Accident: Purchasing the w/o

Went out today and bought a 1997 D90 to replace the written off

1992 D90. That hurt but at least I am now back in action.

The value I declared for insurance purposes turns out to have been rather low. Also, I have since spent money on new parts and taken time to carry out repairs and adjustments. Is the declared value taken as the ceiling for compensation or can I negotiate for a higher figure taking these improvements into account?

Next, I have a friend who would like to buy the engine from the written off vehicle and it occurs to me that the rest of the wreck could easily join the two Peugeot 504's in the corner of my field to add to my easily accessible collection of spares. But the insurer muttered something about having a contract with a parts dealer so, he said,(quote) "your friend will not be getting the engine". I politely pointed out that it was MY Land Rover until negotiations had been concluded and, at the time of our discussions, they had not even begun!

What is my position? It really does seem as if they have me by the short and curlies -- which is why I bought the replacement D90. At least I am now back in action, even if broke in the process.

What are my rights to buying the salvage? How difficult can they be and do I have any right of appeal? And if so, who to?

I spoke to VOSA about the procedure for putting a total write off back on the road after repair and that seems remarkably straight forward. So as soon as these negotiations are concluded, that is obviously something I will be looking into.

Can they really tell me what to do with my own property?

Derry

Reply to
Derry Argue
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Once they have given you a cheque, the wreck is theirs. Normally with 'write-offs' you can make them an offer to buy the wreck off of them,You'll need to find out the value of such a wrecked vehicle (I'd guess at £600 for yours), then offer them about 25% less than that, as they will need to pay for removal and sale of the vehicle, that is unless they have a deal with a car breaker, who already has the contract for taking away all of their wrecked cars.If they have such a contract, then it will be difficult to keep the wreck. Getting the Insurance Assessor wound up is not a good recipe for keeping the vehicle.He'll just go back to his office, and ring up the breaker to take it away,either way, they get roughly the same amount of money for the wreck, and he knows he wont get any hassle from the breaker. Alan.

Reply to
A.Lee

SG: Having tried to negotiate with my daughters insurance company (when she had he car written off through vandalism) I can offer some insight into your predicament. If the insurnace company believe that you deliberately undervalued the vehicle they can a) accept your revised value, b) pay what you said it was worth, c) negotiate a new value or d) declare your policy invalid and not pay you anything.

It is highly unlikely that they will put any value on repairs and adjustments that you have made to the vehicle as they consider that to be your duty anyway. If you've made modifications to the car then they should value those provided you told them the time - otherwise they could use them as an excuse to invalidate the policy.

SG: If you sell off parts, or all, of the vehicle then the insurance company will deduct what they think those parts are worth from the final payment they give you. You should expect them to value bits like the engine much higher than your friend will pay you for it.

SG Insurance company act abd normally believe they have you by the gonads - and in most cases they do. You do not have any right to purchase the written off vehicle but if you express an interest in it they should consider your offer along with anyone elses. They are not obliged to tell you about any other offers they've had either as, at the time of disposal, the vehicle will both technically and legally be theirs.

SG: Depending on how the insurance company define the write-off (there are a number of categories they can use) it can be very easy to put it back on the road. My daughter's car was simply beyond economical repair (i.e. it would have cost more to have a garage fix it than it was worth). In fact it cost just a few hundred pounds and plenty of hours in the workshop. If it's a write-off because the chassis is bent/broken then that will require a new chassis before being put back onto the road. No matter what has to be done the vehicle will have to pass a very stringent examination before a new registration will be issued.

Pardon my thickness today, but what/who are VOSA?

SG: Up until the point that the insurance company declare it a write-off it's yours and you can do what you like with it. As soon as they say it's written off it's theirs unless you can't agree of a settlement in which case it reverts back to being yours ... and they walk away having paid you nothing and owing you nothing.

From my own experience it woud say that it doesn't pay to antagonise the assessor or agent acting on the insurers behalf as the company will listen to what he has to say very carefully. Of course you should be positive and firm when negotiating and, if you really want to get it back, then be a bit compromising. Bear in mind, however, that whatever you get fom them by way of payout they'll be looking to claw back if you buy the wreck from them. What they give with one hand they will surely try to prise away again with the other.

HTH

Steve G

Reply to
SteveG

Vehicle and Operator Services Agency

What happened when somebody rammed the Vehicle Inspectorate and the Traffic Area Network arm of the DoT together.

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P.

Reply to
Paul S. Brown

Of course, it's just that my brain is like treacle tonight (and most nights come to think of it)

Cheers Paul

Regards Steve G

Reply to
SteveG

snipped-for-privacy@darkroom.minus.com (A.Lee) wrote in news:1g3pjqm.b31hl6p18ww0N% snipped-for-privacy@darkroom.minus.com:

Fair enough. Straight forward law of contract. But so far I don't have their cheque.

From what they told me, it seems they have such a contract.

Getting the Insurance Assessor wound up is not a

I haven't. So far we are on good terms. But see below. If making enquiries about my rights is going to upset them, I must be in the wrong country.

