Independant valuation

Hopefully someone can help point me in the right direction here.

I am a little p*ssed off with HIC insurance at the moment and to get them sorted out I need to find someone through the club that can carry out an independent valuation. For the best part of 5 years I have had a guaranteed value certificate with HIC to the value of £6500 for my MK1. This year I filled out the forms as normal and as I had done further work to the car I added this and requested that the value be set at £8k. I did this on the basis that similar cars had sold for upwards of £7k on Piston heads etc. After some weeks they wrote back to me saying that the car had been valued at £5k! After arguing with the rep on the phone she came back to me and gave the answer that the car's value had probably dropped because it was much older now    When I argued this point with her she went off to speak to her manager and came back saying I needed to get an independent valuation done on the car.

Does anyone know who I could speak to about this as it needs to be someone that is qualified to give a valuation?

What qualification do you need to value a car??? (Its rhetorical).

paul_c said

What qualification do you need to value a car??? (Its rhetorical).

Beats me! I do want to get something sorted though as 5k to replace the car with similar spec would leave me plenty short.

Well, the club officially doesn't do valuations, and upon closer examination insurers have always accepted an owner's valuation up to a certain amount, which is always something higher than any Mk1 is worth (around £20k etc, after all classic cars includes Aston Martin, Ferrari etc, Mk1 Golf is a little lower down the pecking order). So its basically never cropped up as an issue.

If you're now saying that this limit is lowered to £5000, then it changes things. Check carefully the original documentation sent out, if it mentions a lower limit to which the owner can self-declare the value, and they are asking for an independent one at a lower limit, then make an official complaint/dispute, if not resolved go to the FSA. They might get out of it (and the FSA rule…) that they can impose special terms and conditions on any policy, etc.

Surely any insurance company would welcome a valuation higher than the value of the car, since it would be linked to the price of the policy? Look at it this way - they take on the risk, averaged over all customers they get more money in than they pay out (because they make a profit), so on an individual basis their policy amount is risk of paying out x pay amount + profit. I guess its an anti-fraud measure….

may be go to your local volkswagon dealer and see if they will  valued it or im sure the aa and other such companys do valuations but i may be wrong or try and good known body shop near you they might point you in right direction.

any luck with this? im in the same boat

any luck with this? im in the same boat

with footman and james you dont need an independent valuation if the car value is under 10k

jellybelly said

with footman and james you dont need an independent valuation if the car value is under 10k

Unfortunately, your wrong.

FJ have just rejected by valuation for my mint (no major rust - just spots - but technically perfect @ 85k miles) mk1 of £3k.

Going to send back a letter saying that the mk1 owners club don't do valuations and that it is a family car since new and hence has sentimental value.

Well I have been with HIC for years and they have always let me self certify the value.
Currently agreed at £6.5k on a 16vG60 with mint body and good interior on 177k miles.
Would I get that for it on the open market ? Probably not and it would cost a lot more to replace it as it is !!

well they have just agreed the values on both my cabby and my tintop for 3k each so not sure why they have rejected yours