Is it possible to challenge an insurance offer on your vehicle after it is written off?

[NowCarless]

Yesterday I was involved in a significant car accident (100% not my fault) where my car was completely totaled. The insurance company have written it off already.

Apparently in the next 3 weeks I'll get sent an offer of what they're planning on paying me for it. I've no idea what this will be, but if I think it should be more, am I able to challenge it? And if so, how likely is it they'll increase the offer? The reason I'm asking is that I was about the trade my car in and replace it anyway, and have got a written valuation from an online place, so I don't know if I can use that to negotiate?

Also, does anyone know if it's possible to contest paying the excess, since the other driver is insured and presumably my insurance can claim it from his insurance company?

I've never claimed on any insurance before, so this is so new to me...

Yes to both of those.
The written valuation you have will stand you in good stead. Also look on autotrader for the same model with similar age : mileage and see what prices are being asked. Take screenshots as you will need evidence.
Re. getting the excess back- do you have any legal cover included in case they refuse?

I've had two accidents and got more than I thought I would both times.

Yes it's possible. I challenged the first offer from my insurance company and ended up getting about £800 more.

Yes you can contest it. To do so they normally ask for three examples of the same make, model, age and mileage (within 5k either side of what yours was) from auto trader or similar sites. We got our valuation up about £800 by soon this, but it was still a couple of grand less than what we’d paid for the car 12 months before.
Not sure about the excess as ours was theft so no other party to claim from.

My car was written off after a non fault accident. The other driver was not insured so I had to claim off of my insurance. They underpaid me by about £1,500 and refused to budge, despite me sending plenty of evidence to suggest it was worth more.

I could have claimed the difference from the motor insurers bureau, but managed to get a decent deal on a replacement using the payout as a deposit.

These answers are massively helpful - thanks so much!

Another one saying don't settle for first offer.

Many years ago I had my car written off.

It was old BUT I had had it for some years and before that it had been my parents.

While negotiations were done for me, the argument was that while it was old, it was a known quantity whereas buying a second hand car of the same age was quite a risk and that seemed to swing the argument.

Dh had an old Astra van with 340,000 on the clock got written off - insurance offered him £200. These vans are hugely popular with trades for a variety of reasons got evidence from auto trader of similar age, mileage and condition vans and got £1500 from the insurance. But you need to refuse their offer immediately. Start looking now so you know the value if your vehicle before they make the offer.

Be careful with this though, unknown to me at the time, my insurer overpaid me for the total loss of my car - the accident was similarly 100% not my fault and the other driver was prosecuted for careless driving.

The third party insurer has so far declined to reimburse my own insurer, who is commencing legal action in my name. I am contractually obliged to support this legal action, including appering in court if necessary.

Yes, haggle with the insurance. I just had to help a friend and managed to get £7800 from their original offer of £6k! Just be firm and tell them that the car was insured for much more (it always is!) and you will need to replace it. Don’t be afraid, they will have to pay you off, but will try to offer you lowest price.

Have you spoken with the other drivers insurance? When my car was written off the other driver accepted full responsibility and his insurer made an offer on the same day which I accepted. They told me to cancel the claim against my own insurance and then everything was settled through them including courtesy car and I didn’t pay any excess.

Never except first first offer. When my first car was written off I had receipts for brakes, new tyres and other works I had done 3 weeks earlier. The amount was immediately added on plus more.

That's outrageous and should be impossible surely ?

There's so much I don't know, I've never done this before!

Not spoken to any other insurance company, I can't even get the police report from the police yet so don't know their details (which is a whole other issue). I didn't realise I needed to do that? Isn't that what my own insurance company is supposed to do?
It's a minefield I never wanted to know about...

That's what I thought initially, but it is a standard clause in pretty much all insurance contracts.

I think the third party's insurance also has a perfectly reasonable issue with the fact I was in a hire car for months after the accident, as my insurers dithered about re collecting car from police pound, allocating it to a garage that could assess it etc.

I hope it doesn't go to court, as I will have to be truthful re the above which won't go down well with my insurer!

I’m not sure fortunately for me I guess the other driver spoke with his insurance company at the scene and gave my details. I also spoke to them to describe the damage to my car. I’d just finished filling in my online claim form when they then rang me with an offer and told me to cancel my claim with my own insurance.

I’ve never had it done this way either and have always left it to my own insurance but I have to say this was far quicker and easier! I guess if the other guy was admitting full liability then his insurers want to handle it with minimum costs to them?

Just to add, if you’re not satisfied with the offer you can complain to your insurance and later take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you remain dissatisfied. Do ensure you look at policy wording carefully , you’re likely entitled to market value rather than what you paid initially. If you had any extras on the car or if you can evidence that the car was in better than good condition (which is what most insurers assume when valuing cars) make that evidence available to your insurer asap.

Hope you are OK after the accident

I had an old car that was written off

I asked why they paid me so little

They advised
They took off the amount that it cost to recover the car off an A road to the vehicle holding area where it was investigated

The car was not worth much

They did not increase the amount

When it happened to me, I was all set up to treat it as a fierce negotiation. I knew what I was going to ask for, what I wanted and what my absolute bottom line was.

They offered more than my top price, so ime it will be a fair offer.

Wait for the offer first. Insurers always used to underpay historically and it was the norm to refuse the first offer. More recently we were very pleasantly surprised by the payout and didn't dispute it.

This is all really helpful, thank you!

No, (incredibly) we weren't hurt, despite the speed of the crash and the damage to my vehicle, for which I'm eternally grateful.

It'll be another couple of weeks before the offer I think. I declined the relentless pressure to take a loan car from the Enterprise credit risk company.
The police activity discouraged us from talking to the person who caused the crash to get his details, they just kept saying we'd be sent them in the report. The report that for some reason I can't get hold of, despite requesting it via their online process several times.

Honestly, these places seem to go out of their way to make a stressful time even worse...

There is a process you have to follow that leads to the insurance company making their final response (i.e. best offer), you have to wait 8 weeks, which seems like a lot and then you can ask the financial ombudsman service to get involved and they will decide what a fair offer it. I am not sure if you can post links but there is a page on the financial ombudsman website that outlines the process, google for "Vehicle valuations and write-offs"

Thanks for all the input.

I didn't land up challenging it - instead I almost bit their arm off as the offer was really good! And I'm impressed it took just 9 days between the accident and me accepting the offer, I thought it would be much slower.

Now I've got to wait a few weeks for the claim to be fully resolved between the insurance companies to see if I can get my excess back (no legal cover sadly...lesson learnt there).

Anyhow, I've bought another car, so onwards and upwards!