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Advice re Cat D write off please - ness

Hi,

Have just been told that my old Honda is being written of as a Cat D, following my being hit in the rear. Have been offered £500 which I feel is fair considering the age and condition of the car pre accident. I am probably going to buy the car back as I really need a car for work and it passed an MOT whilst waiting to go for repair so am not concerned about it's safety.

The engineer has said that the salvage value is 35% of the offer price. Is this the usual amount does anyone know? Seems a bit high to me.

Also, the car was taken a fair few miles away to a garage that my insurance pretty much insisted on, so can I ask that it is returned to me at the Third Party's expense, as it would cost me a considerable amount in fares or petrol (hire car) to get there to pick it up.

Third Party haven't admitted liability yet but my insurers are confident they will!!!!!

Thanks.

Edited by ness on 26/07/2010 at 21:42

Advice re Cat D write off please - martint123

If you accept the cash offer that is the end of your claim. If you are offered the car, then this is a seperate transaction, independant of the accident so I don't see how you could claim for delivery. The only way would be to hold out for more than the cash offer or beat the salvage price down.

Advice re Cat D write off please - ness

Ok, thanks for that. May try and get the salvage price reduced.

Advice re Cat D write off please - LucyBC

As advised try and negotiate either the cash write off value up andor the salvage value down.

You won't recover the costs of redelivery. But you may have a claim for loss of use from the day they took it for inspection to the day that you recieve the settlement cheque.

You may also have a claim for other uninsured losses such as alternative means of transport while without the vehicle and of course any personal injury (if you suffered one as a result).

Contact me if you need detailed help with this.

Edited by LucyBC on 27/07/2010 at 12:00

Advice re Cat D write off please - Chris M

"The engineer has said that the salvage value is 35% of the offer price. Is this the usual amount does anyone know? Seems a bit high to me."

Not sure it's relevant as you are talking about a 'private sale', but the insurance company I work for would only expect 12% on a Cat D car with a pre accident value <£1,000. 35% is more like the figure on a £10-20,000 car. So if you don't buy the vehicle, and your insurer has similar agreed rates with a salvage company, they will be looking at £60 in salvage.

However, you know your car and whether it's worth haggling too hard over £100.

Advice re Cat D write off please - ness

Thank you for your replies.

Think I may try to get the salvage down a bit. Pre accident value would have been less than £1,000 so worth a punt I think.

Have had a hire car since mine went to garage, hopefully Third Party will pay as it's quite expensive. Am covered fully comp so courtesy care included, but my insurers said I would get a better car via the hire company and pushed for me to say yes. Have ended up with a 2.0 Mondeo Titanium which is costing me a fortune in petrol. Will drive this to Surrey to pick mine up and leave there for hire company to collect. Just want mine back really.

Thanks again.

Advice re Cat D write off please - LucyBC

Aaargh! Your insurer have probably bunged you a credit hire because they get a commission.

It's not just about petrol, if you already had access to a courtesy car that was at least as good as your own - which is likely on a car valued at this level - the chances are no credit hire should have been supplied because of the duty to mitigate costs and there is a potential that the other side can oppose payment of the hire bill.

Please don't be alarmed at this stage as your insurer is potentially liable for any shortfall but this is an example of shoddy practice and an addiction to kickbacks (sorry, referral fees) which is rife in the accident and insurance industry.

Advice re Cat D write off please - amj

A little irrelevant now but you say that your insurers insisted that you have the car taken to an appointed repairer? I am under the impression that you can in fact have your car repairer by a garage of your choice.

When my car was hit from behind a few years ago, my insurer wanted the car recovered to their approved repairer some 40miles away!!!! I told the recovery driver to take my car to the guy i had been using for servicing and repairs for some years and he was 3 miles away! I told my insurers he would be doing the repairs and they ummed and ahhhed about the repairs not being warrantied and that they would have to send an assessor to inspect the car and it would all take time. Just a ploy to get me to change to their own approved garage in my opinion. The garage who i used didnt have a courtesy car for a day or 2 so the owner gave me his own car and he got a lift home until he could source me a car. Would this have happened at their place? I think not.

Insurance companies strike deals with big repair specialists and its beneficial to both parties so they try to get you to use them. I will stick with my local back street guy who has seen me right for the past 20yrs and know im getting the best service i can get.

Advice re Cat D write off please - ness

You are so right amj - they blind you with science and at the time, I was just happy for them to take over and sort things out for me. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

When I rang up to report I said that the call was for information only and that I might not proceed to a claim, but as soon as I gave details of the accident and it was clear I was not at fault, off they went, and you get swept along.

We'll see.

Advice re Cat D write off please - danidge

Have just been thro similar with car valued at £1070. Salvage value was set by insurance company at 13%. Your 35% seems very high. I bought the car back and had it taken off the DVLC Cat D system by getting a VOSA check done on it. My insurance company advised this was the thing to do-cost approx £35- otherwise I would be unable to road tax after the tax expired. The car has not been repaired-VOSA were not interested in this.

Advice re Cat D write off please - Collos25

http://category-d.co.uk/

I do not understand that VOSA were not interested its a normal daily happening for them there are thousands of cat D cars on the roads in the UK.

Advice re Cat D write off please - martint123

It is extremely difficult to impossible for a lay person to get a vehicle of the insurance register so I don't know how a £35 check managed it.

You need a VOSA VIC check to be able to tax a CAT C vehicle - this only checks that non-stolen parts were used in the repair and not the quality of the repair. This VIC check gets left on the V5.

For CAT D - nothing need be done other than get abog standard MOT.

Advice re Cat D write off please - danidge

This may be so-I was following the insurance companies recommendation. The key thing for me was for Swansea to notify me and allow me to road tax it in the future. For this I was told I would have to pay for a VOSA check and if the inspector was happy it would be removed from the "stop list". This is what I believe I have got but I am open to any knowledge on this.

Advice re Cat D write off please - rtj70

If this thread is real then the OP as LucyBC says could be seriously out of pocket. But to accept a car like this as a hire car to replace a cheap £1000 car.... alarm bells should sound.

Advice re Cat D write off please - ness

You're scaring me now!!

I had no control over which car was given to me so am prepared for a fight if the Third Party don't pay up.

To be honest I wish I'd never bothered going ahead with the claim now. At least I've got my car back now. Am getting another MOT next week as requested. Apparantly the 35% salvage is company policy!!!! Can't be bothered to argue, which of course is probably what they count on.