A few weeks ago a driver had a "suspected" stroke and drove along the side of my work van and tore the rear panel, side door and damaged the panel between the two as well as breaking the rear light and drivers mirror. I was not in the van at the time and obviously I feel for the guy as it was not his error. The small lorry he was driving also hit another car. He was taken to hospital and there were many witnesses to the accident.The insurance company sent me to a local bodywork firm for an inspection. The person who looked at my van told me that it would probably be written off. I was contacted by the coach works company last week to advise me to book in for repairs. when I contacted my insurance company and spoke to them they told me that the cost of repairs was £2940 plus vat. I told them that I paid £3400 last summer for the van. I was told that the engineer deemed it fit for repair. I am not looking for a profit but I can still drive the van and use it for work. I have replaced the mirror and rear light as this was needed to still use it. I reclined the use of a replacement vehicle as I told them that this just puts up other peoples policies costs. My question is can I request a pay out of a smaller amount and keep the van saving the insurance company around £1000? Any ideas or ways to speak to them would be helpful before they claim over £3500 from that persons insurance company. All photos were taken by the police at the time of the crash as well as the person at the coachworks company four days later.
Regards Jon

The mistake you have made here is going through your insurance company.
In all honesty they always seem very keen in this sort of situation, as they will try to profiteer from the other insurance company. Hateful behaviour.

Assuming you have not incurred any costs etc with your company, you could try speaking direct to the other drives insurers. They are extremely keen to keep costs sensible, and I stress sensible. In the 2 cases I have had like this (somebody hitting my parked car, and last summer somebody driving into my Spitfire while in stationary traffic) I got paid out a cash settlement that was the repair cost, and in both cases I have done the majority of repair work myself.
Both times they asked about car hire and any other out of pocket expenses. They want to treat you fairly, as that is much cheaper than getting your insurance company involved.

At least that is my take on the way they behave.

Our car was hit whilst parked last year.

The woman went down most of one side of our car, a 2005 Meriva. The doors both worked fine but had a scrape maybe 1/2" deep by about 6" high on them. My wife & Son witnessed it as they were walking back to the car.

The insurance wrote it off as un economical to repair & offered us a very good payout, approx £2000 !

We had owned it for 5 years, 2nd owner & only had 68000 miles on it when the accident happened so really wanted to keep it, I called & explained I was happy to repair the two doors myself & they said we could keep it but they would take 20% off the payout. They insisted we had a new MOT put on, which it passed fine even with the damaged doors. Local Vauxhall breaker wants £45 each for a complete door in the same colour but I've still not got round to repairing it as it doesn't affect the car in anyway.

Definitely worth trying to purchase the van back in it's current state I reckon, plus you will still get a payout to repair it if you want.

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Originally posted by cliftyhanger
The mistake you have made here is going through your insurance company.
In all honesty they always seem very keen in this sort of situation, as they will try to profiteer from the other insurance company. Hateful behaviour.

Assuming you have not incurred any costs etc with your company, you could try speaking direct to the other drives insurers. They are extremely keen to keep costs sensible, and I stress sensible. In the 2 cases I have had like this (somebody hitting my parked car, and last summer somebody driving into my Spitfire while in stationary traffic) I got paid out a cash settlement that was the repair cost, and in both cases I have done the majority of repair work myself.
Both times they asked about car hire and any other out of pocket expenses. They want to treat you fairly, as that is much cheaper than getting your insurance company involved.

At least that is my take on the way they behave.

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Always thought when the cost of repairs totaled more than 60% of the market value, the vehicle was automatically written off ?

OR is that just claims to your own insurance company ?

I think there are no "rules" with insurance these days...

Remember the quote the ins.co get from their approved repairer is unlikely to bear much resemblance to how much they will be paying.
Also worth remembering you can take a vehicle to any garage of your choice, within reason. But they do their best to make that option unattractive (I had "threats" that I wouldn't get my excess back, and even worse they tried to tell me I HAD to have a hire car. Apparently they charge it out at say £150 a day and reclaim from the other insurer, even though it may be a basic £50 a day car. That is what the other chaps insurance told me when I asked why my insurance were being so difficult. They had a claim for nearly £20k for car hire sitting on their "desk" Actually what was amusing is my insurance was trying to insist I had an equivalent car, so I asked for a 180bhp triumph spitfire. That just didn't compute with them at all )

Just a point. Insurers only have to pay out 3rd party claims if there is negligence. A sudden, unforeseen, medical event is not negligence and the other driver's insurance is not obliged to pay anything. It could be your own comprehensive insurance that pays out and so you end up losing your no claims bonus and having increased premiums too. The situation is covered by the automatism caveat.

The situation is different if the driver knew that they were liable to have a medical event - say they had been informed that they were at very high risk of a repeat heart attack or stroke.

Thanks for the replies. My insurance company told me that as I was not in the car at the time the other company is not disputing what had happened. There were witnesses and the driver carried on to drive in to the back of a large van. I was told that my NCB would not be affected.
What I don't want to do is come away with nothing! I would prefer to be offered a sum and to keep the van to fix myself. If not I will let them spend a vast amount repairing it to as perfect.

What would be the situation if I asked my insurance company for the name of his insurers and spoke to them directly?

Just looked up automatism caveat and had a read. My company told me that it was being treated as no fault accident on my part by the other company