car insurance claim

hargo

My brothers car was stolen 4 weeks ago and located 2 weeks later, 00 Seat, book value €4200, cost €5000 to €5500 to replace. He had the car towed to the nearest Seat garage on instruction of insurance company and assessor looked at it that day, and said not economical to repair. The damage is broken winscreen and side window plus scrape down the passenger side, no structural damage. Despite several calls to the insurance company it took till today to get an offer of settlement €3500 ( girl said to him there was one in autotrader for 4000 ) and they took his car away yesterday without consulting him. Looking for opinions on following
1. Are they entitled to take the car without his permission
2. Is he entitled to get his car repaired. He hasn't got a quote but reckons €2000 should fix it. This is his prefered option as he has had the car from new.
3. Does he have to accept the offer of €3500. He had it insured for €5500 and book value is €4200.
What if anything can he do.
He also has to pay the cost of towing €120

frodi

They cannot take the car without his permission. It is still his property. If they don't return ASAP get him to tell them that he will report it as stolen. (It was taken without his consent) He should get them to give him a detailed breakdown of what repairs are necessary plus the costs of same.
The only thing that I could see that might boost the is if the chassis has been bent or something like that. Or possibly a lot of electrics need replacing.

If this doesn't have an effect he may need to get professional help in dealing with them.

jimmycrackcorm

Get a garage quote to fix it andthen send the quote tothe insurer asking wy they want to pay out 3.5k instead of 2k?

MrPudding

hargo wrote:

3. Does he have to accept the offer of €3500. He had it insured for €5500 and book value is €4200.

This is something that I really hate. Apparently it is perfectly acceptable for the theiving scum to enter into an agreement where they have agreed to insure you car for a certain sum of money. In return for this you must pay them a certain premium.

When it come to a claim they will not pay the agreed sum. Of course, you have to hold up your side of the agreement.

MrP

mel123

most often people insure there car for more than its worth, when infact all u will get off the insurance company is the market-value anyway, thats what i have been told anyway.

Sonnenblumen

mel123 wrote:

most often people insure there car for more than its worth, when infact all u will get off the insurance company is the market-value anyway, thats what i have been told anyway.

Absolutely right, in fact they get you two ways.

If as you rightly say, over-insure, pay more premium than actual market value the insurance co keeps the overpayment. On the otherhand if you undervalue/under-insure, the insurance co will not pay any more than this amount. So bothways you lose out.

The annoying thing is that they seem to be clueless regarding divulging market values at renewal dates. Always seems to be the one for the customer to work out, I wonder why?

If you have an alternative repair quote for € 2k, I would put it in writing that you wish to have the car repaired and NOT written off. It is technically your property until you accept the write-off cheque.

logonapr

This is something that I really hate. Apparently it is perfectly acceptable for the theiving scum to enter into an agreement where they have agreed to insure you car for a certain sum of money. In return for this you must pay them a certain premium.

Are you seriously suggesting that I can insure my car or an item in my house for any sum I choose and then if it's stolen make a big profit?
That would be crazy.
It is up to the person insuring to set the value because presumably it would add hugely to costs if an assessor had to be employed to value everything before people obtained insurance.
Would be amazed if insurance company didn't accept offer of a cheap repair. If cost of repair plus current value of car is not over €4,000 - €4200 I can't see their logic.