Car accident and insurance company question

[ladybirdsanchez]

I was involved in a car accident on Fri. Someone ran into the back of me and my 8-year-old car was badly damaged. I spoke to the insurance company straight away and once I'd described the damage the agent said he thought it very likely that my car would be written off. I haven't heard anything from them since, which given that it was a 3-day weekend is not entirely surprising.

My car will need to be inspected and a decision made on whether it can be repaired and it was taken away on a tow truck. I don't even know where it is! I have a hire car to drive, but have been told that if the insurance company writes my car off and pays me a settlement, I need to return the hire car within a max. of 7 days, which won't give me very long to source a new car.

Does anyone know how long I can expect to wait for news? I know it's a bit of a 'How long is a piece of string?' question, but I have no experience of this and know very little about how the insurance business works.

Anyone?

I would give your insurance company a ring and ask them, as they may well have already made the decision and have a figure in mind. If you do not think the figure is enough you can ask them to look at it again, and hope that it increases.

When my car was written off in an accident, I heard within four working days (accident on Tuesday, insurance rang on Friday).

I find they are usually pretty quick. Days not weeks.

Okay - I'll give them a call. Thanks!

Our car was written off last summer. Ended up the hire car for over a month - insurance took a day to declare it was written off, the 2.5 weeks to offer a settlement figure, then we negotiated for about a week, then we had a further 7 days to keep the hire car. They were billing the other insurance company for the hire car though, so they might have been more lax.

We started looking for a new car as soon as we knew it was written off, and had a fairly good idea of what they were going to offer based on what it would buy to replace like for like.

My car has been written off twice (once my fault once not!), second time was less serious and I could drive the car home, the assessment was done online via photos and was all very quick. The first time my car had to be towed away and assessed by a third party and that was a bit of a nightmare, try and find out where your car is from the insurance then contact them directly

It is a string question but typically quick. Your car has probably gone to Copart/ Synetiq. If it has, don't take it back. They have an SLA to assess and depending on if they have power to decide or the ins co do, there is an SLA for this. 7 days should be enough for you to hear.

7 days after the payout should be enough. Look at your exact car you have now on auto trader, I mean colour, fuel, engine size, age and mileage and you will get around your payout amount - you may need to use this as evidence to get a higher amount. Then look for cars that amount to give yourself a winning chance of what's available and to get there before others - it could be difficult to time actually having the money before the car is gone.

Do you have any sort of gap insurance? If not be prepared for quite a low figure from your insurance company as it will be for the cost of the car, not the cost of actually replacing the car.

I spoke to the insurance company this afternoon and they confirmed that their algorithm has decided that my car is going to be written off, even before it's been inspected. I'm really gutted because although it's 8 years old, before the accident it was in really good condition. I had it new and I love that car 😥

I looked up the valuation on Autotrader on Friday and that's the thing - I'm sure I could get it repaired (as long as the chassis isn't damaged), for more than it's worth. Plus, it's going to cost me more than double the value of my car to buy anything decent to replace it with. I'm just so gutted. Not only have I lost my beloved car, but now I'm going to be massively out of pocket to replace it.

It’s rubbish isn’t it - it’s so easy for a car to be written off though, my car is 4 years old - crash before Xmas - damaged didn’t look bad at all- looked minimal. Cost just under £5k!! Car worth 7k but anymore and it would have been a write off, it’s crazy!

Have you asked them if you can buy it and fix it?

We were gutted when our car was written off - it was parked outside our house and driven into by somebody. But we were told that it was a write off as the airbags had gone as it had been that hard. Also the anti intrusion bar had been crushed - so even if it could be fixed, we probably wouldn’t have wanted it in the event of a future crash.

Ended up having to add in about 5k of our own money to find something decent, although we did managed to negotiate the insurer up by about 2k on their initial offer by showing them a spreadsheet of the mileage vs price of current cars of the same model on AutoTrader. Definitely don’t accept their first offer, unless it’s very generous (do your homework).

Part of the issue is apparently the price of labour etc. for car repairs has gone way up. But also the price of second hand cars has also gone up. We got back the same amount from our insurer that we had paid second hand for the car 5 years earlier - even though it was obviously 5 years older and had many more miles.

I'm not recommending that as a course of action. Your car won't be in the same condition as it left. It will have been moved by forklifts rather than driven and treated as scrap for the short time it's been there. It may even have been damaged in transit.

The attached image was recently doing the rounds.

@cherryassam used car prices are on their way right back down. The market has pretty much corrected itself now that you can order a car with pre Covid SLAs. Parts and labour are still ridiculous.

@CommeUneVacheEspagnole that’s good to hear - we were so shocked when were looking last year. The dealers were saying it was also due to ULEZ, but I’m not sure if that was just a convenient excuse to charge more!

@cherryassam a blessing and a curse. I purchased high and am now selling low. I've lost 50% of the value in 2 years with not many miles.

It's all opinions based but I'd say ULEZ would have minimal effect as from what I remember all petrol cars are fine and there's plenty of supply to meet demand. It's the old and dirty diesels that will drop because no one wants to pay £12.50 a day.

@CommeUneVacheEspagnole ah yes, I can see how that would be difficult. We have only ever bought cars that we run into the ground (or in this case get written off) so I forget that resale prices are important for others.

They said it was because people were selling their diesel cars and buying the petrol cars? As I say, I was never super convinced.

we did managed to negotiate the insurer up by about 2k on their initial offer by showing them a spreadsheet of the mileage vs price of current cars of the same model on AutoTrader. Definitely don’t accept their first offer, unless it’s very generous (do your homework).

This is excellent advice.
Start looking on auto trader NOW for what you would have to pay for the same car with similar mileage, and compile a whole list of links to cars. Then you will have an idea of what a 'like for like replacement' will cost you, and have evidence to argue your point.

All that said, tbf, twice we've had cars written off, and both times the insurance offered us a fair price up front.
When the insurance will be claiming off the insurance of the person who went into the back of you, it isn't your insurance company paying out.

Thanks for all your advice - it really is helpful as this is all new to me. When I spoke to my insurer yesterday they said my car is still at the place it was towed to on Friday and no one has yet inspected it. But since it's going to be written off it's not exactly a hurry, particularly as they're charging the insurance company of the guy who ran into me for my (very nice, 73 reg, lots of bells and whistles) rental car.

@NewName24 unfortunately, there is nothing on Auto Trader that is the same as what I had. I can find the same brand, same engine, same gearbox, approx. mileage, same year of manufacture, but I can't find my style of car (e.g. saloon), none of them are 4WD, and none of them have the same features that mine did. I knew my car was quite rare, because for the past 8 years I've hardly seen any others on the roads. A newer one (say 20 reg onwards) is £15-20k more than what I'm likely to get from the insurance company 😧

I'm sure I could get it repaired (as long as the chassis isn't damaged), for more than it's worth.

Just realised that should say 'for LESS than it's worth'.

What car is it??? Is it a car that's actually a hatch hiding as a saloon like a Mondeo or insignia?

They should be using book price (likely cap black book) either way so unless policy is to reduce by x %, there isn't too much leeway.

@ladybirdsanchez - if yours is a particularly unusual car, you can still collect adverts for 'similar' cars (same sort of age, size and mileage_.

As I said, it might not come to it, I was very pleasantly surprised at the offers we were made.

If the car is fixable and your happy to drive it after it's been fixed why not have it back off the insurance and pay to have it repaired?