Car Insurance Payout Reduced

causewayer

I was involved in an accident where my 3 year-old car was written off. It transpired that the rear tyres were well below the legal limit. I had fitted 4 new, high quality, tyres 9 months previously, and the car had only travelled 11000 miles. The car was front-wheel drive and the 2 front tyres were only half worn. The tyres had never been swapped around.

Previous to the accident I had noticed that the front tyres were OK and just assumed the rear were OK (Yes, I should have checked them all more often).

My insurance company have accepted, after consultation with the police, that the condition of the tyres had no bearing on the cause or outcome of the accident.

At first, they had offered me close to the top book price of the car. (It was in excellent condition). Then they told me that they would be reducing the offer to deduct the value of the worn tyres.

However, when they made the revised offer, they told me that because the car was unroadworthy at the time of the accident, they were now going to base the value on the mid book price and then deduct the value of the tyres.

It seems reasonable to reduce the value by the cost of 2 new tyres. However, it does not seem reasonable to change the whole basis of the valuation.

Any suggestions how I should approach the insurance company. Is it within their rights to change the basis of the valuation by saying (correctly) that the car was unroadworthy?

Chnandler Bong

:eek:

If the Guards did'nt declare it unroadworthy then it's not.

Do'nt let them away with this!

Chancers!!

dudara

Moved to Banking & Insurance & Pensions

dudara

oldyouth

Tell me more about new tyres with only 11k miles on them being below the legal limit. What caused that do you think?

Hal Emmerich

He said they were high quality so that must mean the tracking was off on them.

causewayer

The Garda took a statement from me after the accident (2 months ago). They never mentioned the tyres, and at that time I did not know about their condition. I know the insurance company have asked the Garda if the condition of the tyres had any impact on the accident, and they confirmed that they did not. I have not heard from the Garda since. Hopefully, I won't.

I asked the tyre supplier how the rear tyres became so worn. Their only explanation was that the tracking was off. The insurance assessor reported back that the tracking did not appear to be off. (Surely, he couldnt tell).

I remember that there seemed to be plenty of tread on the rear tyres back in Dec. I don't remember hitting any curbs or bad potholes, but something must have done it.

I actually went to the salvage yard to check that someone had not changed the tyres, but they were the ones that I had put on. (Uniroyal €170 each).

At the end of the day, it doesnt really matter how the tyres wore down so quickly. They did. I didn't notice, and now the insurance company are devalueing the car because it was 'unroadworthy'.

Del2005

causewayer wrote: »

I was involved in an accident where my 3 year-old car was written off. It transpired that the rear tyres were well below the legal limit. I had fitted 4 new, high quality, tyres 9 months previously, and the car had only travelled 11000 miles. The car was front-wheel drive and the 2 front tyres were only half worn. The tyres had never been swapped around.

Previous to the accident I had noticed that the front tyres were OK and just assumed the rear were OK (Yes, I should have checked them all more often).

My insurance company have accepted, after consultation with the police, that the condition of the tyres had no bearing on the cause or outcome of the accident.

At first, they had offered me close to the top book price of the car. (It was in excellent condition). Then they told me that they would be reducing the offer to deduct the value of the worn tyres.

However, when they made the revised offer, they told me that because the car was unroadworthy at the time of the accident, they were now going to base the value on the mid book price and then deduct the value of the tyres.

It seems reasonable to reduce the value by the cost of 2 new tyres. However, it does not seem reasonable to change the whole basis of the valuation.

Any suggestions how I should approach the insurance company. Is it within their rights to change the basis of the valuation by saying (correctly) that the car was unroadworthy?

A car in excellent condition won't wear out rear tyres of a front wheel drive car in 11000miles. There is/was something wrong with the car.

Maybe that's why they've dropped the value.

causewayer

The insurance company compromised and was settled to my satisfaction.