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"Category A" write-off law?

Alex

Well-known member
Joined
6 Mar 2014
Messages
22,079
I was looking at a members Porsche on here the other day and wanted to know the spec. on it so went on to autotrader with the intention of creating an advert using their reg. plate so I could find the info I wanted. I was surprised that after entering their reg. I got:

"This car is in Insurance Category A
A car is recorded in Insurance Category A when an insurer has written it off due to extreme damage. We cannot advertise Cat A vehicles due to the damage they have previously sustained."


I was quite surprised to see this :eek:

A few questions:

1. Is it legal to repair a Cat A and put it back on the road? I thought it had to go straight to the crusher and not even be used for parts. :dont know:

2. Is it legal to sell a Cat A?

3. Do I ask the member if they are aware they're driving round in a Cat A car?

:?:
 
Everyone will be scared to reply in case item #3 results in a PM !!
 
alex yates said:
A few questions:

1. Is it legal to repair a Cat A and put it back on the road? I thought it had to go straight to the crusher and not even be used for parts. :dont know:

2. Is it legal to sell a Cat A?

3. Do I ask the member if they are aware they're driving round in a Cat A car?

:?:

Whilst the write off categories are a lovely piece of advice, strictly speaking there is no actual legislation surrounding them at all. DVLA made up their own rules in what they would / wouldn't give you in respect of a log book and the Insurance assessors did the rest. No way did any CAT A vehicle go straight in the crusher; not without having any useful bits taken off it first anyway.

A few years back on a road trip out in Wales on bikes, a mate of mine threw his R1 down the side of a ravine. He was badly injured and went off to hospital. I waited for recovery of the bike. Bike was worth ~£6000 at the time and wasn't badly damaged TBH - front fairing took the worst of it, snapped clutch lever, snapped gear lever, few scratches. Well repairable, no bother.

Recovery turned up and wanted to stick the bike on its side on a tyre on the flat-bed. I told them to FRO - no way, bike's getting repaired. Recovery guy says 'not a chance mate, they'll write it off 100% guaranteed'.

Sure enough, it was CAT C'd in a heartbeat then sold at auction. My mate asked to buy the salvage but was told they wouldn't release it. Turns out all their write offs go to the same place in Esher. I bet they turn over a pretty penny.
 
I wonder how many people have been on AT or Cazana or similar to check their cars today just to be sure.

FWIW my opinion is to send a PM.

If the current owner already knows then they already know, so no harm done. If they don't know, it would only be fair to let them know, as hopefully it is just a mix up, but worst case (if a recent purchase) they might want to take steps/investigate further.
 
arry said:
alex yates said:
More stuff

Wow I think this is the first time on a forum where someone has been correct about this subject and not gone on a 'death trap!' rant. Hats off to you chap.

Bit about the bike being sold off though is annoying as it is always the property of the owner until you accept the agreement. They were just bullying the poor, injured and vulnerable.
 
itsdashy said:
arry said:
alex yates said:
More stuff

And yet more stuff

It actually takes very little to write off motorbikes (so I'm surprised anyone would think one chucked down a ravine would be anything but a write off). I'm not sure exactly what the rationale behind it is, but the frame may need x-raying and the forks and geo set-up could be costly, so I guess the insurers won't take the risk repairing if there are possible hidden unknowns.

A friend of mine recently had a relatively minor spill on his 6 month old GSXR1000 and it was written off. He priced up the repair but was sadly not allowed to buy the bike from the insurers - they told him it will go to Copart. He went to bid and was shocked when it made over £8500!! He'd costed the repair at around £4k.

Anyway, regarding the Porsche - forget the PM - name and shame I say!! :grin: Just kidding. It is possible the Autotrader has made an error (I had this on a car I advertised a year or so ago).

Often Insurance companies will flag this to the owner when they take out a policy too.
 
squelch said:
It actually takes very little to write off motorbikes

And yet ironically very little to stick them back on the road again.

squelch said:
(so I'm surprised anyone would think one chucked down a ravine would be anything but a write off).

