Not to claim on insurance

[LEMtheoriginal]

Dp was involved in a hit and run incident with his van. Thankfully no one hurt although another person's car was badly damaged.

Police were called and we thought the doofus driving other car wouldnt be insured. Turns out he was and police sent dp the details.

The damage to the van is minimal and will cost about £50-100 for dp to replace panel himself. Obviously a lot more if done in garage.

We only paid £850 for the van so I'm concerned the insurers will write it off. The van is worth so much more to us than £850 as it's dp work van. A total bargain that we were lucky to find. If it is written off we'll struggle to replace it.

Also surely the other drivers insurance will be void

I am sure that I read somewhere that you can have the cash rather than write it off,
then get it fixed yourself.
Anyone else know?

Motor claim guru says it's called ' cash in lieu of repairs ' CIL
hth

Just because the insurance company write it off, it doesn't mean it has to be scrapped. This happened with one of our cars. All above board, the insurance company explained it. You effectively buy it back off the insurance company. Think it's called something like a category C or D write-off.

The buy it back is what worries me

I've just checked and what happened was the insurance gave the money for the write-off value of the car and then we got it repaired. Think there was a bit of money left over.

If your car has been previously 'written off' by insurers, isn't it impossible to insure it again?

We're still driving our cat d right off 5 years on. They right it off, then pay you its value then you buy it back. If I remember correctly they paid us £2200'and we bought back for £700 plus the excess as I was at fault. I think it needed to be mot'd after it was repaired and a new logbook issued.
Just don't let the insurance company send their garage to take it away or accept a courtesy van.

Insurance claim handler here - c and d categories Dont exist anymore, it will be as a cat N (non structural damage) which you can retain and most insurers will reinsure as long as you have had reps done. With a retention you get the value of the vehicle minus any salvage the insurance company would have got, you then use that to get a private repair done which in most cases is cheaper than insurance reps.

@sweetpotato why shouldn't she accept a courtesy/hire car. Besides if her insurers have third party Insurers details then she's entitled to credit hire through insurance which will get her a like 4 like until claims sorted

Yes to what Coonut said. That's what we did!

For the sake of the hassle I would do the repairs myself.
If the van does get written of (damage needs to be roughly 50% of the value of the vehicle) and you then fix it, you may find the insurance costs slightly more as it's a right off. You will also need to declare an accident on the next insurance renewal, it you don't go through the insurance, you won't.