To wonder how this is fair - car insurance

[wineoclockthanks]

We were driven into the back whilst stationary at a junction. Luckily, neither DH or I or were badly hurt and the other driver was very apologetic and admitted it was his fault. He was driving a company car.

The driver's boss has said he is going to put it through his insurance company. The damage is going to cost about £500 but because our car is 16 years old (albeit with low mileage and drives perfectly), we've been told by the garages that the insurance company won't give us any money, they'll write off the car and then give us @60% of its value.

The book value of the car is apparently £2,000 and so we'll get about £1,600 but having searched the Internet, the cheapest like-for-like we can find is £3,200.

So basically, we're going to be a minimum of £500 out of pocket for something that was in no way our fault. (I'm not angry with the driver/boss, it was an accident and they're not doing anything wrong, it's the system).

How can this be fair?

You haggle the settlement price. You direct them to like for like cars at £3k and haggle up. You won't get 3k but you'll get more by haggling.

It's not fair and unfortunately common. We had similar, we could not buy a like for like with the money we got and even a non fault claim increased the insurance.

60% of its value isn’t 1,600 it’s £1,200. (Doesn’t address your main complaint I know.)

Do you have Motor Legal Protection on your own policy? Might help you get the difference back from the other side.

Presumably it’s in your insurance policy t&cs?

They look at the market and see how much a like for like is going for and give you that as they have to replace I thought? That’s definitely what happened to me! I’d had the car 6 months (11 year old car) and they gave me £300 more than I paid for it as that was the cheapest they could find the same model with similar mileage.

Really, Bluebell does a non-fault claim affect our insurance too?
It gets worse and worse!

Ask for cash in lieu of repair (assuming that the car isn't structurally damaged and unsafe now) or show them that they've under valued your car and drive their settlement offer up a bit

Sorry, SinceyouAskme maybe the bumped head has affected me more than I thought

Yeah that happened to me once and I had to pay for the repairs out of pocket. The
guy from the insurance company came out to me and was really nice, but advised against making the claim. My car was an old banger but extremely reliable so I obviously wanted to keep it.

It’s unfair and I was really annoyed given that I was in no way responsible (I was parked, legally, at the time!) but that’s how it works

You can negotiate on the settlement, I did when my car got written off in similar circumstances. At renewal the premium had gone up, as the accident proved "I used the roads at busy times" as it was 8.15am. But I shopped around and got cheaper elsewhere.

Same thing happened to me. I had a perfectly good, but old car. A van reversed into me.
Their insurance said it wasn't worth spending the money to repair the front of the car as the cost was more than the car was worth.
No account was taken of the value to me of the car, nor the cost of replacing it. I got about £800 and that was with haggling.

Yes, non fault claims may increase your premium. It has never seemed fair to me but presumably the actuaries have calculated that someone who has had a no fault accident is more likely to have a fault one

Thanks, looks like we may get more money but it still doesn't seem right.
Dobbins it was 4.10pm on a Sunday!!

When I had this happen to me I actually made money. They also wrote my car off, they then offer you the value of your car, or you take a slightly reduced amount, to keep you car and repair yourself.. I got the repair done and ended up with an extra £800 - so it could still work out for you .

Yes it will affect your premiums for the next five or six years! It’s very unfair.

This happened to friend of mine, but he was able to keep or buy back his car (can’t remember how it worked). He found a garage who would make it good for a couple of hundred pounds, so he was quids in.

The garage is talking of our their backside! Where did they get 60% from? We got a fair settlement for our car when it was written off, we negotiated it up quoting prices from autotrader of similar cars with similar mileage/service history etc.

Yep keep your car and use the money to fix it.

The car would be a write off if the damage is more than 60% of the value, however you would get the market value of your car. They don’t cap that 60%. Like pp said- haggle. Don’t accept the first offer and send evidence if required of the like for like vehicles that you have seen.
Don’t do the cash in lieu of repair, it makes re insuring a nightmare when a vehicle is declared as a write off, many insurers won’t touch them so the premiums would sky rocket.
Yes non fault claims can affect the premium you will pay, which is not fair at all. I work in car insurance and it’s my biggest bug bear that a policyholder is hit and is no way at fault and the system loads the premium

You need to print off the similar cars price at £3,200, so you can reference them when negotiating.

Same here, I think it’s quite usual to be able to receive the money as well as keep the damaged car. Even after paying for the repairs you’ll be quids in.

They'll also calculate that you live in a high risk area etc if it happens repeatedly.

They should be contacting you via your own insurance company. Focus their minds by speaking to a manager and informing them you have no intention of renewing unless they negotiate an acceptable settlement.

This is why i took out GAP insurance when i bought my last car.

My dad had similar. He had to find a like for like, similar milage and year. And fight for that value.. Which he got. They tried offering 1k less.. His had very low milage too

Ah Sunday Drivers though! I think there is a thing about once one claim is made, you're more likely to make another. But 1 non-fault claim generally causes little problem if you shop around at renewal.