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Cat C Write Off Repaired
My girlfriend’s car was recently hit up the rear, whilst stopped at lights by a closely following car.
Her insurers Quinn direct are having difficulty defending her as she is only third party fire & theft and the other car fully comp. However they have had her car inspected and verbally told her it is written off under Category C, however as an ongoing claim where the other party is disputing liability they cannot take any action and advised us verbally to do what we like with the car, scrap it, sell it, but no payout will be made unless the other party accepts liability.
We have therefore taken our own decision to repair the car by a local garage and had it MOT'ed, which it passed with flying colours. What we don’t understand is having spent the money to have all this done out of our own pockets and to satisfy ourselves the car is safe to be on the road, when we informed the insurers that we had taken this action, they have now insisted we conduct a VIC test at our expense and obtain a further V5c from the DVLA which may also require new a registration number.
Just to clarify, the car has never been collected by our insurer and they state that they could not inspect it completely as they do not carry a ramp around with them, all of the documents including the original V5C are still in our possession and they have only taken copies to prove the car is hers and she had a licence to drive it, Mot etc.
We have nothing in writing from the insurers to say its written off only verbal information.
I understand the need for a VIC particularly with newly purchased car that has been written off previously however we have no intention of selling the car, having only just paid out for a years insurance (which is non refundable due to the ongoing claim) our only option was to try and repair the car.
Could anyone please tell us if, having had a car economically repaired, putting it though an MOT makes it road legal? Is a VIC required before we can drive it on the road again?
If a VIC is required who is responsible for the cost of the test?
Her insurers Quinn direct are having difficulty defending her as she is only third party fire & theft and the other car fully comp. However they have had her car inspected and verbally told her it is written off under Category C, however as an ongoing claim where the other party is disputing liability they cannot take any action and advised us verbally to do what we like with the car, scrap it, sell it, but no payout will be made unless the other party accepts liability.
We have therefore taken our own decision to repair the car by a local garage and had it MOT'ed, which it passed with flying colours. What we don’t understand is having spent the money to have all this done out of our own pockets and to satisfy ourselves the car is safe to be on the road, when we informed the insurers that we had taken this action, they have now insisted we conduct a VIC test at our expense and obtain a further V5c from the DVLA which may also require new a registration number.
Just to clarify, the car has never been collected by our insurer and they state that they could not inspect it completely as they do not carry a ramp around with them, all of the documents including the original V5C are still in our possession and they have only taken copies to prove the car is hers and she had a licence to drive it, Mot etc.
We have nothing in writing from the insurers to say its written off only verbal information.
I understand the need for a VIC particularly with newly purchased car that has been written off previously however we have no intention of selling the car, having only just paid out for a years insurance (which is non refundable due to the ongoing claim) our only option was to try and repair the car.
Could anyone please tell us if, having had a car economically repaired, putting it though an MOT makes it road legal? Is a VIC required before we can drive it on the road again?
If a VIC is required who is responsible for the cost of the test?
Asked on 2 June 2011 by Pete237
Answered by
Honest John
The car cannot have been written off unless you were paid for it. If it has been, you can demand its market value from whoever wrote it off and sue for that if necessary using the small claims track of the county court. If you discover that the 'write off' status has been rescinded, simply sue the other party for the full cost of the repairs and your time getting it repaired.
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