Car Written-Off

[muchlovex]

My car was burn't due to a car parked next to mine having an electrical fault.

Crime number given to insurance company and given details to my insurance company of owner of car at fault.

How does it work in terms of getting money from insurance? I had paid for 1 years road tax, but it had been damaged in fire. Can I claim for tax paid also?
How will I know that the amount of money insurance company want to pay out is the amount my car was worth?

Can't believe it, am gutted as my late mam chose this car, so sentimental value will never be replaced.

[Buenchico]

You can reclaim the unused tax using form V33. See here:
http://www.direct.gov...urVehicle/DG_10012526

Your insurer will offer you the sum which their assessor has valued the car at (less any excess built into your policy). The offer should be accompanied by details of the appeals process (including the possibility of using independent arbitration) if you disagree with the valuation.

Chris

[Hymie]

Besides applying for a refund of the unused tax (as advised by Buenchico) – check out what it would cost to replace the car (with one of the same age/condition). Look in your local paper + Auto-trader etc. Print off a few examples for record purposes, to submit to your insurer should they offer significantly less.

[Maydup]

Awww poor you. In the wrong place at the wrong time and here you are with a written off car.

Others have helped with car tax.

What happens next is you'll be asked to fill in a claim form with details of the incident. When you complete it remember to claim for items that were in your car as well as the car itself.

Then eventually you will be made an offer.

Whatever you do and however much it is, refuse it. Tell them that the offer is not acceptable and will not replace the car That way you will be offered a bit more.

Unfortunately the cash offered is rarely enough to buy another car as the value is less now than it was when you bought it, but you could have a lok round now for a replacement car to give you an idea how much you'll need to buy another.

Good luck with it all.

[Hymie]

While I would have a tendency to agree with everything Maidup says – a year or so back, a colleague’s car was written off in an accident that was not his fault. It was an old banger – and we reckoned he’d be lucky to get an offer of £500 from the insurance company.
Although the car was worth more than that to the owner, knowing all the faults/history etc (this is just the way of things).
So we were all shocked that he was offered £1,100 – which he thought very acceptable (which he did).

[Hymie]

No need to rush with the tax refund – you can only claim back whole months remaining, but don’t leave it till the end of the month or you will loose another £15 or so.

[theshedman]

Hi, when you try to reclaim the tax make sure you keep a copy of everything you send to DVLA. My son applied for his tax back and after not hearing from them for quite some time he phoned them up and asked what was happening and was told they had no form or disc from him and for him to send them a copy. They said all tax discs sent to them are destroyed so they couldn't check if it had been sent to them or not. As he had not kept a copy he couldn't claim and lost almost 12 months tax.

[SpikeyBush]

I agree with Hymie, sometimes insurers do surprise you and come up with a decent offer first time. I had a 'G' reg Vauxhall Belmont that was rear ended at high speed back in 1999, boot floor was bent in half. Knew immediately it would be a write-off. Insurer offered me a grand. The car only cost me seven hundred notes two years earlier, but there were a few things wrong with it then that I fixed. Still told the insurers twice to bugger off, got twelve hundred smackeroonies off them in the end. A nice little earner as Arthur Daley would put it.