Help/Advice re Car insurance claim

[AdrianS]

Morning All,
A bit of advice needed please.
My son had a serious head on collision in his car last wednesday. An oncoming car skidded on some mud and slid across the road into his path. He was travelling at around 55-60mph so it was quite a violent head on. Thankfully, he got out relatively unscathed thanks to modern car air bags etc.
He is now having trouble agreeing a value for his car. His insurers ( Hastings) have offered him £8000 max for a car he cannot replace for less than £13,500 ( the cheapest one he can find online through a dealer). He had a 2016 Mondeo auto, top spec, FSH, new tow bar fitted, and in excellent condition ( a bit OCD about his car).
The insurers have told him they will only pay out trade value for it.
Where does he go from here? No fault accident, other party accepted liability, and he has to lose out big time for someones negligence. He hadnt got legal assistance on his policy, the ambulance chasers are claiming for uninsured losses but wont help with the value of the car.

 

[Wapping]

Is he making a claim through his own insurance or against the third party, who - from what you have told us - might seem most at fault for the coming together.

Find as many as possible adverts for cars that are (honestly) the same as his and use them as evidence that the vehicle cannot be replaced for less than X. Simply say “But my car is worth more than that” will not wash.

 

[SiRich]

why would they say they would only pay trade value out? 8000-13500 is 5500 surely the trade value for a 13500 car is not 8000?. Auto trader has a free car valuation feature if he puts his reg number in

Vehicle write-offs and valuations

Information for financial businesses about our approach to write-offs and valuations for cars, motorbikes and caravans.

www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

 

[wessie]

I can understand claiming on his own insurance as he wants to get another vehicle ASAP.

I would ask the underwriter to evidence a retail outlet where a replacement car of the same spec can be purchased for what they are offering, whilst also proffering advertisements from used car outlets near your home.

Your son might want to think about using a claims handler (not the one part of his insurer, but an independent ) to pursue costs not covered by his own insurer from the third party e.g missed work, car hire, policy excess. If he has the means, or you can lend it to him, to buy a replacement car, then it might be better to pursue the whole claim from the third party as the claims handler will tot up all of his costs into one claim.

 

[Mr Bean]

Find as many as possible adverts for cars that are (honestly) the same as his and use them as evidence that the vehicle cannot be replaced for less than X.

This is what I did with my claim after being punted off.

It was a '67 plated 1200 (sat for a year before being registered), I presented all the '67 plate bikes on Autotrader and successfully argued that a '67 plate GS couldn't be bought for their settlement offer. In the end, I got £1,000 more than I paid for it.

If the other party's insurers had looked into it in greater detail, they'd have noted mine was an earlier model with the different side panels.