What's the difference between a car being a write off and unroadworthy

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Lisa Madden

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Hi I was in a car accident recently ( my fault) it was only a small accident, I was pulling out of a side road and she pulled off on the road I was going into, I admitted liability as there was minimal damage and my insurance company were informed. I've now been told she's claiming she has whiplash and her insurance company have said her car is unroadworthy but I don't know if that can be fixed or is it a right off. Can anyone help me
 
Especially if it's an older car, it can very easily be written off due to minor damage - on the basis that it is beyond economic repair to fix e.g. car worth €1000, repairs €1200.
Note that you will see cars like this come back onto the road as some mechanics or amateurs will repair them themselves.

An unroadworthy car can be fixed. It all depends on how much it would cost to fix. If the quote to fix is too high, it could then be written off.
 
Are they saying her car is unroadworthy as a result of the accident?

Saying it's unroadworthy means there's an issue with the car that would make it unsafe to drive.

Write offs fall into 2 categories - economical and safety. If the cost to repair is a significant percentage of the value of the car, then the insurance company deems it an economic write off. If the car has been very badly damaged, it falls into the category where it would be unsafe to attempt a repair.
 
Lisa Madden said:
I've now been told she's claiming she has whiplash and her insurance company have said her car is unroadworthy but I don't know if that can be fixed or is it a right off. Can anyone help me
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Insurance company should be dealing directly with the issue. Main issue for you as that you will lose your no claims bonus. Cost of repairs etc should be of no direct concern for you!!
 
Thanks people, apparently it is unroadworthy because of the accident, however I only had a dent (about 4 inches) above my front passenger tyre and no glass was broken (headlights etc) it really was just a slight bang, for lack of a better word, feeling very annoyed right now
 
A €20,000 car be unroadworthy due to a broken €250 headlamp. The fact the headlamp is broken, makes it unroadworthy. The two scenarios are as different as chalk and cheese.
 
Thank you, that's put my mind at rest, I've had shopping trolleys hit me harder, yet whiplash is the easy option for anyone to sue!
 
Lisa Madden said:
Thank you, that's put my mind at rest, I've had shopping trolleys hit me harder, yet whiplash is the easy option for anyone to sue!
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I always find it strange that people think it's ok to steal from an insurance company but don't think it's ok to break into someone's house and steal their TV. It's the same thing.
 
Is anyone here medically qualified to assess low velocity impacts on soft tissue?
So I wouldn't be so hasty to judge... they were in an accident through no fault of their own. They have to take time out of work to sort their care, get checked out medically... If they have no medical card and there's a chance of whiplash, there goes hundreds of euros never mind the time spent at physio, exercising etc.
Now maybe in this case they are chancing it, but I would don't always assume that everyone who claims for whiplash is.
 
Purple said:
I always find it strange that people think it's ok to steal from an insurance company but don't think it's ok to break into someone's house and steal their TV. It's the same thing.
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I agree, apparently if it's genuine and they have to take time off work and need to have treatment then they normally sue privately as an insurance company will only pay out so much, if you want more then you have to sue the person directly, however then you need to provide proof and any physio worth anything will be able to tell if they're lying or not ! Which is why they find out first if your fully comp or not, and to me that is stealing
 
Lisa Madden said:
...Which is why they find out first if your fully comp or not
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That's not the case. Fully comprehensive or not has no bearing on the other parties ability to claim any and all costs from you. Any claims the other party makes against you is covered by the third-party element of your policy.
 
odyssey06 said:
Is anyone here medically qualified to assess low velocity impacts on soft tissue?
So I wouldn't be so hasty to judge... they were in an accident through no fault of their own. They have to take time out of work to sort their care, get checked out medically... If they have no medical card and there's a chance of whiplash, there goes hundreds of euros never mind the time spent at physio, exercising etc.
Now maybe in this case they are chancing it, but I would don't always assume that everyone who claims for whiplash is.
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You are right but I only have a slight dent above my front passenger tyre, I was stationary and we collided after I drove off ( must have been 10mph at the most) I hit the back drivers side of her car, I totally admitted liability and wasn't worried as it was just a "clip" but now I feel let down and angry, there must be so many genuine cases who don't claim because of people lying just to get money
 
