Fighting a write off valuation

[dontlookdown]

Just as a counterpoint, my car has just been written off and the insurer gave me a fair price off the bat. Not generous but within prob 500 quid of what I'd have got had I sold it before the accident, and in line with others for sale at the time.

What gets me Is the jump in premium I will have to pay for the next few years for an accident that wasn't my fault. Yes I know it's all just done off the risk stats but it rankles anyway.

[Dashnine]

Is there a club / forum / FB page that’s supports the car and tracks sales?

My MG has a model specific forum that lists every car going up for sale globally and hence has the sale prices and in some cases confirmed sold prices which can be used to justify values (often an issue when it’s ’just a ZT’ but can often be worth 10 times more than the cooking cars).

[Hammer67]

2 years ago my immaculate Primera GT got rear ended, bent the boot floor.
3rd party admitted liability at the scene.
Obviously a write off as parts NLA.
Told my insurance company, continued to drive it and dealt solely with 3rd party insurance company.
I refused a repaired boot floor, told them I wanted £4k, they refused.
Only one similar car on sale at the time, up for £5995 or thereabouts, printed off the ad and sent it to them.
They sent an independent loss adjustor to view it and paid out £5250.

[Ryyy]

dontlookdown said:

Just as a counterpoint, my car has just been written off and the insurer gave me a fair price off the bat. Not generous but within prob 500 quid of what I'd have got had I sold it before the accident, and in line with others for sale at the time.

What gets me Is the jump in premium I will have to pay for the next few years for an accident that wasn't my fault. Yes I know it's all just done off the risk stats but it rankles anyway.

Have you done qoutes for with and without the crash? Ive had 3 and although my premium may have dropped a lot without the crashes, they havent rocketed either.

[GasEngineer]

Petrus1983 said:

GasEngineer said:

If you had GAP insurance; would the GAP insurer haggle with the insurance company on your behalf to reduce the GAP amount they have to pay out?

They try and haggle on their own behalf to try and reduce their exposure.

THats what I was getting at. Could OP use whatever methods GAP insurers use to reduce their liability.

[Petrus1983]

GasEngineer said:

THats what I was getting at. Could OP use whatever methods GAP insurers use to reduce their liability.

The people in the industry pay for the access so I'm not sure how publicly it's available. FWIW whenever I dealt with GAP insurers they were always satisfied with the company using the average of caps and glasses.

With the glasses guide you can even see the price of options when new and what it adds to the value now - without doubt the depreciation on optional extras was massive - often because it came as standard on the next model.

[the-norseman]

GasEngineer said:

If you had GAP insurance; would the GAP insurer haggle with the insurance company on your behalf to reduce the GAP amount they have to pay out?

Would you even get gap insurance on a 2010 car that has been owned since 2015? I thought you took them kinda products out when the car was sold.

[Trax]

The insurer should be paying the market value as depicted by CAP, AutoTrader Glass' and Percayso. Generally an average of which ones it uses. If its offered the lower end of vals, it should be able to demonstrate why, i.e. adds showing cars for sale at the low end of the vals.
Can you obtain any of these valuations, or ask the insurer which ones it used and what were the valuations it used?
Complain if your not happy.

[dontlookdown]

Ryyy said:

dontlookdown said:

Just as a counterpoint, my car has just been written off and the insurer gave me a fair price off the bat. Not generous but within prob 500 quid of what I'd have got had I sold it before the accident, and in line with others for sale at the time.

What gets me Is the jump in premium I will have to pay for the next few years for an accident that wasn't my fault. Yes I know it's all just done off the risk stats but it rankles anyway.

Have you done qoutes for with and without the crash? Ive had 3 and although my premium may have dropped a lot without the crashes, they havent rocketed either.

Yes I have. Pretty hefty increase unhappily.

[the-norseman]

Just a quick question regarding insurance, obviously I've got an outstanding claim, when the claim is settled, lets say next Wednesday.

Will my insurance then be ended? or will they allow me to carry on my cover which is due in December and put a new car on it?

[Petrus1983]

the-norseman said:

Just a quick question regarding insurance, obviously I've got an outstanding claim, when the claim is settled, lets say next Wednesday.

Will my insurance then be ended? or will they allow me to carry on my cover which is due in December and put a new car on it?

That's company specific so worth giving them a buzz.

[E-bmw]

Mr Tidy said:

E-bmw said:

Mr Tidy said:

Which is more than Admiral bothered to do after one of their policyholders hit the back of my 2005 BMW 330i last year.

