149 replies to this topic

[oli8925]

just did this online, think they are well harsh as they offered me £150!!!! but even if you tripled it and i think you said your excesses were around £600, it looks bad.

sorry oli - maybe not claiming at all is still the most viable thing. plus don't let them take her because you'll never get her back

clicky

ouch. just did it and they cant get me an instant online quote. im going to give my insurance company another call. im getting very worried now! but still if the claim hasnt been settled then my car is still in my possession. ill make sure it doesnt leave the front of the house

reallly sorry man! like most people have said, your o.k & its material in the end of the day & your fine, good luck rebuilding x

thanks. i know im very lucky to just have been able to open the door and walk out with a couple of cuts and bruises. thanks for the support

[WiredbyWilson]

thats the ticket mate. don't let them take it anywhere as you own it!!

hopefully you will get a nice assesor who may give you some advice

[oli8925]

thats the ticket mate. don't let them take it anywhere as you own it!!

hopefully you will get a nice assesor who may give you some advice

i really do hope do. its about time i had some luck. the past couple of weeks have been quite unlucky. sunday before last at work i managed to pour boiling water all over my right hand and things just havent been going right since. although i guess it was lucky i managed to escape work in time last sunday.

just called insurers, they have a useless automated system so it took ages to actually get to speak to anyone
but talked to a girl who seemed quite understanding and said she'd try to get an engineer out to me so the car didnt leave the premises, then she'd get them to call me back. *fingers crossed* *touch wood*

oh and that website have just offered me £135 wheels cost more than that!

Edited by oli8925, 05 September 2008 - 12:22 PM.

[minicooper1.3i]

I know kinda how you're feeling as I had a low speed skid in the wet and bent every one of the brand new panels fitted to the front of my old SPi Cooper years ago. Still got it in a garage all bent.

In my instance, I was fully comp and I let the insurance company take it away for valuation. I had £300 excess and they offered me a payout of £700. If I accepted, I'd get the car back for free and it wouldn't be on the HPi register. This is because as I wanted the car back, any settlements over a grand would mean I would have to buy it back from them at a percentage of the scrap value. I argued with them for months as I'd just spent £1000 on panels and welding, but because it wasn't painted at the time, they refused to payout anymore depite my having receipts etc. So i got the car back with the intention of doing it again but never got around to it.

With regards to finding a value for yours, never ever ever go by the book price. They never seem to take into account the increasing scarcity of Mini's. The insurance companies inital offer will be pathetic, because they're not in the business of giving away money. So to argue your case, get as many recent adverts for similar base and modded cars as you can find and get copies of them. Do an appeal on here for anyone else with a modded motor like yours who may have an agreed valuation. Basically, just gather as much evidence as you can to proove your car is worth more. And if you're still not happy, or they're being complete knobs, you can always appeal their decision to the insurance ombudsman.

Best of luck with resolving this.

[Dom]

Devasting Oli.

Glad your ok.

All the best in sorting it.

[oli8925]

thanks dom and minicooper.

just had a call from a recovery service saying my insurer had told them to take my car away. i told him id called them a while ago to ask for an engineer to come out rather than for you to take my car away. he chuckled for a bit then said 'ah, dont you love it when they do this' so clearly its not uncommon. he said he'd cancel the transport and tell my insurance i wanted to keep the car.

ill give them a little longer then im calling them to have a little chin wag.

but at least it looks like babys staying here with me now

Edited by oli8925, 05 September 2008 - 02:48 PM.

[hellosio]

oh my, that is so upsetting! i am sending e-hugs! you sound like you need them x

[WiredbyWilson]

anymore news on this oli?

spoke to my uncle and a few others and found out a bit more about pulling her straight again etc

Wilson

[oli8925]

oh my, that is so upsetting! i am sending e-hugs! you sound like you need them x

thank you! e-hugs are much appreciated

anymore news on this oli?

spoke to my uncle and a few others and found out a bit more about pulling her straight again etc

Wilson

no more news, not for the weekend. ill call my insurers tomorrow morning and see what they have to say about messing up with the evaluter guy and all that. then see when they'll be able to get one over etc. still havent been able to get my hands on her properly and pull the carpet out, get the bonnet up etc to see the full extent of the damage.

thanks, what did they have to say? is there a limit to what it can do? as the sills have crumpled a bit and bent and so too would the floor pans i would guess. how much is possible? ive been looking at second hand shells (not to buy yet, just for an idea) but they seem quite expensive for a decent shell. for ease of reg transfer i would ideally like a 89< shell but there arent any ive seen. if i did get a new shell id make this one into a trailer.

whatever shell i have i will get shotblasted anyway so i can do away with all rust.

[Ethel]

Sadly, you can't legitimately repair the car with a secondhand shell (unless you get it assessed and put it on a q plate). I don't know what would happen if you offered to contribute the extra to repair the car with a new shell. In theory once your insurers pay out the car becomes their property so I'm not sure that you could compel them to offer it to you to buy back as a damaged repairable.

[WiredbyWilson]

they said it might be do-able but would need to see how much damage had been done - so will need to get the bonnet open and carpets up. probably means I would need to pop round to pass the knowldeg of damage on to them.

[oli8925]

Sadly, you can't legitimately repair the car with a secondhand shell (unless you get it assessed and put it on a q plate). I don't know what would happen if you offered to contribute the extra to repair the car with a new shell. In theory once your insurers pay out the car becomes their property so I'm not sure that you could compel them to offer it to you to buy back as a damaged repairable.

how do you mean? can i not get a shell, or another mini for that fact, and use bits off mine to build that one? then somehow (dont know if its actually possible) take the reg to that car as a personal plate type thing?

otherwise i expect itll cost thousands to repair this one, so i guess would be better to buy a whole brand new heritage shell. which i had considered even before the accident for the rebuild.

i think it was jackman who reshelled into a second hand shell when he found too much rot on his original shell to economically repair it. at least i think i saw that in his project thread ages ago. maybe i should talk to him.

they said it might be do-able but would need to see how much damage had been done - so will need to get the bonnet open and carpets up. probably means I would need to pop round to pass the knowldeg of damage on to them.

anytime you want to come over to see it you can if it helps im pretty sure the bulkhead has bent but cant say how much, inner arches have obviously bent and ive said about the floor pans and sills. windscreen surronds bent. futher back from that i cant notice any damage. hopefully ill be able to examine the car a lot more closely after tomorrow.

Edited by oli8925, 07 September 2008 - 07:14 PM.

[oli8925]

my insurers are messing up again! called them up to ask about an evaluator and why they didnt call me back. they said an engineer was dispatched this morning and they gave me his companys number. called them up and as far as theyre concerned they havent recieved any instructions to come out and look at my car. theyll call me when they recieve the instructions to book a time. apparently my insurers are sending them my details now...fat chance! at least i still have my min

[Ethel]

You can keep a registration number - cherished number scheme, but I'm pretty sure you can't transfer it to a car on a Q plate. I suppose the solution might be to "restore" a newer Mini using parts off your car then transfer the registration. A lot of mucking about as you'd have to put your registration on to a retainer and, I think, get a new registration number issued for your car before you scrapped it

Just remember all this bureaucracy exists for our benefit

[WiredbyWilson]

i didn't think you had a personal plate oli?

if you haven't you won't be able to transfer the reg off baby to another mini. as that would constitute "ringing" as the chassis number wouldn't tie up with the reg - and forget taking the chassis number over to as that is simply illegal.

keep us up to date with the insurance fun and games