Lisa Madden said:
You are right but I only have a slight dent above my front passenger tyre, I was stationary and we collided after I drove off ( must have been 10mph at the most) I hit the back drivers side of her car, I totally admitted liability and wasn't worried as it was just a "clip" but now I feel let down and angry, there must be so many genuine cases who don't claim because of people lying just to get money
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Unfortunately with these kinds of injuries, it's hard to diagnose independently, it's really about self-reporting of symptoms, missing of work etc and so to separate the genuine from the chancers is tricky... that part of the body really isn't meant to be shunted around, even from a knock at a low velocity like 10 mph. So if it makes you feel better about their claim and that you are not being take advantage of, maybe give them the benefit of the doubt.
Their car will be assessed independently, or at least should be, by an assessor on behalf of the insurance company. It cant fake its symptoms so unless there was damage before or after your collision there's less scope there.
I remember my aging car being hit at lower speeds than in your incident from the rear and could not believe it when assessor said there was a chance the car would be written off. Thankfully the repair quote came in as less than the value of the car and the car is still on the road today.
 
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You really need to put it behind you.
You had a knock in the car which was your fault but it was a very minor incident. It could happen to anyone.
It's the reason that you have insurance and it's the insurance companies responsibility to sort it out.

You don't know that they are faking an injury. I know a few people with lifelong pain from a very minor car accident.
Its very upsetting and potentially sore to be rear-ended even at very low speeds.

Its also irrelevant to you as its the insurance companies responsibility.

Feeling annoyed is only hurting you. Be thankful that you are ok and no-one was badly hurt. Its always best to live life in the present and let go of things in the past.
 
Lisa Madden said:
they normally sue privately as an insurance company will only pay out so much, if you want more then you have to sue the person directly, however then you need to provide proof and any physio worth anything will be able to tell if they're lying or not ! Which is why they find out first if your fully comp or not, and to me that is stealing
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I can completely understand why you are upset - it is galling to see someone who appears (to you) to be profiting from your mistake.

You need to understand that they are actually suing you "directly" and "privately", but you pay your insurance company to deal with it all, including whatever monies need to be paid out. The proofs required will be the same whether or not you had an insurance company to act on your behalf, although mibi pick up the slack for uninsured drivers anyway, so it's not really relevant in your case.

Fully comp cover just means that the insurance will pay to fix your car as well as the person you hit (if necessary) and makes no difference to the other party. In fact, with mibi, it doesn't really make that much difference to them whether you had insurance at all.
 
I was in a car accident years ago. I was stopped at traffic lights on a frosty morning when the person behind me took a little longer to brake than they thought and slid into me. The bump was gentle enough that my first thought was that I had taken my foot off the clutch and the car had jumped. When I checked, there was no damage to my car as it had a hitch, but the front number plate on the other car was dented/broken. We didn't exchange details as I didn't think there was any need. The next morning I woke up with a stiff sore neck, which had gone away again by the day after that. It doesn't have to be a big accident to cause whiplash. Soft tissue damage is notoriously hard to diagnose.
 
Its not just Lisa that would be sued, exaggerated claims effect us all. We all know this carry-on is rampant and entertained in Ireland.
I have mentioned before that, it seems if you dont capitalize on someones misfortune, then you`re the idiot, and, often think if people are that delicate, they should have protective padding around them.
I accept there are genuine cases out there, who get an impact, and suffer whiplash. Its because its abused, that we cant seem to differentiate between the genuine and not so genuine, so it then begs the question, are we really such a feeble nation. Why are we so different from other European nations, that we need 3 times the compensation to make us better, and magically skip out of the courts, or it just Ireland, that has a problem with the soft tissue diagnoses ?
 
LS400 said:
Why are we so different from other European nations, that we need 3 times the compensation to make us better, and magically skip out of the courts, or it just Ireland, that has a problem with the soft tissue diagnoses ?
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I'm sure there are dodgy cases everywhere, UK or Spanish people (or politicians!) do not appear any more or less honest than Irish.
I imagine medical bills in UK or Spain for these kind of things would be a fraction of the cost of paying for rehabilitation privately here at €50 per physiotherapy session. The costs there are externalized onto their public medical system. And we know that the government here have refused to implement IMF recommendations in terms of costs of legal services.
 
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