Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Car Chat => Topic started by: rockabilly on 11 November 2013, 12:48:10
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My sons car was out side the house, last Saturday night when it was scraped down the side by a drunk driver, the police have arrested the idiot and he will appear in court in December
Now the question is I don’t know what to do with the insurance for him ,never having this happen to us in the past., the idiots insurance have admitted liability ,but the repair assessors the my sons insurance company have sent out, have written the car off..
Now the car is a 54 plate BMW convertible E46 with 65000 miles on the clock one owner from new, the scrape is all down the side from front to back.
The good points are there is hardly any dent there is some lost trim and the door mirror is missing.
The bad point is the scrap near the back looks like when you graze your skin, it is not bent just worn away quite badly.
The car never moved away from the road on impact so I don’t think the geometry is out.
My question is do you think he can fight this write of action from the repair shop and have the car put back on the road
Or at least have the car brought back home for another valuation on the damage.
I hate the thought that the car will be sold at auction for a pittance the repaid and put pack on the road may be with a category C add to the doc.
Any help would be much appreciated
Rockabilly
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If it's already been declared a write off it can't be reversed. You might be able to arrange to buy it back, though.
In the first instance I would demand to have the car delivered back then take it to a repairer you trust for a second quotation, send it to the 3rd party's insurance company and tell them they're liable to pay it.
They are obliged to put you in the position you were in prior to the accident, so don't accept a write off and derisory payout. I would be quite surprised if the repair would cost the true cost of replacing with a car of the same standard.
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Going by recent experience with SWTSMBO'd clit .. they will over price the repair, and undervalue the car in order to write it off, as you are then only entitled to a hire car as a replacement for 7 days from when they write it off. If they were to repair it you have a replacement car until the work is finished.
It is therefore cheaper for them to pay out an undervalued sum and short hire car charges than a full repair and couple of weeks hire car charges.
Case law changed a while back, and basically you cannot insist the car is fixed if you can buy a replacement for the valued price.
Of course, the valued price is the problem ... they only use prices you have no access to (Glasses etc) and the FCO actually agree with the Insurers that an advertised price is not a true price .. you are expected to haggle !! and the distance you go is irrelevent.
If there is a car "they" think is suitable you are expected to go wherever, haggle ,and BTW .... colour is NOT a consideration.
You cannot claim for the loss of value for the Cat C/D tag, or the cost of the VIC that you'll need.
So much for the insurance putting you in the same position you were before the incident.. :(
The whole thing stinks.
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All the more reason to insist on a repair at this stage.. although they might well have ensured that it's too late by now.
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All the more reason to insist on a repair at this stage.. although they might well have ensured that it's too late by now.
You can't ... if they can show the FOS that they have followed "the guidelines" (which you cannot get a copy of), and the cost of the (overpriced) repair is more then 60% of the (undervalued) value of the car, then they write it off and you have no comeback at all .. even though you, legally, own the car.
Been there, got the T-shirt , and in the middle of a formal complaint both too, and about, the FOS.
:(
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Try and get first refusal on buy back. Where is car now?
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At a Auto body repair shop in Bristol our son has been told? it could be left in a recovery compound ,we just dont know, the email only came through on the assesors findings yesterday.
Also to you all, I cant thank you all enough, for the guidance on what to lookout for and action to take.
Has I said 45 years of driving never had this happend, ever, but O`well,welcome to the real world.
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First rule... NEVER EVER LET THE CAR LEAVE YOUR PROPERTY.
Chances are that car will belong to someone associated to the repairers before the end of the week :-\
If you retainnthe car at your property there are no storage charges, it can still be estimated there and if you don't agree with the assessment/estimate you can realistically get a 2nd or 3rd opinion.
You also then have the option to get the car repaired yourself and sue the third party for the cost...
Sounds like that might all be too late here though :-\
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Latest up date, our sons just emailed us to say the car can be bought for £500.0.0 and given a cat C for Insurance and we could have it repaired. The best news is, and has you said with a little haggle he has been offerd £5,400 pound damadges,
he now has 2 days to make up his mine what to do.
Rockabilly
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Always throw the first offer back at them, as they'll be trying it on.
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Seems very wrong to have to buy your own car back....
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If I've read that right, he gets £4900 plus his car back :-\
I would have thought it could be fixed for that without being written off.... does stink a bit :-\
But guess it's already a Cat C, so nothing is going to change that :-\ Onanists >:(