Ford Ka - Help! Can an insurance company write off

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Wed 1 Oct 2014 22:35
Ford Ka - Help! Can an insurance company write off - markmarley1981

Can an insurance company write off a car without a claim being made?

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Wed 1 Oct 2014 22:44
Ford Ka - Help! Can an insurance company write off - Simon

No.

But would you like to give us the full story?

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Wed 1 Oct 2014 23:05
Ford Ka - Help! Can an insurance company write off - markmarley1981

My young cousin had an accident. Which was her fault. Rolled into the back of a motorcyclist at traffic lights. He's making a claim for injuries. No problem with that as that's for the insurance company (Diamond) to sort out. When she informed diamond of the accident at that stage the advisor said because of the age of the car if she made a claim their assessors would more than lighty write it off. As an alternative they agreed for her to get a quote from a local garage to see if a repair would be possible and if a claim could be made without the car being written off. The quote the garage sent was grossly exaggerated. Obviously Diamond would not agree to it. The next contact she gets from them is an email to say the car has been written off and her insurance has been cancelled and they have instructed a salvage company. Further contacts they state she said wanted to make claim and even if she's not making the claim they have still written the car off. The only course of action seems to be to follow there complaints procedure and if not successful take it to the ombudsmen. Just wonder what the best course of action is?

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Thu 2 Oct 2014 12:21
Ford Ka - Help! Can an insurance company write off - Cris_on_the_gas

So if there was damage to the car then the cost of repair is more than the car is worth. If there was no damage why did the garage say there was ?

If the car is OK and perfectly driveable You should be able to make an offer to buy the car at same price they would get for salvage. The car would then be recorded as a CAT D on V5(logbook) with DVLA. She could then re insure car.

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Thu 2 Oct 2014 20:04
Ford Ka - Help! Can an insurance company write off - markmarley1981

Basically the garage (supposed friend of the family) persuaded her to let him send a quote to them to fix the small dent. As she wants to sell it soon. This was with agreement from Diamond that it was an enquiry to see if a claim was viable if not she would just leave it. The scumbag at the garage sent a quote of £450 blatantly trying to profit from the situation. Really can't see how the scumbag from the garage thought he was actually gonna get any money from this and it's his action that has put her in a difficult situation. My question is if she hasn't made a claim and the only information they have about the car is from a fraudulent quote are they able to write the car off. She understands she can keep the car but she doesn't want it to classed as a CAT D because it will be practically worthless. She intends to sell it in a few months to recoup some of the £800 she paid 3 months ago.

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Fri 3 Oct 2014 11:07
Ford Ka - Help! Can an insurance company write off - Cris_on_the_gas

The scumbag at the garage sent a quote of £450 blatantly trying to profit from the situation. Really can't see how the scumbag from the garage thought he was actually gonna get any money from this and it's his action that has put her in a difficult situation. My question is if she hasn't made a claim and the only information they have about the car is from a fraudulent quote are they able to write the car off. She understands she can keep the car but she doesn't want it to classed as a CAT D because it will be practically worthless. She intends to sell it in a few months to recoup some of the £800 she paid 3 months ago.

Ok the fact that he is a scumbag at the Garage is your opinion.

From his view point if he was a professional, somebody comes into his garage and asks how much to repair a dent. He reckons it will cost him £450 and does the appropriate.

Yor problem is your insurance Company does not want to payout £450 on fixing maybe a £800 car. Fair enough. Maybe with the dent it's worth let's say £500. No offence but a small dent in a car worth so little anyway is not going to take £450 off the price.

So Insurance company gives yo a value for the write off, lets say they offer you £800. Unlikely but go with it. They then flog the car for £500 salvage value. It has cost them £300 for your claim, better than the £450 garage man wanted for repair. you can fiddle the actual numbers up a bit but the logic is the same.

