Insurance payout not enough - any tips to negotiate?

[itsboiledeggsagain]

I had a car accident last week, hit by a lorry (I wasn't hurt).

Car has been ń categorised - not economically worth repairing. They are offering £4.5k insurance payout or £3.5k plus the car returned.

Thing is:we bought the car last year for £8k, have added a tow bar and new radio and also new tyres this year.

It seems a very low offer and of course stuffs up the possibilities of what we are going to be able to buy. We have about 2k in savings.

I have been advised to negotiate with the insurance company (not that it is going to get us anywhere near what we need), has anyone got a suggestion of how to approach it?

Thanks!

When I had this the insurers offered me an amount and also said if I can provide proof of similar vehicles valued at more then to send it to them. In my situation they were slightly ok the generous side at valuation!

Perhaps the car you purchased was over priced? You can negotiate to some extent but it won't be the difference between £4.5k and £8k unfortunately. Insurance companies are usually quite fair with their offers now

Don’t go with the lower offer plus car returned.
I was advised to do this a few years ago and what no body pointed out was that then the car falls into into a certain insurance category and as such is literally worthless if you want to sell it on.( irrespective of how well it it is repaired)

How frustrating for you.

When our car was written off earlier this year, I found lots of examples of adverts for the same type of car to show the insurance company what it might be worth. In our case it turned out they’d actually used 1 incorrect figure in their initial valuation (take an average of 3) so the average was off & the figure they offered too low. Once I was able to speak to someone with half a brain at the insurance company they spotted it immediately & offered a better price but there wasn’t any room for negotiation after that.

It still doesn’t in any way cover the inconvenience & cost of replacing an older car with a known history for something completely unknown.

Hope you manage to get it sorted.

Stuff like radio and tyres aren't considered - it's the car in its unaltered state.

You can ask what comparables they used to see if you can find others but they can't be private sellers or auction sale prices

Tell them to provide you with an identical vehicle.

Try and negotiate and if they won't budge, advise them you'll be going to the financial ombudsman as you don't believe you're being treated fairly. That might make them budge. Insurance is meant to put you back in the position you were prior to the loss. Also find online examples of cars the same with a higher asking price than you've been offered to help strengthen your case.

As above, if you can show that you can't buy the same vehicle (make, model, age and mileage) for what they are offering you then they will have to offer more. They will not provide you with an identical car. It's likely that they have valued the vehicle using the correct means such as glasses guide etc. They will only give you the value of your vehicle and not reimburse for any extras you've had done.

If it's the other person's insurer you won't be able to go to the ombudsman but if it's your insurer you will, however if they have offered you the correct value and you just want more then I wouldn't expect the ombudsman to side with you.
I've worked in insurance for 12 years so have some experience in this.

We’ve just been through this, I sent them ads for the same car year and mileage etc but they would only go another £200 so unfortunately had to suck it up. Only had the car 5 months..... but we’ve ended up with the same make car but a higher spec and think ourselves lucky we had some savings to add to our insurance payout and we weren’t badly injured, but when it’s somebody else’s fault it’s annoying to be out of pocket!

Isn't there some sort of insurance you're recommended to have to cover this sort of 'gap' between the price you purchased at and the value the insurance company offer you?

Agree it's worth a conversation with an actual person. Def don't get the car back but ask if they will they allow you to get the radio and tow bar from your old car? Then you could put them on your new one when you get it.

As and aside to a previous poster about the buy back and your car being categorised as a previous write off....not all insurance companies do that. Ours didn't. We repaired ours and it was never categorised as a write off

They are not obliged to give you a price to cover the extras that you put on . They go by the list price of a similar car in it's basic state. What you paid for it isn't relevant either - you may have bought it for an inflated price . The insurance companies are very experienced in knowing the list prices of all vehicles - you can ask to negotiate but don't expect too much.