Motor Car written off - need advice please

[Martha08]

Hi All- hope someone can offer us some advice on this.

Our 10 year old car was hit by another car a couple of weeks ago and was undriveable after the crash but Thank God no injuries in either car - the other party accepted liability. The insurers have come back to us to say they have written off our car ( the cost to repair is more than the current value) and they have offered us €1450 (what they deem to be the current market value)

What I am having problems understanding is that we were paying fully comp insurance on the original value of our car (€9000) for the last 8 years.

If the car were in a driveable condition we could at least avail of a €2k scrappage deal on a new car.

Feeling seriously hard done by at the moment as we had'nt planned on getting a new car until next year, I havent accepted anything at the moment - would really appreciate any any advice or to hear of anyone with a similar experience

Thank you.

 

[mathepac]

Sorry to hear about the accident, good to hear no-one was hurt.

... What I am having problems understanding is that we were paying fully comp insurance on the original value of our car (€9000) for the last 8 years. ...

Our delightful insurance companies don't do this automatically and leave it up to the policy-holder to remember to adjust the valuation of the vehicle downwards to allow for depreciation. This means that sometimes your premium (calculated on the declared value of the car) has no relationship whatsoever with market value as you discovered when you claimed. The insurance industry employs people to track this kind of information very closely, they just don't tell their customers about it, as it's in the employee brownie point column come bonus calculation time.

In other countries / industries this could be classified as fraud, but with Irish motor insurance, it's just tough luck on the person paying the premium.

I think you're kinda snookered unfortunately.

 

[Martha08]

Ouch - I'm sickened but not suprised by that bit of news!

Thanks mathepac for the prompt reply

Still I'm going to have a chat with my friendly helpful brokers who for the last 8 years assured me I was getting the best quote, grrr!

 

[peteb]

Unless you are driving a 60k car, the value of your car has had absolutely no bearing on your premium. Any regular car whether it be 30k or 10k would have the same premium.

 

[hm2605]

I'm in the very same position. Car crashed into me from behind a few weeks ago, didn't seem like much damage to the car at the time but the insurance have written it off. Cost of replacement car is cheaper than the repairs.

I hadn't realized how it worked and I thought if I pushed it I could make them repair the car as it was only body damage, no affect on the chassis or engine and its driving fine, just passed NCT, new tyres etc (before crash) and I didn't want the expense of getting a new car, but nope I can't do that. So I've just purchased a new car (well not new) to replace mine when I had no attention of upgrading my car this year.

Car's have dropped in value so much over the last year just makes it so much more annoying to be the innocent party and be left having to replace the car. I had mine valued with my insurance company for 9,000 I hadn't thought to change it and I wasn't advised to either.

My situtation was car was valued at 5,000. 6,514 damage. So at least I could get a car for the 5000 so not too bad. But just as another point, what I didn't know was the 3rd partys insurance company find a buyer for the car, highest offer they got was 650. So they give me the difference 4350 and I can sell for 650 to this person or try sell myself. In order to make up the 5000. Makes sense when I thought about it after, but I was confused about the whole thing when they rang me.

 

[confused]

Martha, I was in a similar situation around 8 years ago. I had my car insured at to high a value. I was disgusted when the insurance company tried to give me a pittance. They said that they based it on prices quoted in the BUY&SELL for similar models. i told them i wouldn't accept and for them to redo their calculations. Anyway, to cut a long story shory, after weeks/months of tooing and froing we compromised. Moral of this story: hold out for a better offer, they are not your friend!

 

[Martha08]

Thanks peteb, confused and hm2605 for your posts and sharing your stories. I had the pleasure of over 3 hours of phonecalls today and I am currently dealing with a valuations department so we will see what happens. Fortunately have the time as I am off work at the moment but I dread to think what it would be like If I was back at work. Thanks again for the advice.