Insurance claim advice

[theodotcom]

I hope someone can offer advice regarding this.

My wife had her car parked outside a house, the woman across the road reversed out and somehow went straight into my wifes car, she rang the bell and said she hit the car so there were no issues with her accepting liability.

The insurance has now said the car is a write off. It was a 2001 Clio which my wife had from new, the car ran fine with no issues, apart from a slight dent on the back side panel.

The insurance has offered £1063 as compensation.

Where do I go from here, the issue is this car although old ran fine with no issues at all. buying a car of that sort of age can come with all sorts of problems, and having a look on autotrader they seem to sell for around the £1500 mark.

Can anyone offer any advice how to proceed, never had to make a claim before, I've been told to ask for more, but how much more could I get, I know insurance companies dont like paying out and will probably try to screw me on what they pay out so what should I be expecting.

Thanks for any advice.

[Clubber Lang]

Find out how much cars of similar condition and age go by looking on autotrader, then use this information to get more money from the insurers. Remember, whatever they pay you will be minus your excess. Also tell them that you want to buy the car back from them and ask for how much they will sell it to you for.

[Over Carl]

Yep - I agree with clubber, when I was arguing with the assessor over my mum's last right off we both picked cars from trader of a similar condition/spec. I found one that was at a looney high price, the assessor pulled out one that was the same except it was being sold as a repaired cat c - we both agreed we were both taking the piss and settled in the middle (The car was stupidly low mileage which made it hard to find - I would get an idea for what yours is worth at the bottom/middle/highest for similar - then when the assessor mentions the cheapest tell him you looked at a couple of that price and none matched well to the adverts in real life and had obvious problems).

Then the talk of us purchasing the write off came up - iirc we had agreed on a payout of £3500 or £4000 but this would mean I would have paid a higher %age for the car back if it went over £3k and would have actually ended up with less in total so we agreed to settle at £2999.

[theodotcom]

Thanks for the replies. My excess is been paid by the third party. I'll take a look on autotrader tonight and see what chancers I can find selling their cars at ridiculous prices.

To buy the car back they want £232 and it will be a write off. I've been told it will become an x Reg and it's such a hassle with paperwork etc. Not sure if it's worth the hassle.

[theodotcom]

Can I use the colour as an arguement as well, there are some cheaper ones on ebay but they are red, blue etc. My wifes car was silver so can I say I've been looking at silver only. Would that work in my favour?

[SiE]

Yeah, you can always haggle with your assessor and they always offer you a low price to start with (thats their job!). I ended up getting an extra 1.5k on an Impreza I wrote off.

[andy262000]

Someone crashed into our van when it was parked up, caught who did it took our van to a friends recommended garage he dealt with assessor who wrote off the van because of it's age, we bought it back for £100, got a £1000 insurance and fixed for £400. All we had to do was prove it passed a new mot, no change of plates or anything just sent insurance a copy of mot. Good luck, best try get someone in the trade to deal with assessor on your behalf and give them the job on condition they get you a good deal with assessor, worked for us!

[DJ OD]

Wouldn't surprise me if they offer a low price for a car as standard these days, knowing they will have to haggle. They probably think they will save a few quid, as some might just accept the low price.

The whole insurance system is fucked these days, and it really pisses me off.

I would definitely buy back the car tho, and fix it up regardless of hassle. Just think you could get the 1500 for it that u have seen advertised.


DJ OD

[theodotcom]

Just spoke to the f***ing insurance c**ts!

The car has been declared a category D write off, they've already done that and it cannot be changed.

Similar cars on autotrader are going for £1800, they are not moving from the offer price because there were 2 slight dents in the car which devalue it.

Where do I stand with this now? I feel i'm getting totally shafted.

[blaggard]

I ALWAYS take legal protection with my Insurance these days, they charge ridiculous money and try to never part with any, good luck with it and I hope you beat the fuckers!!

[flipper321]

As you are a third party claimant the financial ombudsman will not assist you. My first suggestion would be to put in an official complaint with the insurance company giving them a reasonable amount of time to respond (if you were dealing with your own insurance company the financial ombudsman would be unlikely to assist unless 8 weeks have passed).

If that fails then I think your only real course of action if you want to persue it would be legal action.

[theodotcom]

Had some progress with this, just had a call back from the insurance company out of the blue, he apparently spoke with his manager and because the car was just parked and its an inconvenience for me, they have added an "inconvenience charge" and have upped the offer to £1500.

I said I will get back to them,

If they can give me the write off for free as well I think I may as well say yes, because I should be able to get something for it, even if its only a couple of hundred by selling spares/scrap.

Plus they still need to pay out for 2 child car seats.

[BigBrand]

If you om me the reg I'll find out what the bottom and top book is, insurance will always offer low as way of inflation busting, it's n hassle at all keeping the vehicle so dont be out off by that at all.Insurance will charge you the salvage value to retain the vehicle and it will be recorded as a cat c or cat d write off. Prob a cat d which is vehicle is safe but insurers decided not to repair,Pm with your reg fella and I'll look into it my side.

[theodotcom]

Thanks bigbrand, pm coming now

[theodotcom]

Another question regarding this, the log book has now been sent in, they should have recieved it friday, to settle the claim and cheque, is there any way I can stall using the courtesy car they gave us to use till next monday? What excuse could I say?