Settlement Offer on Stolen and Recovered car

Muppet Man

Hi Folks, Need some advice on the following scenario:

* My Car was stolen outside my house (VW Golf Gti).
* Settlement offer from insurance company of 24k.
* Car was recovered by Gardai (well done lads) the day after I received the settlement offer.
* Damage repair to the car is estimated to be in the region of 5.5k euro (according to VW).
* I am not inclined to accept a stolen and repaired car at this point in time and now want to accept the settlement.

Two questions -
1) Am I still entitled to accept the original settlement offer - there was no expiry date on it - or do I HAVE to take the car with repairs?
2) Can the insurance retract the original settlement offer and make a smaller settlement offer. If so, what recourse do I have (Ombudsman?)

Settlement offer was made on Aug 5th. It took a long time to get the car back from Gardai and get a damage repair estimate from VW.

Thanks in advance for any advice at all on either of the 2 questions.
Muppet Man.

homer911

The original settlement offer would have been on the basis of the vehicle not being recovered.

Its hardly likely that the Insurance Co. will still pay €24k and leave you with an asset with a value of €18k!!

They are also not likely to pay you €24k for an asset only worth €18k (assuming they take the car)

...and they are hardly likely to want to take the car when the 2nd hand market is so bad...

I'm sure you will find something in the Ts and Cs that will enable them to reduce the offer to €5.5k - its not as if this has never happened before

oldyouth

I agree with the above. The scenario is about abandoning the subject matter of the policy, which you cannot do. You are entitled to the reasonable repair costs to the car, nothing more I'm afraid.