insurance valuation discrepancy in write off

[MrJuice]

Unfortunately my wife scraped her car on a wall. There's damage to the rear left passenger door, read left 1/4 panel and tyre is damaged.

copart want to write off the car. Damage repair valued at about £4500. Car is a 2011 touran with about 95,000 miles. 2.0 TDI with nice spec. It took a long time to find a car with pan roof, leather seats, reverse camera, bluetooth etc

There are not many of these cars for sale. I can see a similar one at £8500 and another at £10000.

Copart want to give a max of £6240. They started at 5500 then went to 5900.

What to do? They say their repair threshold is 30% of value. If repair costs more than 30% of value, they will write the car off.

it will be category S.

[dibblecorse]

Supply as many examples of similar cars you can find as evidence that to get back in the same position will take a little more money, if they still refuse to budge then you will need to raise a complaint via the Insurance Ombudsman.

[anonymous-user]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

We did that, it's still in progress. After collection Insurer's own 'repair team' wanted to write the car off 1 owner from new 6 years old with 17,000 miles on clock. I collected it and took it to an Indi who has managed to get it back under the write off threshold for repair

[InitialDave]

I found Copart were a pain in the arse with this. Have they hit you with the "we want examples with the same registration date code (so within 6 months age band) and +/-5k miles" nonsense yet?

[MustangGT]

I thought Copart was a vehicle auctioneer, do they do insurance as well?

[MrJuice]

speedyguy said:

We did that, it's still in progress. After collection Insurer's own 'repair team' wanted to write the car off 1 owner from new 6 years old with 17,000 miles on clock. I collected it and took it to an Indi who has managed to get it back under the write off threshold for repair

so you disagreed with copart, asked for your car back, took it to an indy, indy said it would cost £x which someone (either copart or insurer?) was happy with and your car is being repaired now? so it won't be written off on the log book?

that would be my ideal scenario

[MrJuice]

InitialDave said:

I found Copart were a pain in the arse with this. Have they hit you with the "we want examples with the same registration date code (so within 6 months age band) and +/-5k miles" nonsense yet?

they have not but I suspect I'd really struggle with that because there are very few of these cars for sale. Not sure if they are all written off given ulez non compliance but mine was pretty solid. I would have sold it if ulez expanded next year, otherwise would have driven it into the ground. It's a good, comfortable car.

[MrJuice]

to compound things, the incident happened 5 days after I renewed my insurance so I stand to lose the rest of the year's premium which was not insignificant

I definitely want them to up the valuation and then based on that agree to repair the car. That then leaves me with a repaired car and insurance in tact. Only loss is excess and increased premiums which is fair enough.

[InitialDave]

MrJuice said:

they have not but I suspect I'd really struggle with that because there are very few of these cars for sale. Not sure if they are all written off given ulez non compliance but mine was pretty solid. I would have sold it if ulez expanded next year, otherwise would have driven it into the ground. It's a good, comfortable car.

Tell me about it, my car in that instance only had maybe 100 even registered that year, and trawling every advertising site I could think of, including expired ads, I only found one single car to meet their metrics.

Ah well, I held out for a week or so, and the final settlement figure they came up with was 50% higher than where they started and, while not "good", was at least acceptable.

Edited by InitialDave on Wednesday 3rd August 19:01

[anonymous-user]

MrJuice said:

speedyguy said:

We did that, it's still in progress. After collection Insurer's own 'repair team' wanted to write the car off 1 owner from new 6 years old with 17,000 miles on clock. I collected it and took it to an Indi who has managed to get it back under the write off threshold for repair

so you disagreed with copart, asked for your car back, took it to an indy, indy said it would cost £x which someone (either copart or insurer?) was happy with and your car is being repaired now? so it won't be written off on the log book?

that would be my ideal scenario

The insurance company asked us to get a 2nd repair quote within 5 days or it would be written off.

I collected it from 'sapphire' and took it to an Indy i was recommended, they reworked another quote to bring it within repairable tolerance.

If i wasn't being cynical it seemed like someone was after a pretty immaculate car to do up at their leisure.

I'm not sure if it will be written off on the logbook as a CAT N as it is now being repaired.

[sutoka]

MustangGT said:

I thought Copart was a vehicle auctioneer, do they do insurance as well?

Knowing Copart they probably remove the engine and interior and then value the shell

[littleredrooster]

MrJuice said:

...so it won't be written off on the log book?

that would be my ideal scenario

There's nothing on the log book to record a write-off. I've had several Cat cars over the years, the only record of a total-loss payment is on the insurer's database as far as I know.

