Potentially Appealing a write off

Orionaut

Orionaut

Orionaut

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A lady friend of mine was rear ended by a 4x4 at a roundabout on friday PM

(The old He thought she had gone but she hadn't thing)

There is no apparent damage to the 4x4 but her car has a broken rear fog light, a crack in the lower part of the plastic bumper (Looks repairable if there is no underlying damage) and a small dent in the rear wing just above the OS bumper margin.

The damage is minor and I am sure a decent body shop could fix it without having to replace the wing.

(Indeed, many people would just fix the light and carry on using it)

Unfortunately the vehicle is a 51 plate Corsa 1.2. and is therefore "Worth" nothing!

Despite its age, this vehicle is in pristine condition, has a full service history and is relatively low mileage (80,000) But for this issue the car would easily be good for another 10 years and she would have been happy to keep it and in deed was hoping to do so.

She is concerned that the car may be written off. I have never been in this position so do not know what the deal is under these circumstances.

(EG Can the other parties "Write Off" her car? Can such a decision be realistically appealed? As I said It would be a sin to scrap this particular vehicle because of a minor dent)

Any assistance gratefully received.
 
It probably will be written off, but in her position I'd just take the pay out, buy the car back from the insurance company as CAT D, then replace the light and live with it as it is. She'd probably end up making money overall, as you could pick up a fog light on ebay for virtually nothing, and I can't imagine they're that tricky to fit.
 
A third party cannot write of your (or hers in this case) car unless the damage is so severe that it's unsafe to return to the road.

She is entitled to be restored to the point she was prior to the third parties negligence - in this case it means her car with a replacement fog light, bumper and undented wing. If it helps her case she can state she is willing to accept 2nd hand parts (I would be on a 51 plate Corsa).

If the above gets her nowhere (it will depend on how forceful she is) then she can ask for a a "settlement in lieu of repair" - i.e. third party insurer just gives her a cheque and she gets the car sorted herself. This does NOT involve the third party insurers writing her car off.

Most importantly, do NOT let the third party insurers take the car away UNTIL a resolution has been agreed upon.
 
William-Mathew said:
If its just a fog light and a dent in the bumper they will not write it off as it wont cost that much to repair
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You can find a 1.2 51 reg Corsa, depending on mileage for as low as £300. A new bumper alone supplied, sprayed and fitted would probably cost £500.

Have a look on autotrader to work out approx value and weigh that up against repair quotes.

MW
 
amigafan2003 said:
A third party cannot write of your (or hers in this case) car unless the damage is so severe that it's unsafe to return to the road.

She is entitled to be restored to the point she was prior to the third parties negligence - in this case it means her car with a replacement fog light, bumper and undented wing. If it helps her case she can state she is willing to accept 2nd hand parts (I would be on a 51 plate Corsa).

If the above gets her nowhere (it will depend on how forceful she is) then she can ask for a a "settlement in lieu of repair" - i.e. third party insurer just gives her a cheque and she gets the car sorted herself. This does NOT involve the third party insurers writing her car off.

Most importantly, do NOT let the third party insurers take the car away UNTIL a resolution has been agreed upon.
Click to expand...

^ This is correct. Unless a vehicle is deemed to be unsafe to repair, a third party insurer cannot write it off without your permission. Your insurer can if it's a fault claim, but not a third party. The onus is on them to return your vehicle to the same state of repair as it was prior to the claim. They will most likely push hard if it's not in their financial interest, however.
 
My little brother just bought a newq car for mum, 54plate Corsa, immmaculate outside but needs a clean inside... £350! With Test.

I think you're correct in the value lol, may as well just take the payout and keep the car and get it repaired. Only issue would be underlying damage to the rear.

As above tho do not let them anywhere near taking the car away, even if they say its just for assessment until you have full payment from them.
 
Thank you for your quick and helpful replies.

I have passed on the good advise and told her to stand her ground should the need arise. She now feels much better about the situation. She was quite distressed (She is on a minimum wage part time job and not in a position to get a new car at present and was quite worried about it)

I suspect that the best option might well be the "settlement in lieu of repair". There is a very local body-shop that specialises in economic repairs of this nature (Though I wouldn't tell the insurance company that)
 
Update!

Having never had to get involved in insurance claims in the last 20 years, this has been a real eye opener for me!

(And not at all in a good sense! :( )

After taking various stuff into consideration, I advised my friend to withdraw from the claim process and just suck up the repair costs (Local body shop quoted £300 Inc VAT which I feel is entirely reasonable)

Her "Local insurance Broker" had, apparently, passed her case onto an "Accident management company". The main motivation for the AMC seems to have been to get her off the road (By taking her car away for "Assessment" by a third party salvage/auction company) and then bully her into accepting a "Courtesy car" (and presumably an eventually pitiful "write off " payment).

Actually repairing the car seems to be of no consequence.

There is no money to be made out of that! :mad:
 
Write off does not mean its scrapped.

If the other party admits fault they will also be paying the hire car charge. Make sure you take the insurance that covers you should they dispute it though.

There's no reason you can't get out of this with the Corsa back and a nice cheque.

I had an old Mondeo and a police man drove into it denting a wing. They took it away to be assessed so I got to drive a brand new Golf around for 2 weeks. They then decided it was uneconomical to repair and asked for the hire car back. So I collected my fully road worthy but dented Mondeo and carried on. They then argued about things for a few months and then I decided writing the car off was just easier. So they did at the value of the car on the policy (£800), sold it back to me for scrap, and a cheque arrived for £670. I continued to drive it for about another 18 months. Oh and the police's insurance paid the £2k for the hire car too.

A write off in this case will mean you keep the Corsa and get given money from the other guys insurance, plus get to borrow someones courtesy car free for a while too. Do that.
 
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Two options..

1. Get reasonable quotes (even using 2nd hand parts for lights/body etc) and ask the other driver to cover the costs in cash.

2. Get other party's insurance to sort it out.
 
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