DS not at fault car accident - stuck with insurance. WWYD

[Bownessbay]

18yo was in an accident last night. He was stationery at a roundabout and a car drove into him (2 friends as passengers). Driver v apologetic, was distracted by an accident at the side of the road. Swapped numbers and license plate. All thankfully ok but shook up.

We contacted DS's insurance initially, following guidelines and they've said his car would be a write off due to its age. BUT the damage seems very minimal, a cracked bumper and a couple of scrapes. There could be something else that's been loosened or knocked that we don't know about, but visually that's all there is.

We really don't want his car to be written off. It took us ages to find it, he's had it only 6 months and he worked and saved so hard for it. Others we saw were just rubbish in comparison. This had newer 'major' parts plus he's just spent £500 on some other repairs. Assuming insurance pay less than it's really worth, he won't be able to get a replacement car for several months until he's saved £££ more. He relies on it for work and has just left college for his job.

I'm wondering about asking the driver if he wants to settle privately. Only hesitation is if his passengers want to pursue a personal injury claim. Should we ask this first? Or is that putting something in their/their parents heads potentially? They all have a bit of backache as expected from the impact but I am sure will be fine in a few days.

I don't know his friends or their families, they're new friends - more friends of friends, really. Not sure if I should offer to speak to their parents.

WWYD?

You can normally buy the written off car back from the insurer for not very much, then you use the balance of the write off pay out to pay for repairs, assuming that leaves enough to cover it.

But presumably the cost of repairs is more than the cost of the car, and I wouldn’t be willing to privately settle for more than my insurance was willing to pay out…

This

Never settle away from the insurers.. It is there to protect your ds..
I bought a car back years ago that was written off.. By a man.

Someone ran into the back of me and their insurers admitted liability immediately (hard not to when I was parked and he was moving!)

They said if they fixed it (through their own approved repairers) then it wouldn't be worth doing, so they'd write it off.

But they were happy for me to get my own quotes from a local repairer, and they paid for them. In fact I had the money in my account before the repairs were done!

I know I could have potentially made more money by letting them write it off and then buying it back (no way was I ready to scrap it), but it seemed a lot of hassle and I would have had to declare the write off when insuring/seliing, even though it was for purely cosmetic damage.

So I got the car fixed at no cost, and kept it on the road.

Is that an option for your son?

Thank you both. I just can't see that the repairs would be that much, I'd assumed only £300 or so to fix the cracked bumper and scuffs (though he could live with the scuffs). Don't they pile hundreds on for processing the claim?

He paid £1.8k for the car and that seemed spot on, I think we got £100 off in the end, but it was all very comparable with similar age and mileage cars. I can't believe repairs would be anywhere near this, and it just seems like such a waste of a perfectly good car. And so frustrating when it wasn't his fault.

With the 'buying it back' @Venalopolos - I don't really understand. Could you explain what you mean, please? Would it be if they were willing to pay out £1.3k they'd sell it back for a % of the £1.3k - wouldn't he be worse off than paying the repairs himself?

I had this on my old car and was able to get a private quote for repair which the insurers accepted. The guy on the phone said that often the insurers will recommend right off based on their own repair pricing guidelines purely due to car ages so offered me the chance to get my own quote - could you ask if that's possible?
Failing that you can often buy the car back.

@OliveHenry this sounds promising, thank you! I guess it depends on the insurer. If they're willing to do this that would be ideal.

If you buy it back you accept the write off payment and ask the insurance company for details of where the car is being held, then contact that garage/scrap yard and ask for the price to buy it back.

I did it once years ago, the car was ‘written off’ on the basis it was old and when it was stolen they’d slashed the seats… I just got new seat covers, there was mechanically nothing wrong with the car.

The “buy it back” option with the insurers is instead of the insurers giving you say £1500 and they take the busted car (which they then sell as a Cat S/N car), they give you the busted car and a small amount of money. Then you fix the car and carry on with your life.

The car will forever be a Cat S/N written off car though. It will never be worth as much as the equivalent car without the Cat S/N marker on the log book.

I dealt with Admiral if that helps :-)

Any personal injury claim should be claimed from the 3rd party insurer if ds not at fault; not from his insurer.

the repairs to ds car should also be being claimed from the 3rd party, not his own insurer. Have the 3rd party insurer been in touch yet?

There are various classes of write off. There's the situation where an older car is written off because the insurance company considers it uneconomic to repair but the damage is really only cosmetic at one end of the scale and cars which could never be safely driven again no matter how much money you threw at them at the other. If a written off car is safe you can definitely buy it back and fix it yourself. My DH had an old Land Rover that had some fairly superficial damage in an accident. Because it was old and the parts are both expensive and hard to get it was written off. But he bought it back, took it to a local body shop who made a half reasonable job and it was fine and lasted for about another 10 years. We didn't care about using genuine Land Rover parts and it was hardly concourse condition before the accident so the sort of repairs the insurers were talking about were over the top. If you're in a similar position you can probably do the same - give them a ring and ask.

I bought a previous car back from my insurer when they wrote it off. They give you the settlement for a write off minus the buyback amount. You then get the repairs done yourself at a garage of your choice. I had to have the car put through another mot once the repairs were done to show the car is roadworthy.

I had a car written off a few years ago. I got more for it than I would have done if I’d sold it privately, so you might be pleasantly surprised by what they offer?

My DS hit a deer a couple of weeks ago. it looked like just a new bumper was needed. On close inspection a simple cracked bumper has turned into cracked bumper, destroyed running light and possible crack in main headlight housing, parking sensors damaged, the wheel arch lining cracked and the washer wiper reservoir and motor damaged. Total cost will be over £3k. Also bumpers are designed to flex to protect pedestrians. The main protection is the substructure underneath which may need replacing if it has been damaged. We were hit from behind last year while stationary and the damage was far more extensive than it appeared.

The deer didn’t survive but was tiny.
DS was driving along the lane to our house which is just wide enough for two cars, was slowing to go round a 90deg bend with a steep bank on one side and a ditch the other. I was impressed that he had the presence of mind not to try and swerve wildly when the deer jumped down in front of him. Also that the road was quiet. His friend had a similar experience and rolled his car several times into a field avoiding a deer. Luckily he was uninjured.

So don’t be surprised if the bill is much greater than £300. Get a quote before making any decisions.

Somebody went into the back of my brother's car recently. Insurance wanted to write brothers car off but he loved the car and the damage was relatively superficial. He did what a pp mentioned - a settlement minus the buyback amount. Then he got it fixed himself.

Your insurers will be able to explain this to you over the phone. No one came out to do any sort of assessment on my brother's car and the car never left his driveway. So your son's car needn't leave his possession at all, the transaction is simply between him and the insurers.

And as previously mentioned, if you keep the car and get the payout minus the buyback fee,the car will be a Cat S/N which can affect premium costs next time you're renewal is due. Its worth checking with your insurer to find out how much this will increase your son's premium and they should be able to explain the whole buyback thing with you over the phone.

Thank you all so much. You've made what seemed pretty dismal earlier something we can hopefully sort.

@Cajollingalong thanks for explaining that - and about the cat s\n too - I hadn't thought of that. Would also affect potential selling in the future too.

Forgot about the cat N.
It didn't put my premium up at all. It was classed as the other party's fault on the claim though.
It would need to be declared when selling or part exchanging when the time comes.