Can they write my car off?
Discussion
My old but useful and reliable Honda Accord Tourer had a minor bump on Friday when someone reversed into it, damaging the bumper, bonnet, grille and crash bar. It's still drivable and i zip-tied the bumper back together for the time being.
I offered to source and fit a replacement used bumper, grille and crash bar and not worry about the dented bonnet, but the other party wants to claim on her insurance rather than buy the bits for me.
The car was worth about £1500, and the parts to repair it will be about £300. I assume if the insurance company is involved it will be quoting bodyshop and new panels and spraying prices, which will be way more than the car is worth. But if I don't want it written off, can they insist? I haven't got a contract with them and would rather they just paid for the used parts. Waiting to hear from them, but I like to be forearmed
I offered to source and fit a replacement used bumper, grille and crash bar and not worry about the dented bonnet, but the other party wants to claim on her insurance rather than buy the bits for me.
The car was worth about £1500, and the parts to repair it will be about £300. I assume if the insurance company is involved it will be quoting bodyshop and new panels and spraying prices, which will be way more than the car is worth. But if I don't want it written off, can they insist? I haven't got a contract with them and would rather they just paid for the used parts. Waiting to hear from them, but I like to be forearmed
Dr Interceptor said:
You can either ask for cash in lieu of repair which would save it from being written off, or let them write off, take the money and buy the salvage back and then repair yourself.
Either of those options is fine with me, as I don't mind doing the repairs and it will save me a load of hassle trying to source a replacement. I plan to run it until it dies, so if it does get a Cat D or Cat N it doesn't really matter.ITP said:
Would the OP have the right to buy it once written off?
I guess not , if the insurance company pays out it’s theirs to do what they want with it?
It's fairly standard practice to ask for the car as part of the settlement - I've done it twice over the years without any argument. It needs to be done BEFORE they take it away and send payment though, as noted above.I guess not , if the insurance company pays out it’s theirs to do what they want with it?
ITP said:
Would the OP have the right to buy it once written off?
I guess not , if the insurance company pays out it’s theirs to do what they want with it?
Thats one of the things I'm worried about, not all insurance companies allow you to buy the car back. But as I have no contract with the other party's insurer I don't see how they could insist i comply with their T&Cs (if they do have a "no buy back" clause in the T&Cs)I guess not , if the insurance company pays out it’s theirs to do what they want with it?
boyse7en said:
No, it still works perfectly fine, it's just bruised.
Exactly. What you want is a cash payout instead of vehicle repair or write-off, then you can make your own decisions.I believe the insurance company will only sidestep writing-off and/or sell the car back to you if the category would be C,D, N or S. I think they refuse to do this with serious wrecks in order to suppress fraud. (i.e. use of your car's details on a stolen vehicle).
Somebody drove onto a roundabout in late 2022 and hit me causing this damage.
The insurance company wrote it off, a new headlight for instance was £1200. I bought it back, bought a second-hand unit for £240 took it to my local repairer and ended up £2300 in profit but now with a Cat N car, which I don't care about as the car is 13 years old and has done 155,000 miles.
It is still running great and has taken me around Europe a couple of times since.
Your insurance company should sell it to you for its scrap worth and will knock this sum off the money they pay you, which is what they did with mine.
The insurance company wrote it off, a new headlight for instance was £1200. I bought it back, bought a second-hand unit for £240 took it to my local repairer and ended up £2300 in profit but now with a Cat N car, which I don't care about as the car is 13 years old and has done 155,000 miles.
It is still running great and has taken me around Europe a couple of times since.
Your insurance company should sell it to you for its scrap worth and will knock this sum off the money they pay you, which is what they did with mine.
I'm a little concerned by some posters using the phrase 'Bought it back'. I'll reiterate that the time to sort this out is at the price negotiation stage, not after a final price has been agreed, which is what that phrase may suggest. It needs to be signalled at the earliest opportunity that the salvage is requested as part of the settlement to avoid any ambiguity.
The car remains the property of the owner until the ins co pays for it, at which point the ins co have probably already arranged a price from their disposal contractors so may well refuse any offers to 'buy it back'.
And, as a vague aquaintance of mine found out, it is much too late to buy it back after the V5 and keys have been sent.
The car remains the property of the owner until the ins co pays for it, at which point the ins co have probably already arranged a price from their disposal contractors so may well refuse any offers to 'buy it back'.
And, as a vague aquaintance of mine found out, it is much too late to buy it back after the V5 and keys have been sent.
Ussrcossack said:
Whatever you do don't let someone come and take it away. until you are happy with the settlement
This.There have been more than a few instances of copart having sold the car before the owner has agreed the settlement, e.g:
https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=33...
If they need to assess it they can send someone out.
Talk direct to the third party insurers, tell them you want to retain the salvage. They will likely pay out on the car, minus the salvage value. The car will have a write off marker on it, but who cares.
I did this with a mondeo where I was involved in a non fault accident a few years back. Just don’t let them take the car away for “assessment” - although that almost never happens these days as it’s all done through pictures for lower value cars.
I did this with a mondeo where I was involved in a non fault accident a few years back. Just don’t let them take the car away for “assessment” - although that almost never happens these days as it’s all done through pictures for lower value cars.
Someone went into the back of my 2005 330i last year at a set of traffic lights.
It only needed a new bumper cover which cost £650 from BMW in primer. The other driver had suggested a cash settlement until I told him that. His insurer recommended a few repairers so I took it to one of them and they somehow managed to pad out their estimate to over £2K.
The other insurer classified it as Cat N a couple of weeks before they bothered to tell me, but I had just carried on using it!
I couldn't get a decent valuation out of them, but agreed a number in the end and they deducted 22% for me to keep the car - presumably the percentage they would have got from Copart or whoever.
I ended up receiving 50% of what I had paid for it 4 years before so it only owes me shed money, and even as a Cat N WBAC still value it around £800. Not that I plan on selling it because it works perfectly.
The bumper had a couple of scuffs and minor cracks like this.
It only needed a new bumper cover which cost £650 from BMW in primer. The other driver had suggested a cash settlement until I told him that. His insurer recommended a few repairers so I took it to one of them and they somehow managed to pad out their estimate to over £2K.
The other insurer classified it as Cat N a couple of weeks before they bothered to tell me, but I had just carried on using it!
I couldn't get a decent valuation out of them, but agreed a number in the end and they deducted 22% for me to keep the car - presumably the percentage they would have got from Copart or whoever.
I ended up receiving 50% of what I had paid for it 4 years before so it only owes me shed money, and even as a Cat N WBAC still value it around £800. Not that I plan on selling it because it works perfectly.
The bumper had a couple of scuffs and minor cracks like this.
charltjr said:
Talk direct to the third party insurers, tell them you want to retain the salvage. They will likely pay out on the car, minus the salvage value. The car will have a write off marker on it, but who cares.
I did this with a mondeo where I was involved in a non fault accident a few years back. Just don’t let them take the car away for “assessment” - although that almost never happens these days as it’s all done through pictures for lower value cars.
Yeah, they have requested pictures of the damage, so we sent those off yesterday morning. Waiting to hear back.I did this with a mondeo where I was involved in a non fault accident a few years back. Just don’t let them take the car away for “assessment” - although that almost never happens these days as it’s all done through pictures for lower value cars.
Ideal scenario would be for them to write the car off and give me some money, then I'll try and source a second-hand bumper and grill for a few hundred quid and fit it myself.
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