Insurance, is it legal robbery?

[J.R.]

4 hours ago, EnterName said:

I might be showing my ignorance here. But are you saying, that even after the vehicle is considered a write-off, and a settlement figure for a total loss of the vehicle is paid by the insurer to the insured, the insured is still the legal owner of the vehicle?

No, you do not "buy your car back" from them after they have paid out a settlement figure, only way you could do that is to bid for it at the Copart auction.

 

You agree a reduced settlement figure for you retaining the salvage, this of course is done prior to accepting their payout.

 

The OP still has not answered the question asked of him, has he accepted their payout figure and possibly the money?

[J.R.]

1 hour ago, EnterName said:

Yeah, that's what I thought. I was wondering how @J.R. managed to wrangle the insurance company into the prospect of paying him to store their car.

 

As negotiations had stalled on their part I advised them that I was going to have the vehicle removed to a storage facility, it was always my vehicle, never theirs, that is the point I have been trying to make, the minute you submit a claim they act as if your vehicle is theirs they will remove it by forceable means and even dispose of it without your knowledge if you let them get their hands on it.

[Graham Butcher]

20 minutes ago, J.R. said:

No, you do not "buy your car back" from them after they have paid out a settlement figure, only way you could do that is to bid for it at the Copart auction.

 

You agree a reduced settlement figure for you retaining the salvage, this of course is done prior to accepting their payout.

 

The OP still has not answered the question asked of him, has he accepted their payout figure and possibly the money?

Sorry, but I thought I had done so, no I haven't and cannot agree to settle while the situation still exists where I would be considerably worse off than I would be if the accident had not happened. I should be returned to a position as if that event never took place, and that also means my out-of-pocket expenses need to be covered as well. If the accident was my fault, then I could accept some financial pain, but it wasn't.

Edited 21 April, 2023 by Graham Butcher

[J.R.]

You mzy hzve already done, in which case its me who should apologise, my vision has been very bad so I could have missed it, somewhat better now I'm pleased to say, almost normal typo service is resumed!

[Graham Butcher]

Not a problem.

[kodiaqsportline]

My tuppence worth:  When you are in an accident and it's defo the other party to blame, then you should not be at any loss. If you want to take other things in to consideration such as stress / injury etc then that's where those no win no fee type of companies come in to their own. But be under no illusion, they'll only get involved if there's a guaranteed profit in it for themselves.

 

You ask is the insurance industry legal robbery? It could be if you let it.  I think where people go wrong is understanding how the system works. The market value of your car ( i.e. selling it ) is very different from the buying price. If you've caused the accident or rather, if it's a 'fault claim' then you receive what the car is worth, i.e. the market value.  If you're not at fault, then the 3rd party should be responsible for adding the seller's profit / overheads to get you back to the position you were in before the accident. It's not YOUR insurer who does that, it's the 3rd party insurer. If you have legal cover, they 'should' be doing that on your behalf.

 

I never take legal cover because thru experience, I find it's their own interests in mind rather than yours, and I've ended up doing the chasing. When my car was wriiten off some years ago ( no fault claim ) and the insurer gave me the market valuation, I simply asked them to find me a car at that price. Easy peasy...  no need for ombusman or anything like that, just get them to find a car for you at that price. They ended up asking me to submit several prices and I was given the average.  They're claiming that back from the other party so unless it's a ludicrous figure, it's not a problem for them.

 

Regarding hire cars and any additional costs you incur thru no fault of your own, then if you do not have legal cover thru your own insurer, claim that direct from the 3rd party insurer.

 

There's no getting over the inconvenience of it all when something like this happens, but obtaining the right money for your loss and compensation is usually straight forward. You just have to be reasonable and show a willingness to be flexible about it.

 

 

Edited 21 April, 2023 by kodiaqsportline

[Graham Butcher]

Exactly my thoughts, hence why I have rejected their offer, I have been told to never accept their first offer as it is the one where they will always try away to get away with the absolute minimum cost to them. That said however, while they continue to be confrontational in their approach, they are losing sight of the hidden costs which are rising all the time, such as the cost of the replacement vehicles they have to pay by the day and my increased costs as well so by trying to be cheapskates, they just add to the overall cost.

[Graham Butcher]

Update time, it transpired that the claim was originally being handled by a crash management company who appointed a firm of assessors who valued the car at just £8,500 😒. Anyone know where you could buy a L&K Superb (63 plate) fully loaded with just 79,000 miles and FSH, in good condition for the same kind of money? I couldn't get anything less than £10,500 for the same year, and almost double the miles, and no history, so I rejected the valuation.

