Car accident, insurance payout problem.

[onlyhereonce]

Hi,

We bought a car (a p/x vehicle at a garage) for £950. 2 days later somebody ran into the car as it was parked up and tried to drive off. I chased after him and eventually got his details. I called the police about him driving off from the scene of an accident and was fobbed off. I have called his insurance and they said they would have to wait for him to contact them first before settling. Over 2 weeks now has passed and he hasn't called them so they have said they will settle. They have asked for pics of the car, which i have just emailed, and they will settle today as from the description of the damage, they will write the car off. He said he will pay market value. I have just had a market valuation done on parkers website and it values the car at £580. I am fuming. I have done nothing wrong and will no doubt be offered something close to the £580. Do i have any legal rights to demand the amount i paid as i have the original sales receipt showing i paid £950. I surely shouldn't have to suffer financially?

Matt

It's a tricky one. They are correct in saying they are only legally obliged to pay market value. You could do some market research to justify the figure you paid i.e. show you wouldn't get to replace it for the sum offered when comparing like for like on sale elsewhere. You might be best contacting the FOS for advice as ultimately they would take up any complaint you might make over the offer/payment. Given the timescale involved in the sale to when the acc happened, you do have a strong moral argument on your side. But unfortunately not really a legal one. You could also try and get a full inspection done, to properly cost the damage and the value. You could ask them to explain/justify their value too. You could add on 'loss of use' to your claim, miscellaneous expenses and inconvenience to try and bridge the gap. You could keep the car and repair it as cheaply as you can, maybe giving you some benefit of your purchase. Depending on the salvage category, a cash in lieu offer might be a better option.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to trying to negotiate your claim with a mix of some or all of the above points, to see if you can squeeze a bit more out of them to recoup your money. For the size of gap, you should be able to get a bit closer to what you paid, but not necessarily an increase in the pre-acc value if that is as generous as they could be.

My advice - haggle from a position of knowledge! Do a bit of digging around the value and cost of repairs and see where you can make a gain.

Hi and thanks for the reply. Will take note of the points you made. I cant understand how i can be sitting in my house, see somebody hit my car and speed off, chase them and face loads of aggression, call the police to be fobbed off and now settle for nearly half what it cost me. Who could i sue in the small claims court for the money it owes me? I don't see why i should suffer financially by 1 pence never mind hundreds of pounds.

Our car was written off recently. We haggled on the valuation. THe first figure they came up with was poor so we said fine, go and find the same car with the same spec / similar mileage for that amount. We ended up with about 20% more than the original offer in the end, though if you did over pay for the car, it's not someone else's insurance company's fault.

Hi, ive looked on auto trader for a car the same spec , age and mileage as mine and its more than we paid. The market value is wrong as there is NO cars the same as mine anywhere near that price.

At the moment you are fuming based on an assumption that the insurer will offer you something similar to the figure you found on Parkers. I suggest you wait and see what you are actually offered before getting worked up about it.

Parkers do, of course, provide several prices for each car - franchised dealer, independent dealer, private in good condition, private in poor condition and part exchange. You haven't said which of these you have looked at. Remember that Parkers' part exchange price is the amount you would expect a garage to pay you if they were taking this car in part exchange, not the amount you would expect to pay for a p/x car.

You can also negotiate on offers. Tell them now what you paid and that you'd had the car 2 days.

When my car was written off the insurance company used Auto Trader to find similar age and spec vehicles and made me an offer based on that, not Parkers.

I still managed to negotiate a slightly better deal, so you may be worrying over nothing.
Hope it works out for you.

Well, its sorted now. They called ne and offered me £300 as a cash settlement and i do my own repairs and the car isn't written off. I declined. They then offered me the choice of £500 cash settlement and I keep the car and do my own repairs and the car not written off OR £600 and the car written off. I have taken the £500 cash settlement and its looking like i can get the lot sorted for approx £380.