[GreatGranny]

MustangGT said:

I thought Copart was a vehicle auctioneer, do they do insurance as well?

Cynical me would suggest they undervalue the car so they can sell it on for a bigger profit.

Also writing off when repair cost is more than 30% of value is really low (unless I've read that wrong).

I've had 2 cars written off and both times the threashold was 60%.

Keep pushing back OP.
Get an independent quote for repair also just in case you choose to buy back and repair yourself.

[MrJuice]

I did query the 30% because I always understood the threshold to be 60 or 66% but the dude was adament. I think he was wrong

My first preference is to get them to up the valuation such that repair is within 60% of value and get them to repair it. Will be speaking to someone today.

Who best to speak with? aviva or copart?

I suspect aviva sub contract this so that they don't have to take such calls

[GreatGranny]

MrJuice said:

I did query the 30% because I always understood the threshold to be 60 or 66% but the dude was adament. I think he was wrong

My first preference is to get them to up the valuation such that repair is within 60% of value and get them to repair it. Will be speaking to someone today.

Who best to speak with? aviva or copart?

I suspect aviva sub contract this so that they don't have to take such calls

I would contact Aviva initially and see what they say.

[AndyNetwork]

MrJuice said:

I did query the 30% because I always understood the threshold to be 60 or 66% but the dude was adament. I think he was wrong

My first preference is to get them to up the valuation such that repair is within 60% of value and get them to repair it. Will be speaking to someone today.

Who best to speak with? aviva or copart?

I suspect aviva sub contract this so that they don't have to take such calls

As soon as I read your first post I had a feeling Aviva would be involved somewhere along the line.

I'm having a hell of a job getting them to repair my car after a minor supermarket bump at the end of June- my fault, and minor paint damage, with a headlight washer that no longer works.

Long Story short, they won't cover the repair for the remainder of the manufacturers bodywork warranty, so I want it repaired at a manufacturer approved bodyshop. Their nearest Skoda (not exactly rare!) bodyshop is out of the area, and as a result they won't provide a curtesy car, and Aviva won't hire me one given I pay extra on my policy for a hire car. (There are already 2 complaints running with their complaints team about this claim)

Seems to me, they don't actually want to repair any cars, and just want to inconvenience their customers.

[MrJuice]

Well copart are a bunch of tts. Surprise surprise

I spoke with Aviva and they said copart engineer has written "unable to find internet valuation". So he decided the car was worth a maximum of £6270 (final offer). No idea what this was based on. Aviva said that copart have not finalised their offer. Aviva advised I call copart and send them adverts for cars with similar age, spec and mileage. Copart tell me they don't take emails from customers any more. Aviva have now assigned the assessment to one of their engineers and asked me to send adverts to them. I have to wait 3-5 working days for the outcome of their assessment. I've stressed that I want the car repaired, not written off and adverts show that a repair would be 50% or less of true sales value of a car.

Copart have said the repair would cost £4265. Rear passenger tyre also needs replacing. Realistic?

[OutInTheShed]

AndyNetwork said:

As soon as I read your first post I had a feeling Aviva would be involved somewhere along the line.

I'm having a hell of a job getting them to repair my car after a minor supermarket bump at the end of June- my fault, and minor paint damage, with a headlight washer that no longer works.

Long Story short, they won't cover the repair for the remainder of the manufacturers bodywork warranty, so I want it repaired at a manufacturer approved bodyshop. Their nearest Skoda (not exactly rare!) bodyshop is out of the area, and as a result they won't provide a curtesy car, and Aviva won't hire me one given I pay extra on my policy for a hire car. (There are already 2 complaints running with their complaints team about this claim)

Seems to me, they don't actually want to repair any cars, and just want to inconvenience their customers.

Why don't you just make your own arrangements for alternative transport if you're picky about the repair?
How much extra do you directly pay for a hire car in the event of a knock?

[InitialDave]

MrJuice said:

Copart tell me they don't take emails from customers any more.

They did 3 months ago.

[poo at Paul's]

If I were you, I’d ask co part to deliver the car back to you, pay for the salvage based on however saying it’s worth naff all, and have it fixed at a local bodyshop. If that’s the sun total of the damage, it’s about 800 quid to fix it, imo. 4 grand is utter bks! It looks like bottom of rear door and sill, yes?