Post crash insurance wrangling

[Hicky]

Well my partner ha her car wrote off last Thursday and the insurer has come back with a valuation.....a 1/4 less than a replacement at a minimum looking at what's available via autotrader. The car was in very good shape pre crash, clean MOT for the past 3 years of our ownership new tyres/backbox(4 days prior) not like it makes much of a difference.....what is the best way to politely say "you're taking the piss!"??

Ps the crash was 100% a no fault on our part and the other driver accepted responsibility.

 

[fossyant]

Go back with adverts off auto-trader for the same car. I did this many many moons ago when my MK2 Escort was stolen.

 

[CXRAndy]

What Fossyant said.

You need to demonstrate what you are likely to spend to replace it. Similar mileage and condition

Insurers always offer trade price with their first offer

 

[Profpointy]

To my great surprise, when my motorcycle was an economic write-off after a very cack handed theft attempt the insurers gave me over a grand more than I realistically thought it was worth, even after I'd foolishly blurted out the lower figure when asked how much I was expecting. I guess a motorcycle as parts or a fixer upper is in proportion worth more than an equivalent car so they can factor that in. Amazingly the £500 excess I'd agreed didn't seem to matter either. I doubt they somehow forgot, though I confess I didn't remind them.

I think they do tend to undervalue older cars, particularly anything they see as a banger. Paradox is the car is seen to have very low resale value, but you can't actually buy a decent runner for three times that figure. Perhaps because cars sold in a certain price bracket are problematic duds, and those that are still running fine are not for sale until they go wrong or fail an MOT.

This may well not be the case for you as I'm aware they can sometimes just be gits

 

[Sharky]

There's always going to be a difference between buy and sell prices, especially if the autotraders are dealers.

But do what others above and collect evidence.

Can you still get a quote from "we buy any car", assuming you don't declare damage, to establish what a low end price may have been.

 

[figbat]

It’s an offer. You can accept or reject it. Providing evidence of the cost of replacement can support you rejection and show what sort of money you are after.

Is this your insurance or the third party’s? If it is was an accident involving a third party who were 100% to blame then I wouldn’t involve my insurers other than to inform them of the accident.

 

[Drago]

Remind them that the Insurance Ombudsman recently issued a warning to the industry re the practice of making offers well bvelow market value, and that it would be fining persistent offenders, and that you'd be happy to contact the ombudsman to advise them of your joy at the offer.

 

[wafter]

As usual they're taking the p*ss; so should you.

Trawl Autotrader and game the situation with anything you can do to blag them into paying more - higher-spec models they're potentially unable to differentiate from yours for example. Select only from dealers and go exclusively for the most expensive you can get away with.

There's no fairness here or reward for being proportionate or transparent - blag it for all you can; that's exactly how they're treating you.

 

[presta]

When the CIS wrote my car off, they gave me pretty much what I'd paid for it 4 months earlier. I don't know how that compared to the cost of repair, but someone thought it was still worth buying the wreck and putting it back on the road for nearly another 5 years.

When I claimed off Tesco insurance after a car knocked me off the bike, they paid all I asked for without quibbling, too. I wondered if they might refuse because I'd done the work myself, but perhaps they were just happy I wasn't claiming for labour.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Can you still get a quote from "we buy any car"......to establish what a low end price may have been.

In our experience their quotes are lower than lower end. My Passat they quoted £1250, and I sold privately for £3000. Our Renault, they offered £2700 when we'd seen them advertised between £5k-£6.5. But we decided to keep it for now. And for both of those quotes, that was without knocking off a few hundred here or there for stone chips etc which they'll inevitably do (or so I've heard)

 

[steveindenmark]

If this was Denmark. My insurance company would be doing all the haggling. The insurance companies deal with each other every day and know what the score is.