Best course of action when insurance thinks your car a write off?

Question

I was in an accident last week which resulted in my car (2002 3 door Corsa 1.2 SXi) ending up on its side.

The known damage reported to the insurance company was:

1) Drivers side (DS) wing mirror had come off

2) Petrol cap door had come off

3) DS had suffered scratches and a large dint in the rear wing

4) Car would only go in to 5th gear but would start fine

5) Skirting around the front had come away on the DS

No damage had been sustained anywhere else.

When the car was recovered I was told that a repair centre would pick the car up the following day to assess the damage.

A few days later I called the insurance company to find out any progress and they told me that the car was going to be picked up by salvage as they believed it to be a write off. I have since found out that the car has not and will not be assessed by any engineers at salvage, they simply take pictures and send them to the insurance company where the pictures are assessed. This doesn't sound very thorough to me!

Answer 1

i am not sure why you had to call the insurance co to find out this info. the car is still yours and they should not make these types of decions without letting you know. sounds like something strang is going on.

Answer 2

The term 'write off' is used by the Insurers when the car is uneconomical to repair I.e. The repairs cost more than the car cars worth, if the car has ended up on it's side, as far as the insurers are concerned, enough said, probable write off. What's your problem with them doing this ?

Answer 3

Take the money. You don't want the car after that.

Answer 4

The car prob is a write off     ie the damage is more than the cars worth

they take photos to save time and money    as if it was only the wing for example

wing £25

paint etc £250

labour   £150

therfore one wing   = £425   plus vat

so you can imagine the cost to your car    gearbox alone may be £600-£700  plus panels  +respray +labour + vat  so your bill could come in at £5000  cost of car £4500?   so repair not worth it

cost of engineer to come out £150 approx   cost of photos and email  Ã‚£2.00

Answer 5

If you want to keep the car you may have to buy it from the insurance company.  

Normally, they will pay you the book value and sell the car for salvage.  You can offer to buy it from them for the salvage price.  Of course you would then be responsible for repairing the vehicle.

In most cases not worth doing unless the car is rare or exotic in some way.  The insurace company in many cases can recover quite a bit of the book value of a car by salvaging it.  So if they give you 3000 for it expect to pay them 1800 or more to buy it from them.

I had a car stolen a number of years ago and to replace the seats in it was over 7000 the whole car new was around 18,000.  The insurance company wound up paying more to fix the car then it cost new.

Answer 6

You haven`t got a leg to stand on.

They have done everything within the accepted method laid out by the FSA.

They wouldn`t write the car off unless it wasn`t cost effective to repair would they?

Answer 7

ANytime that a vehicle is on its side it usually mean that the frame could be bent...that's probably why they are doing that.

Answer 8

write to your insurance company to contest their findings and tell them you would like an independent assessment done. bearing in mind this will cost you, not them.