klingelton Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 (edited) So me and the wife decided to go car shopping today. We found a car that we liked and decided to offer our current machine as part ex. They ran a hpi check on our car and came back with the news that it was marked as stolen and was a category d insurance write off.When we first got the car, it was stolen and recovered 2 weeks later. There was some damage and that was repaired by the insurance company. The thing is, at that time, we were never informed that it would be marked as an insurance write off. If we were, we would have taken the money and bought the car back and had it repaired.So basically where we are now is we have a cat d car (that we believe should never have been cat d) which has obliterated 50% off the value of our car. The car is now Worth less than the outstanding finance and will never cover a balloon payment, due in 10 months or so.We feel that we've been royally stiffed by the insurance company who should never have written off the car, or if they did, they should have paid us out in the first place so we could have done things properly.The car is a BMW mini. The insurers were mini insurance (the car was stolen 2 days after we got it)Soy question is: can they do this? Can they hand the repaired car back to us and still write it off, giving us no option? Edited August 5, 2013 by klingelton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastanglianbiker Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 normally it wouldnt be repaired as a cat d hence it being a cat d then they would either pay you out or offer you the chance to buy it back,but i have never heard of a car being repaired and returned to the owner and still going on the hpi register as a cat d or c write off.i would be asking questions to your insurance company and reading the small print of the policy might even be worth driopping bikesure on here a pm and asking them even tho u r not insured with them they might offer advice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyberwolf Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 you need to ring the insurance company, if they write it off they would not repair it then give it back. someone feck it up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TC Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 I would definitely contact the insurance company to find out why they returned a car to you that had been written off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokin Joe Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 An simple error on the insurer's part I should imagine. Get them to sort it out for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klingelton Posted July 28, 2013 Author Share Posted July 28, 2013 Cheers folks. We're hoping its just an error as they have effectively picked nearly 7000 out of our pocket. That could buy me my street triple R! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BikerMooFromMars Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Cheers folks. We're hoping its just an error as they have effectively picked nearly 7000 out of our pocket. That could buy me my street triple R!Or a Freddo a day for 96 years!!!http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k96/spastic_potato/Freddo96years_zpsccd39e80.jpg http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-shocked015.gif Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Cheers folks. We're hoping its just an error as they have effectively picked nearly 7000 out of our pocket. That could buy me my street triple R!Or a Freddo a day for 96 years!!!http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k96/spastic_potato/Freddo96years_zpsccd39e80.jpg http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-shocked015.gif Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klingelton Posted July 30, 2013 Author Share Posted July 30, 2013 UPDATE: we rang the insurance company last night. they say the car is marked as a category Z - stolen recoverd repaired. However, the hpi check we ran saw the car marked as written off - not true. The woman and mini insurance (really pleasant woman) is sending us the print outs of the HPI checks she ran. She also said that the mark against the car does not affect the value of the car. I begged to differ and stated that all the information i'd got had said that even as a category Z, the car was still devalued from anywhere between 20% - 50%. It goes to say - criminals are not known for their mechanical sympathy. I then went on to say that had we known that there would be a mark against the vehicle that would affect its future resale value, and that we would be severely out of pocket come the end of the agreement, we would never have accepted the car back and claimed on the gap insurance we'd paid for and gone and bought another car. It feels like we've been punished enough for being misfortunate enough for someone else to have broken into our house, stolen the keys to the car and taken it without out consent. We got no compensation at all from the crime, we pay with higher insurance premiums on both the house and the car. and now the resale value of our car is affected greatly.She did say that there was a legal obligation to mark the car as stolen recovered, and I understand that. If I was buying a car, I'd want to know its history, no matter how checkered. I guess the point is, we were never informed that a mark against our vehicle would devalue it the way it has.Also the fella in the pug dealership - the car is NOT written off, it is marked stolen recovered!So the lady at mini insurance is going to be giving me a call at some point today after she's run it through their legal team. We're in a bit of a grey area as googling this circumstance seems to yield results of people saying "don't buy a stolen recovered car". It would almost have been better for us had they written off the car and paid us out for it.sigh - the saga continues! