No fault accident - Can I insist on repair not write off?

[bass2rez]

I had an accident where the third party has admitted liability. The cost of repairs is likely to come to a similar amount as the cost of the car (around £6k). Can I insist the car is repaired and not written off?

Thanks,
Steve

[catman]

No. There's a common belief that just because you weren't at fault, you can force the Insurer to repair it, whatever the cost.

Generally, the write off point is around two thirds of the car's value. This isn't a fixed sum, but if you add in car hire costs, then it's often easier for them to write it off than to repair it.

Tim

[MDMA .]

No. But what you can do is ask to buy it back from the insurance company and fix it yourself.

[DaveH23]

Can you prove the car is worth more?

I paid £7000 for my car and had an at fault claim where the repairs were valued at £4,500 so they wanted to write it off.

I printed off every single advert on AT and PH and fortunately not a sigle one of them had as low miles as mine and the cheapest one was £9000.

I sent these back and they agreed to repair.

During the repair there was unforseen costs so the final bill came in at well over £7000 which is more than I actually paid for the car.

[bass2rez]

Thanks for the replies.

The car is a 2008 Ford Mondeo Titanium X 2.3 petrol automatic. I'm struggling to find an equivalent car for less than £6000, and even then, there are only one or two in the country at that price. I want a fully specced car, hence the car is a Titanium X, and I cannot stand and will never own a diesel car, so petrol it has to be. The car is primarily the other half's, so has to be an automatic. This is the reason I do not want the car to be a write off, the spec of car I want can be quite hard to find.

Cheers,
Steve

[sim72]

bass2rez said:

Thanks for the replies.

The car is a 2008 Ford Mondeo Titanium X 2.3 petrol automatic. I'm struggling to find an equivalent car for less than £6000, and even then, there are only one or two in the country at that price. I want a fully specced car, hence the car is a Titanium X, and I cannot stand and will never own a diesel car, so petrol it has to be. The car is primarily the other half's, so has to be an automatic. This is the reason I do not want the car to be a write off, the spec of car I want can be quite hard to find.

Cheers,
Steve

There's an 09 plate X 2.3 Auto with only 41K on Autotrader at the moment for 6K. I suspect an average mileage 08 plate will be at least 1,000-1,500 less than that.

[speedking31]

I was offered the use of 'green' parts when my repair was close to the write off value. That could reduce the claim to the right side of write off value for you, if available.

[Dixy]

catman said:

No. There's a common belief that just because you weren't at fault, you can force the Insurer to repair it, whatever the cost.

Tim

Why?
The law states that you have to be put back in the same position as you were before the accident. I have 2 cars I have had from new, both are over 10 years old and are part of the family. Just because someone else is negligent I should not be worse off. The insurance industry maintain this myth that they have the last say. Hardly surprising a whole industry has sprung up to proove them wrong and cost us all a fortune in lawyers fees.

[Zetec-S]

Dixy said:

catman said:

No. There's a common belief that just because you weren't at fault, you can force the Insurer to repair it, whatever the cost.

Tim

Why?
The law states that you have to be put back in the same position as you were before the accident. I have 2 cars I have had from new, both are over 10 years old and are part of the family. Just because someone else is negligent I should not be worse off. The insurance industry maintain this myth that they have the last say. Hardly surprising a whole industry has sprung up to proove them wrong and cost us all a fortune in lawyers fees.

Which is what (most) insurance companies offer. If a car worth £6k has an estimated repair cost of £6k, why would the insurance company chose to repair? Any unforeseen problems will add to the bill, plus the delay will probably result in additional courtesy car charges, so the £6k repair could quickly escalate. Makes far more sense to w/off and offer the owner £6k so they can go out and buy a like for like replacement. (Or they can buy back and repair themself)

[Aretnap]

Dixy said:

Why?
The law states that you have to be put back in the same position as you were before the accident.

The same financial position. Not the same material position.

Strictly speaking the third party insurer is never under an obligation to repair your car at all. The remedy you're entitled to for damage to property is a purely financial one - the diminution in value that your property has suffered. So legally the insurer has to pay you the difference between what your car would have sold for five minutes before the accident, and what it would sell for five minutes after the accident (plus incidental costs, such as a hire car for a reasonable period). By definition this can't be more than the pre-accident value of the car. Strictly speaking the cost of repair is only relevant because, where it's less than the car's value it's a reasonable measure of the car's diminution in value.

