Crashed into, but insurance playing hardball

[PandaSelecta]

First a bit of back story...

A couple of weeks ago my Mam was driving along and a driver pulled out of a side road and hit her classic BMW (a 1991 E36). Details were swapped, police were called, and my Mam's car was taken away for investigations.

Today the other parties insurer called to say the car is an economic write off, with a repair bill of £4600, so they have offered £700. This was refused, as an E36 in the same condition is £1200, but they have now said they will give the £1200, but will deduct an excess of £300, and we have to pay £300 to buy her car back, so she gets £400 and a wrecked car.

Surely the excesses are up to the other party, and its her car, how can they charge us to buy it back?

Any advice at all please

[joem83]

Make them repair it

[BT]

I have very little insurance experience, unfortunately I was struck by a lorry back in October and everything below has been gained through my somewhat unpleasant experience with insurance in a very clear, open and shut no fault claim.

Firstly, get onto your insurance and ask the questions and be persistent.

I was adamant that I was not going to pay my excess, and I didn't, but it is not uncommon to be expected to pay your excess. Once fault has been placed on the third party you should have your excess refunded as you are not at fault. I continuously argued with my insurer and I did not pay any excess at any stage, this was because I was not at fault.

I would suggest phoning your insurance and questioning why you have to pay it when you are not at fault.

In regards to buying the car back, from what I understand once the car has been paid out for that vehicle then becomes property of the insurance company. Therefore if you want it back you must make a pay out to the insurance company to get it back. Personally I have never experienced this as my van was a cat B so I couldn't buy it back anyway.

It may be worth having a read through this thread here, it does say in the title about proving a vehicles value, but two members, myself included had successful results from information posted in this thread, so it may be worth a read...

retrorides.proboards.com/thread/183423/prove-vehicles-value

Hope that's of some help.

After re-reading your questions here I am wondering.

I'm a little confused by your figures.

If you have to pay out the excess you will have £900 in your kitty, if you bought the car back, which you don't have to do you would have £600. If you let them keep the car, and argue that you are not at fault you should get paid out the full £1200. I argued with mine that there was no way I could not be deemed at fault and that I was not prepared to pay the excess and they paid me out the full amount for my van. They then said that if I was deemed to be at fault they would call me as there would be monies owed. They never phoned.

[PandaSelecta]

Got more details from my Mam. they're offering the £1200 we asked for, and they say the scrap value of the car is £420. So if we want to have the car back the offer is £1200 minus the £420 scrap, which leaves £780. But then they will take the £300 excess, so that's £480

Would love to know what scrap yard they use to get £420. I would be able to retire with the amount of brass and copper I have

[richr]

Let them keep it in storage as that will be costing them around £20 a day i think is the going rate.

Reject what they have offered astray are trying it on.

Tell them to go and find an identical car to the one they are trying to rob i mean pay out on. Of course they have no chance so why should you do the running around.

No the excess is from your die if you are claiming from your insurance, which i take it is the third party insurance paying.

They can not make you accept the payment so make them sweat a bit, all they are trying to do is clear their books.

Jokers

Scrap value is about £125 for a car at the mo i believe

[welshpug]

their scrap estimate is about 395 out, scrap is on its , I've held on to similar value cars for far less even when scrap was around 180 a ton.

[carledo]

Scrap[ values are at a near all time low, with "mixed metal" scrap (ie cars) at about £25 a ton, so an E36 is about £40 (delivered to the scappies - less if collected)
If the car is that bad, you don't HAVE to have it back - it might be better to let it go, especially if you have to pick it up from the storage. The storage site will want paying before they release the car, then you have to claim this back from the insurance - another fight you don't want!
And since the incident was not your mam's fault, no way should she pay the excess!

Steve

[assortednuggets]

Whose fault was it?

If the other party is in fault you pay NO excess as they have to pay the full market value of the car....you only loose the excess if it is your fault....


