# Car insurance and car valuation!



## beergoggles (8 May 2009)

Last week i purchased a Lexus IS200 from a dealership for a serious knockdown price of 8650 Euro, I Insured the car for 10k but in the last few days i had an accident and the car is now a write off! I have since realised the car is worth 12k.
Since i only purchased the car, The insurers wanted to know where i bought it and found out for how much i paid, They are now saying they will only pay me the 8650, is this legal seeing as the book value is 12k and i had it insured it for 10k!

All help appreciated! thanks


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## asdfg (8 May 2009)

> I have since realised the car is worth 12k.


How? Are you using the book value. 
If it is some other method like a website, Carzone for example, forward details to the insurance company and ask the them to buy you a similar car for 8,650. Make sure it has similar mileage etc. They probably won't be able to do it.


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## huskerdu (9 May 2009)

What do the Terms and Conditions of your policy say ?
They may have stated that the maximum they pay out is the purchase price.


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## rmelly (9 May 2009)

If it's from Carzone, then is this not an asking price, and not what is actually paid?


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## Ravima (9 May 2009)

strictly speaking, your loss is what you paid for the car and your insurer are paying that, therefore you are back in the same position you were pre accident. You cannot make a profit on the claim.

given that you wrote off the car within a week of insuring it, it is not too difficult to see that the insure may investigate the claim in great detail.


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## POTY (23 May 2009)

beergoggles said:


> Last week i purchased a Lexus IS200 from a dealership for a serious knockdown price of 8650 Euro, I Insured the car for 10k but in the last few days i had an accident and the car is now a write off! I have since realised the car is worth 12k.
> Since i only purchased the car, The insurers wanted to know where i bought it and found out for how much i paid, They are now saying they will only pay me the 8650, is this legal seeing as the book value is 12k and i had it insured it for 10k!
> 
> All help appreciated! thanks


 
You got it for a fair price - was the pre existing damage to the vehicle ?

You could insure the car for €1,100,000 but most insurers will still only pay you market value, so what you insured it for is not material.

Of course insurers want to know what you paid, if your saying you paid €8,650 but the market value is €12,000 - must be a serious defect in the vehicle.

That said, if you happened to do well, but the market value is higher, insurers are entitled to match what you paid for, even though you paid less than market value - the reason as stated - you cannot be put into a financially better position thatn you were before the loss.

Pretty straight forward I would have thought.


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## JoeB (23 May 2009)

I don't necessarily agree..

The OP seemed to imply that the insurers found out how much he had paid but not because he told them.. so how did they do that? If the garage revealed the price can they be sued by the OP as now he will receive less than the book value of his car.. so the garage has lost him money by revealing the price.. (if in fact they did so)


If he had paid over the book value would the insurers still pay what he had paid?, probably not. So it seems like a double standard.. he can end up worse off but not better off.

If the OP negotiated a great deal due to his charismatic nature and superb negotiating skills then it is up to the insurance company to buy a replacement car for the same price.. if they cannot then they should pay more, regardless of what the OP paid. Unless the insurance company allege it's a scam of some sort and they can prove it. 

The OP insured the car in good faith (it must be assumed)..


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## redgap (25 May 2009)

If the book value for the car is 12k, then you should have insured it for 12k. Because you insured it for 10k thats what you should get back. just because you got a bargain and a car with a good discount does not give the insurance company the right to take that away from you.


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## Lordca$h (25 May 2009)

Seems to me that the world of insurance companies are truly in a world of their own when it comes to paying their dues. You should have check the current market value for the car and then insured it for that amount but since you now at a loss because you have been paying the policy at a loss the least the insurance company can do is pay the 10K you have been paying for and not the price you bought the car at. You shouldn't be punished for getting a bargain in these hard times.


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## Jimbobp (25 May 2009)

I find this is a constant issue with insurance companies. When insuring a car, we give the company the value the client has put on the car. This is in effect useless as the company will put current market value on the car less whatever a garage makes on the vehicle if the vehicle is a write off. An assessor (independent or not) will put a value on a vehicle and this value can vary wildly between different assessors. The whole way of doing this is very haphazzard IMO. I know of one specialist insurer that agree's a value with the client at the outset of the policy so there can be no fight thereafter - maybe all companies should adopt this method.


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