I have a 2000 caravan which was damaged coming out of our drive on the concrete gate post. Contacted the insurance company who requested 2 quotes, took it to a local dealer with £600-£1500 repair in mind. Only to be told it is beyond economical repair!!!!!!! We have only purchased the van in May this year, she is very good nick (except for the damage now obviously) and we hae enjoyed our holidays in it.
I am wondering if I should phone the insurance company and tell them that we will repair it ourselves without sending them the quotes as the dealer said he could repair it for £600, just not to insurance standards, I'm terrified I might lose the van and not receive a good amount for it if we proceed with the insurance.
Not sure if the situation is the same with caravans, but with a car, if it is written off, you can usually buy the salvage back from the insurance company. This can usually happen for around 10% of its payout value, but this can vary depending on the insurance company and the vehicle in question. However, if you can buy it back from the insurance company and have it repaired for £600 you could make a tidy profit for your inconvenience.
I've seen 2000 Swift Alouettes for arouind £6000 online, so assuming the above is available to you, you should be able to come away with a £6000 payout, less £600 to pay for the salvage and a repair bill of around £600. That leaves £4800 change for your inconvenience.
The downside is that your £6000 caravan will be registered as a total loss and as such will be only worth about £3000. The flip side of that is that the £3000 you have lost from your depreciating assett has been replaced with £4800 in cold hard cash.
You then have the option of selling it on for about £3000 (about half the normal value) or keeping it. If you keep it, it's always going to be worth about half its market value due to being a write off, but as it depreciates, this figure also depreciates with it.
Just a question - is the £6k for Swift Alouettes the current trade in value or is that what they are up for sale at on forecourts? Insurance companies usually offer you the value you'd get if you traded it in, not the price you would pay to replace it.
Swift allouette 2000 in caravanpriceguide.com private £4000. An insurance company is not going to be looking at the purchase price but what it would have been worth had you been able to dispose of it. I believe an insurance company will offer you considerably less than £4000 but if you can then buy the salvage from the insurers and get it repaired out of what they give you then you are on a winner.
I have done this with a car and came out at a profit and got my car back on the road.
In all honesty, I just googled a couple of classified adds and this was the price that seemed to be getting asked. The insurance should be offering a figure that would replace the van. However, their first offer will usually be well short of this. You can of course reject their first offer. Another thing worth considering if they wish to write it of is a payment in lieu of the damage wherby they would pay you enough to repair it to below their standards on the understanding that you take full responsibility for it. This way it is not recorded as a write off.
One thing to note (or maybe me ask!) is, once a car has been written off and then repaired by the owner, it must undergo a VDI check & MOT to confirm that it is indeed roadworthy
Had this happen with my car when vandals had poured paint stripper over it: £2000 for professional respray, way more than what the car's worth and so it was written off; or do it ourselves and once VDI'd it's back on the road no problem.
How would you get a caravan checked out for roadworthiness?
That is if the reason for it being written off is purely on a financial basis and not totally beyond repair!
Quote: Originally posted by MrPete on 04/10/2010
One thing to note (or maybe me ask!) is, once a car has been written off and then repaired by the owner, it must undergo a VDI check & MOT to confirm that it is indeed roadworthy
VDI? Never heard of it. There is a VIC check, which must be carried out on vehicles recorded as a category C total loss (doesn't apply to Cat D). This is a Vehicle Identity Check, primarily to stop stolen vehicles being passed off as accident repaired cars. It is not a roadworthiness check, and does not certify the repairs carried out.
An MOT need only be carried out if the current one has expired on a vehicle over three years old (as per normal) - it is not automatically invalidated by accident damage, or anything else occurring before the certificate expires. However, the VIC inspector can refuse to validate the vehicle if he believes it to be unroadworthy.
OH had a car written off a few years ago when someone rear-ended him & it would have cost more for the repair (rear bumper) than the car was worth. He bought it back & repaired it but had to have it MOTd before the insurance company would cover it again even tho it still had several months left.
Wouldn't have thought this would apply to a caravan as there's no MOT type test for them anyway?
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Topic: Shock at Repair Quote for Insurance
