UKC

I have a question regarding my rights when a car I own has been involved in a prang.

The guilty party's insurance have admitted full responsibility and have taken car away and provided hire car.

My car has a dented boot lid that will not open.

Body shop has been keeping me informed of events and just told me that the boot pan and some rods are bent (as well as the boot lid) and the total repair will now be £3600 and he is awaiting approval from insurer to proceed.

What are my options if the insurer decides it's uneconomical to repair (car worth approx £4k)? but I would like the car back and repaired?

Are their any pitfalls that I should be aware of, and do I have any rights to insist that it should be repaired?

Thx in advance

In reply to Game of Conkers:
I'm no expert in this but I think it will become a Category D write-off.

In reply to Game of Conkers:

My mother in law had what sounds like a similar accident happen 4 months ago. she insisted the car was repairable and got 2-3 other quotes and they finally repaired her car and it is still on the road legally and all that!

so in short, get other quotes, you shouldn't have let them take the car, you can insist they return it. oh and talk to your insurance company and keep them in the loop.

In reply to Game of Conkers:

Another option would be to let them write it off, and take the insurance money. You can then buy he car back off the insurance company and get the repair done yourself. You of course have to be confident that you can get the repair done cheap enough for it to be worthwhile.

In reply to DaveR:

I did this. My car was written off on bodywork plus easily fixable suspension damage. Took the insurance money, bought the car back very cheaply, knowing that a local guy could fix it leaving me a nice profit.

In reply to Dave Garnett:

ok, good advice guys...can I negotiate the pay out and the purchase price to buy car back or are they pretty rigid ?

In reply to Game of Conkers:

You can always negotiate the pay out. I would start looking around on things like auto trader for similar cars and save any advert you find. As if you want to negotiate you'll need proof that your car is worth more than they say. Not so sure about the price of buy the car but don't see why not, no harm in trying.

In reply to Dave Garnett:

Don't you have to be careful with future insurance if the car insured has previously been written off?

In reply to Philip:

I didn't any problem insuring again with the same company from whom I'd I'd just claimed.

There wasn't any question that the car was repairable pretty much as good as new. The issue is that, because the insurers are tied into expensive approved dealers (and, probably, some car hire scam) the cost to thme would be more than the write-off value of the car. If you're happy to have a local guy fix it cheaper, then do so.

I'm not sure I'd do it with an expensive newish car because of the warranty/ resale value considerations. But this was a perfectly serviceable but oldish car that I bought second-hand anyway.

In reply to Philip:

payouts on future accidents can be MUCH lower if you're insuring a previously CAT-D vehicle.
also premiums MAY be higher but not necessarily.

Also if you've got a hire car you're in a better position to negotiate payouts etc as every day they argue with you (up to the point where it's judged you're obstructing the case) the 3rd party's insurance company are paying out a daily rate for the car.

Be aware if you take the payout they'll probably give you a MAXIMUM of 7 days before collcting the hire car from receiving the cheque (and it will be a cheque so you've then got a delay while it's cashed) and potentially start that time from either when they post it or when they confirm they'll send it. So keep your eye out for deals or be prepared to bus to work.

When arguing the payout they will likely be using an independent company to get a price they think it's worth and it may be really low. If they're ****s they'll say you can only argue the case by getting another quote from another company which they'll then consider, but you'll be charged by the new company for getting a quote and it might be worse. What you need to do is argue that you haven't got 6 months to hunt around for a car and they need to pay an amount that will allow you to get a new car at a reasonable cost to buy NOW. They'll tend to cave. Obviously back this up with a number of examples from dealers and ebay (they're meant to pay dealer amounts in theory) and note all differences between your car and the advertised ones (mileage, year etc) and argue a fair price based on your findings (no point putting the highest you find as they'll ignore it).

If you wish to simply argue that it's not an uneconomical repair I think you'd have to find a quote from a different official dealership (can't think of the word...basically if you're driving a ford you need a ford service centre quote etc) so you'll probably find that the cost is a bit higher than you'd expect and there's not a lot you can do.