38 replies to this topic

[Se7enS1ns]

So I’ve just had a phonecall from my dad on behalf of "some bloke" for some advice that is beyond the extent of my knowledge, so said I’d ask on here instead. This is third-hand, so please excuse the inaccuracies or vagueness of details;

Ok so this guy has a mini, model unknown to me but pretty tidy by all accounts - or was! A few weeks ago when the wind was pretty bad, the cast iron drainpipe on the side of his house fell off, and landed on his mini. By all accounts, the damage is pretty severe, crushed the roof rail and B-post pretty badly, and the A and C posts have been pulled inwards too. He then had a bit of a ‘mare with the insurance companies (both home insurance and car insurance pointing fingers at one another). The end result is that his car insurance have paid out, but deemed the vehicle to be a Category A write-off due to “serious and excessive structural damage”. The car has been retained on the salvage retention element of his insurance, so he thought about reshelling it.

He has been informed that he can’t do this as the vehicle identity is recorded as a Cat A, which apparently is not allowed to be on the road again, ever, regardless of repair? Is this true? If so, what are his options other than stripping it and buying a full mini and transferring bits over, or is that the only option?

[Shifty]

As far as I'm aware that car is now for parts only.

[R1minimagic]

Cat A cannot go back on the road again and i dont think you are allowed to use parts off it either.

[Se7enS1ns]

Yeah that pretty much rings true with what he's been informed. Shame as it only the shell that's taken a beating, interior, subframes and engine are all fine by all accounts. Guessing he'll just buy a rolling shell then maybe and swap everything over.

[Sam14]

He can just scrape the shell and Sort out the V5 with the dvla and destroy reg plates and he would have to buy another mini unfortunately, Shame it was home insurance they wouldnt of written the car off

[Scallywag630]

I'm surprised he was allowed to keep it. This is from an insurance web site:

Insurance Loss Categories - Quick reference
* Category A - Must be crushed. All of it.
* Category B - Vehicle may not be returned to road but parts may be sold.
* Category C - Repairable. Significant damage. Cost of the repair is more than book value of vehicle at dealer rates.
* Category D - Repairable. Probably non-structural damage. May have been economic to repair, but insurer doesn't want to.
* Category X - Repairable. Minor Damage

Category AThe vehicle may not be resold it must be crushed. Severely damaged, total burnout or flood damage with no serviceable parts, or already a stripped out shell. DVLA will require a Notification of Destruction.

Edited by Scallywag630, 29 September 2011 - 02:04 PM.

[AndyMiniMad.]

I would tell him to get in touch with the insurance company and ask for it to be reclassified.. No way it should have been a cat A write off. And thats not just me being a biased mini fan...It should have the option to be re shelled.

[Se7enS1ns]

Yeah Cat A does sound drastic. I'm surprised they let him keep it on salvage retention then if he's not even allowed to strip it as per above!

[JakeJakeJake]

Usually Cat A write offs are a lot more gruesome

[Se7enS1ns]

I dont know much about it, I've not even seen the car persoanlly, but I'm guessin it was categorised as A due to 3 separate structural points being affected, 4 if you include the roof seam its self. Apparently the roof seam is as low as the lower window frame at its worst point, with the B post folded in half.

[minidream94]

Even if it has been written off as a CAT A, he has the car, get it stripped NOW before they take it and crush it

[Se7enS1ns]

Well this is the thing, "they" aren't going to take it and crush it, they've left that responsibility to him to sort out, still has the logbook and everything!

[minidream94]

OO fair enough, ummm thats weird then because they should have taken it and crushed it :/

[Se7enS1ns]

Yeah maybe, not sure how it works in that respect when you've got salvage retention.

[Ethel]

Sounds highly iffy. Cat A's are usually "emotionally sensitive" i.e. someone died and the rellies don't want to be reminded by seeing the car back on the road, or hazardous to repair i.e. fire damaged. Hard to see how this qualifies, and equally irresponsible of the insurers to mark it as a hazard without taking responsibility for the disposal.

But it does sound like the only legitimate way to get it back on the road would be a brand new heritage shell, if they changed it to cat C.