My '98 NB suffered a 15mph front end crash. It needs £2500-3,000 of work to make it perfect again. It’s insured for an agreed value of £6,000. Talking briefly with the estimator today he thought it might be written off. So would that mean they’d pay me £6,000 less my excess and permit me to buy the car back for what they think is the current market value? How much is that market value likely to be?
If that’s how it works out by the way, how come damage worth only 50% of the car’s value results in a write off of a beautiful car?
They’ll offer you the 3000 as a first try.
You need to haggle them to get the full value.
Make sure you hold onto the car (it’s yours until they give you money) so they can’t sell it off before you agree to anything.
Estimate has come in for £4,500 using all new parts. The estimator will submit it and see what happens. We’ve discussed the possibility of using used parts to reduce the £4,500 by a lot as long as I authorise it.
What would allow my insurers to offer me £3,000 when I paid extra for an agreed value of £6,000 (less a £500 excess)?
It’s simply how they do business. They will always maximise their margin and minimise THEIR losses.
If the first offer was full value it would be highly unusual.
I’ve haggled two big claims against insurers.
One took a year of “negotiation” before they crumbled and agreed to pay the full value on a new for old policy when they could not find me an equivalent new item, a very good semi-pro video camera.
The other my building society, who insisted on arranging the expensive house insurance, made the mistake of giving me the opportunity to have a bit of fun in front of all their waiting customers.
The manager had asked me to provide all the documents AGAIN after three months of prevarication about what his own loss adjuster had agreed within a few days of the flood and authorised me to spend on repairs for the flood.
I simply asked him why he owned a dog and yet still wanted to do his own barking.
He went red.
Everyone in the queues clapped. We all hated the rip-off carpet-bagged no-longer mutual Halifax.
I had the cheque in two minutes.
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If it is properly agreed, that’s what they will pay out against as that is the risk the accepted.
If you merely told them that value, with no certifiied value, it won’t be agreed…
I suggested £6k. They charged me a valuation fee and an extra premium. It was valued by a member of the club. £6k was agreed.
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Agreed value might be adjusted at renewal time by the insurer, in line with their (and not someone else’s) view of how the market has changed (though I suspect never to the benefit of the insured)
65% is the rule of thumb cut off for a write off, but I suppose not every insurer is the same. When using used parts, the repairer might not be willing to warranty the work, eg. repainted used bumpers often don’t paint as well as new bumper in primer. The used panels might need lots of work getting them to a standard, and that standard might not meet yours. Usually used panels are appropriate if new are no longer available. 20 year old headlight might never look like new.
And I think its only discretionary if the insurers choose to allow you to fix the car yourself. You might have to end up buying the car back yourself, as an insurance write-off, and repair it. Either way, its no longer a £6000 Mk2. If the car is nt in your possession, they are also entitled to charge you a daily storage fee.
If they right the car off, and the payout is fair, I’d take that. They’ll never be able to match the front panels with the rest of the 23 year old paint, without repainting the entire car, and that will be a lot more than the estimate.
Yup, the car will stay in my possession until there’s an agreement, preferably to fix it.
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