10 replies to this topic

[paulfoel]

Wife recently bought a 1987 mini. Special edition imported from Japan. Paid £3500 for it. Immaculate condition 20k miles.

Anyway, with Aviva, changed insurance over. At the time, I made a point of saying it was worth more than normal i.e. £3500.
Some silly cow went into the back of it in the car park the other day. Not a great deal of damage but needs new boot, new corner etc.

Now Aviva are looking to write if off !!!! Somethings tells me they're not going to offer £3500.
For a start, I dont want to write it off anyway for a small amount of damage. They did mention that they could make a payment instead.

However, wont the car forever then be listed as written off and so impossible to sell in the future ???

I could wring the young girls neck who hit it to be honest. Large car parking area in front of shops and she managed to hit one of two cars there because she was on her phone at the time !!! (and we've got witnesses).

Really wish I'd phoned the police at the time and kicked up a fuss now.

Needless to say I'll go with specialist classic car insurance next time...

[Stevee]

if they write it off you can buy it back

to be honest if it was a little damage i wouldnt even got to insurance company

there a waste of time most of the time

[Guess-Works.com]

Sounds like you've fallen foul of the 'mini insured without an AGREED valuation', they will take trade value on the vehicle pre-accident and start there, look to get offered something below 1k, and then haggle...

If you have an invoice for the vehicle then you can certainly use that as ammunition.

[mike174]

Iv just had similar problems with aviva after some one reversed straight back in to my cooper but it got fixed in the end under insurance just insist on it being fixed and kick up a fuss.

Mike

[cambiker71]

Wife recently bought a 1987 mini. Special edition imported from Japan. Paid £3500 for it. Immaculate condition 20k miles.

Anyway, with Aviva, changed insurance over. At the time, I made a point of saying it was worth more than normal i.e. £3500.
Some silly cow went into the back of it in the car park the other day. Not a great deal of damage but needs new boot, new corner etc.

Now Aviva are looking to write if off !!!! Somethings tells me they're not going to offer £3500.
For a start, I dont want to write it off anyway for a small amount of damage. They did mention that they could make a payment instead.

However, wont the car forever then be listed as written off and so impossible to sell in the future ???

I could wring the young girls neck who hit it to be honest. Large car parking area in front of shops and she managed to hit one of two cars there because she was on her phone at the time !!! (and we've got witnesses).

Really wish I'd phoned the police at the time and kicked up a fuss now.

Needless to say I'll go with specialist classic car insurance next time...

Are you claiming from your insurance? Or hers?

If hers then they're obliged to put right all damage caused, it's what insurance is for.

[paulfoel]

Thing is I phoned my insurance in the first instance because I thought, job done, they'd just get the other insurer to cough up no problem.

Might have been better I think if I'd just gone straight to the 3rd party insurer. I might end up having to try and cancel my claim and do this now. After all, like someone said they've got to put any damage right.

My insurer are talking about writing it off. I guess they can give me £1000, charge the other company that, and everyones happy apart from me.

How do insurers define market value? If its parkers or glasses guides then thats useless for most decent minis.

When all this is sorted unless they can guarantee to me that its insured for what its worth (i.e. £3500) rather than £1000 or whatevers in their book, they can sod off and I'll get proper insurance.

All this hassle because some dozy bint was on her mobile driving into the car park.... FFS !!!!

[paulfoel]

Sounds like you've fallen foul of the 'mini insured without an AGREED valuation', they will take trade value on the vehicle pre-accident and start there, look to get offered something below 1k, and then haggle...

If you have an invoice for the vehicle then you can certainly use that as ammunition.

Sounds like. But I've only had the car less than a month and paid £3500 for it !!!!

How successful am I going to be haggling?

[paulfoel]

Iv just had similar problems with aviva after some one reversed straight back in to my cooper but it got fixed in the end under insurance just insist on it being fixed and kick up a fuss.

Mike

Aviva it is with me.

[minidaves]

i know one of the engineers and he has always been fair, depends where you live, but if your policy says 3500 as value then they as a rule have entered a contract and have agreed the value of the item of £3500. Because I will tell you if you under insure ie 2000 for a 4000 item they will pay pro-rata the rate for it so you have insured it for 50% less so will pay out for repairs to only 1000 no matter what.

its getting more dificult and you need to keep the car and speak to the engineer, or get it to a specialist repairer that know what they are doing

dave

[paulfoel]

i know one of the engineers and he has always been fair, depends where you live, but if your policy says 3500 as value then they as a rule have entered a contract and have agreed the value of the item of £3500. Because I will tell you if you under insure ie 2000 for a 4000 item they will pay pro-rata the rate for it so you have insured it for 50% less so will pay out for repairs to only 1000 no matter what.

its getting more dificult and you need to keep the car and speak to the engineer, or get it to a specialist repairer that know what they are doing

dave

Got it all sorted in the end.

Wondering now whether to get proper classic car insurance at renewal time (march) or even ditch my current insurance anyway and start a new one now.

[andydclements]

Wife recently bought a 1987 mini. Special edition imported from Japan. Paid £3500 for it. Immaculate condition 20k miles.

Anyway, with Aviva, changed insurance over. At the time, I made a point of saying it was worth more than normal i.e. £3500.
Some silly cow went into the back of it in the car park the other day. Not a great deal of damage but needs new boot, new corner etc.

Now Aviva are looking to write if off !!!! Somethings tells me they're not going to offer £3500.
For a start, I dont want to write it off anyway for a small amount of damage. They did mention that they could make a payment instead.

However, wont the car forever then be listed as written off and so impossible to sell in the future ???

I could wring the young girls neck who hit it to be honest. Large car parking area in front of shops and she managed to hit one of two cars there because she was on her phone at the time !!! (and we've got witnesses).

Really wish I'd phoned the police at the time and kicked up a fuss now.

Needless to say I'll go with specialist classic car insurance next time...

Are you claiming from your insurance? Or hers?

If hers then they're obliged to put right all damage caused, it's what insurance is for.

Tthey're obliged to return you to the financial position you'd have been in were it not for the damage, it's down to them if they decide to agree to repair it. If they refuse you could try the ombudsman.

Consider a car that's worth £1000, the work to put it right could be several times the values of the car, you don't have an automatic right to demand they repair the car.