insurance cat c car

[kell124]

hi i brought a vw golf gti in july 2013 from a private seller on gumtree i purchased the vehicle at a price of 16000 in cash i did a hpi check few days before i purchased the vehicle and it was hpi clear and never been involved in a accident

a few days ago i went to vw dealership to carry out some warranty work on my vehicle and they called me back and informed me the warrenty has been avoided due to the car being involved in a accident in may 2013 and is now a registered cat c

i am gobsmacked due to the fact i have now lost 50% of my value on my car. I started of calling the hpi company to see whether i would be covered under the hpi guarantee and they said they do not offer this service in the terms and condition

they told me the insurance company was at fault due to the accident taking place in may and they have registered the accident cat c in October and i should contact them to get any compensation

can someone please tell me if they have had this problem occur and have any knowledge of dealing with this kind of issue

[mrmr96]

kell124 said:

they told me the insurance company was at fault due to the accident taking place in may and they have registered the accident cat c in October and i should contact them to get any compensation

Have you done this yet?

[rallycross]

Sorry but private sale = buyer beware, this just proves the dangers of

1) buying anything other than a cheap banger off gumtree (gumtree is where its most likely to be a scammer/dodgy seller)
2) buying a high value car privately if you dont know exactly what you are doing

If you used HPI or Experian for the vehicle check and included the chassis number there is sometimes upto £10k indemnity against this type of thing if you purchase and register in your name, but the T&C's are written in their favour.

[kell124]

i am going to phone the insurance company tommorow but im very distressed and dont no how i will be able to tackle this problem

[mrmr96]

rallycross said:

Sorry but private sale = buyer beware, this just proves the dangers of

1) buying anything other than a cheap banger off gumtree (gumtree is where its most likely to be a scammer/dodgy seller)
2) buying a high value car privately if you dont know exactly what you are doing

If you used HPI or Experian for the vehicle check and included the chassis number there is sometimes upto £10k indemnity against this type of thing if you purchase and register in your name, but the T&C's are written in their favour.

Totally disagree.

This buyer did the totally right thing in getting the car HPI checked. The reason why the HPI guarantee doesn't cover this situation is because they accurately reported the information which they had on file. It IS the insurance companies' fault for not registering it on the database promptly.

So I think your comment is totally unfair to the buyer and to HPI, neither of whom have done anything wrong.

To the OP - don't sweat it. Just ring the insurance company up and go from there. Be sure to report back.

[kell124]

why has the insurance company taken 5 months to put the accident on the register and are they allowed to do this

[mrmr96]

It's an admin error on their part, isn't it?
No, I don't think it's acceptable.
I'm no expert but if you want to find out the rules for registering you could start googling "MIAFTR Data"

[mrmr96]

Here's a similar story with a happy outcome:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php...
The buyer got in touch with the ins co who paid up for their error.
HTH

PS - Stop worrying until you've spoken to the ins co!

[tr7v8]

kell124 said:

why has the insurance company taken 5 months to put the accident on the register and are they allowed to do this

I had this with a car I bought. It took the insurance co. 18 months to register it as Cat C. As it happened I didn't care but it can & does happen.

[rallycross]

Let us know what the insurance co' says but I doubt they will offer to help you as a private buyer.

[mrmr96]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Could have been a great repair?

[kell124]

in regards to the vehicle the job looks immaculate to even know that it was a damage repaired vehicle

i have spoken to the insurance company and they are hiding behind the data protection act and saying they will not release any info as i am not the policy holder they have given me they email address and told me to write to them explain what has occurred and they will take it on from there

[TooMany2cvs]

kell124 said:

i have spoken to the insurance company and they are hiding behind the data protection act and saying they will not release any info as i am not the policy holder they have given me they email address and told me to write to them explain what has occurred and they will take it on from there

Do this. Do it tomorrow. Include a copy of the V5C in your name, a copy of the original HPI report, a copy of HPI's refusal to compensate you. Give them a deadline to respond, else you'll escalate it to the Financial Ombudsman.

[hopeydaze]

Aviva took 6 months to look put a cat C and VIC marker on our Defender. Lots of superficial panel damage and zero cost to repair as we left it as it was. I had several people asking to buy it. I could easily have sold it before the cat C appeared.

There for I think these delays are common.

[mrmr96]

kell124 said:

in regards to the vehicle the job looks immaculate to even know that it was a damage repaired vehicle

i have spoken to the insurance company and they are hiding behind the data protection act and saying they will not release any info as i am not the policy holder they have given me they email address and told me to write to them explain what has occurred and they will take it on from there

Data Protection Act only applies to data on human beings. It doesn't apply to data about cars.

[northandy]

kell124 said:

hi i brought a vw golf gti in july 2013 from a private seller on gumtree i purchased the vehicle at a price of 16000 in cash i did a hpi check few days before i purchased the vehicle and it was hpi clear and never been involved in a accident

a few days ago i went to vw dealership to carry out some warranty work on my vehicle and they called me back and informed me the warrenty has been avoided due to the car being involved in a accident in may 2013 and is now a registered cat c

i am gobsmacked due to the fact i have now lost 50% of my value on my car. I started of calling the hpi company to see whether i would be covered under the hpi guarantee and they said they do not offer this service in the terms and condition

they told me the insurance company was at fault due to the accident taking place in may and they have registered the accident cat c in October and i should contact them to get any compensation

can someone please tell me if they have had this problem occur and have any knowledge of dealing with this kind of issue

Was it a proper hpi check or one of those text type ones?

[Red Devil]

mrmr96 said:

kell124 said:

in regards to the vehicle the job looks immaculate to even know that it was a damage repaired vehicle

i have spoken to the insurance company and they are hiding behind the data protection act and saying they will not release any info as i am not the policy holder they have given me they email address and told me to write to them explain what has occurred and they will take it on from there

Data Protection Act only applies to data on human beings. It doesn't apply to data about cars.

Exactly. It's the usual mantra/Pavlovian response by call handlers in large companies. I'm convinced they are taught to deflect enquiries in this fashion. Ask them what specific exemption they are relying on in order not to disclose. I will bet they haven't a clue and will have to trot off to ask someone more senior. And that person probably won't have any greater knowledge either. In my experience you have to go some way up the food chain to find someone who does.

[kell124]

my hpi check was not a text message it was a full report on my laptop and was done from a company called icarcheck.net.

my question is are insurance company allowed to keep the accident/salvage/cat c off the hpi register for 5 months surely people would take advantage of this and sell the vehicle describing it to be hpi clear

car is worth 16k but considering it is cat c that would be a 50% loss off nearly 8k im gobsmacked at what has occurred and financially i am out of pocket big time is there a case where i could claim compensation of 8k from the insurance company as it failed to register the accident onto the hpi register

[leyorkie]

Was it not marked on the V5?
I thought that a cat C had to have a VIC before the V5 was issued if so what has the DVLA done about it

[CAPP0]

Minor compensation for your situation but it won't remove 50% of the value of your car - maybe 25-30%, and possibly more difficult to sell in future, although some people who are savvy about these things are happy to buy a repaired car and save some cash.