Car written off for much less than value

[Hairydogmummy]

Hi All...my DH desperately upset. A lady drove in to him a few weeks ago. Completely her fault. His car was his pride and joy, he sourced it as the best example of its type in the country and did quite a bit to it. It's not posh or anything, an 11 year old Alfa Romeo. He bought for 8k 18 months ago and has spent about 3 on upgrades. The insurance have written it off and offered only £4,400. What can we do? We're in the process of moving to a more expensive house and have not a penny to spare and now down to one car. I have said to get all the evidence together of what he's spent, what it cost, what something similar would cost etc and email them insisting he won't settle and would be prepared to take legal action if necessary. Does that sound right thing? It's the last thing we need at the moment.

It doesn’t matter what he’s spent, it matters what it was worth. If he can prove its condition and that similar cars are going for more, they might reconsider. When my car was written off I had a very sensible conversation with the loss adjuster after their first offer and got a small uplift. He explained why their offer was fair and what they were basing it on.

I'm not sure threatening legal action is the right way to go, to be honest. How much would you be prepared to spend on legal fees to recoup some of what you think he is owed?

Ask them to give the reasoning for their valuation. Get all your paperwork together etc., but cars do devalue and an 11 year old car is not going to be worth as much as you would wish.

When you say they've written it off, there are different categories of 'write off'. Sometimes it just means that they have decided the cost of doing the repairs is not economical and so they will 'write it off' rather than repair, but the car is still fundamentally OK if the work is done, rather than totalled and ready for the scrap heap. In this scenario, if you are prepared to fund the repairs yourself, you can take the money they offer and sign for the car. There are a couple of categories - I forget which but you can find out quickly enough. If he loves the car and wants to fund the repairs then it might be an option depending on what the damage was.

Thé first offer is always low ball. Provide evidence of similar cars selling at much more (assuming it was actually insured for an adequate amount). They won’t expect you to accept their first offer unless they get lucky.

We have an agreed value policy on a similar car where the underwriter agree if written off they pay out the previously negotiated amount, it adds about £10 a year to the premium.

You can appeal it but you will need strong evidence as to why you believe it's worth more, you will need to find similar spec, age, mileage models and demonstrate what they are selling for on average. You have my sympathies when I was very heavily pregnant with DD DHs car a Nissan got recalled because of a chassis fault they took a look at it and said it wasn't worth repairing and would only offer us book price which was worth far less than what the car was worth to us and we ended up massively out of pocket having to replace it days before I gave birth through no fault of our own, needless to say don't get a Nissan when you're looking to replace.

Thats a big difference, what are they going for online? I own a car that is worth considerably more than an official valuation but I pay extra on my insurance for an agreed price if it gets written off.

Is it repairable, I'd speak to a independent garage and get a price, you maybe able to buy it back from the insurance company for a token amount and then use the pay out to repair it.

It is perfectly possible to appeal. My friend's husband's van was 'written off' by a car driving into him. It was only 3 panels a wheel and a door, the structure was sound, but the van was on the older side and pretty much unreplaceable other than new. He appealed and got their loss adjustor out - the van was fairly unique in size not many that height/length sold, so like hens teeth secondhand. He found one older online selling for a fair bit more than write-off value however unlike his own van it wasn't immaculate showroom condition -immaculate paintwork, totally mechanically sound, and not a scrap of dust or dirt inside, utterly spotless.
He still had the value down as what he'd paid for it, and they had to agree to repair in the end as they couldn't find anything secondhand comparable but agreed the value was far above the average for age/condition so would repair. I would think it depends on the damage done vs insured value as to whether it is repairable, but you need to compile a dossier of similar secondhand models with the same add-on improvements (had you declared them to the insurance?) , and mileage to prove you'd need to fork out so much more to replace like for like.

That's really helpful thanks everyone. It should be relatively easy to find comparables even without the extras he put in it would cost at least 7k for one with higher mileage. It was insured for 8k but I didn't realise you could get an add on so you got a guaranteed amount. He has thought about taking the car back and getting the repairs done himself but it would be a lot of hassle especially in the middle of moving house. I think it will be the 'beyond economical repair' category rather than total write off but doesn't that still affect your insurance costs going forward and the value of it?

I get your point about the legal action, will leave that for now. I would self represent though if worse comes to worse. Just over reacted a bit I think. So stressed already buying house and am a teacher so lot on my plate at the moment. It just seems so unfair that someone else's mistake leads to so much hassle and expense for us.

When my car was written off I got to keep it and got given the money.

It’s not what it costs, it wasn’t a investment, it goes on what it’s worth.

