Process of your car being written off by your insurers / what is this about "buying it back"?

[flockandroll]

Not sure at all about how this should happen. Will I be allowed a hire car during the time it takes to buy a replacement? Can I charge for my time spent on this?

 

Car was hit while parked. Fully comp with legal cover. Protected no claims bonus. Me not at fault. Other driver provided insurance details etc. Just a bit of damage to bodywork and wheel. Car 15 years old, but just had two new tyres and I finally had leak from rocker cover gasket repaired and thought, "Four more years and get to 200 000 miles and then could be time to replace" and then this...

 

Not looking forward to sorting all of this out. Already taken a good few hours.

Insurers just sent a text offering me an amount, asking me to call with my bank details and V5 document and they will release payment and their agents will arrange collection of vehicle. I need a vehicle to get to work next week?...

 

Edited August 25, 2023 by flockandroll
To add the word 'car'

[Izzy]

Welcome to the world of the innocent party being worse off due to no fault of their own. Many cars are economic write-offs in that it would cost the insurers more than the cars notational trade-in value so they won’t do it. But it will cost you far more to replace it. Unless it’s in your insurance they won’t pay for car hire or any costs you incur. Like for like replacement only happens with cars under a year old as I have previously found out to my cost.

 

Bob

 

 

[Moxy]

Hire cars are generally supplied by the repairers, so if your insurers are not repairing it, then probably not.

 

If they have written it off, then you are buying back the salvage.

 

It depends on the category of write off (can't remember what they are now, they changed them a few years ago), but if your car is repairable, but it would just cost your insurer too much to repair, then you buy back the salvage and have it repaired privately. You will probably need a new MOT afterwards before they will reinsure it.

 

If however it is deemed structurally unsound, or so badly damaged that it cannot be made roadworthy again, then it will have to be scrapped.

 

It's a pain having to deal with this, but good luck.

 

 

[Titan]

Also worth noting that if it is declared a write off, insurance cover may be cancelled with immediate effect, even if your car is still drivable. It will be a marked car in the system and no-one will insure it until it has another MOT, even if the existing one has not run out.  I have been in this situation. I was in a collision where I got a slightly dented door and a broken window. I patched it up so it was still roadworthy yet it was deemed a write off and I had to plead with them not to cancel insurance. I bought it back and I got a second hand door and window from a breakers and got it fixed and MOT'd for way less than the insurers would have spent as they insist on all new OEM parts, and had quite a bit of money left over!

[ColinK]

My dad had a bump in his Skoda which resulted in some front end damage, mainly front panels and bonnet bent, no mechanical damage.  The insurance company wrote it off.

 

A few months later a chap knocked on Dad’s front door, there was his written off Skoda outside. ‘Just wondered if you still had the luggage cover?’  He had bought the written off car, replaced a few panels and it was as good s it had been at the time of the accident.

 

So it must be possible to buy your written of car.

[37114]

23 minutes ago, ColinK said:

My dad had a bump in his Skoda which resulted in some front end damage, mainly front panels and bonnet bent, no mechanical damage.  The insurance company wrote it off.

 

A few months later a chap knocked on Dad’s front door, there was his written off Skoda outside. ‘Just wondered if you still had the luggage cover?’  He had bought the written off car, replaced a few panels and it was as good s it had been at the time of the accident.

 

So it must be possible to buy your written of car.

I did something similar a few years ago with an old Renault 21. The book value of an undamaged one was about £150 but the insurance co had a different book and valued it at £585 (it had done about 190k miles so he marked the price down from £685!) which was what they were going to give me. I asked how much to buy it off them and they said £80 so just witheld that amount from the payout, and said ongoing insurance was conditional on it being repaired/new MOT. I got a local garage to replace the dented wing, spray the new one and re MOT it which cost me £280 so I ended up where I was pre accident + £225 so was happy. The car was good for another 30k miles/ 2years before the gearbox played up so it ended up on a one way trip to Romania for spares. 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Been through this very scenario, rammed from behind while properly stopped at a traffic light. Car still driveable but insurer classed it a write off, repair exceeded notional value (they did the decent thing of allowing us the full notional value and keep the vehicle, in all fairness to their side of it). Fortunately a local outfit run by a friend could attend to the repair and provide a loan car for a reasonable price, and as the annual service and MOT was shortly due we wrapped all that in with the repair, reinsured the vehicle when done: so all settled, not too badly out of pocket, and the car lasted another 8 years, everything neat and tidy?

