Right oh brains trust....

My 24 yo niece who lives with us was on the wrong end of a lane change by a blind dumbass in Perth! His insurance company has accepted liability for damage to a rear drivers side door and banged up rear bumper but because the car is a "uni student" 2002 Subi Forester the cost of the repairs are more than the value of the car - maybe $3000ish?? ( they say ). Allianz has told her to take it back for a reassessment next week but after the initial quote they have said the repairs are more than the car is worth.

What are the options ???

Ideally she would like to keep the car with minimal interference from the licencing department (taking it over the pits to get it relicensed if it is written off is a pain and time consuming and costly) and maybe accept a smaller payout without it getting written off and repairing the door by getting one from the wreckers - the door still opens and works fine but looks a bit crap!

The worst case scenario is that the car, which is basically a reliable and safe student car, is written off and she has to fork out to get an unknown quantity of a car when her Subi is quite fine except for the bashed in door.

The other driver was at fault but she is concerned that she will come out of the deal either without a car and a small amount of cash to get a replacement or the grind of dealing with getting a repairable write off relicensed....

Thanks in advance for any advice..

Unfortunately there is not much you can do- once a car is over 10 or so years old the depreciated value is low, and it is very easy for a repair, any repair, say even a gearbox from a wrecker, to exceed the written off value.

you should be able to have it declared a "repairable write off" if it is just something like the door.

one thing you have to watch out for, and it has happened to me with a motorcycle, they gave me a wholesale value for the write off, but then charged me a retail value for the wreck......still gets me wild, but I checked and hassled, but that's how it ended up and at the end of the day they got me because it just wasn't worth the time and energy to chase a couple of grand.......and I am an insurance assessor!!!! (Building)

good luck

If you have a policy and pay monthly.

Say you have a crash in month 1- you still need to pay the remaining 11 months.

I think I was paying 600 for insurance as a Uni student. My daily driver is only worth 3k. If I was still paying 600 year I wouldn't bother.

If you are OK with DIY, and dont mind doing the unbolting of damaged bits - and bolting on replacement stuff, keep the car and hit gumtree or wreckers for parts, and tell the insurance co. to send the bill to the clown that hit you.

Most of that 3k quote will be for labour, painting and profit margin.


stephen

Not sure about WA, but in the eastern states once it is written off that's it. Game over, only good for parts... :-(

In WA as long as its not a statutory write off, it will fall under the umbrella as a repairable write off. So negotiate with insurer and see if you can come to an agreement, and have it repaired privately, under your directive.
But if you come across any vehicle that is a statutory write off, that's it in Australia.
However................. And some have resorted to this. Ship to NZ or South Africa, and its plane sailing, and can be registered once again.
This is mainly applied to vehicles that have suffered a water entry issue. Soon as they know its water, its statutory write off.
No mater how slight the entry. Wouldn't ever touch a salt job, but always worth a look at fresh water jobs

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GalahOnTheBay said..
Not sure about WA, but in the eastern states once it is written off that's it. Game over, only good for parts... :-(

Not so here, I got a nice cheap 2006 commodore wagon that had been written off due to hail damage. I just had to tell my insurance company that it was a previous write off.

Insurance is the only game in town where the only way to win is if you lose.

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GalahOnTheBay said...
Not sure about WA, but in the eastern states once it is written off that's it. Game over, only good for parts... :-(

Not correct in Queensland.
My father in law makes his living off buying written off vehicles, repairing them and selling them on all above board and on the books.
From little hatches worth nothing to European super cars I have seen come and go in his shed.

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sn said..
If you are OK with DIY, and dont mind doing the unbolting of damaged bits - and bolting on replacement stuff, keep the car and hit gumtree or wreckers for parts, and tell the insurance co. to send the bill to the clown that hit you.

Most of that 3k quote will be for labour, painting and profit margin.


stephen

That is what we're hoping to do if the insurer hands over some cash. As long as it isn't a "write off" it won't be all that much of a problem but if it becomes an issue of getting it relicensed after being written off then that will be a pain in the rear end...

I'll be going with her when she takes it back to the repair shop on Tuesday for the reassessment to try and get some better options - the conversation she had with Allianz by phone today was probably not the most informative.....

You won't have a problem. My partner had an old Hyundai which got the door dented by someone in a car park ( very small ) . Cost of repair was worth $2000 and the car was only worth about them same. We said we would be happy not getting the door fixed. They gave us $2000 as a cash settlement and then we sold the car for $1500. Happy days.

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samokta said..
You won't have a problem. My partner had an old Hyundai which got the door dented by someone in a car park ( very small ) . Cost of repair was worth $2000 and the car was only worth about them same. We said we would be happy not getting the door fixed. They gave us $2000 as a cash settlement and then we sold the car for $1500. Happy days.

That's what I like to here

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samokta said..
You won't have a problem. My partner had an old Hyundai which got the door dented by someone in a car park ( very small ) . Cost of repair was worth $2000 and the car was only worth about them same. We said we would be happy not getting the door fixed. They gave us $2000 as a cash settlement and then we sold the car for $1500. Happy days.

