Urgent! Advice sought contesting insurance valuation (Z4M)

G

GarethA

Member
Hi folks

If anyone has successfully negotiated with insurance companies on valuations for settlements I'd love to hear from them

My lovely Z4M took a ding recently to the front and the repairs (bumper, headlights and radiator etc) are looking like the best part of £8k from the assessor. I had it sent to a local workshop I am a customer of and they have told me the trade glasses valuation is £8090. Either way I am expecting the worst ie uneconomic repair.

The car was mint, though high mileage (mid 90's) with CSL wheels fitted and replacement value is realistically closer to 14-15 in the condition mine was in IMO.

1) Other than evidencing classifieds (not so many examples around) has anyone got any recommendations or advice for this process?
2) I should have a right to fix the car myself if I want, correct (even if Cat C required worst case)?

Thanks in advance.

An incredible amount of additional damage was caused when the vehicle was moved by the insurance company's appointed transporters but that's a different story....
 
£8k sounds high for what's described but costs can add up of course (did your local workshop know of the £8k estimate in advance?)... I'm assuming new wings and bonnet, grilles too...

As well as here, I'd enquire on moneysavingexpert and on the pistonheads forum. Assuming this is a Roadster with 95k on it, if history and condition are good then I'd guess £10.5k in value? Others can offer more accurate evaluations as there's a lot of talk about these car's current values... Condition and history will be crucial as it's a higher mileage example.

Sounds like could be a Cat D, not C though: I can't believe this car is worth less than £8k, no chance... Rarer, sportier cars are often priced incorrectly on Glasses/similar, you have to go by what they're advertised at on Pistonheads, Autotrader etc.

Hope you sort it though ASAP :thumbsup:
 
What value do you say the car is when insuring it?

Usually a matter of trawling classifieds and finding cars as close as possible to show the insurer.

I haven't had to do this personally though.
 
Ask your insurance company to find you similar examples currently for sale. I bet they cant find one for £8k
 
Thanks guys.

Yes it's a roadster, mildly fettled with kind advice from this forum

I think I said £15 to insurance co but not recorded on the documents.

I'm guessing the nub of it is whether they obliged to put me back on the road in an equivalent vehicle or I am hostage to whatever value they offer.

Classifieds duly trawled: Pistonheads/autoT/Norwich Classics

I don't think the £49,995 example (coupe) with 1,500 miles at Hexagon BMW will be that helpful :o
 
GarethA said:
Thanks guys.

Yes it's a roadster, mildly fettled with kind advice from this forum

I think I said £15 to insurance co but not recorded on the documents.

I'm guessing the nub of it is whether they obliged to put me back on the road in an equivalent vehicle or I am hostage to whatever value they offer.

Classifieds duly trawled: Pistonheads/autoT/Norwich Classics

I don't think the £49,995 example (coupe) with 1,500 miles at Hexagon BMW will be that helpful :o
Click to expand...

You're covered to the point you are in an equal position before the incident.
That's the crux of the issue.

You don't have to accept their offer, and if you can provide evidence that their office is unjust and they're not budging, get the ombudsman involved.
 
I know from experience when my Jag X-Type was written off a couple of years ago, they offered me a lot less than expected. I found a few links of autotrader and emailed them to the insurance company which got me a an extra few hundred quid off the bat. I then bought the car back off them at scrap value (around £300 IIRC), I then dropped the car off at my mates bodyshop, he's an insurance approved repairer (actually for caravans not cars) but he stripped the front end down and told me what parts I needed. A few hours spent trawling ebay and calling scrappers and I had sourced all the parts, had them delivered directly to him. All in the repair cost me about £1000 including the cost of buying back the car so was a win win for me got to keep my car and got to hold on to a big portion of the payout. Of course the car will show as CAT C/D but if you have all the photos of the condition and work done to show any buyer if you do decide to sell its a great reassurance to them, and you will already have made more than the loss in vale back from the difference between the payout and repair costs
 
All

Have been rightly reminded to post a "what happened" on the forum.

What happened was that my case officer at Admiral went on holiday, a colleague with more get up and go looked at when she was out and immediately escalated internally without being asked. I think she sensed the negative PR potential regarding damage done by their recovery.

I prepared a 2 pager on evidence for values, shared with Admiral and spoke to the same person who immediately looked up some specialist websites with me on the phone and concurred straight away that Glass's values were totally out of whack with reality. I was asked what my end game was - cash or repair, and went for repair. Full repair was sanctioned within a few weeks much to my surprise as it was now c. 8k repairs. Took a while but finally got it back in....November. Could have kicked up more of a fuss for time without a car but I don't commute and was glad to get it back (no "category" labels).

Moral of story seems to be - depends who you get on the Admiral side.

Sincere thanks once again to the very helpful posts on this topic here (mirror posting on Pistonheads)

Best
 
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