Insurance Question

[vex]

One for Insurance Jon, maybe, but open to anyone. Especially if you have similar experience.

Just over 2 months ago, Sharon (my pregant wife) was hit from behind by a 4x4 in her y plate 206CC.

She and baby were fine, but the car took a heavy inpact on the rear, right by the boot lid, pushing it into the rear c pillar of the folding roof. My instant concern was the cost of the repair to the roof and mechanics on a car worth about £6-7K.

When the insurers repair agent got hold of it, they valued the repair at £3500 which obviously ment it was not a write off. I was a little supprised, but I bowed to their knowledge.

Now, 2 months later the repairer has made two attempts to return the car, first time it stayed with us for 3 hours before we returned it. The second time, we kept the car for a week but sent it back because the although the roof actually worked the failure alarm triggers at any speed above 5mph and the central locking is intermitant.

The repair agent has sent it to thier local Peugeot dealer who said they can find nothing wrong with it, but the repair agent did get it to fail. It seems as thought there was a bit of a stand off between Peugeot and the repairer as to who pays for the work. When Sharon spoke with our insurer they have now approved any additional repair costs, allowing Peugeot to get on with investigation / repair work.

Sharon says she just wants it back working properly, which I agree with, but my biggest concern is that we need to sell it and when anyone asks if it has been involved in an accident and we admit 'yes on the rear' we will instantly get a lower trade in value.

The initial repair has cost £3500. If peugeot do more work and want to replace roof parts then we could very quickly get above the write off (un-economical to repair) cost of the car. Whilst we end up with a working car, if the repair agent had valued the repair properly it would have been writen off. Better for us, Better for the insurer, worse for the repairer.

Where do we stand, if the total value of the car repair is more than the write off value and even possibly the value of the actual car can we reject it completely and ask for the money form the insurer.

Any advice, personal experiences would be very welcome.

I am also tempted to ring the Peugeot dealer, because I doubt they have been told the nature of the accident and impact on the roof.

Thanks in advance

Chris

[insurance_jon]

Firstly you need to get onto whoever is doing your uninsured loss claim, and ask them to add deprectiation into the list of expenses, or at least take their advice. You should be able to claim for loss of value due to the accident when it is a repair of that size.

then if things aren't moving fast enough keep hasling your insurance claims dept, as they are holding the cheque book and have the obligation to put you in the same position before you were in the accident.