Car stolen

[ps1]

Thanks again to all. Hope everyone had a happy Christmas day with family and friends.

Just thinking ahead. Insurance said they would pay me market value minus excess. Is this something i can barter if they come back with ridiculous offer or is it standard. Mine was a 2005 facelift 4200 with 70k on clock. Roughly what should i be expecting?

Also i was going to wait about 2-3 weeks before calling it quits and getting insurance money. Presume I should cancel insurance in meantime?

Thanks again for advice.

P

 

[Felonious Crud]

Re value, get an expert such as Nareman to help you with a realistic replacement valuation. He knows the car and the market so his opinion will be hard for the insurance company to disregard.

 

[allandwf]

Yes, their market value and yours will probably vary wildly. They will probably argue that car prices are asking prices etc. Don't accept the first offer. When our Alfa was written off they initially offered £2400, then £2800, then £3000, they would not budge passed that, so an independent assessor was called in and they eventually paid out £6500. So it will pay to persevere. Hopefully they will pay a decent price and early on.

 

[CatmanV2]

Be prepared to negotiate and provide evidence that their offer it too low.

C

 

[cheshiremaserati]

Good advice re:getting an expert replacement valuation. Insurance idea of market value will very likely be well below your valuation unless you have a specialist broker policy where market value will reflect more accurately replacement value.

If its a volume insurer off a comparison site, they will be used to dealing with mass-produced volume cars up to £60k and won't have any idea fir such a specialist car as yours.

Gather ads, speak to Nareman. Insurer may argue the ads are asking prices but that is what you have to pay to replace your total loss and they go close to asking price anyway.

Did you keep the service book in the car? If not, show the service history to Bareman and the insurance loss adjuster with supporting invoices. Every bit if evidence will help you get a fair replacement value.

Once its all settled, consider future specialist purchase on an agreed valuation policy.
But first good luck with the current issue.

 

[2b1ask1]

Make sure you know if they intend to use Glass guide as it is very off the mark (Glass had mine at £7k on an 03 at 74k) thankfully I had an agreed value. Make sure you print out all ads you find of similar cars to your spec, condition and mileage so you can present them, build a file and time line of your ownership as evidence. Ask to have an assessor visit you to discuss it. Good luck.

 

[ps1]

Service booklet was with car unfortunately. And also just paid 4k for full service and new clutch/f1 pump! Hoping that will all be taken into consideration. Will be onto Nareman. Bought car from him few years back, and will most likely buy replacement there too!

Thanks all.

P

 

[CatmanV2]

Service booklet was with car unfortunately. And also just paid 4k for full service and new clutch/f1 pump! Hoping that will all be taken into consideration. Will be onto Nareman. Bought car from him few years back, and will most likely buy replacement there too!

Thanks all.

P

Well Nareman will likely have records. Whoever you did the service with will be able to produce an invoice. Was it MD cos they can produce you a full service history of what's in their system

C

 

[allandwf]

Servicing wasn't an issue, in any of my cases. I think they assume it is regularly serviced.

 

[Mott The Hoople]

Servicing wasn't an issue, in any of my cases. I think they assume it is regularly serviced.

They do. Service history won't be a factor in valuation, it will be Glasses guide (very low) and argue it up from there.
Steve.

 

[MrPea]

I'm sorry to hear of this for you. Ugh!

This time last year I was quite successful in getting a decent payout for total loss at market value. They are legally required to give you reasonable market value but hopefully you won't have to go as far as a financial ombudsman settlement (and I didn't have to), but you will need to fight the glass value with all the evidence. Do please ask me, and others like Newton, who can help out. And, of course, a good number of us have almost all adverts for cars that have gone on sale in the last few years, and so can help provide evidence!

Hopefully though, you'll get your car back intact!

Best wishes, and thanks for being one of those people who will give your time at the most inconvenient times to save lives.

 

[hoyin]

Yeah mine was undervalued as well when it was written off. They pull all sorts of dirty tricks.

Saying you can accept an early valuation when it is low saying you can negotiate a higher price later. It won't affect your claim they say. Whatever you do don't accept it. Sure you can accept the payment and negotiate more later but it means you accepted a payout therefore they will take back the courtesy car and use it as a bargaining chip for you to accept their valuation. As some families can't survive without a car.

I had to collect min 3 ads on auto trader to demonstrate the value of my car and even then I had to negotiate 3 rounds.

Just stick with it and keep pushing. Remember it is their job to give you the lowest valuation they can.


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[hoyin]

I'm sorry to hear of this for you. Ugh!

This time last year I was quite successful in getting a decent payout for total loss at market value. They are legally required to give you reasonable market value but hopefully you won't have to go as far as a financial ombudsman settlement (and I didn't have to), but you will need to fight the glass value with all the evidence. Do please ask me, and others like Newton, who can help out. And, of course, a good number of us have almost all adverts for cars that have gone on sale in the last few years, and so can help provide evidence!

Hopefully though, you'll get your car back intact!

Best wishes, and thanks for being one of those people who will give your time at the most inconvenient times to save lives.

I think they limit it to the past 3 months of ads.


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[allandwf]

It's almost like they have a department who's job it is to keep claims as low as possible! (I hate targets and continual improvement, unsustainable,!!!)

 

[Mott The Hoople]

It's almost like they have a department who's job it is to keep claims as low as possible! (I hate targets and continual improvement, unsustainable,!!!)

Of course they have such a department. Claims cost control is an essential function and any insurer would go bust without it. However, they do have to pay a fair market value (but, in effect, you often only get this if you push.) The Ombudsman is intrinsically on your side (provided your own valuation is reasonable) but you will probably need to insist on the insurer's Compliance Officer seeing the case before you go to the Ombudsman. Claims dept. cannot stand in the way of this process (the phrase "formal complaint and demand for redress" will ring alarm bells with them if you have problems.)
There is no "3 month limit" on ads. - this would be deemed unfair practice on an unusual car.
Steve.

 

[CatmanV2]

Of course they need to keep the costs down. We always look for the cheapest insurers, so it's hardly surprising. Interesting info there, Steve.

C

 

[hoyin]

There is no "3 month limit" on ads. - this would be deemed unfair practice on an unusual car.
Steve.

OK.

However when I was making a claim one of my examples was rejected as it was outside of their 3 month timeline by a couple of days.

But this was not an unusual car.



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[mjheathcote]

Insure with an agreed value, mine has for the last couple of years.
My insurance company (A-plan in my case) took it seriously, as well as the usual car photo's, even wanting photo's of the car parked inside the garage so they could see what the construction was and the type of garage door fitted.

 

[cheshiremaserati]

One caveat with agreed valuation versus fair market value: In a rapidly rising market, you need to keep updating the agreed valuation otherwise you may end up out of pocket. My valuation on the Porsche was valid for two years but I have had it valued every year as well as one interim valuation prior to renewal due to rising prices of 996 Turbo manual gearbox cars.

I don't think Masers will require interim or annual valuation, but it pays to keep a close watch as those are the prices you'd have to pay in the event of a total loss.

 

[mjheathcote]

I agree, had to up the Stag insurance value this year as it had dropped below in recent years following the rise in the market.