car written off

You don’t have to accept their first offer, although this happened to me last year and their first offer was actually a really fair one and I felt no desire to push back on it. Was several thousand more than I expected them to offer.

If they play silly buggers go by the Financial Ombudsman website. You have to give them fair opportunity to put you right but if they take the piss the Ombudsman will sort it out. Eventually.

My old car was recently writen off and I felt their valuation was a bit low, they told me to find similar examples on Autotrader to gauge a fair price I found maybe half a dozen sinilar examples and their offer was nearer the higher end of prrices so I guess they use that as their valuation tool.

They didn't take the loan car back until money was in my bank. And they did offer to let me buy it back for a reasonable fee but I took the money instead.

@jordan how similar did you manage to get the examples: age / mileage / spec / locality / condition (albiet tricky this one final one I suspect)

Finally, what about getting the car back with a settlement and paying for / DIY the repair (assuming this is possible); how can you achieve this so that you are not out of pocket?

Depends on the damage. My car was recently written off by some idiot scrawping down the side of it when it was parked. Purely cosmetic, nothing structural, but hideously expensive if you source genuine parts from a main dealer (which insurance companies do).

I bought the car back for its scrap value and had all the work done (new panels and a respray) at a reputable local body shop for about a third of the price that the insurance had quoted.

They were more than happy with the arrangement. Snatched my hand off, in fact, when I enquired about buying it back. One less scrap car for them to try and get rid of

@binners - how does that work. You negotiate and take the settlement and then ask for buy back price?

where do you find scrap values?

@muddyjames age a year either way, mileage 20k either way, spec and condition roughly similar.

If it is written off I assume the ins co will low ball the offer at WBAC trade in value or simliar. How is it best to push them up to something that is more akin to the price an equivalent car can be bought for.

No, it won't be the WBAC value. You'll get the retail value of the car less any pre-accident damage unrelated to the incident with some insurers. The insurer will look at the market value of your vehicle (Eg. Head to autotrader and get the same make/model/spec/year/close mileage/engine size/doors/transmission/fuel etc etc and you'll know what you're looking at. Literally narrow it to exactly what your car is.

I can look for similar cars but what if there aren’t any; matching similar age AND model AND mileage feels slim (and local enough to buy). Will 6/12 months newer be accepted along with lower mileage, or higher spec models. Intention would be to look for dealer only; don’t want to be messing with 2nd hand sale, but usually get a warranty with dealer and assume ins co might percieve this as getting something ‘better’ than before. It’s not a rare car but equally not one of the most common; Suzuki Ignis

If there are none then CAPS & Glass's guide values come in as they're the next best thing. It's what the dealers use and are backed up by the FOS (Financial Ombudsman) should you challenge the insurer all the way on the PAV (Pre-accident value). Just remember, the insurance is there to put you back in the same position you were in prior to the accident. Did your car have a warranty? Even if it did it's not an insurable asset against your policy.

Also what about accessories; it had a tow bar.

Did you declare them on your policy? If not, don't worry. It's a non-fault accident so you can claim them from the other insurer to replace if they cannot be recovered/damaged in the incident. You may have to deal direct with them or utilise any legal cover you hold against your insurance if you chose that option.

I also assume as soon as they offer a settlement they will withdraw the loan car and then use the fact you’ve no car to squeeze you to a quicker decision – any way to avoid this?

Once an offer is made it's likely any hire vehicle will be withdrawn to mitigate costs/losses. If you are to challenge and continue in the hire car, the third party insurer is likely to dispute those days and you may have to foot the bill for those days.

Finally, what about getting the car back with a settlement and paying for / DIY the repair (assuming this is possible); how can you achieve this so that you are not out of pocket?

Very likely an option. The car would then have a CAT S or CAT N marker against the vehicle for the rest of its life. You'd usually get the value of the vehicle with a deduction against that value depending on the category. The deduction is the likely value they'd see on the salvage value from a salvage agent (copart etc).

I still have access to CAPS the dealers and insurers use so if you want a rough guide on the book value of the car just shout.

Hope the above helps. Appreciate it's a bit blunt in places but I'd rather you get the straight and narrow.

Source of my knowlege: Ex-Motor claims handler for a large UK insurer for 6 years. Still work for them, just do a very different job now lol.

In answer to your question for binners they gave me a salvage price at the same time as valuation.

Hopefully there are two insurance companies involved, do you get your choice of the most generous?

@muddyjames - when they offered me the settlement I emailed them straight back and enquired how much to buy it back - after I’d got a quote from the local body shop for the work required.

They emailed me back literally within minutes saying ‘the scrap value of the vehicle is X, so if you knock that off your settlement you can come and pick it up tomorrow. I was somwhat surprised that it took literally half an hour and a couple of emails to sort out

I picked it up and drove it straight to the bodywork place, then picked it up a week or so later, good as new.

I got the distinct impression that having a scrap car to get rid of, especially one with just cosmetic damage is a PITA they could do without, so if you’re offering them an easy solution then they’re more than happy. It’s a win/win.

I think this is probably also due to me (and I presume you’re in the same boat) claiming off someone else’s insurance so they couldn’t GAF about losing a bit of cash as it’s somebody else’s money.

I should add that it’s not like I was trying to make any money on it, I really just couldn’t be arsed with the rigmarole of looking for a new car, with all the potential pitfalls that entails, when I had a perfectly good one that was easily and economically fixable. There’s also a thing about what a waste  it is to scrap a vehicle simply for a few scrapes and dings in some bodywork

If you buy it back as an insurance write-off does that impact reselling the car?

Assume in that scenario you have to think its a keeper and run it into the ground?

It is worth re-iterating the Cat S / Cat N thing mentioned above. This can make a car more expensive to insure and harder to sell on (especially Cat S). If the car is older and nearer the end of its life anyway then this is probably less of an issue but if you are looking to sell the car at some point you will get less money v a similar age non-cat car.

Assume in that scenario you have to think its a keeper and run it into the ground?

Thats certainly my plan, yes, so any loss in resale value isn’t an issue for me. It hasn’t effected my insurance premiums. Mine was Cat N so cosmetic, non-structural write off. It’s an Octavia vRS estate, should you be interested. I know there are probably more than a few owners of those on here 😀

For me, the main issue was it was a good car before someone scratched the bodywork, so it was still a good car that just needed a bit of new bodywork. I’d literally  only just had it serviced and MOT’d so didn’t fancy scrapping it and then facing the joy of delving into the potential minefield of the used car market. The place that did the work came highly recommended and they did a cracking job. You’d never know it’d ever been damaged other than the Cat N on the log book

This happened to me last year.  Van written off due to being rear ended.  Damage to rear door, bumper and bumper reinforcement bar.    Cat N write off.    I bought the van back for scrap value (£250) and repaired the bumper and door myself and bolted on a new reinforcement bar.  Essentially, I have the same van as before and almost  the full value in the bank.  Cat N means it's worth 10% less on the sale market but I.plan to run it into the ground.