Not looking good ... mutter mutter.
 

Increasingly widespread "knee-jerk" Write Off practice by Motor Insurance companies.

Not looking good

Some of you may have read about the two occasions when my wife's MG ZS was rear ended by inattentive plonkers and on both occasions, their Insurance Companies "Approved" repair assessors wrote it off. Speaking to a pro-body and restoration workshop I've known and trust for about forty years, the owner explained many moons ago why insurers are so keen now to "write off" any car. The practice saves them money, not just about the costs to repair cars, but the provision of a hire car whilst the damaged car is off the road. Write off the car and issue the cheque ASAP means huge savings for them and more inconvenience to you. Hire car charges to the Insurance companies have greedily milked that to excess according to some non-fake news items I have seen. Guess who pays for that excess of unreasonable greed.

So it is now always in the interests of the Insurance Companies to write cars off for the least excuse. Most car users jusr accept and go with it all.... sadly.

On the two occasions my wife's ZS was written off, I arranged to have it repaired to a high standard for far less than their "approved" repair outfits estimates. The last occasion there was a two inch crack in the rear bumper. I had fitted a substantial tow bar soon after the first "write off " shunt and that was a wise ploy. It saved the car.

The second time I hung around and watched their approved assessor complete with clip board and camera "assess" the difficult to see damage to the car's rear bumper. I clearly heard him mutter, no doubt for my benefit :~

To be fair, when I asked him the car was safe to drive ( naughty me ... :) ) he confirmed that it was...:icon_lol::icon_lol::icon_lol: Those two inch cracks in the bumper can be a serious safety issue .. ;)

The car is still a joy to own and drive in regular daily use by my better half.

Be ever watchful out there. There's a lot of it about and apparently on the increase as anyone reading my link will observe. Believe it of not, it did not used to be like that.

When I had a pickup reverse into my front bumper a few months ago, I contacted my insurance company (well broker as they all are) and they wanted to write the car off... but I said No, and they put me in touch with the actuall insurance underwriters and they agreed that the car didn't need to be written off!

Took a bit of time with phone calls back & forth, and had to pop to their approved repairer (which wasn't a hard ship as they are about a 2 minute drive from where I work) and the repair was all approved - did surprise me as it was nearly £800, on a 2005 Diesel tourer with nearly 250k on the clock, but hey.

In all, probably took a couple of months from when it happened, to when the car was repaired, but very impressed that the underwriter didn't want to write the car off (was Co-op insurance if that makes any difference).

I did have a little issue with a hire car, arranged through co-op, but in the end, spoke to the third party insurance, and they actually arranged a vehicle for me at no cost which was even better.

Car repaired, hire vehicle sorted and no excess for me to pay. It was a win, win, win in my eyes...... and even better I get to keep enjoying my tourer :icon_lol::icon_lol:

A friend had his van side swiped and due to delays in parts deliveries and extra work found after stripping back, the hire charges were £4500. Cost of repairs £3500! :icon_rolleyes:

I see the opening post as the usual one-sided nonsense against large businesses and in particular insurers.

The basic problem is not the insurance company but the fact that the majority of the public want to milk the insurers at every opportunity.

If the damage is only a "small crack" in the bumper and you feel it's an easy/cheap repair, then why make a claim or alternatively why not say to the insurer that the damage is superficial and the settlement need not be more than the amount that this implies. The reason I suspect is that the claimant wants to make a tidy profit from the incident whilst retaining the car.

An insurer has to take account of all costs associated with an incident, including the cost of providing a hire car and storing the claimant's car, and weigh these against the market value of the damaged car. It is their duty to conclude the claim as quickly as possible in order to prevent accumulation of costs which would lead to increased premiums for all.

Don't take a hire car from the insurer if you do not absolutely need to. We decline on the basis that we have other cars we can use and there is no point in accummulating insurer's costs.

Also, if you feel that your car's value is greater than the market value of similar cars, then don't insure on a standard insurance which will always use "market value" as the key decision metric.

Please keep on track and keep it civil please.

Sadly, some of us pound the keyboard without much thought as to the wording or grammar, or proof reading it once typed; I really hope that something here has been taken out of context.

Insurance is a pain in the bum in that we have to have it, we have to pay those fees for it but when it comes to a legitimate claim, one feels that the drawbridge has already been raised.

Having read a few posts on various forums the one piece of critical advice is....

If humanly possible don't let the car out of your sight/possession etc.

Andy.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Also, do not raise a claim with your own insurer and then start confusing matters by thinking it's the other party paying and the matter has nothing to do with your own insurer. This seems to be the mistake made by the chap on PH in the link above.

If one raises a claim with ones own insurer, it is this insurer that is going to pay the claimant the market value and follow their own processes. It may be able to claim some or all of that from the other party's insurer but your claimant's claim is with his/her own insurer.

Further, if you make a claim and allow your own insurer to progress it in accordance with their T&C's, then if you change your mind about the claim and want the car back, be prepared to entertain a possible claim from the insurer for the costs it has incurred in progressing the aborted claim e.g. getting the car to a repairer on a truck, moving onto disposal compound etc.