RTA claim

MacDanger

Hi all

Was in an accident this evening for the first time, all okay thankfully. We were rear ended by a driver as we slowed down in traffic coming into a town so I presume/hope it's fairly cut and dried from a liability point of view. Our car has a good bit of damage to the boot and rear wing. I have a few questions which hopefully someone can answer for me:

- I'll ring my insurance company in the morning but do I need to ring his? Or will my insurance contact them?

- it's an 09 car so not worth a huge amount and I'd say the cost of repair will exceed the value of the car (~3k) - presumably this means it will be written off? How does that process work? What happens to the car - sent for scrap or would I have an option to repair it using 2nd hand parts?

Thanks

Eggs For Dinner

You notify your insurer for record purposes. You contact the 3rd party's insurer to advise you will be claiming against their policyholder.

They will send out an assessor to look at your vehicle. From what you say, it will be a write-off. Providing there is no dispute on liability, they will prepare an offer based on market value. You can either accept this valuation, or dispute it by providing sample valuations of your own when a vehicle of similar age, condition, mileage etc is for sale at a higher price

If the damage is Category A or B, it cannot go back on the road, if it is Category C or D, it is repairable. The insurer will have obtained an offer from a salvage yard for the scrap and you can match this figure if you want to retain it. Remember, if you retain and repair a written off vehicle, you will probably require an engineer's report to get it insured again. Lot of hassle

MacDanger

Thanks @Eggs For Dinner, rang them both insurance companies today and both took details of the incident. The 3rd party insurer asked if I wanted the car assessed by their local garage or by my own garage - does it make any difference which one I choose? Yer one said it was up to me

Eggs For Dinner

Depends on whether it suits you to have it written off, or if you are interested in repairing it. Your garage may do a more sympathetic report to your desired outcome.

Eggs For Dinner

To be clear, the assessor has the final say, regardless of which garage does the assessment

MacDanger

One more question on this - the car has been deemed an economic write off as expected and the insurance are saying it's worth X but they've gotten a quote from a scrap yard for 220 so they'll give me X-220 and I've to send the keys to the scrap yard and will receive the 220 directly from them.

Tbh, I'd prefer to just receive X from the insurance company and let them deal with the hassle of the scrap yard themselves or do I just have to take it as offered?