This is hardly some dubious interpretation of the law on the part of the insurers - it's been settled since Darbishire v Warren (1963) that you have no right to insist that a third party (or his insurer) repair your car rather than pay its value.

If the OP's keen to keep the car and thinks he can get it repaired for less than the write-off value, or something close to it, then his best option is probably to allow the insurer to deduct the scrap value from the settlement figure, keep it and spend the money on repairs. The risk of course is that the repairs will end up costing more than he first thought - which is why insurers tend to write off cars when the repair estimate is somewhat lower than the market value; it's not worth the risk of starting work, then seeing the costs going up and up.

Separately he can argue about the valuation

[TooMany2cvs]

Am I the only one gobsmacked at a decade-old Mondildo being worth six grand?

[TwistingMyMelon]

Why would you want it repaired? Its easy to repair a car after an accident , but difficult to do well, hats of to bodyshops on modern cars, they are so bloody complex

Even paint it hard to match, if the car is silver..forget it unless you blend the whole side of car

Too many cars Ive seen that have been repaired to an OK standard, but not great and I dont even blame the repair place as they are under pressure to repair it quickly and it isn't straightforward

I'd much rather the car was written off and given a fair price

[Hugo a Gogo]

what insurance co.s do here in Germany in this situation is work out a pre-accident value, take a load of pics as it is now, put them on a specialist salvage auction, whatever the top bid is is the current value

they pay you the difference, you can take that top bid and sell the car if you want, or keep the car and fix it yourself

I got 1800 euro (i think) for a bent wing and door on my old Focus, within 9 days of the accident
wing off ebay for 100 euro, bolted it on, job done

[funkyrobot]

bass2rez said:

I had an accident where the third party has admitted liability. The cost of repairs is likely to come to a similar amount as the cost of the car (around £6k). Can I insist the car is repaired and not written off?

Thanks,
Steve

When did you buy your Mondeo?

You are aware that most insurance policies are based on market value? If the car cost £6k a year or so ago, it won't be worth £6k now.

[funkyrobot]

TooMany2cvs said:

Am I the only one gobsmacked at a decade-old Mondildo being worth six grand?

We don't know if it is worth that. OP needs to let us know when he bought the car for £6k.

As posted above, there is an 09 plate on AT for £6k. An 08 is probably worth a bit less.

[OverSteery]

TooMany2cvs said:

Am I the only one gobsmacked at a decade-old Mondildo being worth six grand?

because "Titanium X"

[TooMany2cvs]

OverSteery said:

TooMany2cvs said:

Am I the only one gobsmacked at a decade-old Mondildo being worth six grand?

because "Titanium X"

Is that the one with all the Ghia? No idea.

[TooMany2cvs]

funkyrobot said:

bass2rez said:

I had an accident where the third party has admitted liability. The cost of repairs is likely to come to a similar amount as the cost of the car (around £6k). Can I insist the car is repaired and not written off?

When did you buy your Mondeo?

You are aware that most insurance policies are based on market value? If the car cost £6k a year or so ago, it won't be worth £6k now.

I was assuming that "the cost of the car" was referring to the current value, rather than the purchase price some undefined period ago.

[Gavia]

TooMany2cvs said:

Am I the only one gobsmacked at a decade-old Mondildo being worth six grand?

I'm confused by the pricing of these on Autotrader, there are a few around the £7000 mark for a 2010 model, a 2008 model like the OP's for £3500 ( that's a Cat D though) and then the 2007 models are £1500.

I'd take the £6000 on offer and be happy.

[Sheepshanks]

catman said:

Generally, the write off point is around two thirds of the car's value. This isn't a fixed sum, but if you add in car hire costs, then it's often easier for them to write it off than to repair it.

Yet oddly, when a Colt, belonging to the daughter of some friends of ours was heavily T-boned, the other party's insurer insisted on fixing it. It was as if they did it out of spite, as our friends wanted it written off.