It's probably because I was stood there looking at it, thinking if it still had a gear lever I'd ride the thing home myself.

squelch said:
I'm not sure exactly what the rationale behind it is, but the frame may need x-raying and the forks and geo set-up could be costly, so I guess the insurers won't take the risk repairing if there are possible hidden unknowns..

Or it's just easier, more manageable and less risky to palm it off onto the salvage Co and let them worry about it. There are plenty of those bikes selling. They're not all getting parted out.
 
I went to part ex my wifes 10yrs old golf once.

They wouldn't take it as it came up cat d.

It was not cat d, we had it from 3yrs and hpi'd it at the time of buying.

Took one phone call to HPI and they resolved it.

Cat d should have been assigned to a car one digit of reg different 5 years previous. They said it wasn't the same make so an obvious error.

Took them a month to sort though.

Mistakes happen. PM the member before they lose a sale in future.
 
squelch said:
itsdashy said:
arry said:
alex yates said:
More stuff

And yet more stuff

It actually takes very little to write off motorbikes (so I'm surprised anyone would think one chucked down a ravine would be anything but a write off). I'm not sure exactly what the rationale behind it is, but the frame may need x-raying and the forks and geo set-up could be costly, so I guess the insurers won't take the risk repairing if there are possible hidden unknowns.

A friend of mine recently had a relatively minor spill on his 6 month old GSXR1000 and it was written off. He priced up the repair but was sadly not allowed to buy the bike from the insurers - they told him it will go to Copart. He went to bid and was shocked when it made over £8500!! He'd costed the repair at around £4k.

Basically any mark or scratch on the frame usually means the bike is written off, as the labour cost involved in stripping a bike down to replace the frame isnt cheap.

Back in 2000, I bought an 8 week old Ducati 748S, it had only done 400 miles and was written off simply because the owner dropped it on its side. Damage was just a new headlamp, some touch-up paint on the frame and a small repair to the side fairing. The funny thing was, when I came to sell it 12 months on, an HPi check claimed the bike was totally clean. Just goes to show you how reliable HPi can be. I remember I actually doubled my money on that bike when I sold it.

Back then, buying written off bikes, repairing them and selling them on was very popular. You could get into a fairly new bike cheaply. However, soon every man & his dog was doing it and soon the prices of damaged bikes went up & up. It got to the point where if a bike need £2k spending on it, the price you`d have to pay for it would be £2k less than a perfectly good one, so not really worth your while.
 
Alex
So the big question is... Did you PM the said owner.... Did they know?
 
I bigger question has the owner contributed to this thread?
 
No & no. Haven't brought myself to potentially break someone's heart. Only advice I can currently give is beware what username you use.
 
My 944 turbo is a Cat D, written off financially due to an engine failure caused by a garage after service, a new Opc engine was 15k at the time so not financially viable hence write off.
Car had a completely rebuilt engine fitted by a well known specialist and then sold on, I ended up with it, actually better than one without a tag against it, the engine has only covered sub 30 k since rebuild,if I came to sell the flag would send buyers away if they did not know the full history and just carried out a check.
Not for sale btw a complete keeper undergoing a full complete brake refresh.
Epic car :)
This car will show plenty of 911' derivatives a clean pair of heels :D

Not standard tune of course :grin:
 
alex yates said:
No & no. Haven't brought myself to potentially break someone's heart. Only advice I can currently give is beware what username you use.

'ragpicker' :?:

I hate cryptic crosswords, never been able to make sense of them.

On a slightly related note I put my turbos reg into eurotunnel to book my germany ticket the other night and was told that I couldn't travel as my car has been converted to LPG! :eek:

If, when i get the engine back in this week, this is the case then Porsche Torque will be getting a phone call. I'm pretty sure I didn't ask for this when agreeing my rebuild! :grin:
 
:?: assumably it's someone with their reg as a username...

I probably would let them know as it is either an error as with ragpicker's car or the car has a nasty history. As such their Insurance would be void and in the event of an accident it could be bad. If it was me I'd rather know.

Rags does it mention lpg on your v5?
 

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