 

The management company passed it back to my insurance company to handle, who got their assessors to look at the claim, and they came back with an identical offer, which I again rejected. After a long chat with the assessor on the phone, and providing him with 3 example listings from Autotrader (dealers only) for estate cars, in Elegance trim for around the £10,000 mark, with no history, no cam belt or water pump being done, and the dealers would not even throw that into the deal, and Mk3 L&K, 3 years younger but 137,000 miles, with service history and cam belt, water pump along with DSG service already done by the dealer for £10,500. The assessor kept going away and calling me back asking more questions, it transpired that they were under the impression that my L&K was an entry level model and not a L&K and then claimed that I was looking at models with a higher spec level. Once we got that sorted out, he went away again and done some research and then called me back and admitted that it has been an eye-opener just how good the L&K car was and how they are fairly rare on the used market they are and that are dearer, so after a bit of haggling he offered a better deal of £10,000, which I accepted. All I have to do now is wait for the email and the money to come through.

 

I had already put a deposit on the Mk3, which although was more, my own car was due to have its 2nd cam belt and water pump change in 3 costing around £600+ for that.  So I have a 3 year newer, MK3, 150HP,FSH car, less the TV tuner, but plus the tri zone A/C, adaptive cruise control and lane assist with blind spot detection and what I always wanted, dynamic chassis control, which because of its registration date only cost £35 in road tax, saving £145 a year. Now all I have to do is wait for a replacement headlamp to arrive from Škoda and be fitted before I can go and collect the car.

 

So beware you other L&K owners, if you are unfortunate enough to be in an accident, especially if it was not your fault, make it absolutely clear to everyone that your car is a L&K version, top of the range and not a basic model otherwise you stand zero chance of getting another without putting your hand in your pocket to add to the pathetic settlement they offer.

 

It still smarts when I see my old car outside the house, I've had it from new, and I know its complete history, but hey ho, that's life.

[Graham Butcher]

Well surprise, no such email has been received today, so I'm still no further ahead and the buyer that I had lined to take the old car away to rebuild it, now has said wishes to buy it because they have also revalued my old car at approx 2.5 times the previous valuation, so thank you 😠 to the driver who started this entire chain of events of in the first place by his silly U turn.

Edited 15 May, 2023 by Graham Butcher

[Graham Butcher]

Update on the car, it is being collected today by Copart UK Ltd and will no doubt be appearing in one of their online actions before long and with any luck, the buyer who was going to buy it from me might be able to obtain it for less than the salvage value placed on it by the insurance company, (he is a fellow member here), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you. I'd like it to go to someone with the skills to repair and then enjoy it, as the car has been a good one for me and has been in my possession from day 1.

 

Seeing as I paid extra for the full sized spare wheel and jack etc, (I hate the aerosol tyre repair kits), I have removed that in the hope that it will fit the Mk3 B8 when I get it (soon, I hope, it is supposed to be just waiting for a full valet before handing it over), does anyone actually know if the wheels are interchangeable between MK2 and MK3 models?

 

I have also now swapped the battery over for another as the battery I replaced in Nov last year for a nice new £200 AGM start/stop one, and I think that the one on the MK3 is the original still.

 

Lastly, as a memento of the car, I kept the umbrella as it had never been used and still has the Škoda tag attached, I doubt that it will be any use with the MK3 as they have IIRC square handles to fit into the storage space in the front doors.

 

All the full service history etc, including tyre receipts and their guarantees, have been popped into the glovebox along with the full owner's manual etc.

[Graham Butcher]

I just had an email from Aviva inviting to get a quote for my car insurance, now I need someone to restart my heart again after that shocker, they quoted me £992 with 10 years NCD, WTF.

[J.R.]

Let me guess, you had protected NCB?

 

 

[Graham Butcher]

13 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Let me guess, you had protected NCB?

 

 

Correct, why does that make a difference? If I recall without that feature it only made about £100, I was looking for the same cover as I currently have. 

[J.R.]

Well as you have successfully claimed from the TP insurers it is now a no fault claim it shouldn't make any difference but as you have seen that is not the case, they practically give away this protected NCB because after a claim they have you by the ghoulies, they won't reduce your NCB so they stuff the policy up to the level that other insurers would quote you for having a potential claim against you.

 

You and I both know that there will not be a claim against you and that your "no fault claim" has been settled in full by the TP's insurer but they game the system by taking up to 18 months to update the shared data system.

 

So you get quotes elsewhere and have to answer "Yes" to "have you had any claims in the last..........", in any case they can see that a claim was submitted, your quote from them will then have no NCD other than perhaps an introductory one.

 

As much as I hope it not to be true but I suspect any quotes you get from other insurers will be higher than your renewal one.

 

It's the second shafting you get after allowing the insurers to take away your vehicle allegedly to their repairers.

 

I got burned some 40 years ago with protected NCB and will never have it now even if its free, I will go to another insurer and pay more!

 

I also only have TPO insurance to avoid all the grief of dealing with the sharks other than directly with a TP's insurer if they are at fault and through a solicitor that they end up paying for. Luckily nobody has crashed into me in the last 15 years.

[J.R.]

You sure did choose a good title for this thread!