Basically my mother's Civic was shunted from behind at traffic lights and the resultant damage declared a write-off by the Insurance Company's appointed body shop.
Her car has a book value of £3750, its an automatic, fully loaded etc.. etc.. but Elephant.co.uk/Admiral have made an offer of £2600 for her car, and not only that but also insist that she keeps the car and pays £500 salvage costs. That means she is left with £2200 and a car with extensive rear end damage which the body shop said includes a bent chasis.
Is there a way to fight this?.. and also to insist that they keep the written off car and pay the full amount of any claim. I thought keeping the car and paying a salvage price was optional.
I will of course write to them in the morning telling them the car is worth a lot more. However with respect to salvage they stated that they have no way of receiving written-off cars, which is why they want us to take it and pay £500 from the settlement money. I principally want to know if this is right or are they obliged to take the car??
Write to 'em rejecting their offer and tell 'em you want more. Find some (high) valuations on the 'net and print them out and include them in your letter.
Insurance companies make me sick, their first offer is usually pathetic and rely on people not knowing they can reject it to make as much cash as possible. I've rejected insurance company offers twice before (on 2 seperate claims) and their 2nd offers were both much higher and (to me) acceptable.
I do hope your Mother is OK and has had medical checks to ensure that she suffered no immediate or dealyed injury in the accident. Stiff necks and backs are apparently difficult to diagnose but are of course a claimable expense....
Hmm obviously reading a different column in the same book...
Currently they will be paying to store the car , the longer it takes to settle , the more they pay out in storage.
Simply refuse their offer, your not looking for `betterment` being in a better position than you were before the accident, your looking to be put back on the road just like you were before.
It is entirely your right to refuse this and any subsequent offer, bearing in mind that the storage bill will be running all the time, £25 as week is cheap, it dosent` take too much waiting till its cheaper to pay out than keep arguing.With possible looming medical expenses claim added in...
Trying to sell you a written off Civic for £500 is really a joke, usually insurance compnies whine about write offs returning to the road, your not running a vehicle dismantlers, what would you want with it? If you were, would you consider the scrap value to be anywhere near £500.
Having been on this un-merry-go-round more than once, refuse in writing, get a quote for a similar vehicle from a large dealer, tell them to stick their scrap car where the sun don`t shine, repeat , rinse, lather ;-)
I'd have thought it very unusual for an insurer to expect the insured to take a written-off car. Insurers surely have lists of local (and national 'specialist') scrappies, and 'phone around to get the best (or, maybe, an acceptable) price.
I'd say that if they write the car off, they're obliged to reimburse your mother for the full value of the car. They might not be obliged to take the car, but they should pay any costs incurred in it's disposal. If they don't want it, tell them you'll not pay for it, but dispose of it yourself to save them the hassle. :-) If it's not signed over, it's still your mothers car and probably worth a good few quid as a breaker. Mike.
Just to add another voice to help you make up your mind - refuse their offer in writing, find more valuations on the 'net and send them to them, and tell them what you would settle for. Refuse to pay £500 to dispose of the car for them. If they want to pay *you* £500 to get rid of it that's a different matter. Don't let them take the piss any more than they have done already.
Hope you get what you're entitled to because, don't forget, that's all you're asking for.
They're trying it on. I can't see a written off ordinary car being worth
500 quid. But try phoning a scrappie and ask. They might want money to collect it. Look for one in the back of Exchange and Mart etc that sells such vehicles as 'repairable'.
S'very unusual. They're buying her car from her and then giving it back... Usually, from what I've read here, it's uphill work to get an inserance co to give the car back.
If the insurance company are members of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) or the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau you can go to arbitration if your fight with the insurance company bears no fruit.
Keep copies of any letters you send and use recorded delivery.
The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:
Telford Motor Spares paid me £20 last week when they took away my old Maestro which had already had loads of goodies like the head and the alternator and the starter stripped.
Hiya, if you don't want the car they the simple rule for the insurer is to pay for the car and any disposal costs that you incure. Also as far as the value of the car is concerned this is not based on the Book Value but the true Value of the car. Best way to check the true value is to have a look at autotrader or exchange and mart and find a cars of a similar spec. This would be counted as the true value of the car, it is then the insurers job to take the car away or pay for the car to be disposed of. If they don't comply take it to Association of British Insurers(ABI) or the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau with the evidence you gather and they will resolve the issue
What's the category of writtenoff-ness? You might be able to get it fixed by a backstreet gargae & sell it on. Repairers often alter the price depending on whether it's a trade, private or insurance item.
Read your policy documents. They should tell you what is covered and what they'll pay out. If it's like for like then do as others have said and find advert clippings of similar cars to substantiate your claim.
Hmmm, if it was shunted then the other person's insurance will be paying this but often your own insurance company just want a quiet life, legal cover or not, and will try to get you to accept the claim. A friend of mine was even asked to accept responsibility by the insurance company when she was rear ended & had to submit a full written argument as to why it wasn't her fault. She won, in the end, but it took about a year.
I passed the insurance assessors course some years ago, and the chap that held the course was the head of the Institute's training department. He suggested that you refuse the first two offers, but the third offer is the one they will stick to.
Not sure about salvage costs, but if the car is a very bad write-off you may even have to pay to have it removed - normally about £50. You should ask the insurers for this.
You could try shopping around and see what the salvage is worth though, or if it's even repairable. Is this a technical write-off? (it would be unsafe to repair), or an 'economical' write off? (too expensive to repair).
Thanks for all the advice chaps. I just realised my mother has legal cover (she's with Hill House Hammond) so I've asked them to get involved in pursuing this claim. They want me to find and print off two ads for identical cars and they promised to fight to get the best settlement. When I mentioned that elephant/Admiral want us to buy the written off Civic the legal advisor said, "nonsense".. its up to the claimant. He said all insurance companies try it on, but when legal departments start talking they usually dispense with the preamble and just pay up.
This is an interesting and educational experience :-)
Secondly the salvage value is a nominal amount of something like 16% (in your case 19%) of book price which is agreed between major salvage yards for an across the board price ie take 100 cars and pay 16 %. They will get some very lightly damaged write offs which will go out as salvage stolen recovered and will make a good profit, and some which are worth nothing being rolled and crushed or burnt out. It is a numbers game. I n your case therefore the salvage value offered to you has no real bearing on the worth of your dearly departed AND you should tell them to get lost. You will not be able in all probability to sell the remains for £500 and so will lose out. Having said that I was more than pleased to buy the salvage of a cavilier SRI many years ago for £150 as it went for £399 as was in an advert in Thames valley trader. HTH Phil
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