He'll just go back to

A good point. But I have done a bit of research since my initial post. I assume that IF I had cause to be awkward, there is still the County Court and The General Insurance Standards Council. I have also found this site to be useful (but I wish there was more!):

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there is the Financial Ombudsman Service:
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I don't know how useful these are because I haven't used them and I hope I don't have to. Maybe someone here has. If I have rights, I do not intend to give them up for fear of "upsetting someone"!

Derry

Reply to
Derry Argue

On or around 31 Oct 2003 18:36:48 GMT, Derry Argue enlightened us thusly:

someone I know recently had a Jag XJS written off, and apparently you need to find 3 other examples similar to yours on general sale at the price you're claiming yours was worth, in order to have a snowball's of getting more money out of 'em.

this is true, until they settle. once they do, it's theirs.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

Not necessarily. You need to be able to prove value if you are arguing about the settlement. THis is one way of doing so. If you've added bit etc etc then show the receipts. What you are trying to demonstrate is that the value of the vehicle is more than the book value of a vehicle in similar conditinon, milage, age etc. It would also be unrealistic to expect to get a value based on what a dealer is charging for a similar vehicle.

There is nothing to stop you asking for a settlement based on your retaining the salvage. Equally of course there is nothing to stop the insurer refusing. I suggest you ask them.

When your say "the insurer" - who exaclty do you mean? Are you discussing this with the claims dept of a reputable insurer, the assessor or your broker?

Mike.

Reply to
Mike Buckley

Do not let them take the motor away from you at all either until you have the cheque or until you have agree with them that you are keeping it and then get the cheque. Just because they have a deal with a garage does not mean that they have a right to the car. These deals are done to offset the costs of storage and as it is being stored on your land then there are no costs. You can have the salvage rights to your vehicle if you so wish BY LAW they do not have a right to take it off you, they can make it a unattractive offer by charging a lot for it but if you still wanted it back you could have it...What I suggest you get a assessor to have a look at your claim they work for you against the adjuster and 9 out of 10 times will get you a better deal. Contact "Midland Claims Recovery Bob Bull 024 76444222" he may not be local to you but will help you out with a local guy.

Good luck

Peter

Reply to
scorpio

"Mike Buckley" wrote in news:bo01lg$542$ snipped-for-privacy@hercules.btinternet.com:

The only conversations on this subject have to far been with the assessor, plus a few comments from the repairers to which I have replied mostly with "oohs" and "aahs". I did not want to show my hand until I knew which game we were playing. Thanks to the good advice here, I am learning fast.

Derry

Reply to
Derry Argue

"scorpio" wrote in news:AEMob.879$ snipped-for-privacy@news-binary.blueyonder.co.uk:

Unfortunately, it is in the approved repairers because they told me it was probably repairable. They now say it is a write off. The impression they gave was that they had to take it to the repairers to do the repairs after assessing the damage -- which could be true. Presumably they need jigs etc. to see whether the chassis is twisted.

Just

That is what I thought though they like to give a different impression. I am a qualified surveyor and have some knowledge of the law of contract. Anyway, I will see what offers they make!

What I suggest you

Thanks, I will do that.

On the plus side, the "new" D90 seems to be a good deal.(A 1998 for £4,900 plus VAT which I can recover). Cosmetically, it looks rough but it is mostly surface rust and peeling paint which can be fixed fairly cheaply. Runs very smooth! Hey! I can even hear the radio (it's a 300Tdi).

Regards, Derry

Reply to
Derry Argue

Don't know anything about salvage values, but the bit that worries me is:

||| The value I declared for insurance purposes turns out to have ||| been rather low.

Insurance companies will normally pay out either the insured value (agreed in advance) or the current market value, whichever is the less. This is to stop people deliberately undervaluing their vehicles to get a lower premium, then claiming a higher value when a claim is made. They may consider that you were trying to defraud them. If there are genuine reasons why your vehicle was worth more than its current market value, then this should have been agreed with the insurers in writing first. In other words, if you have been paying them to insure a "cheap" vehicle, you can't very well turn round and claim for an "expensive" vehicle!

If you push this, they may well have grounds to dismiss the whole claim, and I for one wouldn't blame them.

Reply to
Richard Brookman

On or around 1 Nov 2003 15:23:08 GMT, Derry Argue enlightened us thusly:

common ploy, I suspect. You can request a second opinion on the repair from a garage of your choice - I did this with a damaged car, the difference was intriguing. "their" repairer was quoting for a whole lot of work/parts which didn;t need doing. Local place did an excellent job, using some parts I acquired by buying a similar dud car for the body panels, without:

removing engine/gearbox removing windscreen/dash replacing alternator

all of which the original garage had quoted for.

The whole of the damage was confined to the front offside of the car - the driver's door still fitted and shut perfectly, no signs of distortion around the windscreen, etc., and the alternator worked fine until I sold it.

difference in cost for the actual repair was summat like 1000 quid... perish the thought that the garage and the insurers have a cosy deal going...

Reply to
Austin Shackles

It'll be the Insurance Company who make the final decision as to what can happen to the salvage!

Reply to
Mike Buckley

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