Quick request for some guidance.
My 86 yr old MiL had a smallish prang just before Xmas, pulled the front bumper and headlight away from the car and creased the front wing. Car is otherwise fine, and repairable, but insurance have declared it a write-off. She insists she wants to buy it off the insurance co, and get it repaired locally (sentimental attachment to nice car) with the payout. Garage she has used previously for servicing took the car off her drive to take to their yard to assess for work. She has today noticed that the garage is in the process of being struck off from Companies House.
She obvs needs to get the car back and will need to pay some one to tow it (not currently insured as written off). Is this all she needs to do, or is there (me overthinking) a danger that she loses the car as it's on their premises, or if they have nothing to lose they can sell it on as it's uninsured and she has no comeback?
TIA for any thoughts or advice.
I got a notice i was being struck off on Companies House.
I had changed accountants and the confirmation statement was delayed, received notice of being struck off.
I had 2 months to submit it and it was quickly resolved.
It can be a simple admin error and it should state on Companies House the reason.
How did she find out about them being struck off?
Does she casually browse Companies House website as a hobby or has the garage suddenly closed down?
If the garage is still running it would point to being an admin thing. A director may have left and it's reverting to a sole trader/partnership basis rather than Ltd company. Limited companies cost more to run in accountancy fees and there's also less freedom with what you do with the cash.
Just tell the insurance co that you want it back; should be able to do it all in one phone call, the car returns to MiL's ownership and you go and collect it directly.
I did this quite recently with my 15 year old Superb, ending up around £2k in profit after getting it fixed at a friendly, trusted garage. Cosmetic damage after a gentle nudge from an HGV, plus one rear suspension control arm component. Mine was slightly simpler than yours, as it was still insured at the time of moving it from their (very expensive) garage/bodyshop to mine. The notification of a 'cosmetic damage only' class of write off allows you to continue to drive a car on the same policy - I checked with the insurance co.
Thanks All, and I can stand you down. I was responding to a panicked call from Mrs Epic, who was responding to the 150th panicked call from her MiL about this damn car, and I went too early - my apologies - as the bishop said to the actress. Following IA's post I did check companies house to see their last filing and took a while to locate the correct company.
My MiL is pretty good for 86, but her GoogleFu is not always up to scratch. The garage hadn't responded to emails for a couple of days, so she looked on Companies House. The struck off company she found was in Swansea with the same initials as the Sussex garage she was looking for, but she forgot to read the address. The garage trading name was the same, but the reg company name they have uses the initials in full - and they are fully filed a in good shape it seems.
Response to Finbar below - just a nice spec Golf GTD she's looked after well for the last 12 years
I'm imagining a Jaguar luxo-barge?