Doubt if you would lose to much on a CAT D car of that age. If it's got an MoT and good tyres and runs, stops and looks OK, gotta be worth £500 ! If it wasn't a CAT D doubt it would be worth much more.

Your friends Insurance Company are gonna payout for the motorcyclist injury anyway so she is making a claim what ever happens

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Fri 3 Oct 2014 11:16
Ford Ka - Help! Can an insurance company write off - gordonbennet

Friend is in similar situation, whacked someone up the back, ok no probs its an insurance claim against them, and they'll pay the increased premium next year(s).

They are not going to claim for their own car though, it would as above be an immediate write off and its too good for that, we mutually know a handy small body shop who has already looked at their car and can sort the problems out easily for a reasonable cost, car still driveable.

Too late for the OPs friend to stop the claim on their own car i suppose and fix it themselves as my oppo is doing?

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Fri 3 Oct 2014 23:56
Ford Ka - Help! Can an insurance company write off - markmarley1981

I understand the numbers and why Diamond are doing what they are doing. Surely not having to pay nothing towards the cost of repair or write off value would be preferable to Diamond. The reason he is a scumbag is because he said he could do it for less than £200 when she initially spoke to him and it was his suggestion that she approach the insurance company. May just be a case of live and learn. Just reinforces my negative impression of car insurance companies. It's also a shame how this one bad experience with a small garage of a someone she felt she could trust will stop her using small independent garages in thé future. Thank you everyone for your help.

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Sat 4 Oct 2014 11:16
Ford Ka - Help! Can an insurance company write off - dacouch

It's more likely her Insurance company are just going through the motions of dealing with a write off which they would do many times a day. They're in effect running on auto pilot

If she lets them know she does not want to claim for her own damages they should close this part of the claim.

If she claims for her own damage her excess will be deducted from the claim, if she does not claim for her own damage then there is no excess to pay.

The car belongs to her, the Insurers cannot take the car off her without her permission for obvious reasons. If they do they'll end up having to pay a fair amount of compensation in addition to the value of the car

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Sat 4 Oct 2014 12:09
Ford Ka - Help! Can an insurance company write off - Simon

As far as I can see this is the bit where it all falls down:

"As an alternative they agreed for her to get a quote from a local garage to see if a repair would be possible and if a claim could be made without the car being written off. The quote the garage sent was grossly exaggerated. Obviously Diamond would not agree to it."

She is instigating a claim but then not - well maybe, it all depends on how much the damage costs to repair. I don't think the insurers have a button on their computer for that circumstance. I can quite easily see why once they were sent the quote by the garage they have assumed a claim is being made and have written the car off. A lesson to be learnt here???

This story reminds me of a guy who crashed his motorcycle a while back (into a ditch rather than anyone else), our garage towed his bike in and was subsequently collected by his insurance company a week or so later. They arrived with a release note and paid the recovery & storage fees and took the moorcycle away. The very next day the guy turns up to collect the bike himself and got rather upset that we had released his bike to his insurers. His argument was that he hadn't made a claim and they had no right to take away his bike etc etc. Unfortunately his argument fell apart when he couldn't explain how his insurance company knew that he had crashed it and where his bike was being stored. I don't think that they had a crystal ball - only he could have told them!!!

The moral to the tale when dealing with insurers - Make your intentions clear!!!

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Sat 4 Oct 2014 15:43
Ford Ka - Help! Can an insurance company write off - brighteyes
I think the main reason for the insurance co. writting the car off is to enable them to cancel the policy with probably no refund, whereas if they didn't write it off the policy would continue until its expiration date with no extra money to the insurance co. Would be interested to know how much they've offered for the write off because I was under the impression that the amount is negotiable and if they don't meet your valuation you are entitled to tell them to take a hike. All this conjecture depends if the vehicle is roadworthy, if it is get in touch with the insurance ombudsman and if the salvage people do contact you tell them that the ownership of the vehicle is subject of a dispute and you're not willing to release it until the dispute is settled.
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