Motor If my car is "beyond economic repair"...

mandelbrot

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Hi all,

The background:
Back in the bad storms in early February, I left my car in to be serviced by my mechanic, and while it was on his premises it was damaged by a wall that fell in the high winds (it was knocked by a tree falling in the adjacent garden).

There was a bit (well, a LOT) of to and fro with the mechanic and his neighbour as to who would be liable, and since the damage isn't too bad I was overly patient with them.

The bottom line is though it's now over ten weeks on and I've been stonewalled by the neighbour whom I believe is ultimately liable, so this morning I opened a claim against my mechanic's garage policy (with his blessing, on the assumption that they will go after his neighbour).

The problem:
I've had a quote to fit a new door & wing, and spray etc..., and it's the guts of €1500, with the car's value on the VRT calculator coming in at €2,000 (even though I really doubt I'd get a like for like replacement for much less than 2.5k - 3k).

On those figures it looks pretty likely that the insurer (who are also the same insurer that I have my motor policy with), will write the car off.

I'm very happy with my car (apart from the current damage), I've maintained it well etc, and should be able to get another couple of years of high mileage driving out of it. Whereas I've put 100k miles of the 180k my car, I'd be loathe to buy a replacement with 180k miles on it as you don't know what you're getting or what kind of life the vehicle has had... and I'm not really in a position to stump up an extra 4-5k to get a newer model.

So my question / problem is, if they do write it off as beyond economic repair what are my options?

I understand I can still take their settlement and get the car repaired myself, and that it's then up to me to get a cert of roadworthiness - is this correct, and how much will that cert cost me?
Will they give me the full 2k (if that's what the pre-accident value of the car is deemed to be) and how much do I have to pay to reacquire the car, as such (since they'll have given me a price that includes the scrap value)??

I'm finding this all a bit confusing - if someone who knows about the whole procedure could enlighten me I'd appreciate it!!
 
First thing, putting a claim and getting paid are two different things!

You are assuming that the 'neighbour' is insured; that he has complied with all his policy conditions and that he is legally liable at the end of the day. If he is not insured, or if his insurers refuse to deal with the claim due to some breach of policy conditions, then you will have to hope that he will pay up out of own funds, if at the end of the day, he is found liable.

The same goes for mechanic.

There is NO compulsory insurance for anything other than TP motor.

Regarding the car, there are several types of write off. One of them is a total loss, where it will not be possible to put the car back on the road EVER. Another is beyond economic repair, where if it is repaired, it can be put back on the road.

As you are not claiming from your own policy, it is likely that if it is beyond economic repair, the insurers will allow you to keep the car and pay you the difference between the pre accident value and the salvage.
 
They value the car at 2k euro. 1500 euro is the cost to repair so the will declare it a Cat. C right off, meaning its not financially viable to repair it.

What happens then is they contact a scrap yard, who come out, have a look at it and make an offer. The insurance company then sends you an offer including the scrap yards offer. In other words, if the scrap yard offers 200 euro for the car, and you accept the settlement, the insurance company will send you a cheque for 1800, and the scrapyard will give you 200 euro.

So, if you decide to fix it yourself, (or not fix it, and drive it damaged), you can accept their 1800 but tell them you're going to keep it. They will still send you the 1800 euro, but the car will now be registered as a Cat. C writeoff. You then need to get certificate of roadworthiness to get it reinsured (although not all insurance companies care about this).
 
They value the car at 2k euro. 1500 euro is the cost to repair so the will declare it a Cat. C right off, meaning its not financially viable to repair it.

What happens then is they contact a scrap yard, who come out, have a look at it and make an offer. The insurance company then sends you an offer including the scrap yards offer. In other words, if the scrap yard offers 200 euro for the car, and you accept the settlement, the insurance company will send you a cheque for 1800, and the scrapyard will give you 200 euro.

So, if you decide to fix it yourself, (or not fix it, and drive it damaged), you can accept their 1800 but tell them you're going to keep it. They will still send you the 1800 euro, but the car will now be registered as a Cat. C writeoff. You then need to get certificate of roadworthiness to get it reinsured (although not all insurance companies care about this).

Thanks Chris, that all makes sense alright.

I know you're using 200 as an example, but what would the scrap value be likely to be, of a ten year old car, not more than 300-400 surely?
 
In addition to this, if your car was valued at 2k euro, it will probably be worth half that once its repaired, if its a Cat C. writeoff.

Dealing with a 2k car makes it kind of hard to explain clearly, but to clear it up a bit ill tell you about a motorbike i owned.

Bike got robbed, damaged, and found all within 24 hours.

Pricing for replacement parts is always for new parts. Bike was valued at 8.5k euro, Price for replacement new parts was 6.5k euro. I printed off the parts list for an online shop and gave it to the assessor. Because the bike was quite exotic, he just accepted my figures, and wrote the bike off. City spares offered 2k for scrap, so i kept it. Because city spares offered 2k, insurance company sent me a cheque for 6.5k euro (8.5k minus 2k). I then spent a couple of months buying the parts second hand off ebay for less than 1k. Bike fixed and running perfectly, in perfect condition, and 5.5k in pocket. Problem was the bike was no longer worth 8.5k because it was a Cat. C writeoff.. Sold the bike for 6k i think, so all in all i saved myself a couple of thousand euro.
 
Yes I see what you mean with the bike, though the car's resale value is totally irrelevant to me anyway - we're together til she dies..! I'm unlikely to come out of this ahead by much if anything - I'm just hoping that their figure for value - scrap is at least the actual cost of the repair (if its anymore then it'll go towards tyres or regassing the aircon...!).
 
1500 sounds a lot for a wing and a door. Im sure you could get it fixed from a one man operation cheaper. The scrapyard mightnt want the hassle of it, so hard to tell how much they'll offer, the way theyll see it is, if they got it cheap, fixed it cheap, they could sell it on for a bit of profit. They wont offer that much for a 2k car..

To get it roadworthy again is easy, as in reality its only cosmetic damage. The engine, electrics, and chassis are still good.

The thing is now though, that your estimation of value, 3k, will be halved at least once its a Cat c. write off, and will have a very limited market if you do decide to resell..
 
Yes I see what you mean with the bike, though the car's resale value is totally irrelevant to me anyway - we're together til she dies..! I'm unlikely to come out of this ahead by much if anything - I'm just hoping that their figure for value - scrap is at least the actual cost of the repair (if its anymore then it'll go towards tyres or regassing the aircon...!).

What you're actually hoping for is the scrap yard offer as little as possible for the scrap. If the offer 100 euro, the insurance company have to pay you 1900 euro. If they offer you 1000 euro, you will only get 1000 euro from the ins. comp. What you want is the lowest possible offer from the scrappy, as this maximises the cash you get from the insurance company..
 
What you're actually hoping for is the scrap yard offer as little as possible for the scrap. If the offer 100 euro, the insurance company have to pay you 1900 euro. If they offer you 1000 euro, you will only get 1000 euro from the ins. comp. What you want is the lowest possible offer from the scrappy, as this maximises the cash you get from the insurance company..

How does one ensure the scrappy makes a crappy offer..?? A crisp €50 for his trouble I suppose...!
 
How does one ensure the scrappy makes a crappy offer..?? A crisp €50 for his trouble I suppose...!

I know you were only having a bit of a laugh, but the scrappy will pay anyone 150 euro for any car, any condition, as scrap metal alone. Taking that he must be able to sell it on himself for a few euro more, then on top of that, taking out the easily resellable parts out of it, and all of a sudden its worth more than you think..
 
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