My dad had a car written off years ago. The figure given by the insurance company was one that he wasn't happy with so he provided evidence of similar cars for sale and they upped the figure quite a bit

The weird thing was that he kept the car and was able to continue driving it, just rear end damage. It then got damaged again and written off again, another pay out and again he kept it but this time we sold it on

In the end it must have made him more money than a pristine example!

IS there an Alfa Romeo enthusiasts society or similar? Can you get a representative to give an estimate of the value of the car from photos you might have of when you bought it /condition it is in now & with the extras?
And submit that with car details you can find online for sale?
Does he belong to AA/RAC ? Wonder if they can help with an appeal?

As others have said just go back to the insurer rejecting their offer and explaining your basis. I’ve done this every time until I’m happy with the offer. Screen shots of similar age and spec make/model which cost more will help. Best of luck.

You can usually get the payout and buy the car back from the insurance company for around 20% of the payout. Then you can use the money to get it repaired yourself, would that be an option?

The only thing is that the car will be registered as a write off which will decrease its value if you ever want to sell it on. People claim that it also increases your insurance but I’m involved in the motor trade and have never seen any evidence of this, personally.

We've heard back from the insurance and they are saying they won't reconsider. Even tho we have sent comparables showing that similar age and mileage cars are at least 7k. All they will give us is 4,400. And we don't even know if we can get the stereo out of it which he spent 800 on last year. DH wants us to give up and reckons he's read on the financial ombudsman site that we wouldn't be supported by them either. Just don't know what to do for the best.

Oh and they are also saying it's cat S write off meaning structural damage. Crash was only about 5 miles an hour but the woman kept driving after she'd hit him and was driving a Volvo. Must be more robust than an Alfa! No point in repairing ourselves cos would be worthless to sell on again and hard to insure

Might be worth sending a query to the Honest John column at the Telegraph (although I realise you're probably short of time)

www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/advice/car-advice-with-honest-john/

Take the money and buy it back off them.

@Hairydogmummy have a look at this RAC page.
As it’s your car you know the history & what’s happened to it so that’s not an issue.
Can you get quotes for the repair, & ask insurers for advice on insurance costs after repair?
It might still be worth taking the money & buying it back for repair.
www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/buying-and-selling-guides/changes-to-insurance-write-off-categories/

There seems to be a lot more focus on taking damaged cars away from owners after accidents these days.

Fair enough for dangerous ones, but they seem to be even doing it for minor cosmetic damage that's too expensive to repair on cheaper cars.

DPs car was hit while parked and there was just a couple of scraped panels, but because the repair at expensive main dealer prices was about 70% of the value, they wrote it off. They literally gave DP the money on the day he told them about the accident and came and took the car away the next day. He just didn't have time to think it all through and with hindsight would have taken a reduced settlement and carried on driving a slightly dented but otherwise reliable car that he liked, but instead had to rush into getting a replacement car so he could get to work.

I can imagine it's very difficult to assess whether a unibody car (which is how most of them are made) has suffered structural damage by eye, even a low-speed impact as described depending on the angles etc. could do so.
Presumably the cost of stripping it all down to check the integrity of every weld and joint in most cases is not justified and a write off is the easier option, and even if not, could a garage guarantee that the vehicle is as sound as when first constructed after repairs?

If he is going to treat a car as a hobby in future, it might be worth taking out an agreed value policy.

Yeah tbh @Changi we didn't e en know they existed until this thread! We def would in future hobby or not cos even without the bits he swapped for more expensive versions we'd need to put at least 3k to it to get another one. We don't want to do the buy back thing now. The cost of repair would be high and would be hard to insure and sell on as someone said above plus we're literally die to move house next week so no time to mess about really.

Is it your insurance company who are refusing to pay more for the car, or the insurance company of the woman who caused the accident. This is slightly different, but my DP had a motorbike accident which wasn't his fault and all his gear was damaged. The at fault party's insurance company initially offered DP 50% of the value of his gear as it was 5 years old. However it was in immaculate condition and DP has winter and summer gear so each set only gets worn for 6 month a year so it didn't have 5 years wear. We argued this and eventually they agreed to give DP 90% of the value of his gear.

I would continue to push it with your insurance company and get them to explain why the value of what you are being offered hasn't increased based on the evidence you have given them. Also you should be able to retrieve the stereo and any other items that may have been left in the car.

Thank you so much for the advice all! The insurance company has been back in touch today and has upped the offer to 8k from 4,400. Thank goodness for that! So much stress. Doesn't seem fair though that they tried it on to that extent. What about people who might be older or more vulnerable and might not argue with them?