Insurance dispute – any help greatly appreciated UPDATED resolved!

J

JT_0306

Member
 London
UPDATE 2: Settled with the insurance and have sold the salvage to a fellow forum member. Hopefully it will find itself back roaring on the roads in the new year!

I will be purchasing another M soon. I've got a provisional price agreed on one, so potentially very soon :driving:


UPDATE 1: see latest comment at the end of the thread. I have got to a place with the insurers where I am happy and will be buying the car off them to sell on (as is i.e. to be repaired). Thank you to everyone for your help - I really appreciate it! I should be back on the road in another M soon with any luck.


ORIGINAL POST:

Hi everyone,

Thank you for opening and reading this topic.

I am in dispute with my insurance company over the value of my M. I am posting here to see if any of you have had similar experiences and if you have any advice. Anything you can offer will be greatly appreciated. I’ve tried to keep it short :D

So – I bought my M last year and unfortunately recently crunched it on a roundabout (long, depressing story) :headbang: . "Lucky I have fully comp insurance" I thought.

The potential cost to fix it has been spiralling beyond what my insurers are willing to pay so they want to write it off and pay me the ‘market value’. They first offered me £8,800 (before removing my excess), and have now offered £9,380 (again before excess). I think this is about £4,000 short and am gutted as it took me many years hard work to be able to afford the car (I’m now 30, wanted a sports car since 4 and have worked hard to get it).

Details of the car. It is (was) a 2006, Interlagos Blue, BMW Z4M Roadster. At the time of the crash it was on just over 61,500 miles. It was in fantastic condition. Not long passed an oil service and flew through its MOT with no advisories. Paint was good, had most options (hi-fi was the mid-level, had pretty much everything else). Looking through Autotrader etc. the asking prices are around £14,000-£15,000 for an equivalent vehicle. Naturally the selling price will be a bit lower, but not £4,000-£5,000 lower.

The insurers say they get a price bracket from the Glass's Database and then place your car in that range based on its condition and history. They agree it was in great condition and have (now) offered me the very top of the range of prices they get from the Glass Database for September 2015 - £9,380.

I think that price is way too low and I have no hope of getting a similar vehicle for less than £13,000, probably more.

So, I am trying to find out if you agree that price is way too low, what my options are, if you have any experience/advice on how to best present my case to the insurers, and if you have any data sources to support me. I am currently sourcing asking prices online, seeking selling prices from Synter, and also emailing Evo (they had an article on the M Marque in September and quoted mid to high teens depending on the vehicle).

I can’t believe £9,380 is a fair ‘market value’ price, and it really puts me in a tough situation trying to replace the car. Also, I don;t understand how they can ask me what value I am insuring when i buy the policy (I said £13,500), price it based on this (I assume?) and then pay out a lot less than this. But maybe I am being naive in expecting them to pay what I think a fair market value is...

Finally – the insurers are Admiral. I have to say aside from the price they are offering they have been exceptional to work with – really brilliant. :thumbsup: Shame about the price. :headbang:

Synter on the other hand have been an absolute disgrace. Shockingly bad. It has taken me 7 weeks since giving them the car to get this far. Really really terrible service. :thumbsdown:

Any thoughts greatly welcomed. I’ve put a few pics of the car below for your enjoyment.

Thanks again for reading.
JT

IHOWDwc.jpg


lbeItA0.jpg


iC1zjz1.jpg


Full set here:

http://imgur.com/a/THWif
 
Obtain all the adverts you can for similar age/spec/mileage cars you can and send this to your insurance company. These will indicate the market value. Glasses guide is useless on this occasion. You need to fight this one.

Ask them to find you a replacement for £9.3k. That should stump them.

How bad, and what is the damage?
 
Bad news buddy
No real input sadly as all I'd say is really haggle
Insurance companies unless you get a fixed price for car will sadly just go by book price

And we all know that's for a bag of crap
As they don't take consideration for some of us actually caring for our cars!!

Hmm. Perhaps (not knowing damage)
Get money and perhaps buy car and with insurance monies get it back on road?
Just a thought
 
D4dawg said:
Hmm. Perhaps (not knowing damage)
Get money and perhaps buy car and with insurance monies get it back on road?
Just a thought
Click to expand...

