Insurance write off help

[Guest]

Nothing to do with me its my colleague.

Our company delivery driver has driven in to her car and our insurance company are paying for the repairs.

She called her insurance to inform them of the incident which is fine but they are saying that they are writing her car off.

Can they do this? I thought this was case if she is claiming through her insurance which she isnt.

anyone able to give some advice?

[britishgirl]

maybe her insurance company has been informed by the other insurance company that they will only pay out the cars value and not the price of the repairs which could be more than the value of the car and she has just not been offically informed by the other company yet

[Moorlandman]

Hi Jaff, I work in the insurance industry. Sounds a bit strange that her insurance company are writing the car off? I am guessing that they are now taking full responsibility for the claim and have decided to write off the car.

Any decision to write off a car can be challenged but most do not bother as it costs a fortune to repair any car to an acceptable standard

[shirley]

She could offer to buy back the car and repair it herself is she wants, my Ignis (54plate) was hit whilst I was stationary at traffice lights, due to its age the insurance said they were writing it off, got offered £1200 as a setlement and paid £130 for the car, it is now back up and running fine for about £150. x

[400ixl]

It's not unusual at all, standard practice, but you can object is they are a 3rd party.

The repair is clearly more than 2/3rds of the value of the vehicle. At this point it is not economical to repair and it is easier to just pay out for the vehicle as it is also quicker for the owner.

Another advantage for the insurer is that as soon as they declare it a write off and issue payment they are no longer responsible for things like hire cars.

Now as a 3rd party you haven't signed up to the other parties insurance contract and can insist it is repaired at any cost. However if you have hire cars etc and they decide that they want to take it to court to show that is not reasonable you can end up have to pay back for the rental etc.

So really depends on the difference between the cost to repair Vs replace.

She does not need to go through her insurer if she does not want to and can deal with the 3rd parties directly. She only need inform her insurer of the accident.

Could be the same result though if the 3rd party insurer wants to write it off.

What is the issue with it being written off? Is the offer reasonable?

[loves2plan]

We had this happen to us last year. Someone bumped the back of us whilst we were stationary at traffic lights. Minor damage - just a small dent to the boot panel. Went through insurance and got told that it wasn't economical to fix the damage (56 reg), so they were writing it off. Having never been in this situation before, we got really worried as there's nothing actually wrong with the car and we didn't want to lose it. I did a bit of research and found that you can still keep a written off car. They came back to us with a payout of £2700 and they will take the car and scrap it, or we could keep the car and take a reduced payout of £2500. We kept the car and took the £2500, thank you very much!

[loves2plan]

Originally Posted by 400ixl

What is the issue with it being written off? Is the offer reasonable?

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I don't think everyone necessarily understands what written off means. My husband and I didn't until it happened last year - we thought it meant we would automatically lose the car, but after some research discovered that wasn't the case. Up until that point, we were pretty worried though.

[400ixl]

Buy back can be worth it if the car is still drivable and you can afford to not have access to the vehicle whilst it is being repaired.

All depends on the circumstances really. Can be very worthwhile at times.

It is at the discretion of the insurer though, not an entitlement and not all insurers allow it.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by 400ixl

Buy back can be worth it if the car is still drivable and you can afford to not have access to the vehicle whilst it is being repaired.

All depends on the circumstances really. Can be very worthwhile at times.

It is at the discretion of the insurer though, not an entitlement and not all insurers allow it.

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You also have to tell your next insurer that the car has previously been declared a write-off. This usually hikes the cost of insurance considerably.

[400ixl]

For the lowest levels the V5 document is no longer marked. Only on the more serious categories is a marker placed on the car.