quick insurance claim question..

Dreadi

Dreadi

Dreadi

Soldato
Joined
16 Feb 2006
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So my wife's car was written off a few weeks back, no fault of her own as the car was parked and a drunk smashed it up. Now the insurance company have just sent her a cheque for £351 as payment for her R reg 1.6 golf.
Does she have to accept this? I thought they had to make you an offer which you could refuse if you felt it was low as £350 seems a bit of a joke...
 
Market value, after assesing the vehicle they normally call you tho?
what was the excess and has this already been removed from the value of the cheque?
 
Assuming that is minus the excess as that was £150. The police did say if they don't pay the excess then they will reclaim it via the courts? But the insurance company have been next to useless keeping her updated so she will be calling them tonight
 
I would have thought since your wife was not to blame in this that she shouldn't be deducted the excess in the first place and the courts would claim the full amount back from the drunkard/their insurance.

Very poor show from the insurers if that's indeed the case!
 
Dis86 said:
I would have thought since your wife was not to blame in this that she shouldn't be deducted the excess in the first place and the courts would claim the full amount back from the drunkard/their insurance.
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I'd assumed that car had been vandalised by a drunken idiot on foot rather than crashed into by a drunk driver, in which case the excess will be deducted from the payout but may be recovered from the idiot via court.

OP needs to looks around and find out how much cars of a similar age and condition are selling for on average i.e. the cost of a similar replacement, and use this as a negotiating tool with the insurers. Insurers don't usually send cheques out without having written and stated their valuation first, which was ideally when you should have disputed it.
 
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Was it a Mk3 Golf? So 15 years old?

It's probably worth about £800ish in fantastic condition - with values like this its hard to understand why you felt it was prudent to claim in the first place? The loss of NCB and incresaed premiums will surely cost more than the payout after excess.
 
When I've gotten insurance quotes before they normally ask for an estimated vehicle value.... did you give one and is it close to it?

back in 2005 (i think it was) some (what i only assume to be) filthy chavs broke into my L reg 1.6 ford escort. They broke a door lock, stole my stereo and tried to hotwire it....unsuccessfully though, good ol' immobiliser. In their attempt though they managed to rip some metal chunks out of the steering framework :( I then drove it to the days garage. the insurance told us it was a write off and gave us £800 for it :( we were'nt happy with that but they didn't budge so just had to suck it in and accept :(
 
Dogbreath said:
Insurers don't usually send cheques out without having written and stated their valuation first, which was ideally when you should have disputed it.
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Bell did this with me when an idiot decided to try and park in my boot. Sent out the cheque for the first offer, and when I disputed it they sent me a cheque for the difference (this was a couple of days later). Of course it did mean they then insisted on having the courtesy car back 48hrs after the first cheque was issued. First I knew about this was a phone call from the hire company asking where the car was as they were sending someone round to collect it in the next hour - cue Bell getting an extremely angry phone call asking them what exactly the **** they thought they were playing at, and they would get the car back when I had a cheque for the full amount in my hand. Surprisingly enough they backed down... Cowboys! :rolleyes:
 
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