Loss Adjusters valuation ???

[toothache]

I'm furious

I had an A3 1.8 3 door Black series 2008.

After an unfortunate accident I had to make a total loss claim.

I was offered today a settlement figure of £4100 to find out the woman wasn't even looking at the right car in the same breath she then offers me £4200.

I checked with her she had the exact model now she said she'd call me back when she did she then offers £4500, the car is worth more than this it was spotless and had just passed its MOT.

Pic's attached

I need to compile a case to present to them that proves the car was valued more than the amount offered but I cannot find another for sale in the whole of the UK.

 

Really angry can anyone help even if it's just a link to a sold vehicle with the same spec? 

[Magnet]

Hello Sarah,

Thanks for being in touch, and sorry to hear of your problems. 

Your thread heading gives the forum a good indication of where you currently are with this, when you state ‘Loss Adjuster’, rather than ‘Assessor’. I’m not sure if this your choice of title, but loss adjusters are employed to minimise claims made against insurers, whereas assessors actually assess that loss. A subtle but important difference! 

Some basis facts that may help to illuminate the picture:- 

The car is 12 years old and will certainly have a greater  ‘worth’ to you than it’s actual market value. Statements like ‘....new MOT...’ will add little to the discussion on price, since yes, it must have an MOT. 

Unfortunately, no one on here is going to be able to give you a definitive valuation on the car without examining it, and having information on it’s mileage, service history, history of  ownership etc. Even armed with this information they would then need at have access to trade valuation guides ( which your ‘loss adjuster’ should). 

If this person hasn’t actually viewed your car, then she cannot come up with a reasonable valuation - but only a guide valuation - and it appears she is simply pushing a guide valuation to some sort of limit due to your (understandable?) discontent. 

‘Cannot find another for sale in the UK....’. Obviously you aren’t going to find an identical vehicle, but surely you will find many 2008 3 door A3s for sale - exact same spec? - possibly not, but all the bells and whistles seldom influence the market value when the vehicle comes to the age it is. 

I would do two things here:- 

Compile of short list of advertised prices of 3 door and or 5 door 2008 A3, noting mileage, service history etc. You can then average these figures to give you a better understanding of whether what you are being offered is reasonable or not. 

Second (and more direct route) would be to wander over to you local trusted used car sales site and ask them for assistance. They are most likely to have on-screen systems where they can value the car for you, in terms of retail and part exchange valuations. I think, these systems are now able to base the valuation via. your actual registration number, rather than the more generic model, age, mileage basis. 

Hope some of this helps Sarah, and although I can respect you are angry (as you say) in my experience, anger never wins the day, reasonable discussion and reasonable aims ( for which you will have done your homework) generally leads to those making the decision being more lenient in your favour.

Good luck with sorting it out, and perhaps you could let us know how you get on.

Kind regards, 

Gareth. 

[cliffcoggin]

I was not going to respond, but I have to echo Gareth's comments. Unfortunately there is not a car in existence that is worth what the owner believes it to be. We all have inflated ideas about the condition and value of our cars. To my mind £4000 for a twelve year old A3 of unknown mileage and condition is not unreasonable.

[DavidTdi]

If I search Autotrader on your 1.8 3dr model and year it brings up 6 cars. Knock out the daft dealer one at £5,995 and the cheapy at £2,495 and you are left with 4 cars between £3,995 and £4,995.

That puts your payout offer of £4500 bang in the middle and in truth I think pretty generous.

But... I guess you are expecting more as it's a "Black Edition"?? To be honest the extra value of that is a very personal thing and going to be hard to value over a standard car. However as well as the (to me) over priced £5-6000 ones of your year on Gumtree there is one under £4000 and one under £3000 of that spec.

So there is actually loads of data to start negotiating price. Bear in mind you should not expect to get a retail value, nearer a trade or private sale price.

A possible second option could be to buy your car back and have it properly repaired depending if it was a total... or just an economic decision to write off which is pretty common.

 

 

 

 

[Magnet]

Hello David,

I must say that your research should stand Sarah in good stead with regard to arriving at a realistic valuation for her car, and the suggestion in your last paragraph may be of particular interest, since as you say, the decision to declare the vehicle a total loss seldom equates to serious damage on a vehicle of that age. 

Having said all that, and respecting all the time, interest and research which goes into compiling these helpful replies, it’s a great shame that the original poster appears to have shown zero interest in all of this - having joined, posted and last visited, all within a 3 hour window. 