Or buy it, and part it out?
Before the other 'vultures' swoop on your misfortune, dibs on your 224 wheels if not damaged :wink:
Sorry, I am not trying to make light of your bad luck. I hope you get this sorted with the insurance company - you'll really have to fight it to get closer to 'fair' market value as a payout.
Best of luck.
 
Hi all,

Thanks for the replies so far.

srhutch - yep. I collated all the ads I could find which go from about £12K (84K miles) up to £19K (29K miles). Similar miles/spec to mine are around £15K. Before I did the search Admiral already warned me that Autotrader is no indicator as selling price and asking price are different. That is obvious but I think all the ads give an idea of the market and surely no one believes buyers are negotiating all 20-30 of these cars down from £12K-£19K to an average £7K-£9K.

D4dawg/enzed 4 - thanks for the suggestions. It will cost me about £3K to buy it back from them. Quote so far for the damage (from Sytner) is £7.5K but could go higher. Insurance set a cap of £6.5K due to their value of the vehicle (£8.8K at the time).

As for the damage. I have put two pics below. It was a light 'crunch' on a roundabout. It doesn't look to bad but the Sytner body shop are saying £4.7K for the panels, alloy refurb and respray, then another £3K for suspension (apparently the geometry alignment is out). They have not stripped the car right back and so they say it could go up from there. Insurance seem to agree and would rather pay me off than try and fix it. Shame the pay off is way to low!

I am risk averse and not an engineer (just an enthusiast) so not sure I can take this on to be honest.

That said I have been wondering what the value might be to someone else to take on as a project, or just to sell to someone who would strip it for parts. Judging by the few damaged cars that pop up online I had thought it might be worth £5-£6K, but maybe that is very optimistic. Any thoughts on what it is worth and if it is worth me buying it back?

Finally, yes I am going to haggle hard on this as I really do not believe it was only worth £9.4K before the crash or that I can get one of equivalent condition for the money. I have also emailed Evo who recently quoted mid to high teens.

Thanks again for all the help!

JT

7TdwLYw.jpg

ofkbq7v.jpg
 
That's a disgrace, does anyone know the legalities around this, do insurance companies need to offer you an amount that would buy an 'exact' replacement? I would fight this and not accept anything below market value. I think there is a thread somewhere on here tracking ZM prices. Hope you manage to get it sorted.
 
Stand you ground on this one pal. If needs be get the insurance ombudsman involved. They will try to pay out as little as they can but just keep pushing back until they give a reasonable figure. Send them the receipt/proof of purchase for when you got the car too.

Also out of interest what value did you put on the car when you took out the policy. I don't think it would really make much difference, unless of course you said around £9-10k in which case they probably have some comeback.
 
enzed4 said:
simonlpearce said:
Also out of interest what value did you put on the car when you took out the policy.
Click to expand...
JT_0306 mentioned he took out a policy for 13,500.
Click to expand...

Missed that bit. At worst then this is what should be expected given the market value is higher.
 
Thanks Viren, simonlpearce and enzed4.

Yep I need to double check the documents but think I put £13,500 or £14,000 down when I took the policy out. I have my receipt as well.

I definitely want to fight for market value. The challenge is proving it. If they won't except the various ads I have collected then there is little else I know of that I can use. Evo have replied and said they will get back to me, and I am going to try and get Sytner to share some sales data if they can.

The insurance ombudsman is a good idea. I will be looking into the value of the damaged vehicle (i.e. as-is) as well.

Thanks again - any other ideas welcome!

JT
 
Apologies, would Gap Insurance have helped in a situation such as this? Good luck with your claim, fight them all the way.
 
harrycodlife said:
Apologies, would Gap Insurance have helped in a situation such as this? Good luck with your claim, fight them all the way.
Click to expand...

This is the whole idea of GAP insurance. If your car is written off they fill the gap between the insurers payout and your invoice price. Obviously they will fight hard with your insurance company to get the best value out of them but this is of little consequence to you the customer so long as it doesnt take too long.

