Ownership of written off car

[sigma]

When you have an accident the insurance company does not claim ownership of the damaged body panels, nor when a car is written off do you inform the DVLA of transfer of ownership to the insurance company so, what legal claim does the insurance company have to allow them to dispose of the car.

[rugeleyboy]

good question!!

i am going to be contacting the DVLA this morning as i had a letter on Saturday from them thanking me for telling them i no longer own my van??

as far as i am concerned , until the insurance company come to some agreement regarding the value of this vehicle, then it is still mine???

[kempie]

The DVLA is not interested in the holder of the title to the car i.e. the owner.

The DVLA register is one of vehicle keeper-ship and not ownership. The vehicle keeper is the person normally responsible for keeping/using the vehicle. That person is not necessarily the legal owner but in the vast majority of cases, the keeper and owner will often be the same person.

The purpose of the vehicle register is to enable the licensing authority and enforcement agencies to trace the person responsible for the vehicle.

[gouldc]

When your car is written off, we (insurers) do not register an interest in the vehicle at all - we notify the DVLA that the car has been passed to a motor trader (ie a salvage yard usually).

If acar is categorised as an A or B write-off, we usually just dispose of the vehicles as they should (and I use the word should here) not appear on the public road as they should be broken from scrap - VOSA are idiots in this respect, but that's another story.

This is probably the reason rugeleyboy that the DVLA think you no longer own the van, but don't quote me on that.

Equally, we do not ''own'' the vehicle until settlement has been agreed with the policyholder, and so legally, we cannot/should not dispose of the vehicle until this is agreed. As noted though, if the car is a burn out, or cut to pieces by the fire brigade, it's generally accepted that the car gets disposed of asap as to avoid any storage charges.

You're best not informing the DVLA, because we normally inform them anyway.

[sigma]

Thanks Gouldc but what legal right do you have to claim "ownership" when it is written off?.

[gouldc]

Sorry for sounding thick Sigma, but in what manner would you wish to claim ownership - are you on about retaining the vehicle and repairing/selling it on after the insurers pay out?

As I say, until you tell the insurer you accept the offer put forward and bank the cheque they send you (or receive funds via a BACS transfer), the car belongs to you.

[sigma]

I'm not wishing to repair sell on etc. I just wondered what claim the insurance company has to the vehicle after settlement.After all, if you settle on other insurances ie. household for damaged property the insurance company doesn''t claim the replaced items so why is it any different for motor vehicles.

[gouldc]

I think it's a bit different with motor insurance due to the figures involved, and the fact that the cars can still be worth a minimal scrap value.

Not sure of what the regulations are in the household market, but we're quite heavily regulated in regards to the disposal of scrap metal (environmental issues), and also the propensity for people to use damaged cars to make false claims.

We also try to ensure that the cars go via registered scrappies, etc, to ensure they don't just get put back on the road by Johnny Body-filler.

I don't think there's much of a market for paint stained carpets and TV's ''I dropped down the stairs by accident due to my cat/dog/child distracting me''
: )

[sigma]

Cheers gould, thanks for your time