Car value after accident

[aspen]

Hi all,

My DC2 was driven into whilst parked in the street. The woman who did it, admitted fault and the car was repaired by the insurance company. The repairs cost just over £3k and then the hire car went on top of that.

I'm in the process of selling the car now and looking at similar milage cars, I probably could have sold it for £1000 more if this incident hadn't happened. I have also had to continue insuring the car whilst it was being repaired and whilst I've been trying to sell it.

Do I have any comeback against the insurance company? If they had written the car off I would have been better off. I don't know why they didn't considering that I'm selling the car for less than they paid to repair it.

It seems very unfair that the value of the car is significantly reduced and my premiums are higher because someone drove into my car whilst it was parked on the street. Can I do anything about it or do I have to take it on the chin?

[rfn]

If the car hasn't been written off, why would it be worth less than it was before the accident?

[mike325112]

Was the car written off? If it wasn't and has been repaied properly, why would you have to declare it? If it was why not written off why have accept it back?

[touching cloth]

Insurance repaired cars shouldn't have value impacted unless the repair is bad, if it's bad and therefore noticable to buyers then send it back to be redone. Insuring your car during repair is a given really, but they presumably gave you a courtesy car during the repair which was insured by them so your position was really little different. As for insuring your car whilst selling it, I don't see what that has to do with the crash.

[aspen]

mike325112 said:

Was the car written off? If it wasn't and has been repaied properly, why would you have to declare it? If it was why not written off why have accept it back?

The car wasn't written off. All the questions I have had about the car have been about the damage and the repairs and then people seem to lose interest when I tell them how much work was done. Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned it in the ad. Maybe I'm too honest!

[aspen]

touching cloth said:

Insurance repaired cars shouldn't have value impacted unless the repair is bad, if it's bad and therefore noticable to buyers then send it back to be redone. Insuring your car during repair is a given really, but they presumably gave you a courtesy car during the repair which was insured by them so your position was really little different. As for insuring your car whilst selling it, I don't see what that has to do with the crash.

They had the car for 2 months whilst they repaired it, I would have sold it long before now if it hadn't happened.

Looks like I just made the mistake of being honest about the car in the ad.

[touching cloth]

aspen said:

They had the car for 2 months whilst they repaired it, I would have sold it long before now if it hadn't happened.

Looks like I just made the mistake of being honest about the car in the ad.

Ah I see, just bad luck on timing I think that part - it would be very hard to quantify the loss as you couldn't prove it would have sold on a certain date etc etc. There would also likely be an assumption that you'd be replacing the car, ergo pay longer for insurance on that one but pay later on the next car so tends to balance (although appreciate you may not be replacing it).

With regards to mentioning insurance repairs I don't think many people would expect it. Rebuilt write off's are a different matter and for the sake of clarity should be mentioned in ads IMO, insurance repairs no need. A high percentage of cars will have had some sort of insurance repair in their time, some very minor some larger but where do you draw the line of what to mention and what not. Insurance repairs are in theory a like for like repair using new parts, no value adjustment and hence no need to really mention it. If asked directly however then should be honest about it.