Can/Should we sue the driver who wrote off our car?

[Howch]

A month ago a driver went through a red light at a large roundabout junction and hit our car side on. DP was driving but thank god not injured. We started a 'no fault' claim with our insurance company but then the other driver's insurance phoned to say they would deal with it for us as he had accepted responsibility.

They wrote off our car which I was expecting as it's 11 years old and a cheaper 'economy' car. We've been offered two settlement figures from them now, the first we refused as too low then they came back with a slightly higher offer, we said it's still too low for us to replace our car but they're refusing to go any higher and stated it's their final offer. We're trying to decide whether it's worth taking it to the Financial Ombudsman but we really need to get on and replace our car asap.

As a separate thing, can we take any action against the driver personally for the stress and inconvenience his actions have caused? Would we get any compensation?

Courts will only order compensation for financial loss e.g. medical bills and loss of earnings, and even then only as a last resort once you have exhausted insurance, ombudsman etc.

Find examples of 11 year old cars of as close a specification to your old car as you can. Use that information to guide how much you should get as a lump sum.

Stress and inconvenience: probably not worth very much. Sorry.

Have you done your own research on what realistically your car was worth OP to replace? Look on autotrader for same model & age to get an idea- it’s likely a lot less than you think if it was an 11 year old car.

And no, you can’t take action for stress/inconvenience.

Of course. As I said, we can't replace our car like for like with the payout they're giving.

Anyway my question has been answered so thanks to @DongDingBell and @Pharazon 🙂

You don't get to personally pick the driver's pockets when they have insurance, no. That's what their insurance is for. You're already effectively suing (or threatening to sue) the driver individually for their negligence, and his insurance company is on the hook and trying to agree a settlement for it, because that's what insurance is for. You try to sue him personally for some more and he just passes it on to his insurance company and they add it to your claim.

But yeah, they will try to squirm down to the lowest amount they can, and you will in reality be left out of pocket for the hassle of the whole thing!

You can't sue for stress/loss of time etc in small claims. The only way to sue for stress is if the stress has gone on to cause a recognised and diagnosed psychiatric condition. Eg, an employer's negligence directly led to a situation that left you with PTSD.

I'd be suing ten people a day if I could get compensation from everyone who inconvenienced or stressed me out 😅

Some years ago I went to help hire after I was rear ended

I was amazed at what they got for my car

But it had been my parents before I had it so it might have been a banger but I knew it's history and that it was reliable

Do you have any Legal insurance who might help?

A man driving a hired van wrote off my 14 year old, low mileage car. Their insurance offered £500 at first ( way too low). I found examples of similar mileage/ condition cars and they gave me £1400 in the end. It took a lot of persistence though.

Phone your insurance company back and find out what they would price the accident at thr car will have a book value and a motor trade value (which may differ) and if you can get a rental for a week or two.

With that you know what price the other company will pay to make your insurance company whole of you claim off your insurance.

With car write-offs the insurer only has to pay you the market value of your car just before the accident, not the cost to replace it with something newer. That’s why they’re refusing to go higher, they’ll base their offer on what similar cars of the same age/mileage/spec are selling for locally.

If you think their figure is too low, you can challenge it by sending in adverts/valuations for cars like yours (same year, model, mileage). That often gets them to move a bit. If you’re still unhappy, you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman, but that process takes time, so weigh that up against how quickly you need the money for a replacement.

In terms of going after the driver personally for stress and inconvenience, in the UK you generally can’t. It’s all dealt with through insurers unless there are personal injuries (in which case you’d pursue a personal injury claim, sometimes with compensation for distress/loss of use). Without injury, you can’t claim extra for stress.

So the practical next step is, gather evidence of what your car was worth, push the insurer again, and if you still feel it’s unfair, go to the Ombudsman.

My car was written off by a van driving into the back of it. I would talk to your insurance company, mine offered me significantly more for the car than we thought and sorted it very quickly.

My partner’s car was written off. She was offered £12,000 then £14,000. They refused to go any higher and stated they could buy the same car as she had for this price, but could not say where or provide an example of her car at this price. They stated they were leaving my partner in the same financial state as before the accident, which was blatantly untrue. She had no car and not enough money to replace the car whereas previously, she had a lovely car!

car insurance companies are bastards!