Help please - uncontested ins claim/derisory write-off value
Discussion
Evening all, I have a small business operating Wheel-chair Accessible Taxis, one of which was hit in the side a few weeks ago. No contest by the other driver, but around £3k of damage so off to insurers we go.
My colleague has been dealing with this and we tried to mitigate the cost of the claim by getting it to an insurance approved bodyshop in time for half-term when we didn't need a replacement vehicle. Insurers have been faffing around now for two weeks plus and then decided it was an uneconomic repair, offering us around £3k (I don't have the letter in front of me) as apparently confirmed by an independent assessor.
We pointed out that it isn't a van, but a Wheelchair Accessible Minibus converted when new, so worth a lot more than a van. In fact we only bought it 18 months ago, cheaply at £7,995. I've bought seven of them in recent years so I have a fairly good idea of what they are worth. We supplied evidence that we cannot replace the vehicle (there are very few for sale at any one time) for what they offered.
They came back today with £4,250 as revised by their engineer and asked if we want to retain salvage (no value attributed yet). Not sure if it can be insured with our insurer for private hire work as a CAT C repaired - will try and find out tomorrow.
No engineer has been to view the van.
The repair cost is just over £3,000 - more than 60% of the "value" so uneconomic apparently.
We would need around £6k minimum to replace it, as an average taken from the few similar buses currently available on the market (there are no direct comparables) slightly newer/slightly older, and with the closest mileage.
Can we insist on a repair?
Do we just keep rejecting their offer?
For some reason we seem to be dealing with a claims handling firm referred by our insurer, which I don't understand or like - we haven't signed anything so can I bin them and approach third party insurers directly?
Any advice or wording to use would be greatly appreciated.
My colleague has been dealing with this and we tried to mitigate the cost of the claim by getting it to an insurance approved bodyshop in time for half-term when we didn't need a replacement vehicle. Insurers have been faffing around now for two weeks plus and then decided it was an uneconomic repair, offering us around £3k (I don't have the letter in front of me) as apparently confirmed by an independent assessor.
We pointed out that it isn't a van, but a Wheelchair Accessible Minibus converted when new, so worth a lot more than a van. In fact we only bought it 18 months ago, cheaply at £7,995. I've bought seven of them in recent years so I have a fairly good idea of what they are worth. We supplied evidence that we cannot replace the vehicle (there are very few for sale at any one time) for what they offered.
They came back today with £4,250 as revised by their engineer and asked if we want to retain salvage (no value attributed yet). Not sure if it can be insured with our insurer for private hire work as a CAT C repaired - will try and find out tomorrow.
No engineer has been to view the van.
The repair cost is just over £3,000 - more than 60% of the "value" so uneconomic apparently.
We would need around £6k minimum to replace it, as an average taken from the few similar buses currently available on the market (there are no direct comparables) slightly newer/slightly older, and with the closest mileage.
Can we insist on a repair?
Do we just keep rejecting their offer?
For some reason we seem to be dealing with a claims handling firm referred by our insurer, which I don't understand or like - we haven't signed anything so can I bin them and approach third party insurers directly?
Any advice or wording to use would be greatly appreciated.
pacoryan said:
We pointed out that it isn't a van, but a Wheelchair Accessible Minibus converted when new, so worth a lot more than a van.
What was it insured as?Have a read of this :-
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications...
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications...
That's a good point but they are all insured as WAV Minibuses - it is a fleet private hire policy. In any case we are claiming against the third party's insurer, so what our insurer has them recorded as is presumably/hopefully academic?
I was wondering if we don't get our own engineers report and valuation commissioned.
As a side note last year we had an older, higher mileage van repaired at a cost of over £4000 on our own policy, and that was inspected by an engineer before the claim was approved and he noted the specialist nature of the conversion and thus higher value.
I was wondering if we don't get our own engineers report and valuation commissioned.
As a side note last year we had an older, higher mileage van repaired at a cost of over £4000 on our own policy, and that was inspected by an engineer before the claim was approved and he noted the specialist nature of the conversion and thus higher value.
