Car insurance claim

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upsidedown

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Daughter in Law had her car stolen 3 weeks ago and the low lives torched it so a write off.

Her insurance company have come up with a figure a £1000 less than she paid for it 4 weeks before it was stolen, does she have to accept this or is there recourse to argue for a figure nearer her purchase price ?

Cheers
 
Do a bit of research, see if you can find similar vehicles in terms of age, condition and mileage on Autotrader and go back to the insurance company with examples. As Clive said, its their job to pay out as little as possible so haggle hard.
 
In a word "No", typical insurance company where their first offer is always lower than what they believe to be a true figure.
It's part of the course, after all they are a business and want to pay out as little as possible.
Can't see why after only 4 weeks they won't pay out what she paid for it.
Also get comparisons from autotrader and other dealers if necessary
 
Insurance companies are ridiculous. My mates 2013 A4 was written off by someone reversing out of a drive way and right in to it.
Bought 3 months before for £19500, insurance company offered £13250 because the "found one on Autotrader just like it"... Except the one on AT was obviously a fake scam advert and wasn't the same spec anyway. He argued the toss with them and ended up complaining to the ombudsman about their overall behaviour (stalling tactic, lack of communication internally etc), he not only got the full value he also got about £1.5k compo from the complaint.
 
I had similar when I wrote off our car. According to the insurance company the average price for a car with similar mileage was about £800 less than we wanted. While I was on the phone to the insurance company I had Autotrader open on my laptop. I asked to speak to a manager and then asked why they trained their staff to lie to customers. He denied it but then I presented him with the facts of the actual cars being advertised on Autotrader that they had been quoting at me he quickly folded and settled for the amount we wanted.
 
When I was younger I crashed my first car and it was written off. It was worth £1500 tops....the insurance company paid out £3200! To this day I have no clue where they got the valuation from!
 
^ this.
You can get a 5 year GAP insurance for around £150 these days.

When my last car was written off the GAP company dealt with it all for me :)
 
For what it is worth people, it is NOT the job of the insurance comapny to pay out as little as possible. It is their job to pay out a FAIR value for the car.

Have any of you stopped to consider that maybe the girl in the OP paid a grand more than the car was actually worth??

And as stated, no you don't have to accept the first figure. Feel free to question it if you think it is unfair.
 
Phone up Hastings Direct for a quote.
One of the first questions they'll ask you is "What is the value of your car"
So you tell them
Then then reply with "in the event of an accident we will only pay out the market value for your vehilce"
So why do they ask the value in the first place?
 
Smiffy said:
True. But in the event of a total loss, GAP insurance will take care of everything. A win/win situation.
Click to expand...

I don't think this is the case or it was not when I wrote my BMW off 12 years ago.

I paid 10,200 and took out gap insurance for 3 years at a bargain 300 quid.
2 years and 4 months later I wrote it off it was a long time ago but I do remember getting 1k less than I thought I would.

Apparantly the insurance company value it by the glass guide but the car companys value it by the Parkers guide[something like this] so the Gap protection didn't pay out the full amount.

Also apparently the BMW garage that sold me the car didn't know this.
 
pokerjoke said:
I don't think this is the case or it was not when I wrote my BMW off 12 years ago.

I paid 10,200 and took out gap insurance for 3 years at a bargain 300 quid.
2 years and 4 months later I wrote it off it was a long time ago but I do remember getting 1k less than I thought I would.

Apparantly the insurance company value it by the glass guide but the car companys value it by the Parkers guide[something like this] so the Gap protection didn't pay out the full amount.

Also apparently the BMW garage that sold me the car didn't know this.
Click to expand...

At that time there would have been two different types of "asset protection".
GAP and RTI.
GAP was offered to finance customers as it would basically clear up any finance outstanding should the vehicle be written off.
RTI (Return To Invoice) was offered to cash customers and would pay up to the invoice price of the car when written off.
Nowadays we sell a "combined" product which pays out whichever is more beneficial to the customer.
 
Smiffy said:
Of course you can complain. And the choice of cover is 100% up to you.
I was just stating that GAP/RTI covers you for all eventualities
Click to expand...

I agree, wasn't having a pop:)
My wife works in car insurance dealing with complaints, and some of the stories and stunts pulled are unbelievable.
 
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