercial motor sales experience so I know more than both of you combined on the subject and even I couldn’t give a toss.

Get that estimate to the farmer quicksmart

… I know more than both of you combined on the subject and even I couldn’t give a toss.

Er…. Well done ? 😕

Insurers will normally look to write off a vehicle if the repair cost exceed 60% of it’s value, so if your valuation is correct then you should be fine.

As said above, a decent bodyshop will be able to repair the van properly and will blend the colour into surrounding panels. If you are picky about your van, then going to a cheap (or the insures “approved repairer”) bodyshop may well be disappointing. We do a fair bit of rectification work following visits to “approved repairs” and it’s often easy to see a cheap repair.

In the unlikely event that it looks like they do want to write the van off and if you don’t want this to happen, then feel free to email me and I may be able to give advise.

Repairers are allowed in some circumstances to use genuine second had parts to keep down repair costs. It was one of the measures introduced to try and keep down costs and thus premiums and it means you get a genuine (with any minor damage repaired and re-painted) panel instead of a poorly fitting and sub-quality (rust and/or dent easier) pattern part. It is also recycling

If the farmer was being helpful and paying for it out of his pocket then I would be happy to source some 2nd hand parts or have a body shop source them (they will have contacts and then it’s their time not yours) and refinish them to match your van. Could cut the bill in half.

nealglover – Member

… I know more than both of you combined on the subject and even I couldn’t give a toss.

Er…. Well done ?

The point being that you were willy waving at each other about your knowledge, making multiple posts about something the OP hasn’t even got to the point of worrying about. At present he has a damaged vehicle which he has a repair cost for but he has no guarantee it will be paid by the farmer.

So well done for labouring over something that doesn’t really matter at the moment and spending half that time trying to belittle each other in the race for who knows more.

Sorry, can I just ask why anyone would want a 9y/o Vito? Won’t it just be full of holes?

I know more than both of you combined on the subject

and Hobo what would you call that statement? 😆

pigface, I would call it an attempt to get them to stop banging on about what they do and don’t know.

I did pre-empt it with “Who cares about its write off value” and also finished the sentence with “and even I couldn’t give a toss.”

But then you chose not to quote them parts didn’t ya 😉

Typical STW. 4 pages of crap about insurance premiums and write off values when we don’t even know if the farmer has seen the estimate.

Of course I chose to ignore those bits thems weren’t willy waving 😆

The point being that you were willy waving at each other about your knowledge, making multiple posts about something the OP hasn’t even got to the point of worrying about. At present he has a damaged vehicle which he has a repair cost for but he has no guarantee it will be paid by the farmer.
So well done for labouring over something that doesn’t really matter at the moment and spending half that time trying to belittle each other in the race for who knows more.

The fact is, unless the farmer is VERY generous, it will be an insurance company that pays for it one way or the other.

Either the farmer’s own insurance, or the OP’s if the farmer doesn’t play ball.

So yes, it is fairly important to know if an insurance company will pay for the repairs or write it off.

Obviously you don’t think so. That’s fine. But it was brought up by someone else (more than one person actually) and I responded.

Meeting with farmer all very amicable.. theyve already informed the NFU (their daughter works for them) and thought there wouldnt be any problems..
Hopefully it will all get fixed and sorted with no further hassle

I bet that’s moooo-sic to your ears….

Good news 🙂

Sounds good – hopefully that will stop everybody beefing

Its time we mooved on.

I’d suggest you can breathe a sigh of relief if it is NFU.
I did some work for them as a contract claims inspector and, generally, their philosophy is to look for a reason to pay a claim, not to challenge it. It’s their marketing tag and actual philosophy.
If the farmer is taking money for the parking rather than a gesture of good will, a contract has been established.
He ought to have ensured that cattle could not damage his “customers” vehicles.

You should* be ok.

*it was around six years ago when I last worked on NFU.

Brings back memories when a driver in a BMW crossing some open access grazing land had his bonnet squashed when a horny bull tried to mount a unwilling cow by a road side, fell off and landed on the bonnet!

Cloudnine excellent.

Never heifer park in a field of cows