HOw can they do this? Write off a perfectly sound vehicle?? AGGHH!

[Fullmoonfiend]

My beloved camper van had a nasty argument with a low roof in a car park and the fibreglass high-top was damaged.
So we contacted insurance co. who sent out a claims investigator chap.

The van is not worth a huge amount but we love it dearly. It has passed MOT about a fortnight ago with flying colours, everything is fine, it runs beautifully and has been lovingly converted into a super family funmobile. All is tickety-boo except this roof which would cost around £500MAX to fix.

HOW can the feckers justify writing it off? ''Beyond economical reapir'' they sday and want to come and tow it off. Well over my dead body.
Never mind my emotional attacthment or the fact that the amount they will give us will not buy one wheel of a new van. It's the waste of it all which is maiking me deranged with fury.
I'm chaining myself to the bumper as we speak.

Do what StGeorge says. One of our cars is an insurance write-off. DH bought it for very little, spent £300 fixing it, sorted it wih the DVLA and it is fine. The only issue is insurance. Some companies won't insure insurance write-offs.

yeah i have heardof these insurance writes offs. my step dad, has bought a few for his use over the yrs.

I don't understand the process.

insurance tho, op, bloody minefield/rip of.

please can someone explain why you have to buy it from the insurance company? Surely if you decide not to claim, it's still your car?

am very confused.

you either ask for a cash in lieu settlement where they give you an amount for you to arrange the repairs and the van stays yours

or they can write if off and depending on the category you can ask to retain the salvage for a fee - but the van will always be registered as a previous total loss.

cat a is crushed, b to break for spares only, c is when the costs the repair exceeeds the pre accident value, d is when it's not economical to repair

only c and d can be retained by the customer.

The van is your until you agree on the settlement but if you've signed the claim form it normally agreed for the vehicle to be taken to a place of free storage (if the car was at a garage they would be charging £x per day which get expensive for the insurance co) if it's on your driveway explain the your insurers that it's offthe road and not being charged for storage etc and they will be happy to leave it there til it's al sorted out

ps if you keep it and repair it yourself insurers normally ask for a new mot to proove it's roadworethy and been repaired properly

hth

But can't one just not claim on the insurance, and have it fixed?

yes LMD one can, my issue is the fact that we have paid ins for years and not claimed and then this happens, we have very little spare cash and the ins company just turned round and said it's a write off...
If we could afford to get the thing cost without claiming on insurance, we would never have contacted the ins n the first place.
My point was made in frustration at the utter waste of a perfectly safe, roadworthy vehicle with potentially years left in it, just being written off.

If we were to agree with the insurance co, they wouldn't scrap it, just sell it on to someone else who would have it repaired...

Ask for the cash in lieu fmf, might well be worth your while.

Then consider if it is worth renewing fully comp insurance if the van has such a low value.

Generally if a vehicle is worth less than about £1500 you are better off just getting 3rd party, F & T.

Sorry, fullmoonfiend, I totally understand your frustration, and you are right to be angry.

I was more talking about in general - just didn't understand the ins and outs of insurance.

oh LMD, you got caught in my ranty crossfire
RIP Bluebell, she served us well...

STGT - think that's prob what we're going to do.

DS2 made me lol though, he said: ''We can cut out the middleman mum, and call the next van Daisy - as in pushing up ...