Accident In Oldish Car

[Smowball]

A woman jumped a red light and crashed into the side of my sons car a couple of months ago. He's started all the insurance proceedings etc. She wrote name on scrap of paper and then drove off leaving him with blown tyre and door caved in. He managed to trace her thru FB and to cut long story short she's now saying he crashed into her. My question is his cars is only worth about £400 and the damage is clearly much more than that so if claim is successful do they pay value of car, or to repair it, scrap it??

[albaqwerty]

not an expert, but similar happened to me.
Insurance wrote the car off, sent me check for book-value, (I think that's what it's called) which was a pittance.

Is it worth pursuing the woman?

[New Judge]

If the cost of repairs is greater than the value of the car they declare it a "write-off" and will only pay the value of the car. Let the insurers sort out who crashed into whom.

[Smowball]

He's contacted woman to try and settle out of court but she won't respond. There were witnesses who came o really to ask if he was ok but at the time he was so shocked that he didn't think to ask for their details.

[ToraToraTora]

they only ever pay market value at the time.

[Peter Pedant]

four hundred is just about all you can expect

[EDDIE51]

let the insurance sort it out.
Similar thing happened to me. A woman did a U turn right in front of me without indicating . I hit the side of her car right between the driver and passenger doors. We exchanged details ,but when the claim came in she said I had driven into the back of her car!
My insurance broker said it was not worth fighting and to just accept it. But I wrote to her insurance and told them what really happened.
I told them to examine her car , which clearly showed a repair to the driver's side and not to the rear as she was claiming.( she lived near me and I went to look at her car) 5 days later I got a letter accepting 100% blame from her insurance and a cheque for the value of my car, £500.
I was quite happy as I had only paid £50 for the car and £10 to get it repaired. I drove it another 6 months before selling it as scrap for £25.

[fiction-factory]

eddie- you say "let the insurance sort it iut" but in your example it was you that sorted it yourself not teh insurer.
Whatever way it's sorted you need to declare it to your insurer Smowball

[Hopkirk]

Bear in mind he will have an excess to be deducted from their payout, plus increased premiums in future years. She shouldn't get away with it but without witnesses she probably will.

[Smowball]

Have told him to just stick to the truth and if there is any way of tracking down the witnesses that would be even better.

[albaqwerty]

any CCTV coverage in that area Smow?
An advert in the paper asking for witnesses to come forward would cost a fair bit.

[Smowball]

I told him to try and post something on the towns loval FB community page - worth a try I guess

[albaqwerty]

Forgot about FB.
I'm too young to be having a senior moment!