 

But Road tax also happened to be due weeks after the ramming (remember that paper disc thing?) and I overlooked the need for renewal, because in writing off the car the insurer informed DVLA that the vehicle was scrapped, so they naturally didn't send a renewal reminder through the post. Oh dear, judging by DVLA's tone you would think I had arranged all this in the interests of tax evasion. Possibly matters are better arranged now, but I wouldn't put money on it...

[alastairq]

I would recommend demanding from your insurer written proof that your No Claims bonus will not be affected. [It is amazing the lengths insurers' admin will go to , in order to make their life easier, by browbeating customers]

 

Their legal department should also be able to insist on repaying any excess that was on your policy.This they can reclaim off the other party.

 

I think it is preferable to demand your insurer claims off the other party for 'uninsured losses' too {I did...Good old Coop.....

[Pannier Tank]

51 minutes ago, alastairq said:

I would recommend demanding from your insurer written proof that your No Claims bonus will not be affected. [It is amazing the lengths insurers' admin will go to , in order to make their life easier, by browbeating customers]

 

The 'No Claims Bonus' may well not be affected, BUT, that won't stop the insurer from putting the premium up, even on a 'no fault' claim! 

[Halvarras]

6 hours ago, Pannier Tank said:

 

The 'No Claims Bonus' may well not be affected, BUT, that won't stop the insurer from putting the premium up, even on a 'no fault' claim! 

 

As I found out last year, after a deer strike wrote off my 63-reg 66K miles Citroen C5 Tourer, which I bought in 2019. Collision happened on April Fool's Day (go figure), 4 hours after I got it back from an MOT repair with a £638 bill (new front Hydractive shock absorber, could only get one from Citroen.....) It was perfectly drivable with all lights etc working but needed a new bonnet, new front bumper (looked OK but wasn't in close-up) and when it eventually went in for repair in July and the bonnet was prised open (as the catch had been smashed) they found a headlamp with damaged mountings, so the overall parts and labour cost made it uneconomic to repair. Trouble was, previous incidents had got me wondering whether this otherwise utterly brilliant car was jinxed, and this was confirmation on steroids so buying it back wasn't an option for me, I was relieved to take the money (which I considered fair) and run. However I really hope that it was repaired and is still being utterly brilliant in someone else's hands because it deserved to live on, but I couldn't live with it as I wondered what would happen to it next.......and how badly. I suppose I could check, but I don't want to.

 

But the jinx sort of lives on as my insurance premium doubled, despite the replacement vehicle being in a much lower insurance group. Don't you just love insurance companies.....? 

[PMP]

https://www.gov.uk/scrapped-and-written-off-vehicles/insurance-writeoffs
 

Categories above for write off status. For the op with the car being  15yrs old unless it’s a vehicle of ‘value’ eg sports car, or of note in some way, the insurers are unlikely to budge their position. Your comment that at 200k you’ll change it indicates it’s not a car of any significance or collectable condition. Any work you’ve had done to keep it roadworthy is considered routine maintenance so you won’t see that reflected in their valuation. Without knowing what the wheel damage is, that would be a red flag, a 15 year old suspension could easily require a lot more repairs than are immediately apparent, and the insurance co will assume that it’s going to be repaired by their agent, normally a main dealer or similar.

Years back we had a similar issue but it was just body damage. A scrape full length of car and a few dents, so just cosmetic, caused by opposite direction truck. Insurance assessor wanted to write car off  but I dug heels in and said no, it was about five years old. Eventually, it took quite some weeks but I negotiated that a local body shop I sourced and who’s quality I knew, would do the repair, insurance would pay for work at my liability. So if there were any quality/subsequent issues they had no liability. I had to sign a release to that effect, and no temporary replacement car was included.
It took a lot of firm discussions with them and not accepting ‘computer says no’ responses to get there, but it was worth it.

