Do you always lose out on car insurance?

[AlumhurstRoad]

So three years ago I bought my "dream car" with the lump sum of my pension pot for £5,250. It was hi-spec, low mileage, full service history, one owner. Since then I have driven it at weekends and have looked after it well. Similar vehicles are currently available on Auto Trader for about £4,500.

I have not been involved in any accident for over 30 years, and that was in a company car. In my own name I have 17 years no claims bonus, the last 13 years with the same company.

A few weeks ago on a dual carriageway, I was slowing to 30 to stick to a speed limit as advised by an overhead gantry, and the car behind ran into the back of me. The impact caused sufficient damage for the insurance company to write the car off, against my wishes as I wanted it to be repaired.

However, the most the insurance company are prepared to offer me is £1,500, being calculated as £2,350 "market value", less £350 excess, less £500 salvage (numbers have been rounded to avoid identification). The remaining £1,500 is not enough to purchase a replacement vehicle, nor is it enough to repair the car, so basically I have lost my vehicle.

Is this a normal result from a "no-fault" accident? I'm feeling pretty fed-up as I have been with this insurance company since 2009 and never made a claim until now. I was expecting them to "look after" me and repair the vehicle, and instead they have scrapped the vehicle and cancelled my insurance.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and were they able to resolve it?

@AlumhurstRoad if you have the car still get an local mechanic you trust to value up the repair. Then you know whether you can buy it back and have the work done.

This is what a family member did with their car.

@ReginaFilange001 Yes I think that is what the salvage figure of £500 is for. The problem is that the £1,500 they wish to pay after all deductions is not enough to get the repair work done.

This wasn't my experience when someone hit my car and wrote it off. I had bought a small cheap car for around £1400 and when the accident occurred and it was confirmed as a write-off my insurance ended up giving me more for the car than I paid, it was around £200 more which I think was to do with a valuation they do of market rates 🤷‍♀️

Gap insurance is for when you have finance on the vehicle and may not pay enough if the car is written off during finance.

However, the most the insurance company are prepared to offer me is £1,500, being calculated as £2,350 "market value", less £350 excess, less £500 salvage (numbers have been rounded to avoid identification)
if the accident was not your fault, you should not be paying any excess. I'm not sure what salvage is in this case, but again, I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be paying it

You agreed to have the car back? That's the salvage, they said it was not economical to repair, but your old have it back for the £500?

So they think the value of the car was 500 + 1500 + 350 ? So they have valued it at 2350?

@Maybeebebe yes they valued the car at £2,350 but said they would pay out £1,500. They "scrapped" the car and cancelled my insurance without giving me the opportunity to discuss what that would mean. Apparently I now have to re-register the vehicle with the DVLA and get another MOT done if I wish to drive it again.

Is it correct that if the accident is not my fault, then I should not have to pay the excess

You usually have to pay the excess and then you will get it back later after many months of arguing and chasing.

Have you sent links of the £4500 comparators and pointed out the good condition of your car? If not, do that.

If they're still not playing ball, tell them you're going to the Ombudsman (it costs them money so this usually focusses their minds) and if they still haven't paid up after a couple of weeks, you could try through resolver.co.uk.

DP had an insurance issue where someone else hit is car and it was written off. They paid out and took the car away. There was no argument about the price, in fact it was quite a good price, but they never refunded his excess.

After a few months he went through www.resolver.co.uk/ and he got it back within a few days, with another £100 on top as an apology.

Beware of buying it back from the insurance company and getting it repaired yourself. There will be a marker against the car that it was an insurance write off, which could make it difficult to reinsure.

What is the damage like?

Sounds like it could be quite bad, so a write off, but if it's only a dent, and you could get a better valuation pay out, you could buy the car for the £500 and get it repaired and re MOTd.

But it will then be a Cat N or whatever write off, so worth less, but if its properly repaired and reliable and you drive it for a few years, that will be less of a consideration.

@VeniVidiWeeWee there may be others on different market places too but yes auto trader is the standard.

Every car has a book price by one of the main companies - glass's, cap or cazaba are the top three.

@BarbaraofSeville Thanks for the reply. I thought the damage was not too bad but I sent photographs of the damage to the insurance company and they decided to write the vehicle off. Frustratingly in the meantime they asked for photographs of all sides of the vehicle, which were of course undamaged, before making that decision, thus wasting another two weeks.

@BarbaraofSeville Yes I sent details of comparable vehicles on Auto Trader right at the start of the process. My vehicle is particularly low mileage for its year though so it is difficult to get an exact comparable.

Put in a formal complaint with evidence. It costs them every time someone goes to the ombudsman so they're more likely to settle. Remember it's your right to be left in the same position as you were before the accident, not thousands short of buying the same car. Your car will also be worth less for being a write off, even with the repairs done.

@AlumhurstRoad So why would your insurance company think this was a no-fault accident?

If it wasn't your fault then you don't have to pay any excess and your insurance company should be working on your behalf to get the maximum payout from the other driver's insurance. Unless the other driver wasn't insured, or you failed to get any of their details ...

The very definition of a write off is that the repair costs are more than the car's value. So naturally what they offer you will be less than the cost of getting it repaired.

Your excess is not lost money, and will be claimable from the other driver's insurance.

@DontMakeMeShushYou Hello thanks for the reply. The insurance company are agreeing that this the accident was not my fault. I was hit from behind on a dual carriageway. They were able to find the other drivers' details very easily, so much so that it did occur to me that they might be his insurers as well.

Thanks @BadLad, what is so frustrating in this case is that if they had used a more realistic vehicle valuation, it probably would have been worth repairing the vehicle. The verbal estimate I got was £2,000 plus VAT.

If you are claiming in your own policy you have to pay your excess, if you have legal cover they will look to claim it back for you if non fault and the other vehicle was insured.

They should not be deducted the salvage value of the vehicle unless you are keeping it.

If you are not happy with the value challenge it, look online at sites like auto trader for vehicles the same spec as yours, with a similar mile and present this to the insurers and ask how they came to the pre accident value they have given you.

Second hand car values have gone through the roof at the moment.

Just out of interest which insurers is it?

Bloody hell, all my employers over the last decade and the Financial Conduct Authority need to bow down to your superior knowledge. All this while, we have been offering GAP to any eligible customer, regardless of whether they are financing the car or not under the FCA Treating Customers Fairly principle.

Obviously we are all wrong. Off for a meeting with my boss to tell him someone from MN knows better than him.

They had gone through the roof over the last year, but have started to settle down a bit now. Demand is slow at the moment so prices are falling.

Some have settled down other not of much! Some manufacturers have stopped production on some models as they can't get the parts.
Vans are still crazy.

Tyres prices and supply could be interesting as most come from Russia.

Find a few for sale of a similar spec, mileage and use this to show your insurance company how much it would cost to replace like for like.

(apologies haven't rtft if this has already been mentioned)

If I were you I would go directly to the other person's insurance and deal with them directly.

Please fight. Don't just accept their first offer. They will try every trick in the book. Negotiate with them. You could get it repaired. You could ask then to replace it like-for-like. Watch them squirm.

@Maybeebebe

Gap insurance is for when you have finance on the vehicle and may not pay enough if the car is written off during finance.

No it's not just for that. You are wrong.