Insurance company writing off a car?

blastman

Has anyone had dealings with an insurance company trying to write off a car that has been smacked, but had relatively little damage done, because of the age and/or condition of the car? Just wondering what the procedure might be, and what my rights are regarding refusal etc.

Masada

Even if its not completely f**ked then they'll write the car off, meaning they class the repair as more expencive than the cars worth, in cases where the car isnt the most valuable one they'll give you the current market value of the car(minus the excess and what not) and leave you with the car anyway, you can still drive it and sell it or whatever you like (providing its road worthy of course). it hasnt been scraped, just deemed too expencive to fix.,:)

blastman

Cheers, I was just wondering if I have to accept the "current market value" as they decree it though, as I'm sure they won't offer anything close to its true value i.e. how much of an argument can I have here?

Masada

well a lot of it depends on the condition of the car really, the assessor will be sent out to you and he'll have a look around the car to determine its condition and if its repairable, he'll look for existing damage and stuff that would effect the cars value and determine what your car will be valued at from there,.
As far as i know they wont really be up for any negotiation on the real value unless you can prove why its worth more, be it immac condition compared to most, limited edition etc etc.,

PeakOutput

blastman wrote: »

Cheers, I was just wondering if I have to accept the "current market value" as they decree it though, as I'm sure they won't offer anything close to its true value i.e. how much of an argument can I have here?

you have some wriggle room so its worth a bit of an argument but its an engineer who values cars and repairs for a living that decides the current market value so weather you like to admit it or not they know more about it then you

and for what its worth a car is deemed ber(beyond economical repair) if the rapirs cost 60% or more of the market value of the car they will probably offer you a market value less the 'salvage value' which is how much you get for selling the wreck to a salvage dealer. some companies will do this for you but some dont. you also have the option of using the money they give u to pay for repairs but you will need to get a certificate or road worthiness after the repairs are done

if a car is a total write off you are not legally allowed to put it back on the road as far as i know so when you are talking to the insurance company again ask them which it is

Masada

if im thinking right its the CRX that was in a recent thread on here? if so theres little to none structural damage to that, its just the cost of the bodywork really.,

ART6

I'm not sure about the ownership of the car if it's been written off. It used to be that the insurers would pay out the trade in value of the car and it would become the property of the insurance company. You could buy it from them, generally for it's scrap value, but if they had written it off you would have big problems putting it back on the road.

green-blood

there are two classificatiosn here

written off - ie, dead as a door nail.

beyond economical repair - too expensive to fix using original parts and high insurance company approved crash repair centre rates.

if its the former they will want you to surrender the log book before they will let you have the car back - so really only useful for parts

if its BER, they willlet you have it back to repair as you like....if its that CRX, the reason they wont repair is because of the rust under the filler - more filler is not a repair!!!

blastman

Yeah, it was the CRX in a recent thread. I know there's a bit of rust underneath where it was hit and that's basically the can of worms that has been opened by this woman hitting me. Unless the garage tells me it's completely unrepairable, I want to fix it and fix it properly, not just filler over the rust. I do want a reasonable contribution from the insurance company, though, not a risible offer of a couple of hundred Euro.

@PeakOutout, the assessor may know cars, but I've been around CRXs for a long time and I know what they're worth.

Thanks for the advice so far, lads.

ninty9er

The rust was pre existing, they're not going to pay for anything more than to fix the damage caused directly by the hit (bumper IIRC??), but if a bumper+spraying+fitting is more expensive than a valuation of the car once repaired, then it's B-E-R, but you can do what you wish with it, they will only give the value the car is put at by their valuer AFAIK, or it could be the damage cost if you're lucky.

blastman

Well, there was some damage to the rear quarter panel as well by the impact, so I'm hoping that they have to factor that in as well. But yeah, I get what you're saying.

Esel

If they write it off, the pre-accident value will be reduced by the rust and by any other pre-accident damage - e.g. a dinged panel etc.