Car insurance claim

Hi Jerry,

This seems to be standard practice with insurance companies when they deem a car to be beyond economical repair.  I had the same thing years ago in the UK.  I obtained 3 quotes from garages for the repairs (all higher than the amount being offered by my insurance company) and refused to accept the insurer's offer.  It took a few weeks, but I just argued with them until they increased their offer to an acceptable amount.  

The insurers want to get away with paying out as little as possible and rely on you needing to get the vehicle repaired as soon as possible, but I provided evidence that my car couldn't be repaired for the amount they were offering and dug in until they increased their offer.  

Generally, in Spain, we buy our insurances through an agent, so in this case, I'd be pressuring them to resolve the matter with the insurer - if they want to keep my business 😉

Good luck!

Kind regards,

Kim

I would have thought that as the other car ran into the back of you, the other driver would be liable. Wouldn't you be claiming off their insurance?

Yes that is the situation the other drivers insurance is who I have the problem with

I'm not sure whether it's the same in Spain but in the UK, if the insurer deems your car as "beyond economic repair", you have the option to take the market value and buy the car back for 20% of paid out valuation.

The car is noted as a "write off" and more difficult to sell but with an older car that you're running into the ground, this can be worthwhile.

A misconception I'm afraid.

An insurance contract is intended to put you back in the position you were before whatever it was happened but that does not automatically or necessarily mean repairing a damaged car even when not at fault.

As a general rule of thumb if the cost of repair amounts to more than around 50% of pre accident book (trade) value then it will be declared a write off. For an older car in the €4-4.5k range that break point can be considerably lower, say 25% or even less.

The reason insurers work on trade values is because one option is for them to source a car roughly equivalent to the one being written off so it may be worth exploring that route.

If the car was in demonstrably better condition compared to others of a similar age before the accident then you might be able to negotiate a better settlement figure.

Unfortunately "put you back where you were" frequently works better in theory than practice and in write off cases it's rare to come out financially unscathed so ultimately you'll probably be looking at the cost to you of buying the car back and having it repaired yourself compared to taking the whole of the settlement and buying a replacement.

I don't know how, or even if, it works here in Spain but in UK there may be a way to claim your uninsured losses from the other party but in any case they can only be calculated once everything is finally settled and you're back behind the wheel.

PS. A lot of insomniacs about tonight!

So as I read it, the insurers have offered you under €2,000 PLUS you get to keep the car. Won't they just pay out, they keep the car,  and they deal with its disposal?

I know that if my car received anything other than light panel damage, I would not want it back. 

How many people do you know that only got a small payout and their car back that they did not want?

It's not what should happen, and I think you aren't getting told the correct process properly.