Car written off, insurance offering too little to replace - anyone knowledgeable aronud?

[PacificState]

DP and I were in a collision a week ago -- thankfully everyone concerned was fine but our lovely car was written off.

The other party has admitted fault.

We're now at the stage of looking at the cost for replacing our car - and our insurer, Admiral, is offering around £2k below the price of the exact replacements we can find on AutoTrader. Even more confusingly, Admiral says (and has sent us the PDF to prove it) that the £2k-under price is one they've gotten from Admiral's 'market value' tool.

I just don't know where this number comes from -- it doesn't bear any relation to what we're seeing on AutoTrader.

Admiral is also saying there's 'no haggling' about the amount they're offering us, because 'the regulations have changed' and 'we don't do that any more'.

If anyone knows more about car insurance than I do I'd be really grateful for some insight - basically, is it worth pushing for more or do we just take it on the chin (and never go with Admiral again, obviously).

Thank you!

ever heard of under insurance?

ACII qualified here

Ours was a low speed collision and we have some experience of rebuilding cars - so had a certain amount of reassurance. I'd agree with not rebuilding something in your speed of crash.

Go through FOS and they will check Admirals calculations for fairness and accuracy. I'd check with FOS to see if taking a settlement even an interim payment will affect there ability to challenge a redress settlement on review.

Re Gap insurance there are different types you can get just so anyone reading this thread is interested for future reference. A former colleague put me on to it after a run of bad luck with 2 cars being written off within 3 months and no fault on my part.
Good article from the RAC about gap insurance here - https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/insurance/what-is-gap-insurance/
I went for a back to invoice policy when I bought a 5 year old second hand car outright last time.

Very good advice in the thread especially about Consumer Duty. I’ve been a beneficiary of that recently. The third party’s insurer, which I’d claimed through last time a few years ago, contacted me out of the blue a few months ago and said they’d done a review of my claim and that they’d undervalued my car. I ended up with an unexpected cheque for the difference plus interest.
Would definitely follow up with @HellofromJohnCraven ’s suggestion OP.

Yes like pp have said they won't go off autoloader. Parkers, glass and there's one other well known one used that I can't remember the name off but Google should pull up! Alternatively call the ombudsman for some advice they'll usually tell you the same. As long as its in line with those guides itl be it unfortunately. Unless vehicle has had any special adaptations for disabilities etc that they didn't account for.

Thanks very much all - loads of really useful advice here and I will definitely be compiling it all and trying to put the fear of God/FOS into Admiral.

I feel like I have to say, in case god/the universe is listening, that I am incredibly grateful that everyone (including the other driver) basically walked away from an objectively nasty crash. The guy who invented the air bag should have got a Nobel Prize. The money is very much a secondary consideration... it would just be nice to replace our lovely car!

Subject Access Request only allows you to access the personal data they hold about you so you are unlikely to get what you are looking for that way.

It is not as broad as the FOI rights that potentially allow you to access any information held by a public sector body.

Write a letter rejecting the offer and giving them three choices:

your own car repaired
£14.5k to replace the vehicle like for like
a vehicle of the same spec and standard delivered to you

Quote the rules and regulations governing car insurance and threaten the FOS.

Magically your offer will increase.

Honestly wouldn’t waste my time arguing with Admiral.

Ive had a very bad experience with them before. You may as well hit your head off a wall

If the TP has admitted fault, are you claiming from the TP directly. Or are you claiming through your insurer ( this is how your insurer make money, say your not excepting of the offer. Explain why, most insurers offer on market value. I also think Admiral is a broker not the actual underwriter, ask them for a breakdown of the offer.

I know nothing about insurance etc and I’m sorry it’s so inconvenient for you (I’d be raging!) but I’m glad you and everyone else are okay 💐

Why are you dealing with YOUR insurer, Admiral. If it's the other driver's fault, you should be dealing directly with THEIR insurer. Your own insurer doesn't need to be involved in negotiations etc.

When we had ours written off, all I did was a courtesy call to our own insurer to declare the accident, but I claimed the hire car, out of pocket costs and value of a like for like replacement car directly from the third party insurance firm. They were keen to settle because they were financing the hire car during negotiations, so it was in their interest to settle quickly when they're paying circa £500 per week for a hire car!!

Admiral are notorious for under valuing vehicles. Have you asked for it to be reviewed? Likely you'll get an increase depending in your car. Valid MOT? Not previously written off? Good condition? Was your research the same car with same mileage etc.
If so then you have a good case.

We had this situation once. We looked for adverts for cars for sale that were equivalent to ours and used these to negotiate a higher price.

Also ACII qualified and work in insurance claims - motor, household and commercial at various times.

The estimated value you provide when insuring a car is not a 'sum insured' and has no bearing on the amount paid out.

If you have put the value of your car as substantially less than the true value (thereby enjoying a lower premium), it will impact settlement amount as will be pro rated according to the under valuation

fact

I know when we had a similar situation with our car having been written off, they gave us several print outs of similar cars that could be bought with the value they were offering.

so third party has accepted full liability
and yet it’s your insurance company that you’re claiming on?

I'm afraid this is normal. Exactly the same when my car was written off. They give you the price it would be sold for not the price you would buy it for. I was shocked at the time but it is just what they do I'm afraid and I don't think you will make much headway. Second time my car was damaged, I refused to let them write it off although they wanted to and made them fix it! Couldn't afford to replace it.

X

To make a fat profit. They [all companies] have been doing this for years.

Not the case at all. When ours was written off, we were offered what the third party insurer's thought was the selling price of a similar car. We negotiated directly with them, having provided them with weblinks of similar cars on the market, and even uplifted those values because ours was in immaculate condition, low mileage, full service history, etc. We got about 25% more than they offered, which was more than enough to buy an almost identical car, similar age, similar mileage.

In actual fact we took the money and bought it back from them for £350 scrap value. The cost of having the repairs done was £1k below the price they paid us, so we actually made a decent "profit" on it. Been on the road for 4 years since it was written off, so well worth buying it back and financing the repairs ourselves out of their payout.

a lot of effort for £650! I suppose relative to value of car?

What effort? A couple of phone calls and an hour or so googling and saving screen shots, then a couple of phone calls to find a body shop who'd do the repairs needed. And we still have the car itself too, which is still worth a couple of thousand of pounds if we sold it today, but it's been worth far more than that to us simply by us not having to buy a replacement and suffer depreciation or monthly lease costs.

@Badbadbunny I'm glad that worked for you but I did the same, showed them cars for sale etc, spent loads of time and got nowhere.

And yes that second incident when I persuaded them not to write off the car...car still running 11 years later!!!

But are less valuable in insurance terms because they have a smaller market. I understand they can command a premium when selling because fewer are available but om the official guides they depreciate more.