Buying back a write off

[rab]

My stepson has had his car written off by his insurance company following a rear end shunt.

I haven't seen the damage but I'm assuming their decision is down to the age/value.

 

Has anyone had any experience (good or bad) of buying back a right off and getting it repaired?

[Sidecar Racer]

 

I'm not up to date with the latest rules regarding re-builds of insurance write off's ,

 

The insurance co will give it a classification as to the state of it , EG, classed as A . repairable .

class C , spares only not to be repaired , scrap only .

 

 So dependent on the above you would need to get some detailed estimates on the extent of the damage

and likely cost to fix . It is a case of cost/value of the vehicle that has to be considered .

 

 That's as much as I can remember from my time in the trade , that was 10 years ago so

things could of changed .

 

 

 

 

Edited August 11, 2020 by Sidecar Racer

[simontaylor484]

I have never done it but i believe it is done on a regular basis. U pull it sell certain category write offs at their sites and online i believe they are part of the Co part group. 

 I have seen some of them when i have been for bits for my cars.

 

I couldnt tell you if they are possible to run again or sold as donor vehicles i suppose it depends on the category of write off

[TheQ]

It's quite common on genuine landrovers, the biggest problem is idiot Insurance assessors who write them off Class C, due to a bent chassis, when the chassis is a changeable part ( £1200 for my one but that was rust). If you want it you need to contact them as soon as possible before it get's class C'd,  'cos then there's all sorts of legal problems..

[MartinWales]

Cat N is cosmetic, can even be something silly like a bumper, so these tend to be possibly more attractive than-

 

Cat S which is structural,but still repairable

 

Of course it depends on the insurance company involved, and the nature of damage!

 

[Sidecar Racer]

 

 This from Aviva .

 

https://www.aviva.co.uk/insurance/motor/car-insurance/what-happens-to-write-offs/

[Stubby47]

If the airbags have gone off, forget it.

The insurance will need the whole system replacing, with new components, before they will insure the vehicle again.

 

Minor front end damage to wife's Corsa, but the air bags deployed and it was over £1,000 to replace, on a car worth £350.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

1 hour ago, rab said:

My stepson has had his car written off by his insurance company following a rear end shunt.

I haven't seen the damage but I'm assuming their decision is down to the age/value.

 

Has anyone had any experience (good or bad) of buying back a right off and getting it repaired?

Had exactly this experience getting on fifteen years ago, rear ended standing at the lights, causing damage to the tailgate only of an eleven year old hatchback, hit by (you guessed it) bull bars.

 

Our vehicle was written off, valuation less then the cost of factory parts and labour to repair; we bought it back, had a salvaged tailgate off a scrapper fitted by an old friend in the trade and were mysteriously net £500 better off. Seven months later came the problem, couldn't renew the road tax because the insurance write off had automatically removed the vehicle from DVLA's database. No idea if that is still the case, worth checking. (Didn't matter as it was 'the runabout' so just kept it off road until retaxed, but I never obtained a clear answer at the time what it's status was while it was taxed but not on the DVLA database...)

[The Stationmaster]

Going back many years a mate of mine had a Triumph Spitfire written off after some clown reversed into it in a car park.  Things were very different back then and being a Spitfire it had one big advantage - it could be taken apart and then rebuilt on a new chassis and that is exactly what he did although he incorporated some GT6 body components in the rebuild and a chap we knew skimmed the head and polished the ports so it was definitely soemwhat hotter,  In order to get it re-registered it had to be inspected by the police but it was just an ordinary PC who came round to do that although he did go through stuff very thoroughly,  

 

Somewhere I have some transparencies of a young Paul Karau putting his newly finished handiwork through its paces and it was a lot tauter than an ordinary job off the assembly as everything was torqued up exactly as it should be according to the triumph workshop manual.  He sold it on within a year or so and progressed to a Healey 100/4 - which also needed a lot of mechanical work done on it.  So I don't think Paul's dad got his own g car into the garage fopr a couple of years.

[rab]

Thanks for the responses.

Stepson has been round this evening with the car.

Only visible damage is a squashed rear bumper, but he

did mention that the tailgate isn't closing properly,

so something is obviously twisted somewhere.