Sorry to to see your situation. £9k is the cat d value of the car so I would keep arguing it or buy the car back for their lowest offer and have it done up to sell (this is dependent on your time, effort, etc) or you could stick it straight up for sale for someone to do themselves. I would think even as a Cat D it should still fetch £12k or so (once fully repaired and certified)?
 
Sorry but that is a disgrace and you need to stand your ground.

The point of GAP insurance is to fill the gap between the price you paid vs what its worth now.... Admiral are not even giving you what its worth now.

The insurance company are meant to give you the value to replace the car not sell it!

You should just say with the value they have offered you cant get a replacment car... So you'll go through an accident management company to resolve this... That will get them to give you a fair value.
 
Usually insurance companies will make a number of offers and automatically lowball you. Reject their offer and prove that their offer is ridiculous. In specialist cases Glass's guide is useless.

You will need to do the legwork and provide them with receipts, cars of similar value on sale etc. Make sure you show cars that are a bit below and above yours in condition, and make points about how they are worse/bettr/compare to yours. They will always come in low and then look to move up after rejection. Just keep on at it and escalate it past the telephone operator/claims handler. I found that I had to ring them repeatedly (every day) and make a nusiance of myself.

When I lost my Elise in a fire, I paid £11k for it 3 months before. I was offered £7500. They offered me the cheapest ad on autotrader (which has triple the mileage, a cracked clamshell and was clearly a written off car). Much arguing and provision of photos, comparison ads, refuting of every option they gave me that was not right and eventually I got £10.5 (less my excess). In the end I asked for examples of the cars I could buy. I refuted each one, point by point against my car. Each time they sent me That was Elephant/Admiral.

Just keep on at it. It's a PITA and takes ages though.

Looking at your car, if the bonnet is ok, you'd need a new front bumper, under trays and wing, may aswell replace the front wishbones and bushes. Not too bad a job, a bit time consuming (maybe 2-3 weeks with the right tools, if you did the spraying yourself). CAT D is cosmetic damage usually, so I wouldn't expect any suspension damage. Get market value, buy the car back and get it repaired.
 
Sorry to hear about the accident, OP - and even more so the insurance headaches :(

Is insuring for an agreed value an option over there in the UK? I've always specified the price I insure for rather than take chances with "market value".
 
Mangozac said:
Sorry to hear about the accident, OP - and even more so the insurance headaches :(

Is insuring for an agreed value an option over there in the UK? I've always specified the price I insure for rather than take chances with "market value".
Click to expand...

You can, but you need to arrange this through special channels and often getting a valuation is a pain.
 
Wildfire said:
You can, but you need to arrange this through special channels and often getting a valuation is a pain.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Here you just specify a value and so long as the computer thinks it's realistic there's no problems. Of course, the higher the value you specify the higher your premium ;)
 
ebay completed listings do show final selling price, not many sold but 1 similar to yours but with lower mileage 14155, not much but at least something for you to print as evidence, also an ebay auction is usually bottom dollar regards to sales...as others have said, stick to your guns dont accept anything less than the cost of a like for like replacement, take it to the ombudsman if you have to

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=z4m&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2045573.m1684
 
JT_0306 said:
As for the damage. I have put two pics below. It was a light 'crunch' on a roundabout. It doesn't look to bad but the Sytner body shop are saying £4.7K for the panels, alloy refurb and respray, then another £3K for suspension (apparently the geometry alignment is out). They have not stripped the car right back and so they say it could go up from there. Insurance seem to agree and would rather pay me off than try and fix it. Shame the pay off is way to low!
Click to expand...

£4.7k for the panels :lol: From what I can see the bonnet looks fine, so a new wing and bumper cover. Worse case I would be looking to buy this back and get it on the road with full documented repair history.

My only other concern is that I'm also with Admiral, so best keep the car on the road :cry:
 
This is totally the opposite of another forum members insurance claim experience earlier this year :?
Iirc he came out more than ok on the deal & even canabliised some parts off to sell on here :wink:
May be worth contacting him as he had to produce current market figures for comparison , think his forum name began FRE ????? but could be wrong :cry:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom