Help please with disputed write off offer??
Discussion
Some advice please.
My wife had her car written off a fortnight ago, she was not at fault at all. The car was removed to a repairers 15 miles away.
We were offered at the end of last week £6475 about £1000 less than we paid at the end of last year. The car is a 20000 mile 58 plate MX5 and was mint.
We feel this is too low as the price of a replacement is actually more now than it was when we bought due to the time of year.
(Do you insure the price you paid or the value of the car??? I also have a car I paid less than a grand for 15 years ago but is now worth 20 grand....)
What the insurers are now saying is the cheque has already been issued and cannot be stopped even though we dispute the offer. They say we will need to get another independent engineers report done on the car and that the car will need to be removed from the body shop it's current at by us and stored whilst they wait for our report.
My question is is this normal practice when you dispute an offer? It seems like we're being pushed into saying we except the offer even though it will mean we will be £1500 out of pocket if we replace like for like.
Anyone else had this engineer report request? It's not as far as we're aware to access the pre accident condition. I fail to see how this will affect the replacement cost....
Any advice would be great.
My wife had her car written off a fortnight ago, she was not at fault at all. The car was removed to a repairers 15 miles away.
We were offered at the end of last week £6475 about £1000 less than we paid at the end of last year. The car is a 20000 mile 58 plate MX5 and was mint.
We feel this is too low as the price of a replacement is actually more now than it was when we bought due to the time of year.
(Do you insure the price you paid or the value of the car??? I also have a car I paid less than a grand for 15 years ago but is now worth 20 grand....)
What the insurers are now saying is the cheque has already been issued and cannot be stopped even though we dispute the offer. They say we will need to get another independent engineers report done on the car and that the car will need to be removed from the body shop it's current at by us and stored whilst they wait for our report.
My question is is this normal practice when you dispute an offer? It seems like we're being pushed into saying we except the offer even though it will mean we will be £1500 out of pocket if we replace like for like.
Anyone else had this engineer report request? It's not as far as we're aware to access the pre accident condition. I fail to see how this will affect the replacement cost....
Any advice would be great.
You should get the value of a replacement in a similar condition, at current values. I wouldn't have let them remove the car until a value was agreed.
I don't see why you should be jumping through hoops like this. I think that they're just trying to pressure you into accepting their offer.
Is this the first offer that they've made? Tell them that you're rejecting their offer and that you want a 'deadlock' letter to send to the Ombudsman.
Tim
I don't see why you should be jumping through hoops like this. I think that they're just trying to pressure you into accepting their offer.
Is this the first offer that they've made? Tell them that you're rejecting their offer and that you want a 'deadlock' letter to send to the Ombudsman.
Tim
chml said:
An engineer report is a tad over the top at the moment. Have a look on PH classifieds and Autotrader for comparable examples and send these to the insurer. Is this your insurance company or the other sides?
Good advice.Had similar issue with my insurer a couple of years ago. Get looking in the classified ads for a similar car including any extras yours had and similar mileage. Send this of to your insurer. Also make sure they know you are rejecting their initial offer.
Just been on the phone again, seems valuations and inspections are done by third parties.
Apparently we've got 2 cheques coming, one the bulk of the money from the third party insurer and then the balance from a savage company?
How can they do this even though we don't agree on the valuation?
Still saying we can only query the valuation with an independent engineers report??
Apparently we've got 2 cheques coming, one the bulk of the money from the third party insurer and then the balance from a savage company?
How can they do this even though we don't agree on the valuation?
Still saying we can only query the valuation with an independent engineers report??
Is this your insurance company or the other parties?
If the other parties, maybe worth getting yours involved. I would tell them you are destroying both their cheques and won't be cashing them.
Get ads from auto trader for comparison and then tell them you want the average, a fair settlement for your car.
If they refuse, take it to the ombudsman. They have to put you back in the pre accident position.
In my experience in business, they are probably crunching the numbers towards financial year end, realise their costs are way high and knocking 20% off all valuations and playing hard ball for the rest of the fiscal.
If the other parties, maybe worth getting yours involved. I would tell them you are destroying both their cheques and won't be cashing them.
Get ads from auto trader for comparison and then tell them you want the average, a fair settlement for your car.
If they refuse, take it to the ombudsman. They have to put you back in the pre accident position.
In my experience in business, they are probably crunching the numbers towards financial year end, realise their costs are way high and knocking 20% off all valuations and playing hard ball for the rest of the fiscal.
Hoonabator said:
Just been on the phone again, seems valuations and inspections are done by third parties.
Apparently we've got 2 cheques coming, one the bulk of the money from the third party insurer and then the balance from a savage company?
How can they do this even though we don't agree on the valuation?
Still saying we can only query the valuation with an independent engineers report??
You should be dealing with your own insurance company surely? The money from the salvage of the car has nothing to do with you, all money should be coming from the insurance company. Of they choose to sell the car on and get money back for it that's their business, but it shod hav e nothing to do with our payout.Apparently we've got 2 cheques coming, one the bulk of the money from the third party insurer and then the balance from a savage company?
How can they do this even though we don't agree on the valuation?
Still saying we can only query the valuation with an independent engineers report??
Who is sending ou this money, your insurer or the third parties insurer?
Seems Swinton use Quindell as their claims handlers.
Cheques are coming from the third party and a salvage company?
All seems very odd. More phone calls tomorrow I think.
Really feel we're being pushed into settling, they've never asked for proof to back up why we feel the settlement is too low.
Cheques are coming from the third party and a salvage company?
All seems very odd. More phone calls tomorrow I think.
Really feel we're being pushed into settling, they've never asked for proof to back up why we feel the settlement is too low.
It may not apply now, but I'll give it a shot.
When I ran my own garage, many years ago, and anyone had the same situation as yourself, my advice was always the same. Reject the first offer but ALWAYS accept the second. If you go down the road of not accepting either, it is in THEIR interest to drag the whole thing out and keep you inconvenienced. If it helps your case by proving that the equivalent car is worth £X, by providing advertisement proof, then go down that road in order to strengthen your case.
When I ran my own garage, many years ago, and anyone had the same situation as yourself, my advice was always the same. Reject the first offer but ALWAYS accept the second. If you go down the road of not accepting either, it is in THEIR interest to drag the whole thing out and keep you inconvenienced. If it helps your case by proving that the equivalent car is worth £X, by providing advertisement proof, then go down that road in order to strengthen your case.
The missus wrote her 08 Golf off a few years ago, I rang the insurer on her behalf to reject the initial offer and later sent current ads from Autotrader similar age/condition/mileage vehicles and they agreed that their offer was £1k below market value and upped it accordingly.
Never, ever accept the 1st offer (Unless it's way over the true value)
Never, ever accept the 1st offer (Unless it's way over the true value)
Well we're getting somewhere.
The insurers were putting a lot of pressure on my wife to take the offer......Saying the cheques had been issued appears to be untrue. Saying the car was being brought back to our house was untrue. Saying the only way to get a new valuation was to have another independent engineers report done appears to be untrue. Saying they would come and get the loan car immediately appears to be untrue.
Firstly my wife insisted no more phone calls would be taken and everything would be done via email. They really really didn't like this. After an exchange of emails that continued to apply pressure to accept a strongly worded email was sent stating that she did not accept the valuation, that she wouldn't get another report done as she wasn't arguing the fact that the car was a total loss. Stating that they (her insurer) should contact the third party insurer to tell them the offer had been turned down. Unless these were done she would have no further contact with them and would contact the ombudsman. Email also contained 4 examples of cars within 100 miles of home that were currently for sale. (At no point had they ever asked for proof as to why we thought the valuation was too low) All but one were more than we paid last year. Also stated that they could come and get the loan car whenever they liked as it seemed to be there biggest tool to put pressure on.
The following morning a new guy from the original engineer report company got in touch agreeing that they seemed to have under valued the car and would look into it. A new offer was sent the next day for for a sum that was the average of the 4 cars in the ads. Offer accepted and cheques on the way, loan car with us for 7 days from their arrival.
Poor wife is really stressed and feels that she's had to really fight for what should have been a straight forward no fault claim. She is considering sending a formal complaint to her insurers.
Thanks all for the support.
The insurers were putting a lot of pressure on my wife to take the offer......Saying the cheques had been issued appears to be untrue. Saying the car was being brought back to our house was untrue. Saying the only way to get a new valuation was to have another independent engineers report done appears to be untrue. Saying they would come and get the loan car immediately appears to be untrue.
Firstly my wife insisted no more phone calls would be taken and everything would be done via email. They really really didn't like this. After an exchange of emails that continued to apply pressure to accept a strongly worded email was sent stating that she did not accept the valuation, that she wouldn't get another report done as she wasn't arguing the fact that the car was a total loss. Stating that they (her insurer) should contact the third party insurer to tell them the offer had been turned down. Unless these were done she would have no further contact with them and would contact the ombudsman. Email also contained 4 examples of cars within 100 miles of home that were currently for sale. (At no point had they ever asked for proof as to why we thought the valuation was too low) All but one were more than we paid last year. Also stated that they could come and get the loan car whenever they liked as it seemed to be there biggest tool to put pressure on.
The following morning a new guy from the original engineer report company got in touch agreeing that they seemed to have under valued the car and would look into it. A new offer was sent the next day for for a sum that was the average of the 4 cars in the ads. Offer accepted and cheques on the way, loan car with us for 7 days from their arrival.
Poor wife is really stressed and feels that she's had to really fight for what should have been a straight forward no fault claim. She is considering sending a formal complaint to her insurers.
Thanks all for the support.
Edited by Hoonabator on Saturday 21st March 07:21
Edited by Hoonabator on Saturday 21st March 07:22
t is coming from the claims handling company I presume. Glad it is sorted now. Hoonabator said:
Well we're getting somewhere.
The insurers were putting a lot of pressure on my wife to take the offer......Saying the cheques had been issued appears to be untrue. Saying the car was being brought back to our house was untrue. Saying the only way to get a new valuation was to have another independent engineers report done appears to be untrue. Saying they would come and get the loan car immediately appears to be untrue.
Firstly my wife insisted no more phone calls would be taken and everything would be done via email. They really really didn't like this. After an exchange of emails that continued to apply pressure to accept a strongly worded email was sent stating that she did not accept the valuation, that she wouldn't get another report done as she wasn't arguing the fact that the car was a total loss. Stating that they (her insurer) should contact the third party insurer to tell them the offer had been turned down. Unless these were done she would have no further contact with them and would contact the ombudsman. Email also contained 4 examples of cars within 100 miles of home that were currently for sale. (At no point had they ever asked for proof as to why we thought the valuation was too low) All but one were more than we paid last year. Also stated that they could come and get the loan car whenever they liked as it seemed to be there biggest tool to put pressure on.
The following morning a new guy from the original engineer report company got in touch agreeing that they seemed to have under valued the car and would look into it. A new offer was sent the next day for for a sum that was the average of the 4 cars in the ads. Offer accepted and cheques on the way, loan car with us for 7 days from their arrival.
Poor wife is really stressed and feels that she's had to really fight for what should have been a straight forward no fault claim. She is considering sending a formal complaint to her insurers.
Thanks all for the support.
Not unusual. I think they rely on you needing to get a replacement car ASAP & will just take whatever is offered.The insurers were putting a lot of pressure on my wife to take the offer......Saying the cheques had been issued appears to be untrue. Saying the car was being brought back to our house was untrue. Saying the only way to get a new valuation was to have another independent engineers report done appears to be untrue. Saying they would come and get the loan car immediately appears to be untrue.
Firstly my wife insisted no more phone calls would be taken and everything would be done via email. They really really didn't like this. After an exchange of emails that continued to apply pressure to accept a strongly worded email was sent stating that she did not accept the valuation, that she wouldn't get another report done as she wasn't arguing the fact that the car was a total loss. Stating that they (her insurer) should contact the third party insurer to tell them the offer had been turned down. Unless these were done she would have no further contact with them and would contact the ombudsman. Email also contained 4 examples of cars within 100 miles of home that were currently for sale. (At no point had they ever asked for proof as to why we thought the valuation was too low) All but one were more than we paid last year. Also stated that they could come and get the loan car whenever they liked as it seemed to be there biggest tool to put pressure on.
The following morning a new guy from the original engineer report company got in touch agreeing that they seemed to have under valued the car and would look into it. A new offer was sent the next day for for a sum that was the average of the 4 cars in the ads. Offer accepted and cheques on the way, loan car with us for 7 days from their arrival.
Poor wife is really stressed and feels that she's had to really fight for what should have been a straight forward no fault claim. She is considering sending a formal complaint to her insurers.
Thanks all for the support.
Edited by Hoonabator on Saturday 21st March 07:21
Edited by Hoonabator on Saturday 21st March 07:22
Went through all this a few years ago with my eldest. Non fault - hit from behind whilst in traffic.
Offer, refuse, offer, refuse,copies of ads sent to show cost of equivalent replacement, we're not offering you any more than we have, refused. Then decided to ignore us. Cue complaint to ombudsman. Sensible offer made & accepted. Took 9 months. Fortunately Bank of Dad had been able to buy a replacement at the start of all this nonsense.
Best part of it was that they contacted us before making the final accepted offer saying that they needed to check a couple of things before making the offer. No doubt in the hope that we'd got rid of the car. When I told them that the car was still in our possession & when would they like to come & have a look they just sent out the cheque.
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