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Car insurance question
I'm looking for advice from anyone who has been in a similar position.
We had our car from the UK over here for a few weeks and were involved in an accident (no-one hurt thankfully). The BE driver has admitted full responsibility, but our UK insurance company are saying that - even though BE will pay for everything - the car has to be written off as the cost of the repairs is more than the car's value.
They say this is because the standard procedure is for each insurance company to cover the costs of their own clients then sort it out between themselves and they won't pay out more than the car's value even if they are going to recover it. I'm about to spend an interesting evening reading my policy, but any ideas?
They say this is baciuse the standard procedure is for ecah nsrance company yto cover the costs of their own clients
It will depend on what insurance you have and the T&C's of your policy. Some policies only pay out up to the value of your car (which could be a lot less than you bought it for), others will pay to replace your car.
No one is going to repair a vehicle if the value of those repairs is greater than the value of the vehicle. It doesn't make economic sense.
What your insurance company chooses to do with the car is largely irrelevant as it's a write off. They could decide to send it to the moon for all you care. They can do whatever they want as it now effectively belongs to them.
The only thing that's important to you now is the money.
You should worry less about what they are doing with your (ex) car, and more on how and when they're going to pay you.
They are going to repatriate your car for tax reasons. Make absolutely sure that the DVLA know that it is an insurance right-off.
It seems that you might be a Belgian resident but were driving a UK-registered car that you owned. If that was the case and the insurance company were not fully aware, and had agreed in writing, you should count yourself lucky that they haven't refuted your claim straight off. And that is before considering whether you should have had a Belgian-issued driving licence because a UK-issued licence has to bear your current residential address but the DVLA won't register any address outside the UK.
Yes, it is allowed these days (it wasn't until fairly recently). So in that case just my first paragraph applies - including the check that the DVLA has recorded it as a write-off (which can be done on-line by entering the registration number in the vehicle status check section of their website).
"Thanks Anon - of course I agree with the economic sense argument, but the thing I forgot to add is that the UK Insurance company also insists on paying to repatriate the car to scrap it..."
It won't necessarily be scrapped. Of course it might be scrapped because it might well now be scrap, but an insurance write off does not = scrap metal. It just means the insurance company have elected not to repair.
As it happens I have a vehicle which was an insurance write off in 2013.
