Motorcar insurance

[nobby1]

a friend put petrol in her diesel car by mistake.she has put a claim in to the insurance, the cost of repair is �4,155 and the car is worth approx �2,500 if the insurance deem it a write off would they normally give the car back to you if you wanted to pay the for the damage yourself? she owes money on it and wants to keep it.

[barry1010]

I find it very hard to believe that repair bill but if it is correct, the car will be written off. Can your friend afford that repair bill herself?

[redcrx]

if they write the car off they will sell it back to here if she wants.

[New Judge]

I would be very surprised if this event is covered by your friend's insurance policy at all.

Since the damage was caused by the owner's action anad not by malicious damage or as a result of theft I doubt she will receive anything at all.

[sandmaster]

I do not think the insurance company will cover this.

[gouldc]

Most insurers will actually cover this - we certainly do.

Technically it is an accident (although not in the sense you would normally associate with insurance claims).

Personally, I don't think we should cover it, but if we avioded all claims caused by failure to pay attention / stupidity, then we wouldn;t be paying a lot of claims!

I can't honestly say that I know an insurer that has a specific clause stopping them dealing with this type of claim.

I would also agree that the cost of repair is incredibly high - around �1000, pushing �2000 at a maximum is the norm I see

[sandmaster]

I'm surprised but gouldc does speak from experience!!

[woozer]

Yep it is covered by most insurance policies - I was surprised when the 1st claim of this type came in and agree with GouldC . Unfortunately, I did this myself last year - someone thought it was funny to switch the diesel and petrol nozzles over on the pump - I was lucky it only cost me �300 - �4K+ sounds an awful lot.

Not all insurers will agree to sell back write off vehicles so check with your insurer

[New Judge]

I will bow to gouldc's knowledge.

But I have to say I'm astonished. No wonder motor premiums are so high.

Come to think of it, my car could do with a respray. I think I'll pop out and "accidentally" polish it with brake fluid!

[nobby1]

Thanks for all the answers really helpful, just one more thing.. If the insurance decide that they wont pay the repairs but deem the car to be a write-off ,can she then say that she will foot the bill and so stop the insurance from writing the car off?

[woozer]

Yes she could advise the insurers she is not going to claim-suggest she moves fast as often the insurers will uplift a vehicle to cheap storage everso quickly once they have said it is a write off and from what you have said about the costs involved and the value of the vehicle a "write off " seems inevitable.