It does seem a shame to scrap a car for so little

apparent damage, but I can see the insurance

company's viewpoint; the car's only worth £400 - 500.

That won't go far on bodywork repairs these days.

I've suggested he take it to a reputable repair garage

to get a repair quote.  At least that way he'll get 

a better idea of how much damage there actually is.

 

 

 

 

[simontaylor484]

If you tell them it's not going through insurance too because I'm sure they inflate the prices 

[polybear]

6 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

Had exactly this experience getting on fifteen years ago, rear ended standing at the lights, causing damage to the tailgate only of an eleven year old hatchback, hit by (you guessed it) bull bars.

 

Our vehicle was written off, valuation less then the cost of factory parts and labour to repair; we bought it back, had a salvaged tailgate off a scrapper fitted by an old friend in the trade and were mysteriously net £500 better off. Seven months later came the problem, couldn't renew the road tax because the insurance write off had automatically removed the vehicle from DVLA's database. No idea if that is still the case, worth checking. (Didn't matter as it was 'the runabout' so just kept it off road until retaxed, but I never obtained a clear answer at the time what it's status was while it was taxed but not on the DVLA database...)

 

From the Aviva link above:

 

Salvage categories A and B (see table below) are allocated to vehicles that have suffered extensive damage and are beyond viable repair.

Any repairs should be undertaken by garages that are part of the Thatcham Research’s preferred network.

“These vehicles have reached the end of their days and must never return to use on the public roads,” says Martin. “The DVLA will not issue V5 registration documents for those vehicles on the database shown as category A or B write-offs.”

 

Also:

 

If you wish to keep your category S or N write-off, you should negotiate with your insurer so they sell the vehicle back to you for a mutually agreeable sum. If your vehicle is a category S write-off, you’ll need to send the logbook to the insurer and apply for a new one from the DVLA, at no cost. You won’t need to do this for a category N write-off.

Also, remember that it’s up to you to tell the DVLA that your car has been written off or scrapped – if you don’t, you could be fined £1,000.

[tr7v8]

If he is young be careful. Some insurers will not reinsure if it has any status (N or S), this may be worse for a young driver. 

The V5C will have a note if it is S as well. 

[peanuts]

14 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

From the Aviva link above:

 

Salvage categories A and B (see table below) are allocated to vehicles that have suffered extensive damage and are beyond viable repair.

Any repairs should be undertaken by garages that are part of the Thatcham Research’s preferred network.

“These vehicles have reached the end of their days and must never return to use on the public roads,” says Martin. “The DVLA will not issue V5 registration documents for those vehicles on the database shown as category A or B write-offs.”

 

Also:

 

If you wish to keep your category S or N write-off, you should negotiate with your insurer so they sell the vehicle back to you for a mutually agreeable sum. If your vehicle is a category S write-off, you’ll need to send the logbook to the insurer and apply for a new one from the DVLA, at no cost. You won’t need to do this for a category N write-off.

Also, remember that it’s up to you to tell the DVLA that your car has been written off or scrapped – if you don’t, you could be fined £1,000.

you can also have problems further down the line farther bought a second hand  nissan micra from a dealer drove it happily for eighteen months no probs unfortunatly had   no fault accident car written off due to age cost . then the fun began farther went to claim and told basicly $50 once your excess is paid for a car worth a grand as is was a cat c repaired car previousley according to the dvla so its value was lower 

 

[polybear]

2 minutes ago, peanuts said:

you can also have problems further down the line farther bought a second hand  nissan micra from a dealer drove it happily for eighteen months no probs unfortunatly had   no fault accident car written off due to age cost . then the fun began farther went to claim and told basicly $50 once your excess is paid for a car worth a grand as is was a cat c repaired car previousley according to the dvla so its value was lower 

 

 

Did the dealer declare it was a cat c when selling it?  If not then you have a claim against them

[peanuts]

5 minutes ago, tr7v8 said:

If he is young be careful. Some insurers will not reinsure if it has any status (N or S), this may be worse for a young driver. 

