I am awaiting engineers reports on the inspection which was pretty perfunctory since he had to get in touch to ask for the spec and mileage. I understand that there are 4 levels of write off,A,B,C and D. However I am not sure which ones let you have your car back and under what conditions...someone on the phone garbled at me about being MOTable or not but I didnt follow and can never remember anyway.

The thing is, in the case of a vehicle with a seperate body and chassis, serious body damage does not have the same implications as with a monocoque,unibody car. Essentially,where a unibody with a bent roof would be buggered,for instance, on a land rover of this sort the chassis and running gear and so on remain OK and so it would be a viable rebuild. So surely one could contest the rating of write off ?

Anyone got definitives or exceptions on this one,please ?

Insurance Loss Categories - Quick reference

* Category A - Must be crushed. All of it.

* Category B - Vehicle may not be returned to road but parts may be sold.

* Category C - Repairable. Significant damage. Cost of the repair is more than book value of vehicle at dealer rates.

* Category D - Repairable. Probably non-structural damage. May have been economic to repair, but insurer doesn't want to.

* Category X - Repairable. Minor Damage

taken from:

http://www.datachecks.co.uk/insurancelosscategories.htm

As Above


Category A: A vehicle that should have been totally crushed, including all its spare parts.
Category B: A vehicle from which spare parts may be salvaged, but the bodyshell should have been crushed and the car should never return to the road.
Category C: An extensively damaged vehicle that the insurer has decided not to repair, but which could be repaired and returned to the road.
Category D: A damaged vehicle that the insurer has decided not to repair, but which could be repaired and returned to the road.
Category F: A vehicle damaged by fire, which the insurer has decided not to repair.

can I have your rear left Caliper please

no, cos the insurer will only take that vehicles remains from my cold,dead hands......sorry

Exceptions thereof ? Appeals ?

shocker said:

Exceptions thereof ? Appeals ?

Click to expand...

Where is the car now?
If at home keep it there.

If it's gone to garage/crash centre they got a habit of disappearing.

At home mate ! Three seperate attempts have been made to take it away against my explicit written,signed,e mailed and phoned instruction. Of course all the companies involved deny all knowledge of this. About 12 yrs ago I had a highly modified towcar go missing from a yard in bristol and it tokk over 20 months to get a minimal bottom book price payout.The last total loss I was foolish enough to trust a local yard to store....many of the best bits went missing and the engineer "lost" his initial report and had to make another on the vehicle...wait for it....with all the bits stripped ! Payout...bottom book price even though I could prove that a replacement like for like could not be had for the money.

In my experience, the business drag things out as long as poss to make you desperate to settle and so accept what they offer. Your courtesy car (if available , often not) is only for two weeks and they wont pay for anything you hire so unless you have the capital to have a second vehicle on the road they can wait you out . Its a dirty game all right but all you can do is stick to your guns , refuse to be provoked and keep on it.

Everytime i hear about the NFU it is not great!!
my mate had some rough dealings with em, they are the same as any other company, ok!!
until you claim, you have to stick to your guns, don't let em have anything until you agree on a solution, keep the car, if it goes to a yard they charge excessive storage fees, so it all adds up, if you have your vehicle at least you have something, i have read all your plight, and yes you are having a rough time, so keep your chin up and good luck!!

I agree with disco above you are better of not claiming on insurance, its just there for other users that you may hit. You never get a good deal for the money they still from you over the years. My friend had his stolen but when he wrote the spec down they said he didn't mention about the different alloys fitted so the insurance was void. Even fitting a different radio and not telling they gives them ground to not pay out. Hope no ones fitted fluffy dice this is a big no
There all a bunch of robbing W*****ers leagalise crooks
Try and get the claim stopped on the car and sell the parts on ebay as spares you will get a lot back that way

Well , finally an end to the story.....

....I got paid out a paltry amount and then the much vaunted DAS legal expenses who promised to get me my contents costs back put me onto a no win no fee lawyer who kept me waiting for months and months then suddenly dropped the case and told me to get lost .

However , several recovery firms came to try take the truck away , as I said they could after I had been paid but couldnt get it off the field as it was too wet . After several months of threatening phone calls and unannounced visits I had a letter from NFU claims telling me I could keep the vehicle as it could only be used for parts . So I get to keep my lovely engine et al .

I would rather not have claimed but as the council did I had no choice , I tried to say I didnt want to claim but was told it was not possible . Another interesting point was that Zurich Insurance took over 2 months to reply to a claim by my feral scavenger/lawyer as part of a new streamlined legal process that holds them liable to respond within 10 days , but since it is self regulated the penalty for them not doing the thing is , guess what ...nothing . They did however deny that Cornwall County Council had any insurance with them even when presented with the police report with the verified policy number ....were all the councils vehicles driving uninsured at this time ? Were Zurich deliberately being obstructive ? Who knows ? Not me .

What I would like to know is who I now take my contents claim to . The NFU office that sold me the policy refuse to speak on the phone or reply to emails or letters ( I have since moved my business to another office) and when I complained to head office they told me they did an in house investigation and did not uphold my complaint , case closed , dont bother us again .

Financial services ombudsmen, if you have legal protection then use it for uninsured loss- lastly the crock of **** thread has consumer direct information.

Years ago I had trouble with direct line and the ombudsman royally screwed them- I now run a traders policy as it's only a piece of paper and far less bollocks than other insurance