Apologies for being blunt, but it really does make you wonder why we bother to try to help, since this is not untypical and not certainly restricted to this post. 

Sorry, but.....

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[cliffcoggin]

I guess she just wanted to rant without considering people might actually put some time and effort into replying.

As for being a Black Edition, weren't 90% of A3s black?

[toothache]

On 11/18/2020 at 10:04 AM, Magnet said:

Hello Sarah,

Thanks for being in touch, and sorry to hear of your problems. 

Your thread heading gives the forum a good indication of where you currently are with this, when you state ‘Loss Adjuster’, rather than ‘Assessor’. I’m not sure if this your choice of title, but loss adjusters are employed to minimise claims made against insurers, whereas assessors actually assess that loss. A subtle but important difference! 

Some basis facts that may help to illuminate the picture:- 

The car is 12 years old and will certainly have a greater  ‘worth’ to you than it’s actual market value. Statements like ‘....new MOT...’ will add little to the discussion on price, since yes, it must have an MOT. 

Unfortunately, no one on here is going to be able to give you a definitive valuation on the car without examining it, and having information on it’s mileage, service history, history of  ownership etc. Even armed with this information they would then need at have access to trade valuation guides ( which your ‘loss adjuster’ should). 

If this person hasn’t actually viewed your car, then she cannot come up with a reasonable valuation - but only a guide valuation - and it appears she is simply pushing a guide valuation to some sort of limit due to your (understandable?) discontent. 

‘Cannot find another for sale in the UK....’. Obviously you aren’t going to find an identical vehicle, but surely you will find many 2008 3 door A3s for sale - exact same spec? - possibly not, but all the bells and whistles seldom influence the market value when the vehicle comes to the age it is. 

I would do two things here:- 

Compile of short list of advertised prices of 3 door and or 5 door 2008 A3, noting mileage, service history etc. You can then average these figures to give you a better understanding of whether what you are being offered is reasonable or not. 

Second (and more direct route) would be to wander over to you local trusted used car sales site and ask them for assistance. They are most likely to have on-screen systems where they can value the car for you, in terms of retail and part exchange valuations. I think, these systems are now able to base the valuation via. your actual registration number, rather than the more generic model, age, mileage basis. 

Hope some of this helps Sarah, and although I can respect you are angry (as you say) in my experience, anger never wins the day, reasonable discussion and reasonable aims ( for which you will have done your homework) generally leads to those making the decision being more lenient in your favour.

Good luck with sorting it out, and perhaps you could let us know how you get on.

Kind regards, 

Gareth. 

Gareth

 

I thank you for your response which is polite and reasonable I had done what you suggested just after I wrote my original post, so thank you I know I have done the right thing.

When I put the full specs into autotrader it does not come up with any the exact specs this is the closest but it's 2l not 1.8l it doesn't have zeon lights I don't think could be wrong and not full leather interior and I don't think it has the flat bottom steering wheel.

This one however extortionately price (no way is the car worth this !) is the spec minus the 2l lump and its a tad newer thus less milage

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202010275493996?sort=price-asc&keywords=s line&onesearchad=New&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=Used&include-delivery-option=on&aggregatedTrim=Black Edition&fuel-type=Petrol&model=A3&advertising-location=at_cars&transmission=Manual&radius=1500&make=AUDI&postcode=ha28nt&quantity-of-doors=3&page=1&modal=photos

 

All in all though Gareth thank you for your advice and for other respondents to this post unfortunately I have other things to do in a day rather than staring at a computer screen all day.

My name is not she, and all the information that I needed was delivered by Gareth so big thanks to him for being civil 🙂 I appreciate it! Oh and Yes assessors are the term I mean 🙂

 

[Magnet]

Thanks for coming back  Sarah,

OK, cutting to the chase - what has been said is reasonable, constructive and progressive. I note you still say that yours has ‘this and that’, whereas others don’t, but it will be boring to repeat that such one-time-expensive extras are effectively worthless as the car ages. 

Your ‘near enough’ Autotrader link is in reality a mile-off as a comparison since it is a 3 year younger vehicle, and its reassuring to note that you too don’t see it as worthy of comparison, but it leads me to believe that you are still looking for that exact match ( specification wise) rather than looking at the more reasonable broader picture valuation. 

It would be great if you you could share the extent of the damage, and by considering the repair route, you will of course end up with an exact match for what you had, and who knows, by buying the salvage and paying for repairs, you may just end up with some money in your pocket! 

