[windowswashed]

I had a new vehicle wrote off within 12hours of ownership, Insurance company tried to rip me off, refused their first and second offers but excepted their third offer with all incurred costs like storage, ferries, hotel accommodation and other inconveniences were accepted and also bought the vehicle back from them  after getting my claim for an agreed price after haggling with them.

[AuRavelling79]

I had a new vehicle wrote off within 12hours of ownership, Insurance company tried to rip me off, refused their first and second offers but excepted their third offer with all incurred costs like storage, ferries, hotel accommodation and other inconveniences were accepted and also bought the vehicle back from them  after getting my claim for an agreed price after haggling with them.

Tell me more!

When you bought the vehicle back what did you do with it?

How much better was offer two and three over offer one and how did you support your request for a better offer please?

[High-Tower]

Thanks for this.

How did you get the needed repairs done? Was it damaged beyond bodywork?

It was just body work in my case, drivers door and lower half of the side panel, both would have been replaced with new by the insurer. A good body shop had them sorted without replacement.

[windowswashed]

I had a new vehicle wrote off within 12hours of ownership, Insurance company tried to rip me off, refused their first and second offers but excepted their third offer with all incurred costs like storage, ferries, hotel accommodation and other inconveniences were accepted and also bought the vehicle back from them  after getting my claim for an agreed price after haggling with them.

Tell me more!

When you bought the vehicle back what did you do with it?

How much better was offer two and three over offer one and how did you support your request for a better offer please?

My vehicle was in a 29 vehicle pile up on the Motorway after just getting into Dover from France . It was thick fog but I managed to stop without hitting the vehicle in front by  squeezing alongside the vehicle in front and the crash barrier but the other 28 vehicles all ploughed into the back of mine and ended up squeezing my car down to half it's size. It got towed away to a storage place outside London on a Saturday afternoon and incurred expensive storage charges. I was on my way to London to go on a university course. Ended up going back to France to pick up another vehicle I had to run around in for Uni. Nightmare trying to get everything sorted with insurance whilst tryin g to study .
Insurance company tried to offer a very low compensation which I declined, second offer was much better but didn't include all the extra costs I incurred. Emailed all my extra charges and manged to get full refund of vehicle plus all expenses I claimed for with threatening them with a solicitor  to get my full entitlement. Lot of paperwork involved and countless hours chasing it but got there in the end. Failure can't live with persistency.

I bought the vehicle back at a stupid low price, stripped and sold a lot of parts and scrapped the rest.

[AuRavelling79]

Update. After missed phone calls each way from the Wednesday and Thursday after the accident I finally got back to the insurer's engineering department AFTER receiving a voicemail telling me that the van was  being valued at £5250 and repairs being £6500. AND payment being sent!

I finally got through and told them I wasn't impressed/they were having a laugh etc. and told them I had looked at vans on line, and that Parker's valued it at £7295. (70,000 miles in good nick)

There was bluster on both sides but at the end of last Friday his offer was £6250.

I said no and looking in Autotrader I could see similar vans (age and mileage fairly close) in the £6000/£8000 range. A couple of outliers were north of 10k and as low as 5k.

To be continued...

[Ched]

What does we buy any van value it at?
Keep pushing them though.
As it's the other insurance company paying out, in my opinion they should be paying loss of earnings plus your extra time to sort the claim out.
Are you interesting in buying it back as that might influence things.

[AuRavelling79]

What does we buy any van value it at?
Keep pushing them though.
As it's the other insurance company paying out, in my opinion they should be paying loss of earnings plus your extra time to sort the claim out.
Are you interesting in buying it back as that might influence things.

Yes I'm putting uninsured losses together and am buying the van back with the intention to repair and use. I'll detail the deal on the van side of things in this thread over the weekend.

[Splash & dash]

What does we buy any van value it at?
Keep pushing them though.
As it's the other insurance company paying out, in my opinion they should be paying loss of earnings plus your extra time to sort the claim out.
Are you interesting in buying it back as that might influence things.

Yes I'm putting uninsured losses together and am buying the van back with the intention to repair and use. I'll detail the deal on the van side of things in this thread over the weekend.

Bare in mind insuring a written off  vehicle will be more expensive and if you sell it it will be worth considerably less as it will be a cat  whatever on the log book

[AuRavelling79]

So on Thursday they raised their offer to £7,000. I quoted the £7295 I from Parker's and stuck to it. The guy countered with his view that Glass's and some other one I can't recall valued it at less so they would offer £7,000. I countered with examples in Autotrader that were similar and higher.

We settled on £7295.00

Then he said the salvage would be Cat-S and £1,600 if I wanted it and at the end of the repairs it would need to pass an MOT before it could be reinsured.

I was quite humorous (I thought) and said I needed a strong cup of tea and a lie down to consider it and its implications vis a vis notifying DVLA, arranging to have it delivered back and possible future higher insurance premiums.

On the Friday we settled on the following (not including a few hundred quid's uninsured losses which are a separate issue with a different department.)

£7295 agreed.

I buy back for £1400, not £1600 - van delivered back F-O-C. early next week.

AND (I didn't ask for this) - if within 30 days I decide I've bitten off more than I can chew in repairing etc. they will let me reconsider and get my £1400 back less my cost of delivering it to their chosen local (to me) breakers.

So although it has been a bit long and tortuous I'm okay with this.

The hire van goes back Monday as the insurer has written off the vehicle and given me an interim payment (£5250) already so it is deemed I have resources to buy another van or hire something myself.

Now I shall attend to uninsured losses ...

[Ched]

Well done for negotiating a better deal. I do hate it that when claiming from a 3rd parties insurance company your own company will try and keep the payout as low as they can! It shouldn't work that way - you should not be out of pocket at all or inconvenienced by an accident that's not your fault!
Hopefully you can get it back on the road for a good price.

I'm not sure future premiums will be higher due to it being a cat S (probably will be higher due to claim). Obviously it's value will be lower but why should a cat vehicle be more of a risk to other vehicles? I can't remember an insurance quote form asking if a vehicle was a cat one but I could be wrong there. 

Good luck and thanks for the update.

[Smudger]

The reason they offer low is there is an “agreement” between all insurance companies to keep their costs/claims as low as poss within the trade

If it’s registered as cat “whatever” does this not automatically flag up?

Darran

[Stoots]

Ive had cat d and cat s vans before.

Insurance dont check when you take out a policy on them but if you had an accident your insurance obvioulsly wouldnt pay up.

Ive risked all sorts with insurance in my younger years, undeclared mods to ourtright lies like parked on a driveway when its not.

Touch wood ive never needed to claim

More sensible these days and proud to say my current policy is truthfull and valid. 

[Splash & dash]

The reason they offer low is there is an “agreement” between all insurance companies to keep their costs/claims as low as poss within the trade

If it’s registered as cat “whatever” does this not automatically flag up?

Darran

The simple answer is yes it should have a flag against it that it’s been declared as a total loss , if you sell a vehicle in this category. You have to declare it as such quite often on auto trader you will see vehicles advertise as cat s d or what ever , but once again it’s your responsibility to declare that it’s a cat xx when insuring it .