Car crash question

itno

itno

itno

Associate
Joined
8 Oct 2008
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276
I had a crash in March which resulted in my car being written off. The crash was not my fault as I was on a main road and had right of way. A car was slowly pulling out of a junction and then at the last possible moment gunned into my car. By co-incidence the police were coming from the opposite direction and helped out. Unfortunately in the confusion of the crash the driver of the other car made good their escape and did not leave any details before the police stopped. They did leave their car but that had no insurance and was on stolen plates.

Got the call from the garage a few days later letting me know that at least £12,000 worth of damage had been caused and the car was beyond economical repair. The insurance company instead of paying off the finance (I have gap insurance) is arranging a 'new for old' but the problem I can see is that it could take some time (I was initially told 2 weeks but this became 2 to 4 months) to get a replacement car.

In the meantime I've received a letter from the insurance company wanting the V5, spare keys and receipt for the car. If I send these then is it the case I won't be the owner of the car? What will happen to the finance as will I have to pay for a car I do not own whilst waiting for a replacement? Has anyone been in a similar position and can offer advice on what happens in this sort situation?

MTIA
 
How old is this car? New for old should equal just that and should be done quickly or a hire car should be given. Unfortunately your insurance company won't want to do any of this without a fuss because they have to pay for all of it.
 
acemastr said:
How old is this car? New for old should equal just that and should be done quickly or a hire car should be given. Unfortunately your insurance company won't want to do any of this without a fuss because they have to pay for all of it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

The insurance company hasn't been on the ball in my opinion. Took a week to get a hire car which they took off hire last week without letting me know in advance. The first I knew was from the hire car company when they called me saying the car had been taken off hire and the hire had been backed dated to the previous week so wanted to know who will pay for the week. I called the insurance company but as usual could not get hold of my 'handler'. Spoke to someone else who said the hire car should have been returned last week. I said I had not been informed of this and they replied that someone contacted me on the 11th. I told them that no one had called me since the 5th to which they said they needed to check my case and could I wait on hold. I said okay and they cut me off.

Anyway to cut a long story short they said that they had made a boo-boo as the car should have been returned on the 17th but would honour the hire until the 24th. Spoke to the guy at the hire car company who said that in his experience when a car has been written off the insurance company stop paying for a hire car as it is up to the owner to replace the car.

The car is (was?) only 10 months old. What's not impressed me is the co-ordination between the insurance company and the garage they use to collect and assess the car, and the vehicle replacement company the garage use to replace the car. As far as I can tell the vehicle replacement company is looking to do a seamless replacement of the car by finding a car with the same spec and keep the finance the same. But I had options and last time I spoken to the vehicle replacement company they said they couldn't source a car with the same spec for two weeks or two months. So at the moment I'm using public transport to get around and good old Shanks's pony.

The insurance is trying to keep costs for them down to a minimum as they will have what's left of the car so I guess they can sell that on for salvage. Plus they are trying to source car that is approximately the same age which the guy from the vehicle replacement company said was much cheaper than paying for repairs.
 
I too did think if car was written off there was no rental vehicle. When being repaired one would be provided normally.

As above whoa the insurance co?
 
I'm confused by the process in general here.

Surely the right course of action should have been: Claim off insurance for current market value, claim off GAP for difference between insurer payout and cost of replacement (assuming you went for replacement level cover rather than just return to invoice). Buy new car.
 
Just name them. What's the worst that can happen? The worst a business can have it bad publicity, so if they found this they'd only but try and put it right
 
paradigm said:
I'm confused by the process in general here.

Surely the right course of action should have been: Claim off insurance for current market value, claim off GAP for difference between insurer payout and cost of replacement (assuming you went for replacement level cover rather than just return to invoice). Buy new car.
Click to expand...

This is what was going to happen until I got a call from the vehicle replacement company who said the case had been handed over to them as it was more advantageous to replace the car based on market prices. I tried to have a look on Glasses website but they don't do free valuations anymore. I've had a look at dealer prices for year old cars and the price is around £11,000 so cheaper than repairing the car anyway.

Had a call from the vehicle replacement company today saying there are two options. They cannot replace my car exactly and I would have to have the base model to which the dealer would fit the options. However the options would be a TomTom SatNav rather than integrated and not sure what they would do about the DAB radio. The SatNav and DAB radio were the only two things I liked about the car.

The alternative is for the vehicle replacement company to buy a new car but the model I had has been discontinued so would have to wait 12 to 14 weeks for the new version with options. This is dependent on the insurance company and dealer agreeing. The person was trying to get me to agree to the first option but I don't see why I should pay the same amount for less. That said waiting for 12 to 14 weeks doesn't appeal to me either. I've told them I'll think about it for a day and get back to them.
 
What level of cover is your GAP?

If it's vehicle replacement then sod all this faffing about, just get a new for old ordered and be done with it.

Also, @Hyburnate, given the "NU" reference, it's Aviva.
 
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