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joeman Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 tough position to be in...I would test out her theory and try to trade it in against another Mini! if the dealer marks the price down because of its record, get right back on the phone to her.Other option, is simply hand the car back. no point keeping it if it has no resell value - certainly no point paying final ballon payment.hand it back, let them have the pain of shiftin it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klingelton Posted July 30, 2013 Author Share Posted July 30, 2013 tough position to be in...I would test out her theory and try to trade it in against another Mini! if the dealer marks the price down because of its record, get right back on the phone to her.Other option, is simply hand the car back. no point keeping it if it has no resell value - certainly no point paying final ballon payment.hand it back, let them have the pain of shiftin it. we're on the same page, twice in a week, Joeman! we're exploring the possibilities of voluntary termination as we have around 10 months left to run on the policy. This does mean that we'd lose the deposit we put on it in the first place, but we'd stand to lose much more if we carried on paying the finance, especially given the lack of value the car now has.When we approached the mini dealer the other day, they did ask if we'd considered buying another mini. We went in with a problem and they tried to sell us a car. No thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastanglianbiker Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 as the other op said why not go through the motions of looking like you are buying another one and see what value they put on yours becuase of its 'history' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klingelton Posted July 30, 2013 Author Share Posted July 30, 2013 mini won't look at our car because they deem it to be stolen. it says that on the hpi check, so they won't go near it. (insurance company apparently never updated the hpi).It's all a big mess basically leaving us stranded with a car that's near worthless.We've been to other dealers who have offered us 50% of the cars actual value, that will not cover anywhere near the outstanding finance. We're out of pocket to the tune of £3000-£5000 no matter which way we go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joeman Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 mini won't look at our car because they deem it to be stolen. it says that on the hpi check, so they won't go near it. (insurance company apparently never updated the hpi).It's all a big mess basically leaving us stranded with a car that's near worthless.We've been to other dealers who have offered us 50% of the cars actual value, that will not cover anywhere near the outstanding finance. We're out of pocket to the tune of £3000-£5000 no matter which way we go. Small accident with a lit cigarette and a can of petrol.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klingelton Posted July 30, 2013 Author Share Posted July 30, 2013 mini won't look at our car because they deem it to be stolen. it says that on the hpi check, so they won't go near it. (insurance company apparently never updated the hpi).It's all a big mess basically leaving us stranded with a car that's near worthless.We've been to other dealers who have offered us 50% of the cars actual value, that will not cover anywhere near the outstanding finance. We're out of pocket to the tune of £3000-£5000 no matter which way we go. Small accident with a lit cigarette and a can of petrol.. I'd never condone such an action. Besides that, the wife wouldn't live with the guilt - nor would I, truth be told! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyberwolf Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 my last car was stolen recoverd repaired, only found out when selling it, but best part is i was selling it for scrap price as speres and someone did hpi on it and told me lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klingelton Posted August 5, 2013 Author Share Posted August 5, 2013 UPDATE:I rang up mini insurance on the weekend to find out where we are and spoke to a very pleasant gentleman that in no way got my back up at all. Basically he stated that they'd paid out everything they needed to do and marking it category Z (write off or not) was a legal requirement of theirs and any financial loss as a result of that is entirely our problem and that we had no case for claim against mini insurance.Only I believe we do. It's my understanding that insurance is supposed to restore you to the very position financially that you were in prior to the loss occurring (the very definition of insurance). Ergo it could be said that the loss in value of a category Z vehicle (stolen recovered) as a result of the mark on the vehicle history should be covered as part of the insurance claim, and the loss of value was suffered when the mark was placed against the vehicle (3 years ago) and therefore we're owed half the value of the car at that time.Our next plan is to approach the consumer advice or whatever name that particular quango goes by nowadays and see what our options are. We also need to approach experian and ascertain why the vehicle is still showing as written off: yes. because that's seriously affecting the value of the car.I'm also going to get in touch with some solicitor friends of ours and see how tight this might be. I suspect the insurance companies themselves have dealt with this sort of comeback from this situation. It should also be said that we are not asking for the mark against the vehicle to be removed, as everyone seems to think we are. We are honest people. We simply want to be restored to the same financial position that we were in before the car was stolen.Finally, does anyone know how long you have to file for compensation from a convicted car thief - is it even possible to extract the loss from this individual, or is it easier to extract it from the insurance company and leave them to chase the guilty party? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klingelton Posted August 20, 2013 Author Share Posted August 20, 2013 Update - did some more research and ran another hpi on the car. it was showing as written off - stolen. It was also showing that the insurance company owned it.I contacted the insurance company in question and politely asked them to remove the mark. "what mark" was the reply. "the one where it says the car is written off and stolen". "ok!" 48 hours later and it should be updated.Don't know why this was so difficult. 3 different call centre reps, 3 different answers. Only 1 resolution!so we're car shopping this weekend again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XmisterIS Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 I hope it works out for you!I recommend you get yourself a beaten up car that is mechanically sound and drives fine, but is dinged to f**k.My ford mondeo is like that. Nobody would ever want to steal it, and it is pretty good for keeping tw@ts away in traffic because it screams out, "Do I look like I care if I get another dent?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grumpy Old Git Posted August 27, 2013 Share Posted August 27, 2013 Update - did some more research and ran another hpi on the car. it was showing as written off - stolen. It was also showing that the insurance company owned it.I contacted the insurance company in question and politely asked them to remove the mark. "what mark" was the reply. "the one where it says the car is written off and stolen". "ok!" 48 hours later and it should be updated.Don't know why this was so difficult. 3 different call centre reps, 3 different answers. Only 1 resolution!so we're car shopping this weekend again. And? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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