Car Accident - Possible under Insurance

Lpeteraaa777 on 02/09/2020 - 03:09

When I renewed my car insurance the valuation allowed by my insurance company was $11000, and I just accepted this at the time as the car was $17500 when new and was now 3 years old. A couple of days ago someone did a right turn into me (that is, he was at fault) and the car is a write off. The problem is that when I look at the cost of a replacement vehicle of the same make, model and age they are around $16000.

My question therefore is, will my insurance company ask the other driver to pay the $16000 replacement cost? Or will they just pay me the $11000 insured value? If the later, can I try to recover the full replacement cost from driver who was at fault? TIA

Automotive

Comments

  • corky on 02/09/2020 - 03:38

    Your $11,000 insurance is all that you'll get, buyer beware unfortunately, it would cost you more in legal fees to try to recoup the difference from the driver and highly doubtful if you could make a case.

  • PissLUR on 02/09/2020 - 05:04
    +1

    That $11,000 may include rego refund too.

  • payless69 on 02/09/2020 - 05:25
    -6

    Pay $9 to asic for an extract of the directors of the driver at fault insurance. Send a $16k bill to the address. Do not include your phone number and tell them you only have unlisted numbers. Best value from the $9 you ever get. Never tell your insurer as you claim from the other. Tough luck if it is the same company!

    • whooah1979 on 02/09/2020 - 07:59
      +3

      the directors of the driver at fault insurance.

      This doesn't make any sense.

  • randomusername2017 on 02/09/2020 - 05:56
    +9

    replacement vehicle of the same make, model and age they are around $16000.

    What new car only loses 1.5k value in 3 years?.. I want one ;)

    • modsec802 on 02/09/2020 - 06:14
      +1

      I reckon Toyota Yaris as the new ones are now $30k 😮

  • Euphemistic on 02/09/2020 - 07:08
    +2

    You can claim on your insurance and collect $11k or you can take on the hassle yourself and try to get a larger amount out of the other party.

    Is it worth your time/effort/stress to collect those extra $? Only you can answer that. I suspect I’d be going with the lower insurance payout for ease and chalk it up to a life lesson.

  • Quantumcat on 02/09/2020 - 07:10

    Call around to some panel beaters and see if you can get it fixed for under $11k with second hand parts etc
    That will be better than having to get a less good car

    • Quantumcat on 03/09/2020 - 06:49

      Not sure why the negs, got this done with my own car. They wanted to give me $2k but that wasn't enough to get a similar car. So I convinced a mechanic to fix it for under $2k and the insurance company was happy with that.

  • 69 dollar dealz on 02/09/2020 - 07:28
    +11

    The $11,000 is a commercial agreement between yourself and your insurance company. They limit their liability to you on the property for a discount in premium.

    It has no application if you are not at fault.

    From the person at fault (or their insurer) you are entitled to an indemnity.

    Your insurance company might try and accept the $11k because they are lazy, but you need not accept it. Tell them what a replacement costs and give them some examples from car sales.

    The same happened to me and I got the average of the car sales prices I presented.

    I was under insured to the tune of 50%

    • PissLUR on 02/09/2020 - 08:09

      Market or agreed value?

      • 69 dollar dealz on 02/09/2020 - 08:09

        Agreed

        • Tovers93 on 02/09/2020 - 08:39

          It's going to depend on whether this $11k was the agreed value or an indicative market value as some insurers may display during the process.

          If it's agreed value then my understanding is that you're capped at that amount otherwise you would have paid a higher premium.

          If it's market value, then you have some scope for negotiating. It'd be up to you to prove via examples what the market value is (similar age, spec, condition, location) and try to use that to negotiate them up.

          • ProlapsedHeinous on 02/09/2020 - 09:07

            @Tovers93: being capped makes sense if it was the OP that was at fault, however in this instance, as long as the other party is insured, the other party should be footing the bill anyway so it makes sense that the at fault party makes good on actual replacement value.

          • 69 dollar dealz on 02/09/2020 - 09:12
            +6

            @Tovers93: You are wrong.

            That is only the case if OP was the at-fault party.

            Why would OP's damages be limited by his own insurance policy, as to leave him worse off than someone in the same situation who had no insurance?

            OP doesn't even have to go through his insurance. He can contact the at-fault party's insurer directly and negotiate a settlement - a lot of people do this.

            So in that context, why would his agreement with his insurer have anything to do with the other party's liability to pay for damage it has caused?

            • Tovers93 on 02/09/2020 - 11:15

              @69 dollar dealz: Sorry yes, that's a very valid point. My comments are only in relation to at fault accident.

              As you've said, in a not at fault accident it should be like for like, no financial loss.

  • whooah1979 on 02/09/2020 - 09:34

    Op, you’ve two options. 1, make a claim with your insurer and accept the settlement based on the agreement you’ve with them. 2, send a letter of demand to the other party for what you think is your loss. This may include but not limited to the cost of replacing vehicle, vehicle hire, legal fees, loss of income, etc.

    You can find more information about sending a letter of demand here.
    https://www.lawaccess.nsw.gov.au/Pages/representing/lawassis…

    • Seraphin7 on 02/09/2020 - 10:25
      +1

      Bingo. The big question here will be whether or not the $5k (that is far from guaranteed) will be worth the time, hassle, and risk.

      Take $11k today and walk away … or spend the next several months arguing over the extra $5k that might not eventuate? It's a risk call that the OP will need to make.

  • mauricem on 02/09/2020 - 10:29

    Lets say you've insured your Ferrari for $10,000 and its written off in a not at fault accident, could the insurer get market value from the at fault party but only pay the $10k to their customer?

    Their must be many of these cases where the insurance company could potentially make big profits if it doesn't contravene their code of practice.

  • Drakesy on 02/09/2020 - 11:31

    Check the car's redbook/bluebook value as the current second hand car market is temporarily inflated due to covid, subsidies and the decreased trade in volumes due to lower amounts of new vehicles being bought and not reflective of the true value. (oh and don't expect to only lose $1500 over 3 years, $6,500 depreciation is fairly standard).

    I'd say take the $11,000 payout rather than pushing for more because you saw them on gumtree/marketplace/dealerships.

  • Porker on 02/09/2020 - 12:29

    Although won't help OPs situation, when I used to pay car insurance (I lease now), I always got upset when my premium went up and the car value went down.

    I'd call up and play dumb in that ask them that it didn't make sense that I would pay more premium and the car value go down, and that what did make sense was either to pay the higher premium with the car values on last year's value, or to proportionally reduce the premium to reflect the reduced car value.

    Through various phone escalations, the first scenario is the best that I could secure each time - pay a higher premium but maintain the car's replacement value.

  • uncompressed on 02/09/2020 - 13:48

    I would claim against the other party. Might be a bit more of a hassle but you could potentially get a higher amount?

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