So you can get round this if you’re so minded, and a vehicle is genuinely worth saving to you, but it does depend on the nature of the damage, and you have to be realistic. I get the concept of keeping something going as long as practicable, our current ‘newest’ car has 105k miles on it, and is 16 years old, with another one at 180k. In the past we had a 206 reach 270k and a 306 reach 250k. To get to those miles you obviously have to look after them mechanically, the real rude shock is when you replace them you realise how much a current second hand vehicle costs!

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by PMP

[alastairq]

17 hours ago, Pannier Tank said:

 

The 'No Claims Bonus' may well not be affected, BUT, that won't stop the insurer from putting the premium up, even on a 'no fault' claim! 

Indeed they can do!

However, I kept in mind  the fact that I stooze around for lower premiums every year.....and the written proof of NCD from the lawyers serves well when arguing the odds.

 

I also demanded written proof of how long I had been free from fault claims....The Coop went back to the pre-digital days and wrote to guarantee well over 40-odd years fault-free claims record.....as far back as their records could show.

 

Now, I simply don't bother...I just look for the cheapest per month....[handy, cos at my age, kharking it could be just around the corner...and by paying monthly .....due to a limited income....I can be sure of not paying the tw@tts a penny more than their shareholders deserve.]

Nearly all my claims in recent times have been for glass repairs....

 

[alastairq]

I run bangers...even 50 or 70 year old bangers.

 

I had a daily banger hit whilst parked outside, [by a driver who claimed they didn;t see the car, from 400 yards away]...I was stood in my front room window looking out at the time... Around 12 or so years ago now....

The tow bar took the brunt of the shunt...and a lightly applied hand brake [it was in gear anyway] ensured the thing simply moved a bit, like a shunted wagon.

 

The VW Uppitything that hit it ended up with its headlights looking at each other. The drive was still intent on continuing on their way to the seaside....so I left them be, simply hosing down the road of their coolant after they had driven off.  {!!!!}

Took a load of piccies, got details, etc.

My banger was largely showing no signs of damage [although it was from the late 90's.....so over 20 years old]...a crack in a rear light lens, etc. So I carried on using it.

The insurance [mine....via theirs]...wanted the banger inspected at a local crash repairers.....They checked alignments, and found one rear door shut was different down one edge to the others....it had always been like that, in my ownership. As such, the lad who assessed it told me, given the car's age, putting it onto a jig would do more damage than leaving it alone...but, ''reports are reports''....so the thing was 'written off'' and a sum agreed, with the insurer. My insurance was only involved in as much as I asked them to negotiate my claim for me....Hence the NCD letter from their legal department..just in case of admin errors further down the line.  

I had just renewed various sensors on the engine, and got a new battery for it....so firstly, I removed all the newly fitted stuff before the thing was collected.

Luckily I hadn't yet disposed of the old battey...

It was collected by a fella with a transporter....I was sorry I couldn't stay to help him load it, as I was 'late for work'.....

It appeared it wouldn't start, suddenly, so had to be 'winched' on...

 

The big mistake I made was then rushing out and buying a Ford fiesta , made this century.....with the proceeds!

Which I gladly sold for more than I paid for it....just.

 

Horrible thing!

[PMP]

I don’t run ‘bangers’ I run older cars that are looked after. Two of them at the moment are 2004 Ford Fiestas one 1.6 petrol, one 1.4 diesel. Cheap as chips to operate, comfy, easy to fix and reliable.

[alastairq]

Bangers have to be looked after...after all.

 

But for me, even E type jags were bangers in the 1970's....Still are, in reality[for me]

[flockandroll]

I have decided to let it be written off and go for a more recent vehicle.

Thanks for replies (yes, I was worried about the impact to the rear wheel as well)