Insurance write off- value advice needed

[~Divine~Wind~]

Dad had a bit of an issue and a HGV in front of him kciked up a massive sheet of metal.

No injuries thankfully but he destoryed a fair chunk of highway barrier that stopped him from going over a 30 ft drop as well as the car he was in

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that to compare prices the car had to be as close to spec/trim as possible, with similar mileage/history and available for him to go and buy from a trade seller not private sale

 

[Diagro]

Dad had a bit of an issue and a HGV in front of him kciked up a massive sheet of metal.

No injuries thankfully but he destoryed a fair chunk of highway barrier that stopped him from going over a 30 ft drop as well as the car he was in

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that to compare prices the car had to be as close to spec/trim as possible, with similar mileage/history and available for him to go and buy from a trade seller not private sale

You are correct

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

They're offering him an amount based on how much he'd get for tradein

Thought t was somethign along the lines above tbh

Anyone got access to glasses or similar?

 

[chroniclard]

They usually lowball for the first offer. Go through auto trader looking for similar cars and present evidence its not enough.

 

[Hyburnate]

Turn away the first couple of offers.

 

[grudas]

turn away the first offers..

send them some autotrader/ebay etc links to cars with similar spec/mileage/year to prove the value.

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

Yeah we've been having a look and to purchase as close to the year/spec/mileage as possible is a good 1.5K more than they've offered

 

[chroniclard]

Pretty standard tactic with insurance scrubs.

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

Thought things might've changed since I last ... erm ... killed a vehicle lol

 

[ShadowMan]

They will use Glass's/CAP/Trade in value rather than anything you can find on the sites to buy. They are not bound to offer you anything other than those guides. The Ombudsman tends to agree with them on this too in most cases. The best you can do is reject first offer and hope they up it a bit.

Effectively do not expect what cars are being advertised for as that will not be what they sell for.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

 

[Howard]

I would go back and tell them you are a private individual and not a trader, you cannot buy cars at trade prices, and therefore please revise your offer to be more inline with the car's retail value.

 

[muon]

They will use Glass's/CAP/Trade in value rather than anything you can find on the sites to buy. They are not bound to offer you anything other than those guides. The Ombudsman tends to agree with them on this too in most cases. The best you can do is reject first offer and hope they up it a bit.

Effectively do not expect what cars are being advertised for as that will not be what they sell for.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

Except the FOS won't be looking at the trade in value as you've just incorrectly said.

 

[Haze]

I had to send my insurance company, 3x adverts of car similar spec/age/mileage/condition ect, and they take an avg price of the adverts and then make and offer based on that

 

[mattcrane]

When my wife killed her car the insurance made an offer about £2k below what it would cost us to replace it for locally.

We provided all sorts of evidence to prove local values/costs etc and they refused to budge.

In the end we just told them that if they can provide a vehicle of equal condition, spec, mileage etc at the low prices they were quoting then please feel free to buy it and transport it to us.

Within 24hrs we had what we considered a reasonable offer from them, they raised there offer by £1.5k so £500 less than it cost it us to replace the vehicle.

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

Well they've flat out refused to budge.

They sent a cheque out on the day of giving the valuation despite it being refused/disputed anyway.

He has phoned and they've simply said they'll put it all in an email so that he can goto the ombudsman.

Probably time to change all his insurance from them in my eyes if they're gonna **** about like this.

I've told him to ask the car not be scrapped whilst he deals with the ombudsman in case anything different is decided.

 

[GravyMonster]

WTF? Sounds like he has a very solid case with the ombudsman, unless you're taking the mick with your asking price.

Can I ask which insurance company it is so that I can avoid them in future.

 

[SqualidChimp]

Can I ask which insurance company it is so that I can avoid them in future.

This. I usually get around the same quotes from a variety of insurers. Be nice to know which to avoid.

 

[the_r_sole]

If they've issued a cheque, do not cash it. Make sure you send them the evidence and then ask them for an email confirming what their valuation is based on and why the examples you have sent are over priced, I fought with them for weeks and kept sending example after example of the same car for more money and included an estimate of travel time and expense to each of them from my home address

 

[Iron-man]

definitely don't cash the cheque, go higher within the company to try and get some sense. failing that ombudsman it is