Drivers of older cars are being advised to think carefully before they are tempted to claim on their car insurance following a minor bump. The warning comes after one London motorist had her vehicle written off following the smallest of accidents, in which just the side light on her ageing Toyota was broken.
Lesley Hall, who lives in London, was told by her insurer, Covéa, that it would send her a cheque for just £40 for her perfectly usable and very reliable L-registration Corolla, after an engineer decided it wasn't worth repairing.
Hall, who works for a housing trust, says she wishes she had not claimed at all, but describes the £40 offer she received from Covéa as an insult.
The French company, which provides car policies on behalf of Lloyds bank, has since backtracked, but the case shows the crazy way that insurers can treat the owners of older cars, and why in the majority of cases you would be better off not to claim.
It also shows up how little consumers know about the write-off procedure and their rights if they are on the receiving end of the process. The collapse in the value of older cars, coupled with the increase in repair costs in recent years, means it has reached the stage where cars with any kind of damage are increasingly being written off.
"I have been driving for over 40 years and have never claimed from my car insurers. I have a nine-year no-claim bonus," Hall says. "I ran into a car door, and although I only broke a side light on my car, I had to put in a claim for the other car. I did not realise at the time that I did not need to claim for my damage."
After a claim was filed, the insurers sent an engineer, who produced a report saying it was not economic to carry out repairs given his valuation of the vehicle at just £312. In spite of the fact that the only damage caused by the accident was the broken indicator glass, he took into account the other minor scratches and dents Hall had accumulated during 12 years of driving on London's roads.
In her case the repair costs of fixing a sidelight were never going to exceed her £200 excess – the first proportion of the claim which she would have had to pay – but no one at the company pointed this out.
When she complained to Covéa at being given just £40, she was told it was not possible to withdraw her claim as the engineer had already inspected her vehicle.
"My car, although old, has always been regularly serviced and has an MoT until next February," she says. "I've had it 12 years and it has never let me down. I know that it is not worth a lot, but the money offered by the insurance would not even buy a new tyre. It all seems rather unfair."
Following the Guardian's intervention, Covéa has said it will no longer write off her car and has substantially upped its offer. Instead of the £40 it originally offered, it will now pay her £533, after a reduced £100 excess has been deducted.
A spokesman for Covéa says that its engineer used established insurance industry guidelines to come up with the valuation, taking into account the car's low mileage and the condition of the bodywork.
This has since been revised upwards "as a gesture to recognise that at some time during her claim we felt our service had fallen short of our usual standards".