Regarding any offence taken in respect to not actually using your name, I feel I must defend Cliff’s post ( if I need to)  since I’m sure the last thing he intended was to be offensive. 

Its interesting Sarah that you say you have other things to do apart from staring at a computer - don’t we all! I would again defend this forum as being an absolute free source of assistance - at the drop of a hat- for anyone who feels they only need to ask for it, and it’s now my turn to moan, but it’s rare ( as hen’s teeth?) for a very few to hang around and subsequently take their time to help others. Now that’s my rant! - with apologies. I don’t want to claim any accolades for contributing on here, but if you can spare a couple of minutes to calculate the time I’ve spent on posting/assisting/boring posters at over 2,600 posts at say an underestimated 4mins/post, I bet it represents a fair (waste?) of my time. 

Anyway, I really wish you well with your quest to obtain an higher than offered pay out, following compiling your supporting evidence. 

Perhaps you could let us know how you get on.

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[toothache]

6 minutes ago, Magnet said:

Thanks for coming back  Sarah,

OK, cutting to the chase - what has been said is reasonable, constructive and progressive. I note you still say that yours has ‘this and that’, whereas others don’t, but it will be boring to repeat that such one-time-expensive extras are effectively worthless as the car ages. 

Your ‘near enough’ Autotrader link is in reality a mile-off as a comparison since it is a 3 year younger vehicle, and its reassuring to note that you too don’t see it as worthy of comparison, but it leads me to believe that you are still looking for that exact match ( specification wise) rather than looking at the more reasonable broader picture valuation. 

It would be great if you you could share the extent of the damage, and by considering the repair route, you will of course end up with an exact match for what you had, and who knows, by buying the salvage and paying for repairs, you may just end up with some money in your pocket! 

Regarding any offence taken in respect to not actually using your name, I feel I must defend Cliff’s post ( if I need to)  since I’m sure the last thing he intended was to be offensive. 

Its interesting Sarah that you say you have other things to do apart from staring at a computer - don’t we all! I would again defend this forum as being an absolute free source of assistance - at the drop of a hat- for anyone who feels they only need to ask for it, and it’s now my turn to moan, but it’s rare ( as hen’s teeth?) for a very few to hang around and subsequently take their time to help others. Now that’s my rant! - with apologies. I don’t want to claim any accolades for contributing on here, but if you can spare a couple of minutes to calculate the time I’ve spent on posting/assisting/boring posters at over 2,600 posts at say an underestimated 4mins/post, I bet it represents a fair (waste?) of my time. 

Anyway, I really wish you well with your quest to obtain an higher than offered pay out, following compiling your supporting evidence. 

Perhaps you could let us know how you get on.

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

Gareth

 

I am a regular hospital attender and thus this interrupts me breathing let alone being online to solve issues or seek advice.

The air bags were deployed so it would be beyond economical repair.

I really do appreciate your help though Gareth!

I will keep you updated.

 

 

[Magnet]

Thanks Sarah,

Not wanting to protract this, but trying to concentrate the mind in perhaps a positive manner - air bags deployed may represent major damage or minor damage.

Since I sense you are understandably attached to this car, it might be worth sitting back and giving the repair route a coat of thinking about since you will have a budget of >£4 ( less whatever they will change you to buy the salvage ) to get your ( in caps) car back to the condition you cherished.

Having a bit more cash than offered? It may sound attractive to barter for another couple of hundred or so, but then you have to find another similar car of unknown pedigree. 

Having said that, only you know the full extent of the damage. 

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[toothache]

Shows what I know Gareth I only thought air bags only went off in a big accident lol

It's my boys car not mine but its serious damage ( I can't upload a photo from this device) the whole left wing has been crushed peeled back middle pillar bent wheel sheared off air bags wishbone so even I the dumbest woman in the world when it comes to cars can see that theres no repairing it. Do you think they'd pay out and let me strip the bits that are still good on the car lol.

Zeon headlight although singular might be worth a couple of quid

[Magnet]

Ok Sarah, now we know it’s seriously damaged. No criticism meant, but more often than not, the lack of important detail as the posts progress, leads to suggestions being made which are not applicable, yet time consuming to compile as replies. 

Taking bits off the car?

In my experience, you either buy the salvage as a complete unit, or you don’t - and you don’t ‘asset strip’ the remains! 

Kind regards,

Gareth.