Edit..

just been throuh similar....

other party hit mrs, wrote her car off, I got full market value and bought back for 340....repaired for 500...new car again though with cat d ....doesn't matter as we will drive into ground as a Subaru on farm...worth repairing

[PandaSelecta]

Yeah It was the other persons fault. He says he was trying to pull out before the bus pulled out from the bus stop, but didn't see her BMW over taking the bus. Witnesses say he didn't slow down for the junction and pulled out at normal driving speed

[bigal1978]

You only pay the excess on your own policy If you were to claim of it
Not the other way round

As others have said tell them to repair or replace

And they can offer the car back to at what ever price they like as when you accept the offer its there car

But as above you don't have to take anything

[assortednuggets]

Then contact your insurance company if you hadn't already.

It is other party fault, you will get an accident no fault on record and the other party will have to pay.

Your insurance company needs to be in loop and they will get the excess for you.

In theory....that's what I did

[PandaSelecta]

First thing she did was contact her insurance, I think the offers she has got have just been relayed from the other guys insurance through her insurance.

[Deleted]

If you want the car back argue about the scrap value, check your local car dismantlers to see what they will offer and ask the insurer to proof that they will receive that amount as scrap.

Silverlake (our local dismantlers) quoted £66 for that BMW if delivered to them.

[slackerTHEpinstriper]

My Audi 100 got written off last year on my no fault claim.
I got 1100 quid which I agreed on with the assessor.
To buy back the salvadge it was something like 10% of what you were getting paid for the car.
Excess I lost but then claimed of the third party.

Get on at them and now mention the pain your mum is now suffering in her neck or back from the shunt, you could get a lot more

[benjy_b]

Feb 13, 2016 16:19:00 GMT slackerTHEpinstriper said:

Get on at them and now mention the pain your mum is now suffering in her neck or back from the shunt, you could get a lot more

Please don't do this!

If there has been no injury sustained, don't try to claim.

This is the reason my insurance is £1000 at 30 years old!

[PandaSelecta]

Feb 13, 2016 18:04:55 GMT benjy_b said:

Feb 13, 2016 16:19:00 GMT slackerTHEpinstriper said:

Get on at them and now mention the pain your mum is now suffering in her neck or back from the shunt, you could get a lot more

Please don't do this!

If there has been no injury sustained, don't try to claim.

This is the reason my insurance is £1000 at 30 years old!

I think he means hint at it, as they might panic and just pay out the £1200. Might be wrong though.

[dodgerover]

Feb 13, 2016 18:04:55 GMT benjy_b said:

Feb 13, 2016 16:19:00 GMT slackerTHEpinstriper said:

Get on at them and now mention the pain your mum is now suffering in her neck or back from the shunt, you could get a lot more

Please don't do this!

If there has been no injury sustained, don't try to claim.

This is the reason my insurance is £1000 at 30 years old!

It's probably got more to do with car choice and perceived risk as well as keeping the insurers backers in the manner to which they have become accustomed....

More importantly PandaSelecta hope your mum isn't to shaken up by it all.

[PandaSelecta]

Feb 13, 2016 22:17:38 GMT dodgerover said:

Feb 13, 2016 18:04:55 GMT benjy_b said:

Please don't do this!

If there has been no injury sustained, don't try to claim.

This is the reason my insurance is £1000 at 30 years old!

It's probably got more to do with car choice and perceived risk as well as keeping the insurers backers in the manner to which they have become accustomed....

More importantly PandaSelecta hope your mum isn't to shaken up by it all.

She is just glad that nobody was hurt, especially as my sister was the passenger, so it could have been so much worse.

[slackerTHEpinstriper]

Feb 13, 2016 18:04:55 GMT benjy_b said:

Feb 13, 2016 16:19:00 GMT slackerTHEpinstriper said:

Get on at them and now mention the pain your mum is now suffering in her neck or back from the shunt, you could get a lot more

Please don't do this!

If there has been no injury sustained, don't try to claim.

This is the reason my insurance is £1000 at 30 years old!

No the reason is you live in Batley!!!

[benjy_b]

Sorry, off topic.

The reason my insurance is £1000 on a ''96 Golf TDI is because my girlfriend, a named driver on my policy, ran into the back of a taxi in Leeds station car park. He subsequently claimed personal injury for himself and a false passenger. After a LONG insurance battle, it was his word against my girlfriends, so my insurance paid out.

My insurance has gone down since moving to Batley ;-)