written off

  • Thread starter familyvalues
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familyvalues

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My partner was involved in a crash where it wasnt her fault and the car was written off, She decided to get the car repaired as it was just body damage, Her insurance was involved as the other person accepted full responsiblity. Now i am insured on the vehicle and not her, I'm just worried that if i had a crash would i still be payed out after it has been written off?
it has NCT, Tax, Insurance.
 
familyvalues said:
Her insurance was involved as the other person accepted full responsiblity.
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I assume you mean wasn't involved?

I'm no expert, but my guess is that driving a car that has previously been written off is fraught with complications.
 
Interesting point: Does "written off" for insurance mean that, legally, a car should be scrapped? what really happens such cars? I would imagine that if you had a crash in a "written off" car, adn it was discovered that the reason for the crash was an inherent fault in the repair of such a car, then insurance would not pay out. Othe than that, it would appear that there is no way of knowing that the car was previously "written off".

(I would advise OP to edit title as it doesn't reflect the topic clearly)
 
Welfarite said:
Other than that, it would appear that there is no way of knowing that the car was previously "written off".
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But surely at insurance renewal time at least, something would be flagged up - would insurance companies not have a shared data base for something like this? "Reg. no. xxx written off by company x at whatever date" Maybe not...
 
I believe that written of mean that it could cost more to fix the car with new parts than the market value of the car is. For example a 1990 starlet could be written of for damage to two doors as the cost of replacing the doors and the labour could be more than the market value of the car.

If you are driving a car that has been written of before you will not get the open market value for the car. The insurance will discount the value of the car to reflect the previous damage. There is a large market in the UK of damaged car sold for repair they all have different categories of damage.
 
As stated above there are different categories of damage.

I had a 02 corolla with a repair bill of 6,800 + vat. since the value of the car post repair would have been 9K rather than getting the car fixed and ending up with a car I could never sell on (due to the amount of work done), the insurance company agreed to classify it as beyond economic repair.

I just sold it as salvage (2.2K) and took the cheque (6.8K) from the insurance company, bringing me back to 9K value.

As part of this I had to sign some declarations and send in a copy of the vehicle licensing certificate. I assume this is how they track whether it has been written off before.
 
A car that's written off is simply (as stated above) betond ecconomical repair. Insurance companies will usually work to a percentage of the agreed market value and often can be negotiable about writting off a vehicle (again, as stated above).

There are however, no laws about what actually happens to that vehicle after it's condemned. I've known of individuals buying the vehicle back from their insurers (as once a car is written off it becomes the property of the insurance company) and there are traders that specialise in write offs.

If the vehicle is repaired however, it will always be known as a write off as this is recorded and shows up when checked (cat. A, B and C in UK HPI checks for example) so you will never buy a car without knowing.

Depending on the age, type of damage and quality of the repair a write off can be just as safe as an undamaged car and therefore a good bargain. However... as always... caveat emptor!!!

To answer the OP, the current insurance company should probably be made aware this is a previous write off (if they haven't found out already from the car's reg number) and if there ever were an accident (touch wood... fingers crossed... lightening striking twice and all that) you should be paid out as normal but to a lower value that reflects the cars status.
 
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PetrolHead said:
If the vehicle is repaired however, it will always be known as a write off as this is recorded and shows up when checked (cat. A, B and C in UK HPI checks for example) so you will never buy a car without knowing.
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How is it recorded in Ireland?
 


the insurance company agreed to classify it as beyond economic repair. I just sold it as salvage
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Fago76 From what I'm reading "beyond economic repair" is the same as a write off. How did you manage to retain the car and sell if for salvage, if, as another poster says the car becomes the property of the insurance company?. My neighbour has been involved in a crash and is expecting an assesser to call this week so any advice you can give would be helpful. Thanks.
 
As previosuly posted here, insurance companies, in order to save themselves money, will put a salvage value on a car and leave it in the possession of the insured, and pay to he insured the balance of their version of "fair market value" where they deem a car to be an "economic write off" i.e. not worth repairing. see post no 6 above by fago76.

I'm not sure about here, but in the UK, insurance companies categorize write-offs and some "write-offs" can go back on the road, once repaired and inspected.

As I say what happens in this jurisdiction is a bit of a mystery to me.
 

Its a write off as the car is too expensive to repair (easy with current labour prices and parts), however the mechanical damage is not to the chassis/subframe/steering etc which make the car dangerous to fix.

In my case they give me the cost of repairs less vat, you keep possession of the car. However I don't believe you can get it repaired for less money, you either get it repaired at that estimate or negotiate to write it off (as I did). As I said in my case I had to send in a photocopy of the vehicle licensing cert so I assume they would use this to track the fact its an economic write off.

I left my car with the panel beaters who had done the estimate. I know him well and he had planned to do it as a project on the side, when things were quiet. He could make a profit on it as the labour costs were in his control.
 
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