Hi all,
My mother was unfortunately involved in a collision approximately 2 years ago (minor enough thankfully!) long story short, despite her being 100% in the right, the other party's insurance company proved very difficult to deal with and did not want to accept any liability.
After approx 6 months of getting anywhere with the other sides insurance company (during which time my mothers car was undriveable, she was never offered car hire or anything at all) we finally had to engage the services of a solicitor and she too was getting the run around from the other insurance company.
So now, almost 2 years later, things seem to finally be in motion. They only sent out an assessor for the car about a month ago - even the assessor was very surprised when he heard that the crash had happened nearly 2 years ago, how long it had taken to finally get to that stage.
The car is an economical write off and has been laid up since the crash as she could not afford to get it repaired herself and obviously did not want to claim through her own insurance company as she didn't want her NCB etc.. affected.
Pre-crash the car was in superb condition, 1-owner from new, full service history, exceptionally low mileage, immaculate inside and out. The value pre-crash would have been around €8k. We got various repair quotes all around the €4/5k mark.
The insurance company, have at long last come back to our solicitor with a settlement offer of €4.5k and we can keep the car as an economical write off.
Now, I should also preface by saying that none of us have ever been in this situation before and have never been in any accidents nor ever had to claim through insurance before, so this is all very new to us and we don't want to be taken for a ride, excuse the pun.
We are to meet with our solicitor next week to discuss the offer however I wanted to get some unbiased and educated / experienced replies on here before we do.
They are valuing my mothers car present day - when in fact the crash happened nearly 2 years ago - should she not be getting a value reflected upon it's worth almost two years ago as obviously the worth of the car has decreased in the two years since the crash and hasn't been driven since.
There is no way she could find a replacement car with similar spec / condition / super low mileage and year for the €4.5k offer. If she spends the €4.5k on repairs, surely the value of the car will be diminished later on down the line if she wanted to trade it in / sell it as it will be classed as a write off.
Should she be looking for a higher settlement figure given that it took the insurance company nearly 2 years to assess the car? Should she be looking for money to defray the devaluation of the car given that it will always be classed as a write off making it harder to sell in future?
Obviously we will be asking our solicitor these questions also, but I would like to hear some opinions of others first.
Going by ads online, cars same year as hers are still asking about €6.5 - €7k and would be nowhere near in as good condition and with low mileage and fully stamped main dealer service history etc..
The insurance company treated her very shoddily taking nearly 2 years to finally get some sort of offer out of them, never offered car hire despite not having a working car, constantly being fobbed off, not replying to e-mails, not returning phone calls etc.. but I suppose that's neither here nor there.
Has anyone any experience in negotiating with insurance companies to get a higher settlement offer? Any tips, advise or previous stories would all be greatly appreciated.
Thanks everyone.
My mother was unfortunately involved in a collision approximately 2 years ago (minor enough thankfully!) long story short, despite her being 100% in the right, the other party's insurance company proved very difficult to deal with and did not want to accept any liability.
After approx 6 months of getting anywhere with the other sides insurance company (during which time my mothers car was undriveable, she was never offered car hire or anything at all) we finally had to engage the services of a solicitor and she too was getting the run around from the other insurance company.
So now, almost 2 years later, things seem to finally be in motion. They only sent out an assessor for the car about a month ago - even the assessor was very surprised when he heard that the crash had happened nearly 2 years ago, how long it had taken to finally get to that stage.
The car is an economical write off and has been laid up since the crash as she could not afford to get it repaired herself and obviously did not want to claim through her own insurance company as she didn't want her NCB etc.. affected.
Pre-crash the car was in superb condition, 1-owner from new, full service history, exceptionally low mileage, immaculate inside and out. The value pre-crash would have been around €8k. We got various repair quotes all around the €4/5k mark.
The insurance company, have at long last come back to our solicitor with a settlement offer of €4.5k and we can keep the car as an economical write off.
Now, I should also preface by saying that none of us have ever been in this situation before and have never been in any accidents nor ever had to claim through insurance before, so this is all very new to us and we don't want to be taken for a ride, excuse the pun.
We are to meet with our solicitor next week to discuss the offer however I wanted to get some unbiased and educated / experienced replies on here before we do.
They are valuing my mothers car present day - when in fact the crash happened nearly 2 years ago - should she not be getting a value reflected upon it's worth almost two years ago as obviously the worth of the car has decreased in the two years since the crash and hasn't been driven since.
There is no way she could find a replacement car with similar spec / condition / super low mileage and year for the €4.5k offer. If she spends the €4.5k on repairs, surely the value of the car will be diminished later on down the line if she wanted to trade it in / sell it as it will be classed as a write off.
Should she be looking for a higher settlement figure given that it took the insurance company nearly 2 years to assess the car? Should she be looking for money to defray the devaluation of the car given that it will always be classed as a write off making it harder to sell in future?
Obviously we will be asking our solicitor these questions also, but I would like to hear some opinions of others first.
Going by ads online, cars same year as hers are still asking about €6.5 - €7k and would be nowhere near in as good condition and with low mileage and fully stamped main dealer service history etc..
The insurance company treated her very shoddily taking nearly 2 years to finally get some sort of offer out of them, never offered car hire despite not having a working car, constantly being fobbed off, not replying to e-mails, not returning phone calls etc.. but I suppose that's neither here nor there.
Has anyone any experience in negotiating with insurance companies to get a higher settlement offer? Any tips, advise or previous stories would all be greatly appreciated.
Thanks everyone.