Insurance won't match assessment

Nanoc

Hi all, sorry if it's been asked before can't find anything in the search.

So my wife was in a crash, other driver acknowledged fault and insurance company said fine. They took car to garage and got sent report showing approx 6k damage. Seemed off as both tower and guard said it looked a write off. Got a second assessment and they said approx 13k to fix and called it a write off. Lots of items missed on first assessment.

Insurance company just saying we stand over our assessment tough, upped the offer to 10k and told us to take it or leave it. Have serious concerns of 1. The safety of the car if repaired and 2. That the cost of repairs could far outweigh the 10k.

Any thoughts on what happens here. We don't want the car back due to safety concerns and given where they're at with offer can't believe they won't just cut their losses and settle as if they sold car for scrap they're nearly at the price of the car. Now they've said accept the offer or move the car (undriveable) or you're also liable for storage costs. As it stands we'd be down over 2k on cost of car before any depreciation is taken into account.

cup of tea

Depends, what was the pre accident value of the car?

Nanoc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117892610#Comment_117892610

€22/23k can't remember exact amount but was only bought 4/5months prior (2nd hand)

ForestFire

"we stand over our assessment tough, upped the offer to 10k"

That's a pretty weird statement, when they are increasing their offer by almost 70% (Extra 4K)?

Also is it your insurance company or the other drivers insurance?

Nanoc

Yep, it is. I suspect they are trying to just pressure us to take offer. Ongoing 2 months at this stage.

It's the other insurance, other driver accepted liability and guards agreed.

mickdw

Hold up here now before you get screwed.

Your wife was in an accident where other party is at fault. You are therefore entitled to be put back in identical position as before the crash. You are also entitled to depreciation of your property due to the crash even when they fix the car. You are also entitled to hire car and all other associated costs.

It is your car. It goes to repairer of your choice, not some garage decided by other party insurer. It sounds like an economic right off if the 13k figure is accurate as it will be cheaper for insurer to buy out your car off you for market value and then get salvage money from the trade.

Don't bend under these thugs. Find a main dealer for your brand to handle the repair quote via an insurance approved body shop having done a full and thorough inspection of the car and go from there.

ForestFire

I not up to speed on the ins and outs of these claims now, but can you not go through your own insurance and then let them claim against the other one?

Are you now entitled to another independent quote that you both agree on beforehand?

Maybe someone else can offer more advice, but I would be pushing this if it was me, especially as its the other insurance party your currently dealing with.

Darc19

Forget going through a branded garage for crash repair. They will get a quote and add 50%. And that's not an exaggeration.

Go to some place like Ace Autobody who will stand over their work and use OEM parts and will repair to manufacture standard.

You might find 10k is sufficient. But if they say €13k, the insurance will have to accept it.

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117892738#Comment_117892738

Insurers have a pretty tight system now with all the repairers so there is no room for the silly margins but I suggested the route of approved repairer via main dealer to ensure that all damaged parts are found and suitably priced up using genuine parts and without short cuts.

The important thing is that the op needs to control the situation, not other insurer.

Nanoc

Thanks for the comments. Having looked at the offer in detail, they are including car hire as part of their 10k offer which we had for around 3 weeks and they subsequently pulled.

So basically fluffing up the offer and when taking that into account the actual offer is probably closer to 8k cash. So won't be accepting that. No matter what way I look at it here with current offer will be out of pocket c.5k.

seagull

Has an assessor from your own insurance company seen the car?

Nanoc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117895110#Comment_117895110

They literally didn't want to know us unless we were prepared to process the claim through them, then they'd try to claim back off other insurance company, said she'd lose no claims and even if not at fault may not get that back in full. This was before guards full investigation of crash but to be blunt, they were useless even at advising us

seagull

Any idea how good or bad the repair shop that gave the initial quote is? If the car is repaired there, then the insurance company will be picking up the bill in full. It might be worth telling them to go ahead and fix it.

mgbgt1978

(a) Do not claim off your own Insurer (in this case your wife's insurer). She will have a claim against her until her Insurer gets reimbursed, and if her renewal date occurs prior to this she will have lost her no-claims and also be penalised for making a claim.

(b) Get a Solicitor involved. A private individual rarely gets a claim against another Driver's Insurer sorted quickly ( and to their satisfaction) by going it alone. A Solicitor will charge for the initial consultation (150 Euro on average). All further fees due to them are the Insurer's problem. Also the Solicitor route will mean a much faster and fairer ( for yourselves) payout from the Insurer.

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117897223#Comment_117897223

Yep.

Probably best to go Solicitor route.

Regardless just continually tell yourself it's up to them to return you to pre crash position with no loss. Accept nothing less. And do not let some random garage suggested by other insurer fix your car. There are cheap repairs and there are proper repairs.

galwaytt

We had a situation like this a few years ago. Our car hit, whilst stopped, by other car (which had lost control). Other driver completely at fault, admitted. Tens of witnesses.

Our insurer were nigh-on useless. They just wanted to throw in the towel.

So we took on the 3rd Party Insurer directly, and went from a derisory offer of 1700 iirc to write it off, to getting them to pay us just over €6k directly to us, and we got the car repaired. We didn't want, and weren't interested in replacing it, and importing a replacement of that spec etc was the €6k figure. They were just lazy and looking up DoneDeal for junker pricing imho.

Don't give up, stand your ground, the other party has admitted full liability so that part is over. As mentioned above, you are entitled to be put back into the pre-crash position with no losses.

The longer this goes on, the more it'll cost them.

I would do one of two things;

1 - get a full cost repair plus an allowance for the hassle, depreciation & car hire etc. Get a number for that.

or

2 - get a price for a replacement vehicle identical to what you had - bear in mind in this market that may well be MORE than you paid a few months' ago, not less.

Get them numbers in front of 3rd Party insurer, via a solicitor if you want, and stick to it.

This guy is a spoofer!

mickdw

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Whocare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117892689#Comment_117892689

How you're wife back as all this hassle with insurance could bring on back pain for your wife