Like I said, I fought Admiral from barely over £2.5K to £5380 in a 30 minute phone call with preparation.

It can be done, but you need to be correct & accurate.

Edited by E-bmw on Wednesday 3rd April 22:40

I had done plenty of preparation as I worked in the insurance claims industry for over 30 years.

My problem was finding similar cars advertised for comparison as manual 330is are fairly rare, and most are M-Sports whereas mine was an SE. According to Admiral that increased their value by at least 50%.

They just wouldn't budge and as I got to keep a perfectly good car and a decent amount of cash I gave up.

That was my problem also, there was none for sale in the UK with the same spec as mine.

[GasEngineer]

the-norseman said:

GasEngineer said:

If you had GAP insurance; would the GAP insurer haggle with the insurance company on your behalf to reduce the GAP amount they have to pay out?

Would you even get gap insurance on a 2010 car that has been owned since 2015? I thought you took them kinda products out when the car was sold.

I think you can get GAP insurance anytime based on a current valuation but that's not what I was getting at....

I was wondering what info etc GAP insurers use to haggle with insurance companies to reduce the amount of GAP they have to pay, and if OP could use a similar tactic.

[alscar]

GasEngineer said:

I think you can get GAP insurance anytime based on a current valuation but that's not what I was getting at....

I was wondering what info etc GAP insurers use to haggle with insurance companies to reduce the amount of GAP they have to pay, and if OP could use a similar tactic.

Not sure why a gap insurer would or could even try and negotiate with a car insurer to increase their payout ?
Their policy is obviously sold to the car owner to protect any such shortfall.

[Petrus1983]

alscar said:

Not sure why a gap insurer would or could even try and negotiate with a car insurer to increase their payout ?
Their policy is obviously sold to the car owner to protect any such shortfall.

They do. They're happy to go to the Ombudsman as that costs the insurance company £500 straight off the bat (recently heard it's higher).

[alscar]

Petrus1983 said:

They do. They're happy to go to the Ombudsman as that costs the insurance company £500 straight off the bat (recently heard it's higher).

Interesting - why would the car insurer bow down to them though - unless you’re saying they do that to just avoid paying £500 automatically to the Ombudsman ?
If the gap insurer charged the customer for a policy then surely reducing their payout is by itself against FCA regulations or am I being naive ?

[Petrus1983]

alscar said:

Petrus1983 said:

They do. They're happy to go to the Ombudsman as that costs the insurance company £500 straight off the bat (recently heard it's higher).

Interesting - why would the car insurer bow down to them though - unless you’re saying they do that to just avoid paying £500 automatically to the Ombudsman ?
If the gap insurer charged the customer for a policy then surely reducing their payout is by itself against FCA regulations or am I being naive ?

No. They take the hit.

[BertBert]

the-norseman said:

Just a quick question regarding insurance, obviously I've got an outstanding claim, when the claim is settled, lets say next Wednesday.

Will my insurance then be ended? or will they allow me to carry on my cover which is due in December and put a new car on it?

They are some things called policy documents, they are helpful if you read them. That's often more reliable than some randoms off the internet guessing what they say.

[Ian Geary]

BertBert said:

the-norseman said:

Just a quick question regarding insurance, obviously I've got an outstanding claim, when the claim is settled, lets say next Wednesday.

Will my insurance then be ended? or will they allow me to carry on my cover which is due in December and put a new car on it?

They are some things called policy documents, they are helpful if you read them. That's often more reliable than some randoms off the internet guessing what they say.

My policy ended when the vehicle was written off, but luckily it took the insurance lot so long to handle my claim I basically got full term from it.

I was using another (insured elsewhere) vehicle under the driving other vehicles provisions third party, so didn't particularly lose out.


So generally, if you suffer a write off in the first week of your policy, then you basically have to buy a whole new annual second policy in short order. There might be mythical policies that will phoenix for you after a write off, but I've never seen that in t&cs.

[Petrus1983]

Ian Geary said:

My policy ended when the vehicle was written off, but luckily it took the insurance lot so long to handle my claim I basically got full term from it.

I was using another (insured elsewhere) vehicle under the driving other vehicles provisions third party, so didn't particularly lose out.


So generally, if you suffer a write off in the first week of your policy, then you basically have to buy a whole new annual second policy in short order. There might be mythical policies that will phoenix for you after a write off, but I've never seen that in t&cs.

Were you the third party? It makes a difference.