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Can you recover a classic that's been written off?

My son owns a Golf GTI Mk3 that was recently involved in a traffic accident. They exchanged insurance details and the process began resulting in my son’s vehicle being assessed for the damage and the engineer stating that they would either repair the vehicle or right it off. My son has been told that if the vehicle is written off he has no rights to his car nor the right to buy it back as salvage, is this correct?

Asked on 27 October 2014 by Invader"

Answered by Honest John
Your son has the right to recover his property whenever he wants to because it is his property, not the property of any insurer. However, if he does this, the insurer may refuse to pay anything. The best way out of this is negotiation.

Most honest insurers these days would rather negotiate a settlement with the damaged party that does not involve the insurer repairing the car and becoming liable for inflated credit hire costs while the repair is taking place. Crooked insurers write the car off for 'market' value and then sell the 'salvage' to repairers who put the cars back on the road and take a significant profit.
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