General Question - insurance claim not my escos!

[coswurv]

Basically my work van was involved in a knock a week ago Thursday, the insurance finally came out this Thursday, took some pics and said it was a total loss, now the engineer told me it was £3450 worth off damage!. So before he came out I looked at the damage and it was 1 headlight, rad, grill, front bumper, bolt in slam panel and bonnet that's all it needs so how can this be right.

So based on this info the engineer said it was a total loss and I cant keep it? my question is why not?, he wouldn't say why just said its something you cant do nowa days which I don't believe, I got a quote of parts for £350 to fix it myself so I was hoping on some sort of pay out and me keeping and fixing the van myself, so has anyone else been in a similar situation or anybody got any advice,

pic of damage,

[Davecos 4x4]

maybe the insurace you are with stipulates that you cannot keep the salvage.

another thing is that it may now go into a certain catagory and you may need a licence to get to buy these types of vehicles.

[coswurv]

maybe the insurace you are with stipulates that you cannot keep the salvage.

another thing is that it may now go into a certain catagory and you may need a licence to get to buy these types of vehicles.

Well it could be that I spose Dave but he didn't say that to me, he also said id be looking at 3k ish as a total loss pay out and this van cost me nearly 5k a couple of years ago, 2 owner low miles etc and mint so I cant buy like for like with what there offering hence why I want to keep it.

[Davecos 4x4]

appeal against the valuation then, try and get adverts of vans the same as yours that are advertised at a more realistic price,similar miles and condition ect....

worth a try if you are not happy.

if you were to buy it back you could probably get it for under £500 quit too.

[The Radman]

cant you repair it yourself then and take the £ loss as it will work out cheaper than what they are offering you in the end or is it too late now the insurance has got involved?

[coswurv]

cant you repair it yourself then and take the £ loss as it will work out cheaper than what they are offering you in the end or is it too late now the insurance has got involved?

Not sure if its to late, I still have the vehicle and havnt been made a set in stone offer as of yet so cant see why I couldn't drop the claim for my own vehicle, my excess is £250 anyway so why not just pay the extra £100 on top for the parts and have it done it a couple of hours.

[warrenpenalver]

For a start, YOU own the vehicle no matter what the insurers say until you accept thier payment.

They will pull all sorts of ABI shit on you. The ABI have issued VOLUNTARY code of practices on dealing with written off cars.

None of it is legally enforcable.

If you trawl through the ombudsmans example cases, there are several cases where insurers either kept the car or destroyed it without permission or refused to allow someone to keep salvage and in ALL cases i saw, the ombudsman sided with the car owners.

If they refuse to pay out then take them to the ombudsman!

[coswurv]

Well a little update, no matter what I say they will not let me keep the van, something do with liability on their part so looks like all I can do is wait for an offer on the van and buy a new one, which is a pain in the ass really.

[Tkracing]

Well a little update, no matter what I say they will not let me keep the van, something do with liability on their part so looks like all I can do is wait for an offer on the van and buy a new one, which is a pain in the ass really.

Not true, you can resind your claim and keep the van as said,

[warrenpenalver]

and then take them to the ombudsman where you will have a 95% chance of winning a payout (less salvage value).