Edited by pacoryan on Tuesday 23 February 20:19
Sorry I should have made that clearer - we are using our own who insist everything is handled a claims management firm (Claims Consulting I think) but at the moment are doing a pretty weak job on our behalf. I thought I might go direct to their insurer with an independent valuation and a letter pointing out we wish to be restored to the position we were in prior to the accident - which will only cost them £3k ish (i.e. the repair).
Seems like common sense to me to write the cheque to the repairer but apparently not.
Seems like common sense to me to write the cheque to the repairer but apparently not.
pacoryan said:
In any case we are claiming against the third party's insurer, so what our insurer has them recorded as is presumably/hopefully academic?
pacoryan said:
Sorry I should have made that clearer - we are using our own who insist everything is handled a claims management firm
<scratches head>TooMany2cvs said:
pacoryan said:
In any case we are claiming against the third party's insurer, so what our insurer has them recorded as is presumably/hopefully academic?
pacoryan said:
Sorry I should have made that clearer - we are using our own who insist everything is handled a claims management firm
<scratches head>Edited by pacoryan on Tuesday 23 February 21:05
Your insurance don't need to be involved in any way, their claims handlers can also be kicked into touch if that's what you wish.
Liability has been decided, you just need to show examples of what it will cost to replace the vehicle and tell them that is the amount you will be looking to enforce against them.
Ombudsmen are fine if you are trying to get a fair settlement out of your own insurance and it much harder to sue them but if you are effectively chasing the other driver for compensation then he is liable to put you back in the same position as you were in before and this is legally enforceable.
I've been through this recently myself and they will tell you about the ombudsman's guidelines and that they NEVER pay more than the book figure, it's all b
ks and eventually after telling you the computer says no a dozen times they will move to a half sensible figure when they realise you aren't just going to go away and that eventually they'll have no choice anyway.
Liability has been decided, you just need to show examples of what it will cost to replace the vehicle and tell them that is the amount you will be looking to enforce against them.
Ombudsmen are fine if you are trying to get a fair settlement out of your own insurance and it much harder to sue them but if you are effectively chasing the other driver for compensation then he is liable to put you back in the same position as you were in before and this is legally enforceable.
I've been through this recently myself and they will tell you about the ombudsman's guidelines and that they NEVER pay more than the book figure, it's all b
ks and eventually after telling you the computer says no a dozen times they will move to a half sensible figure when they realise you aren't just going to go away and that eventually they'll have no choice anyway.Steve H said:
Your insurance don't need to be involved in any way, their claims handlers can also be kicked into touch if that's what you wish.
Liability has been decided, you just need to show examples of what it will cost to replace the vehicle and tell them that is the amount you will be looking to enforce against them.
Ombudsmen are fine if you are trying to get a fair settlement out of your own insurance and it much harder to sue them but if you are effectively chasing the other driver for compensation then he is liable to put you back in the same position as you were in before and this is legally enforceable.
I've been through this recently myself and they will tell you about the ombudsman's guidelines and that they NEVER pay more than the book figure, it's all bks and eventually after telling you the computer says no a dozen times they will move to a half sensible figure when they realise you aren't just going to go away and that eventually they'll have no choice anyway.
The more I think about this the more I think I need to have a frank conversation with our broker and the claim co they steered us to, get my evidence and go direct to the third party insurer. There are probably only half a dozen similar vehicles for sale in an approximate mileage/age range in the country ( I know because I've just bought another) so with an independent assessment I would hope sense will prevail.Liability has been decided, you just need to show examples of what it will cost to replace the vehicle and tell them that is the amount you will be looking to enforce against them.
Ombudsmen are fine if you are trying to get a fair settlement out of your own insurance and it much harder to sue them but if you are effectively chasing the other driver for compensation then he is liable to put you back in the same position as you were in before and this is legally enforceable.
I've been through this recently myself and they will tell you about the ombudsman's guidelines and that they NEVER pay more than the book figure, it's all b
ks and eventually after telling you the computer says no a dozen times they will move to a half sensible figure when they realise you aren't just going to go away and that eventually they'll have no choice anyway.Thanks all!
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