Advice on accident damage

[Gaygle]

Really?

In 2005 I had an accident the insurance assessor placed repairs at £4500 so they were trying to right it off I refused this as the damage was nowhere near as bad as he was saying it was so accepted Cash in Lieu of repair it cost me £350 in parts from eBay, (new bumper and bull bar), pocketed the rest of the cash.

Following year my insurance went down by £50.......

I daresay the insurance game has changed a *lot* over the past 12 years. When you're looking for your next renewal, add a non fault claim and let me know how many come back less than they were before Most will come back 10-20% higher.

This seems a strange attitude to me. I'd have to put my own time and money into fixing the car and potentially get a bad colour match with a wing from a different car. Quite simply why should I when it was their fault for not paying attention?

I guess the main reason would be because I was worried my car would be written off, but it was very interesting what Iamzod did and it clearly worked for him, I would certainly take this advice if I needed again on a car not worth much, I wasn't really aware you could be like that with insurers.

In the end (if anyone really cares!) the guy paid out the full amount from the quotes I got so I've been very lucky to get someone so cooperative.

I find it a strange attitude that you said you "didn't want him to get away with it" and seemingly wanted to punish the guy for a momentary lapse of concentration. You wouldn't have put your own money into it at all, you would have done what others said above and charged him £100-150 for it - £50 for the wing and £50-100 for your time and effort.

And from my experience of bodyshops, you're more likely to get a better fit and finish fitting an original factory painted part that's the same age as the rest of the car, than having one super shiny, brand new, slightly off shade panel whilst the rest of the car is covered in swirl marks, scratches and faded paint. I guess the value of the car is also a consideration - unless you own Fox's E39 or are of a similar attitude towards it, I can't say I'd be all that precious about it, but hey, that's just me.

You haven't actually mentioned what the car is, but I'm guessing from how worried you are about it, it's something a bit special and in super clean nick?

 

[amkan13]

Can they even push a write off on a 3rd parties car. There is a difference between "Beyond economical repair" and "irreparable"

yes they can... but they shouldn't have any right to do it... had my car worth around £1500 at the time hit on the passenger side door. Got cash from the 3rd party, and got a 2nd hand door, however they also put a Cat C on the car without telling me, which I only found out when trying to tax/mot the car at the usual date.
I was a bit naive at the time and didn't understand how the process worked, but they shouldn't do this because they cannot write it off if you have a cash settlement. In my case I don't think the 3rd parties insurance company knew exactly what they were doing either. So make sure you are clued up! I couldn't be bothered to fight back in the end once I found out, I was planning on keeping the car until it died anyway so made no difference to me, I got £1450 back minus a 2nd hand door, minus a VOSA fee for a VIN check so I was well 'up' from what I began with.