Had an accident; InsCo want to write it off. Valuation issues

[Nathanio]

Evening all, 

 

My big brown bus was in an accident this month and is currently with COPART for working out if it is to be repaired or written off. They rang today to say it was due to be written off as the repair cost was too high. They valued it at £4800 initially but came up to £5700 about 10 minutes later. 

 

The difficulty I have is it's an Elegance with L&K pack so has all the goodies. They're giving me a price for an Elegance which doesn't include all the bits mine has. There is 1 Elegance with L&K pack on autotrader but it's a V6 petrol and £13,000! How's best to value something that I can't directly compare to something?

 

COPART have put some conditions around the search spec (same plate year, same model and +/-5000 miles to my car). 

 

TIA for any help.

[ApertureS]

First thing to note, Copart are an absolute horror story and I wouldnt of let them near my car until its decided. Just have a google of the state that some peoples cars are in even after returning from a insurance job. Tanks drained, parts missing, extra damage and all on cars that are just meant to be stored in limbo.

 

Im not saying yours will be in that situation or condition but once its with them, id be looking at taking an offer rather than going anywhere near my car again. 

 

I would be asking for an independent assessment as copart are biased - its in their interest to write the car off and give you bottom dollar for it as they will auction/repair/strip it out for their benefit. 

 

Basically, dont trust copart as far as you can throw them and instead ask your insurer to assess it independently. 

 

 

EDIT: Some reviews for you - https://www.reviews.io/company-reviews/store/copart.co.uk

Edited 31 May, 2022 by ApertureS

[Ootohere]

?

Have you checked yet how it is valued on a Sales Website if you were flogging it. 

That is as pre accident, as it is not written off yet is it?

WBAC, Evan Halshaw, Arnold Clark, Motorway etc. 

 

That is obviously not giving the Buying price of getting one from the places that would have bought it.

That is £1,500 or more. 

Edited 31 May, 2022 by roottoot

[J.R.]

If it was taken to Copart you were never expected to see it again, if you kick up enough fuss and do get it back it will have been given some free VIP treatment as ApertureS has described.

 

I have had several cars written off over the years and always retained the salvage, repaired them & carried on driving a free car with money in the bank. Critically I have never ever allowed any vehicle to be taken to a salvage yard, the pressure put on me from the repeated phone calls by the insurers, loss adjusters, salvage yards & even them turning up insisting that they had to take the vehicle away, that it no longer belonged to me but the insurer shows exactly what financial incentive they all have to get their hands on the vehicle & write it off.

 

You are in a far better bargaining position if you do not let go of the vehicle, once its in the hands of Copart wave goodbye to it and any chance of negotiating a better deal for yourself, instead you will be slapped with punitive storage charges.

[J.R.]

1 hour ago, ApertureS said:

Basically, dont trust copart as far as you can throw them and instead ask your insurer to assess it independently. 

My favorite review:

 

So you cannot currently see the vehicle due to covid and are bidding blindly on things where description is incorrect in most cases! not to mention the loading fee, online bidding fee, highways jacket fee, late fee, storage fee, and many other ripping-off fees all for the sake of a mangled car which I bought listed as "starts and drives" but when it was delivered IT DID NOT EVEN HAVE AN ENGINE!!!!!!!!!! COMPREHEND THIS!!!!

[ApertureS]

15 minutes ago, J.R. said:

If it was taken to Copart you were never expected to see it again, if you kick up enough fuss and do get it back it will have been given some free VIP treatment as ApertureS has described.

 

I have had several cars written off over the years and always retained the salvage, repaired them & carried on driving a free car with money in the bank. Critically I have never ever allowed any vehicle to be taken to a salvage yard, the pressure put on me from the repeated phone calls by the insurers, loss adjusters, salvage yards & even them turning up insisting that they had to take the vehicle away, that it no longer belonged to me but the insurer shows exactly what financial incentive they all have to get their hands on the vehicle & write it off.

 

You are in a far better bargaining position if you do not let go of the vehicle, once its in the hands of Copart wave goodbye to it and any chance of negotiating a better deal for yourself, instead you will be slapped with punitive storage charges.

This sadly hits the nail on the head. Its in everyone but your best interests to take a damaged car away from you as quickly as possible and then offer you money for it. That way they hold all the cards. 

 

Dont be saddened by this though, this a very common practice between insurers and storage yards and 99% of people will follow the same path. They get first dibs on the car and a profit being turned, the insurer gets repaid any monies fairly quickly and you get to see your car nevermore but get a bit of cash in return. 

 

Something else you'll find is recovery companies or breakdown companies when you phone them after an accident to collect your car, you are now their best friend and they will do you every favor in the world to look after your car and put it in storage whilst insurance sorts it out. Why? Well because they can charge massive fees to the insurance company for transportation, storage and any other fees they make up. 

 

 

Sad to say its past that point though, but for your next steps these are what you should do.

- Dont deal with copart, deal with your insurer.

- Make clear to copart and your insurer you wont be parting ways with the car anytime soon and they need to HALT any proceedings to do anything to your car.

- Get an independent assessment and you might find its an economical repair

- Look all over for prices, get as many prices as you can for the most similar cars you can find

- Speak to a company that deal with vehicle accident management - they will deal with it all for you, in return they take a fee but this is charged to your insurer and they work on your behalf and hopefully fight for a better price.

[Nathanio]

Unfortunately they already have the car. I wasn't aware of these issues and should have done more research. 

 

I will be ringing the insurance company tomorrow to get an update from them. 

 

It was a non fault accident which is even more galling as i know have a load of bloody hassle from something that wasn't my fault

[gumdrop]

I had a Micra rear ended the insurance took it away. I had personal stuff in it so I jumped the gun and asked for an independant assessor.

They laughed and sent a car to pick me up and take me to the holding area where I was told to take anything I wanted, So I did, I also had 

a payment for a full tank of fuel!

[gav_is_con]

It’s annoying not to find a similar car when you need to compare values. Prices are still holding up at the moment. The trade is saying there is a slow decline and prices are dropping a little in May. I agree the extra goodies add value.  Take a look on EBay as well as Autotrader. Screenshot everything as soon as you see it. What age and miles are you ?

[cheezemonkhai]

I assume the L&K pack brings the Elegance up to L&K spec?

If so go to them with plenty of prices of Elegance and L&K plus any L&K pack you can find pointing out it's a lot more than they are offering you.

With second hand car prices and with parts prices at or around record highs, they can't be offering below cost to replace.

 

Oh and don't forget you can tell your insurance company to replace the car like for like if you can not replace the car for the money they say you can.

That always winds them up into a better offer and if they somehow do find the car for the same money, then happy days.

 

Insurance companies in part have themselves to blame for the high number of PI claims, because they charge max, payout min and seem surprised when people then say there is PI after being left out of pocket. It doesn't make it right, but insurance does seem heavily weighted in favour of the company not the insured.

 

 

Edited 13 June, 2022 by cheezemonkhai

[DGW]

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/insurance/motor-insurance/vehicle-valuations-write-offs