Told car was written off but unsure as who owns the car ?

[arsenal6166]

I had an accident in January and was advised the car was a write off as repair cam to 3k and car was valued at 3.4k, since then the insurance have sent me a cheque payout for 3.4k and have asked for me to V5 which i havent.

Now i have recieved a letter from DVLA stating they havebeen requested for change of ownership, What should i do and are the insurance able to change ownership without my authority and by telling me the vehicle is a write off total loos when it wasnot true???

[cazzz1975]

once you accept the cheque, the vehicle becomes the property of the insurance company. somebody may buy that vehicle off the insurance company and repair it themselves at less than full garage costs.

the car is nothing to do with you anymore as you have accepted the cheque, you should send back the V5 to the insurance company then tell DVLA .

DVLA have contacted you because you have not sent the V5 back to the insurance company, you no longer own the car.

[arsenal6166]

Thankyou for reply, even though they advised me it was not repairable? is that the case?

[cazzz1975]

yes, the insurance company are waiting to scrap the vehicle or even sell it which is unlikely, in order to scrap it they need the V5 which is still in your name, they need to take ownership (hence the change of ownership) then scrap it.

they bought the car off you for 3.4k so as they are the owners they need the v5. you are legally obliged to hand over the V5 as you could be done for fraud especially if you have banked the 3.4k you received

[carrot99]

They may just need proof of their ownership of the car to have it scrapped or sold for parts.

[cazzz1975]

its not economically repairable that is why it is written off, if you decided to keep the car and reject the 3.4k they would give you the car and a lot less money( if any) leaving you with the problem of finding someone to repair it.

overall the repair costs almost as much as the car is worth deeming it uneconomical.

[gouldc]

What happens is this.

The car is declared a total loss - dependent on the level of damage, the car can still be repairable, although not necessarily economically so - i.e. they valued your car at �3500, but repairs come to �4000, so it's cheaper to write it off.

Once settled, the car becomes ours, and we send it to a salvage agent who then pays us a percentage of the retail value.

The car then becomes the property of the salvage agent. They then auction the car (dependent on the level of damage), and either a member of the public, or a trader, then buys the salvage for spares or repair.

Once they purchase the car, it is generally at this point that the DVLA send you the letter - the insurance company will never register the car in their name, and the salvage company will just send the transer to the motor trade slip, which again won't trigger the DVLA letter.

Hopefully that should give you a bit of better insight into the insurance circle of life!