Mrs WRX

Last month I had paintstripper poured all over my car. It was all going through the insurance and yesterday I had an independent inspector come round and assess the damage. Last night I got a phone call from Universal Salvage saying that they are coming to collect the car to put it into storage. Told them to sod off and they are not having the car.

Phoned the insurance company this morning and they have not had the report back from the inspector yet but they are going to write the car off. Which is odd as the inspector said that if the damage was on more panels they would have wrote it off. I did ask the insurance company if we could buy it back and they said yes but it was a very lengthy process.

Has anybody else ever bought back a car from the insurance? Was it a lengthy process? Do they write the cheque out to me or the HP company? Do they take the car away? Do they have to inspect the car?

Sorry for the all the questions but we would like to buy the car back and get the damage repaired. I know that it will put my insurance up but I dont want to lose the car. Any help would be appreciated as we still have 2 years of HP payments to go and we are abit worried that we are going to end up with a crappy amount, no car and still owe on the HP.

The car is OK mechanically, it is only the paint so we dont want them to take it away as we are still using it.

Classic

If it it just the paint why are they writing it off thats a waste of a car

I would suggest you hide the car to stop them taking it away

Mrs WRX

I am not sure why they are writing it off either, I think it is because it is a P reg and the damage was all over the bonnet, boot and roof. I think we are looking at £2000 for the garage to get repaired.

Car is hidden and I will not hand it over until I get the cheque in my hand or they agree to pay for the repairs. Bit of a cheek trying to take it away when they havent even had the independent inspectors report yet. (Their inspector, not mine). The way I look at it, the car remains mine until I get the cheque.

billythekid

Write off value is often 50% of the value so if, for example the car is worth 5k then they will write it off at £2500.

FWIW you can buy it back for about 20% of the value but might be able to haggle them down a bit.

Dave T-S

I think you will find the car is the property of the finance company, not you

Izzy

Basically the car will be repairable, albeit perhaps not economically so in the eyes of the insuers, hence the inevitable comment of "uneconomical repair" on the Assessors report they will receive. The Assessor will have contacted the salvage agents directly as its all part of the usual process. The repair costs will have been calculated using main dealer costs & prices & that's probably why the potential cost has ended up so high.

In short, until you accept the settlement from the insurers the vehicle remains yours, even if it's taken by the salvage agent - though as you rightly say it's not a good idea you let them have the car in the first place.

The best option for you is to simply ask your insurers for a "cash in lieu of repairs" settlement, & confirmation that they do not register the car as a total loss (which they should not do anyway as there is no structural damage). A "cash in lieu" is calculated on the nett cost of repairs (ie excluding any vat) although this naturally will be less than their total loss calculation which is usually 60% of the vehicle value. It will be worth you negotiating over the figure with them to find a figure low enough for them to accept the payment yet clearly high enough for you to put towards the repair cost. Don't however expect to get enough cash to do the full repair - If this was the case they would not have writen it off in the first place.

If this fails, the 2nd option is to buy back the salvage. The calculation of this is the pre-incident value of the car, less it's market value (assessed by the Assessor) in it's damaged state. Eg, a £6k car valued when damaged at £2k will get you £4k, less any excess of course.

These are fairly common practises that insurers will be happy to talk to you about, but lastly do make sure the car is still insured afterwards. Some insurers treat these settlements as total losses still & thus cover is terminated.

Hope this helps.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

a gentleman who once sold some bonnet vents to for his write off had a similar experience.

a yongster on a moped ploughed into him and ruined his whole front end of his scooby. insurance company wrote it off for £4000 i think, and he bought it back off them for £500. he was quite handy with his tools and fixed the car for £1000 with mainly second hand parts, as there wasnt any damage to the engine, just the bumper, bonnet etc. this included spraying (which he did himself) and he has a nice looking scooby back on the road, and around £2500 left in his pocket.

he said also his insurance didnt increase as it was the moped riders fault the accident occured. was quite clever i think, if you have the know how??

Classic

Why would someone have to buy it back when it is there car in the first place?

Insurance companies should pay up then shut up.

Classic

Was it brake fluid someone I know used to work in a body shop and thet got quite alot of problems with brake fluid pored over the car or left in a polystyrene(spelling) cup and it slowly leaks out ruining the paint.

Izzy

[QUOTE=Classic]Why would someone have to buy it back when it is there car in the first place?

QUOTE]


"Buying back" the salvage is just a term... It's if you look at it as the insurers paying you out for the total loss (which means the car is then theirs) & you then paying them back a lesser amount to have the car returned to you. Instead of all the to-ing & fro-ing, the insurer just agrees with you a lesser settlement as discribed above...

Classic

ok cheers for clearing that up.

Andy 02STI

my family had a clio written off and they automatically took £50 off the payout and left the car with us. I sold it for £500 so everyone was happy, I still see the car being driven around today by the garage that bought it.