Here’s what to do if your car’s been written-off

Most of the time, when a car’s written-off it’s because it’s been involved in a serious accident. The kind that turns a car into a crushed cooldrink can. But actually, there are a few reasons why an insurance company will declare a car a write-off… Sometimes it’s because the car is too damaged or old for repair and can’t even be used for parts, or maybe it could be fixed up, but the repairs would cost more than the insured value of the car.

There are even some cases where the car could be fixed up and the repairs would be less than your car’s insured value, but the other costs make it too expensive to deal with overall.

If your car’s been involved in an accident and you think it’s going to be written-off, then here’s some advice to help you through the process.

If you have car insurance

The good news is that if you have car insurance, your insurer should take care of things for you. It starts with you informing your insurer of the incident and then following their claims process.

This usually involves getting a police case number, handing over all the details of the incident, as well as any paperwork that they ask for. And from that point on, you’ll have to wait for them to let you know what they decide and how much they’ll pay if the car is a write-off.

The pay-out

Let’s say that your insurer has determined that your car’s a write-off. Your insurer is then likely to start the process of calculating your pay-out.

How much you actually get depends on a few factors, such as the type of insurance you have, the value you insured your car for, your excess amount (which gets subtracted from your pay-out), how much you still owe the bank if the car was financed, how much your car has depreciated in value, and more.

If you have comprehensive car insurance, for instance, and your car was insured for R500,000, your insurer will minus the excess (R2,500), the depreciation of the car from the start of the policy until the date of the incident (R20,000), and the R45,000 you still owe the bank.

These are just a few examples of the costs that could be subtracted from your pay-out amount, but by our calculation, you should receive R432,500, which is yours to do with what you wish.

Of course, if you don’t have car insurance, or the level of cover that you’ve chosen isn’t enough to provide you with a pay-out for a write-off, then the process is a bit different.

Without adequate insurance, you’ll need to deal with your car on your own. This includes having it assessed by an authorised inspector who’ll say whether your car’s roadworthy and can be repaired or unroadworthy and needs to be disposed of. Even if your car’s roadworthy, the repairs will have to come out of your pocket. But if it isn’t, then you’ll need to consider scrapping the car for parts, crushing it, or finding some other way of disposing of it.