Getting full value of written-off car

eoinkennedy

Hi,

I was in an accident a few weeks ago, and as a result my car is a write-off.

The other driver was at fault, and both the gardai and the insurance company say so. We both have the same insurance company.

I got a value from the assessor on my car of €3800, which I agreed to.

Now the insurance company is coming back to me with a figure of €2600 from them and €1200 from a salvage company for the car.
On the insurance companies website, they say that if my car is a total loss, then they will cover its cost, and take care of disposing of the car. They now say that this is only in the case where I am claiming on my insurance, and that this is industry practice when the claim is against another driver.

My concern is that if I sign my car over to the salvage, then it may appear back on the road again after some repairs. I thought that a write-off was a write-off?

And if I do that I won't be able to claim my road tax back because I don't know if the car is actually being scrapped. The salvage company say that they will cover the remainder on the tax, but does this mean that I don't know what will happen to my car after I sign it over?

If anybody can advise, and tell me if this practice is correct, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Eoin

OldmanMondeo

The car is a write off and you have been offered a scrapage amount from a salvage dealer. Just take the money. The only way you can be sure the car is not put back on the road is to burn it out.

what_car

eoinkennedy wrote:

Hi,

I was in an accident a few weeks ago, and as a result my car is a write-off.

The other driver was at fault, and both the gardai and the insurance company say so. We both have the same insurance company.

I got a value from the assessor on my car of €3800, which I agreed to.

Now the insurance company is coming back to me with a figure of €2600 from them and €1200 from a salvage company for the car.
On the insurance companies website, they say that if my car is a total loss, then they will cover its cost, and take care of disposing of the car. They now say that this is only in the case where I am claiming on my insurance, and that this is industry practice when the claim is against another driver.

My concern is that if I sign my car over to the salvage, then it may appear back on the road again after some repairs. I thought that a write-off was a write-off?

And if I do that I won't be able to claim my road tax back because I don't know if the car is actually being scrapped. The salvage company say that they will cover the remainder on the tax, but does this mean that I don't know what will happen to my car after I sign it over?

If anybody can advise, and tell me if this practice is correct, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Eoin

if you sell the car as scrap to the scrappage yard, then hold on to the log book / vehicle documents... as the car is being sold as scrap you dont need to hand these over....

once he has not got these, then i dont think it could be resold as you would still be the registered owner! also remove the reg plates..

Eoin

eoinkennedy wrote:

My concern is that if I sign my car over to the salvage, then it may appear back on the road again after some repairs. I thought that a write-off was a write-off?

I don't think that because an Insurance Company chooses to pay for for the entire value of the car means that the car is irreparable - it just means that it isn't worth their while paying to get it repaired. Herself wrote off her car late late last year, but I am fairly sure it wasn't scrapped as she wasn't allowed take her tax disc from it.

Zoot

When insurance companies cost for repairing a car they price it using new parts etc. This is why a car can often be a technical write off, but well worth repairing if you know the right people (mechanics, body repair guys etc).

If it is a technical write off the insurance company will offer you the insured value of the car minus the buy back cost (the figure a specific garage will pay for the wreckage).

To get the full amount back you just sell the wreckage to the specified garage. Otherwise you can keep the wreckage to salvage what you can from it.

There is money to be made from this and it also illustrates why we ALWAYS need to question if a car we're interested in has been in any accidents.

eoinkennedy

Thanks so far,
Should I be worried about the possibility of it going back on the road again?

Eoin

Eoin

eoinkennedy wrote:

Thanks so far,
Should I be worried about the possibility of it going back on the road again?

Eoin

From a legal standpoint I wouldn't think so as you will have signed over the car to the salvage company.

Gary ITR

As a previous poster said the car could only be a write off because it's just not economically viable to repair. If it was repaired then it could be just like before it was crashed

eoinkennedy

Do I have to accept the offer?

I've been advised to stay away from the offer, and send the insurance company the keys and let them sell it on if they want.

Zoot

eoinkennedy wrote:

Do I have to accept the offer?

I've been advised to stay away from the offer, and send the insurance company the keys and let them sell it on if they want.

There's no need to be wary of this. It's all perfectly legal.

You could ask the insurance company to keep the old car and give you the full value, though they may tell you to go and take a run and jump at yourself.

I know if it was me I'd be more concerned about how much longer it may take them to settle the claim. If you are happy with the value combined - their payment and the garage's - you should have the money in your hands within a week.

Eoin

Zoot wrote:

There's no need to be wary of this. It's all perfectly legal.

You could ask the insurance company to keep the old car and give you the full value, though they may tell you to go and take a run and jump at yourself.

I know if it was me I'd be more concerned about how much longer it may take them to settle the claim. If you are happy with the value combined - their payment and the garage's - you should have the money in your hands within a week.

Exactly. I am pretty sure that if they decide to write it off and give you a settlement - that you said you agreed to - then they own the car and can do with it what they want.

That said, I would have thought it was their responsibility to give you the full settlement figure themselves, and it's up to them to get the 1200 from the salvage company. I know herself's insurance company gave her the full settlement directly, and we didn't have to deal with whatever garage ended up with it.

Jumpy

You do have the choice of keeping the car and trying to sell it on again for a higher value.

_Kaiser_

This exact same scenario happened to me with my first car...

Woman pulled straight out across a junction in front of me on the N3 one morning, with the result that I ended up going into the back of her. (oncoming traffic, another junction 20m away). Important thing is noone was hurt and she accepted liability (besides, her car - Volvo - didn't even have a dent whereas mine - Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback - had the front end destroyed, but was still drivable).

Anyway, the first lesson was that once my insurance company knew that she'd accepted responsibility, they didn't want to know and left it to me to chase up (which I have to admit I wasn't impressed with given the amount I was paying them at the time, and the fact that they'd be quick enough chasing ME if the situation had been reversed).

So after a week of supposedly waiting on her company's assessor to view the car (but the reaility being they did nothing) they deemed it "not economical to repair" and offered me €3500 based on the "book value" of the car with another €1200 for scrappage.

I told yer man not a chance. I'd paid €6200 less than 6 months earlier (and that was cheap!) and I actually made him go onto the carzone.ie website while I was on the phone and see for himself that examples older and with more mileage than mine were in fact selling for more! (after which he somewhat sheepishly admitted that their offer was a bit low alright).

Another week passed and at this stage I'd now escalated to a manager. She came back offering €5000 or thereabouts. Again, not a hope.. as far as I was concerned, THEIR client accepted liability thus it was THEIR job to get me back into the position I was in before the accident - which did not include a written off car, OR being €1200 out of pocket. I told her in no uncertain terms that I would NOT be accepting her offer and gave her till the end of the day to improve on it. Finally, an hour later no less, they agreed to cough up the full €6200.

Moral of the story being don't be afraid to escalate to management and don't take any crap from them. After all, regardless of what they tell you, they'll be very sure to recoup their costs from their client's premium remember.