The V5C will have a note if it is S as well. 

this is why you see so many " not recorded " damage repairables for sale on auto trader and similar sites .

was a victim of this 20 years ago car was two welded together everything forward of the front bulkhead was from another car welded into place new inner wings main rails etc new wings bonnet bumpers grille etc .wasnt untill we got a puncture and found the car bending as we jacked it up that we found it .turns out it was an employee at an MOT  testing station buying and reparing them then dodgy MOT and trade it in at a second hand car dealers never shown on reg docs nobody the wiser  .only due to RAC who rescued us as we couldnt change the puncture getting involved and doing some detective work exposed the whole scam .

[peanuts]

6 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Did the dealer declare it was a cat c when selling it?  If not then you have a claim against them

claimed no knowledge as it wasnt showing on the documents and they had taken it as a part ex .

[polybear]

1 minute ago, peanuts said:

claimed no knowledge as it wasnt showing on the documents and they had taken it as a part ex .

 

One of the basic checks a dealer does is an HPI Check which would've flagged this up straight away.  They knew....

[Nick C]

12 hours ago, rab said:

Thanks for the responses.

Stepson has been round this evening with the car.

Only visible damage is a squashed rear bumper, but he

did mention that the tailgate isn't closing properly,

so something is obviously twisted somewhere.

It does seem a shame to scrap a car for so little

apparent damage, but I can see the insurance

company's viewpoint; the car's only worth £400 - 500.

That won't go far on bodywork repairs these days.

I've suggested he take it to a reputable repair garage

to get a repair quote.  At least that way he'll get 

a better idea of how much damage there actually is.

 

That's a very wise suggestion. If the tailgate won't close properly, then at the minimum the beam that goes across the back is bent. Probably also the boot floor, and maybe even the rearmost part of the side structural members. Unfortunately on most cars these days bumpers are styling accessories, not something to absorb impacts!

[griffgriff]

19 hours ago, TheQ said:

It's quite common on genuine landrovers, the biggest problem is idiot Insurance assessors who write them off Class C, due to a bent chassis, when the chassis is a changeable part ( £1200 for my one but that was rust). If you want it you need to contact them as soon as possible before it get's class C'd,  'cos then there's all sorts of legal problems..

 

Don’t you just need a steel cable and a lamp post?

 

Griff
 

 

[TheQ]

2 minutes ago, griffgriff said:

 

Don’t you just need a steel cable and a lamp post?

 

Griff
 

 

modern lamp posts,  cant take it any more..

[griffgriff]

You need to find an old concrete one

 

Griff

[MJI]

Also sometimes cars are written off because S/H spares are worth a fortune.

 

Say you have a moderately common car with a know failing, lets say rusty doors. But you have a slightly newer version with better door material, your car couldbe written off so the doors could be sold on.

 

More common with bumpers and the like though.

[melmerby]

On 11/08/2020 at 13:40, rab said:

My stepson has had his car written off by his insurance company following a rear end shunt.

I haven't seen the damage but I'm assuming their decision is down to the age/value.

 

Has anyone had any experience (good or bad) of buying back a right off and getting it repaired?

Many years ago with an old mini

I had a rear end shunt which the insurance company paid the write off value which wasn't particularly high and I kept the car and repaired it best I could, using the money. (it was still roadworthy)

It wasn't written off officially in the documentation, I just got the value of a written off vehicle, what I did with it was up to me.

Whether they would still do that I couldn't say.

[Philou]

My 10 year old Mondeo estate was written off during lockdown - we were indoors at the time when a loon lost control going over a nearby speed table (go figure) whilst trying to retrieve his mobile phone that had fallen to the floor. The front off-side wheels of both cars were bent back 90°.

 

The valuation of the vehicle was €3600 and the cost of the repairs were €4500 (their valuation). I was not a happy bunny and I had considered buying the vehicle back. HOWEVER, as was pointed out by the garage to which the car had been towed, the assessor will have only looked at the repair costs from what he could see and not taken into account anything not seen.

 

In this instance he had valued for all the off-side steering assembly and new wheel etc., but I could see that the wing had been pushed back by about 10mm into the door. As the garage said to me 'it's what you can't see (in my case) that could very well involve resetting the geometry and such like - then you have big problems'. In the end I just had to bite the bullet!

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

Wanted to add that the €3600 would have been reduced by the amount to buy back and therefore even more to come out of my pocket to make up any difference!

Edited August 12, 2020 by Philou
Added