Insuring a write-off

[ergonomics]

Hi chaps. My insurance renewal is up and i'm looking at jumping ship to a different insurer (i see no reason why my existing supplier wants to hike my price up every year when others are offering it out cheaper!). Problem is, my car was written off (Category C) about a month ago. The cost of repair was more than the cars worth (~£700) so they paid me off and that was that..

Getting quotes online, there is no way to supply the write-off information so i'm wondering if they either already know about that when i punch in the vehicle registration.. or they do not need to know it at all!

Also with some googling i'm finding conflicting information on whether the car needs a new MOT before renewing the insurance or not. The MOT on my car is now due until July (2 months after my insurance needs renewing in May).

Anyone insured a written off car and know how to go about it? I don't want to do the usual and assume it's all fine to find the policy is invalid because i didn't share the information.. and calling a company upfront i'm not sure what that opens me up too..

Thanks all!

 

[Liquidfox]

When it was written off you should have had a VIC before getting a V5 back? When I insured a Cat D I told them over the phone when quoting and they asked me to send a copy of the MOT doc to them. Got a phone call from the docs team who were really confused as to why they received it and said they didn't need it.

 

[Lumeycom]

Cat C techincally requires nothing to put back on the road aside from ensuring its roadworthy.

However without a VIC check you will unlikely be able to tax the car online nor will you recieve tax reminders in the post. How this will pan out with the new tax system when they ditch the discs I dont know. You are 'obliged' to perform a VIC before selling the car. Also should you lose the V5 or do anything to change it (ie move) then you will have to do a VIC to get it back. Its an odd and broken system imo!

Its insurance companies that seem to ask for a new MOT before re insuring which I assume is them checking the car is actually roadworthy, some insurers require an engineers report (although an AA type report often covers this)


Also its your responsibility to inform the insurers of the write off, and your right that the comparison sites dont give you the option to add it (I wish they did!) If you dont, and need to claim, you may find your cover void.

 

[Jez]

I own a cat C, and have just sold another cat C car.

You dont need to do anything to get a Cat C car legal again, you can simply keep driving it, it obviously just needs a valid MOT etc the same as usual. You do not need to inform insurers etc, it makes no difference to the car going forward.

In order for new V5 documents to ever be issued for a cat C car you will need to put it through a VIC test, this takes quite literally 10 minutes at a VOSA centre, i put one of ours through it the other day as i plan to now sell it. Without doing the VIC the new owner wont get a log book issued.

You are not obliged to do a VIC before you sell a cat C car by the way, i just last week sold one which required one, but couldnt as the car was damaged and so i couldnt get it to the centre. You just sell it without a log book and write to the DVLA to inform change of ownership instead of sending any V5 documentation in. The new owner of that car will need to do a VIC test themselves if they want a log book.

 

[Iamzod]

I used to work for Direct Line, they used to ask for an "engineers report" to state the car was roadworthy. This didn't need to be an MOT, just a letter from a garage on letter headed paper stating that X, Y & Z had been repaired & the car was now road worthy.