Car written off

Last week, my husband's car was crashed into by a first permit holder driver (on his own in the car). he fully acccepts that the accident was his fault. My query is - my husbands car is insured for €7 - actual value is approx. € 5.5k - damage is at least 2,500 - will the car be written off? how is the amount you get calculated - as we need to now go look for another car??

any information appreciated

The value your husband has the car insured for will not be taken into consideration.
The assessor from the third parties insurance company will decide whether or not to write the car off or not.
Have you sent in the estimates etc?
If they decide to write off the car you will recieve the book value (5.5k by your original post) less salvage (what a scrappage company will pay for the car).
if they do not write off the car they will pay for the repairs and probably about 10% of repair value as depreciation cost.
i would call the third parties company and ask whether or not they are writing off the car before I woud go car shopping.
I assume they are paying for a hire car in the interim and the cost of storing your car so they will want to get this sorted ASAP too.

We did get an estimate as in the first instance the other party was going to pay cash - then when he realised how much it was he is going through insurance - either way we have to problem

who pays for the car hire and the storage - i assume the other party? sorry have not had any experience in this area before!!

in my limited knowledge i thought that if the cost to repair was over a certain % of the car's worth it would be automatically written off as it is not economic to repair?

This % varies from company to company. There is no hard and fast rule. Get on to the third parties insurance company and ask them. Has their assessor seen it yet.
All costs should be covered by the third parties insurance including care hire and storage.

Usually over 55% of repair cost the vehicle will be written off and you'll be offered book value (which may not be as much as you think). If that doesn't suit you could contact the 3rd parties insurer and tell them to have their agreed repairer to repair your car (if they have one) usually this will cost less than ur estimate and they will give u a couple of weeks rental car whilst their repairing. Any decent company will snap ur hand off for that offer, but remember ur totally in the driving seat here. If you elect to go to ur own main dealer to get the repair (if its repairable) his company will have to pay that figure (once an independent adjuster has assessed the damage) and u are entitled to 2 weeks car rental, although if you do it this way you might have to pay the rental first and reclaim a'wards.