What insurance company? If thats the case I'm changing.

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patsken said..

samokta said..
You won't have a problem. My partner had an old Hyundai which got the door dented by someone in a car park ( very small ) . Cost of repair was worth $2000 and the car was only worth about them same. We said we would be happy not getting the door fixed. They gave us $2000 as a cash settlement and then we sold the car for $1500. Happy days.

That's what I like to here

yeah and then buy a door from the wreckers and change if u want. but i would make them pay u the value of the car

If the car is a repairable write-off and they pay you out , you will just have to supply the receipts and vin numbers of the donor car from where the parts came from .
Then present it to a authorised vehicle repairer who can issue WOVR forms 4 and 4a to show the pits that it is repaired to industry standards.
The vehicle will still be required to pass a full examination prior to re-registration.

Buy it back when it goes under the hammer if the insurance company won't play fair.

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jeff2 said..
If the car is a repairable write-off and they pay you out , you will just have to supply the receipts and vin numbers of the donor car from where the parts came from .
Then present it to a authorised vehicle repairer who can issue WOVR forms 4 and 4a to show the pits that it is repaired to industry standards.
The vehicle will still be required to pass a full examination prior to re-registration.

Didn't want to hear that !

Taking a vehicle to the pits has got be the .......... PITS !

We didn't repair the door as even on a new car that would be ridiculous, the dent was that small. We just sold the car as is. No need to take it over the pits as it was never out of rego.

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samokta said..
We didn't repair the door as even on a new car that would be ridiculous, the dent was that small. We just sold the car as is. No need to take it over the pits as it was never out of rego.

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patsken said..

jeff2 said..
If the car is a repairable write-off and they pay you out , you will just have to supply the receipts and vin numbers of the donor car from where the parts came from .
Then present it to a authorised vehicle repairer who can issue WOVR forms 4 and 4a to show the pits that it is repaired to industry standards.
The vehicle will still be required to pass a full examination prior to re-registration.

Didn't want to hear that !

Taking a vehicle to the pits has got be the .......... PITS !

Don't no the system in wa but if you have a car with damage that has not been proven to have been repaired (write off or not) even a small ding your insurance company will most of the time refuse to insurer you with that car the next year round.

Is it your niece's insurance company saying the car is a write-off or the other company?

The other company has no right over the car and are responsible for repairing the damage. They cannot deem it a write-off as far as I know, as they have no control over it.

So, ask them for the money, and insist that you keep the car. It is not theirs. Whether you repair it or not is irrelevant to them as you are either repairing it or accepting compensation for its loss of value.

If it is your nieces insurance company saying this and she claimed through them, then it might be different. Either way, the wreck is going to sell for $300 at most if its an older car, as they are not worth much these days and $300 is about as low as the auctioneer will start off with. So, if this is the case, try and keep the car for '$300'.

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GalahOnTheBay said..
Not sure about WA, but in the eastern states once it is written off that's it. Game over, only good for parts... :-(

That was only brought in to stop a certain family or two from rebirthing cars in Sydney. Apparently it really was just a small clan responsible for almost all of these... Yet, before them a lot of cars were repairable write-offs.

The one good side of this law is that the price of wrecks (for parts) is now a lot cheaper than it was when repairable write-offs were allowed in NSW.

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sotired said..
Is it your niece's insurance company saying the car is a write-off or the other company?

The other company has no right over the car and are responsible for repairing the damage. They cannot deem it a write-off as far as I know, as they have no control over it.

So, ask them for the money, and insist that you keep the car. It is not theirs. Whether you repair it or not is irrelevant to them as you are either repairing it or accepting compensation for its loss of value.

If it is your nieces insurance company saying this and she claimed through them, then it might be different. Either way, the wreck is going to sell for $300 at most if its an older car, as they are not worth much these days and $300 is about as low as the auctioneer will start off with. So, if this is the case, try and keep the car for '$300'.

It's the other drivers insurer that's saying it isn't worth repairing and we are hoping that they will stump up with some cash and then she can decide if she wants to drive a car with a dented door and bumper or do a door swap and make it a little more presentable.
Thanks for the insights and I'll post the results when it becomes more clear how it will work.
I will say that if it turns out that some useless driver has the ability to cause a perfectly safe and driveable car to be written off and removed from the market because of dented door and bumper then there is something wrong with the system.

Okay, the car has been back to the panelbeaters for a reassessment and it turns out now that the door can be repaired/replaced and a small dent fixed for under the write off value so they will fix it - the smallish dent in the bumper 'that the shop wanted to include may or may not have been damaged in the collision so they have taken that out of the equation and everyone is happy

If it had have been a repairable write off it seems that they would have reduced the payout (cars value) by the amount that they would have gotten from the wreckers and she could have kept the car.

Anyway she is happy to keep the car and it worked out in the end....

Insurance, all insurance policies in this country are a sham/con!