Your advice please (another insurance issue)

[TomB 0]

Ladies and Gents, any comments and suggestions welcome.

 

I've been in a dispute with Highway Insurance over the value of my written off 2.0l 16v Corrado (1995 M reg with 161,000 miles).

I had an offer from them for £2000 (not including the deduction of my excess of £250) a couple of weeks ago. I rejected the offer and submitted 7 photos, garage bills for about £600, and 4 ads from autotrader for similar age, similar mileage, similar model Cs, all of which were over £3000, and the current value as listed in Parkers.

I have just recieved a letter saying that they are unable to increase their offer for the following reasons:

1) I only paid £2100 for my C. (I won it from eBay) and that the principle of indemnity will place me "back into the position you were (sic) prior to the claim

2) It is possible to "replace the said vehicle for the offer already made as (I) have previously done so" although I've only been in one accident if IRC.

 

It states in my schedule of insurance that they will either pay the market value of the car, the amount which I had the car insured for (£3000) or the cost of repairing my car. As the car has been written off the last one doesn't apply obviously.

 

Does anyone know where I stand? Please?

 

Cheers,

Tom

[STORM 2 0]

this one seems to come up quite a bit. It seems the insurance companies have us by the balls on this one UNLESS a price for the vehicle is arranged at the time of fixing the premium. I know people who have modified their cars with abandon and don't want to kiss their investment goodbye, have arranged 'classic' car insurance where the replacement cost is factored into the initial premium.

Your options are

1. to persist with your valuation and if necessary, provide more evidence to present to a more senior adjudicator.

2. Insurance ombudsman if youre getting nowhere

3.failing that, take the write off money, and buy the car back for a nominal sum and break it up yourself to try and recoup some money.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but some of the guys may be able to give you better hope

[stevemac 0]

AFAIK - your insurance premium will have been calculated - based on the current market value (amongst other things).

 

So far as I'm aware they must pay the current market value. If you had been given the car as a gift - would that give them the right to pay you nothing at all ??

[dr_mat 0]

I would write back stating that unless they can provide eviedence that there are cars of similar quality, age, spec to yours around for your "special offer" price of £2100 then they have to pay you the full current market value of the car, not the purchase price of the car.

As Steve says, the point of insurance is to allow you to replace the car with another similar one. If you can't do that from their offer (or it's likely to take you 8 months searching to do it), then it's not enough money!

 

Perhaps this is why Highway are competitive for Corrado insurance!!

[dr_mat 0]

By the way, for those that didn't know "eveidence" is just like "evidence", but even more conclusive!! ;)

[Jim 2]

Worrying really as my car is insured by Brentacre, underwritten by Highway! :|

 

But seriously all the points made in this thread so far make sense - keep at it - the insurance companies will just try and fob you off with an easy payout to try and recoup some of their costs and most owners of regular cars will just accept this. But pretty much every Corrado owner I have seen who has just kept on at the insurance companies, sending them pics/specs/adverts/etc eventually got a settlement that was much more agreeable.

 

Good luck with it.

[TomB 0]

Cheers, gents. I've spent this morning writing them a letter making stevemac's point about if the car was a gift. I've also pointed out that they only made 9000 RHD Cs and that my eBay purchase was a fluke. Many thanks for your help all, much appreciated.

Cheers,

Tom

[TomB 0]

Well, after taking weeks to respond having stated that they would not be offering me any more than £2K, I had a phone call this morning saying they're going to offer me £2.5K... It's an improvement, but not good enough as I'm damned if I can find a '95 2.0l 16v for that price anywhere... Looks like this one is going down the road of offical complaint to the Ombudsmen [sigh].

Why can't they stop f**king about and pay me the price that I had my car insured for? :x

Cheers,

Tom

[dr_mat 0]

I am beginning to think I understand why Highway were so competitive for Corrado insurance. They're using the book values as their "risk" assesment...

[TomB 0]

My advice would be to not touch them with a barge pole... I had my crash at the end of August, and I'm still awaiting a satisfactory resolution...

[capnahab 0]

Hi. Next time i'd take out an agreed value insurance package before hand, saving all the botther. 15 quid and HIC will give you agreed value. :(

[STORM 2 0]

Hi. Next time i'd take out an agreed value insurance package before hand, saving all the botther. 15 quid and HIC will give you agreed value. :(

 

Who are HIC?

[Henny 0]

Herts

Insurance

Company

[too hot 0]

It would appear all insurance companies are the same a shower of B******s.They are quite happy to take your money and will always be more than happy to contact you to tell you that you owe them cash.Try it the other way round when it comes to paying out they are tighter than a very tight mean person :lol:

I have recently had a problem with Esure---Yeah it`s only a F****** commercial :!:

Basically they are going back on what I was told over the phone,some calls will be recorded---yeah when it suits them :!:

Back to the point insurance companies are B******S.

Keep trying and don`t let them away with anything :)

[chrishill 0]

had a simular thing when I crashed my astra, i was offered 7k for an 11 month old are that cost me 12k new...now thats depreciation!

 

just keep at it mate, i hounded the hell out of the poor guy that was assessing my claim. You're doing all the right things, send them loads of examples of prices etc and just dont back down!

 

this sounds a bit of a cop out to me .... "back into the position you were (sic) prior to the claim" which surely means to sort you out a car the same as you had, or at least the cash to buy one, reguardless of how much you paid for it! by their standards if you were given the car as a gift and paid nothing for it, you'd get nothing if you crashed it! balls to that!

[vr6storm 0]

when it comes to paying out they are tighter than a very tight mean person :lol:

 

 

you meaning an Aberdonian or a Yorkshireman there? :wink:

[STORM 2 0]

when it comes to paying out they are tighter than a very tight mean person :lol:

 

 

you meaning an Aberdonian or a Yorkshireman there? :wink:

 

Aberdonian of course :wink:

[RACK 0]

Us yourkshire people aren't tight, we're just careful :lol:

[stevemac 0]

Us yourkshire people aren't tight, we're just careful :lol:

:thumbleft: ....... :lol:

[TomB 0]

Well I've got a cheque from them for £2250, and I'm contemplating accepting it. If I reject it then I have to wait 8 weeks for a final decision that I have to accept, even if it goes against me.

I can't find a late model 16v with spaceship miles on the clock to compare it against price wise though (162K miles :!: ). Time for a weekend searching autotrader methinks...

Cheers,

Tom

 

P.S Livedin Yorkshire for the past 8 years, and loving it :)