car write offs

[brick2]

I was recently involved in an accident and my insurance company has decided that my car is a write off. Yesterday they phoned to say they would be arranging to have the car taken away and have asked for insurance certificate, mot certificate, registration document and spare key. Is this normal procedure for write offs these days and should I allow them to do this?

[Ethel]

Yes, perfectly normal - the vehicle will be theirs to dispose of as they see fit.

[NORMANTHEDOG]

as ethel says,your insurance company can do what they like with the car as its their property,they have paid you out or will be,so what they do with it is their problem,if you want to keep it and get it repaired ask them how much they want for it.

[brick2]

Thanks for that guys. Looks like I'll be searching for another one then!

[gouldc]

It's technically up to you - you are within your rights to ask to retain the salvage, but the insurer doesn't necessarily have to let you.

It all depends on the extent of the damage and the category placed on the salvage.

It's worth noting that an insurer won't necessarily have all the damage estimated, so there could well be a lot of undocumented repairs that could end up costing you more money that you get to put right if you do decide to keep it and repair it yourself

[brick2]

Many thanks GouldC

[someonesgirl]

i had a corsa that got written off (some kids nicked it and wrecked it). They never asked me for any of those documents. And never accept the first offer of price they give you either! I laughed at the offer they gave me and they offered me more. Sounds like they just want to sell it to someone else, sounds dodgy.

[tali1]

afaik only in 3rd party claim can one keep the write off vehicle, if its your own insurers then it is their choice not yours

[atrixo]

I agree with the comment that this is perfectly normal. If the insurance company pays you claim money for this write off, the car IS their property - if it is a write off they will sell it as salvage which is a way for them to recollect some of the money they have paid you.. . by giving them the relevant documentation to go with the car it prevents car fraud.

[someonesgirl]

i cant see why they should need to salvage back the money they paid you!! thats what you pay your insurance for each month! so they probably havent actually paid you anything!!

[confused79]

I had the optionof buying back my car when it was written off, it was only a cat D write off so i had �150 taken off the final fee they paid me just so i could keep it, i then used it for spares for my new car which saved me a bomb, sometimes its worthwhile keeping it, uit depends on the damage and cat. write off.

But it is common practice to take all the bits they have asked for.

[Cockney_si]

The car is actually not theirs until you have th money back from them.

I had to contest this with an insurance company a while back. I held back on all the documents until I had the cheque cleared in my bank as once they've got it they can give you back pennies for it.

[REMINDER 5]

someonesgirl, i totally agree with you. let make a sample example, also with insurence. one buy a personal injury insurence, and one have a really bad accident, one's arm got cut off, now the insurence company got pay for the injury, but one still can keep the arm. i think it is the same principle here. anybody agree!??

[brick2]

Thanks for all your help guys. Unfortunately, the outcome has been that they made it a category B write off which means I couldn't keep it as i wouldn't have been able to retax or insure it. The guy that took it away on a lorry said it was a scanda l as it was not that badly damaged and he had at least three others that he'd collected that morning which were far worse. it was simply the age of the car. Still they did give me six hundred quid for it, so it could have been worse! Thanks again.