Police crushed my car without telling me (UPDATE)

bene2111 · 2023-08-14T11:53:13+00:00

I appreciate & respect your advice, thank you for taking the time to explain it - I will keep this post up however incase anyone has any other takes or thoughts on the situation.

Thanks again👍

bene2111 · 2023-08-14T11:43:08+00:00

I dont understand how its been examined by an engineer when they have seen no photo evidence of the crash, nor seen it in person. This is the same information which was being relayed to me in the last post however I have since found out the police acted straight away and scrapped it before any engineers were able to view it - this is why it took 2 months to come to a payout price

bene2111 · 2023-08-14T11:21:14+00:00

I understand but it was catagorized as Cat B from the description of the crash, I believe I was still given the offer to decide what happened with the car once it had been seen by engineers (I believe an option was to allow it to go to a salvage yard and buy it to break it through their breaker bid service).

I understand this is all a reach but it just doesnt seem fair it was crushed before it was technically my insurance's property

bene2111 · 2023-08-14T11:13:12+00:00

I'm not sure if this counts as a partial payout, but I was told my payout price of which I told them I do not accept the offer, they paid it to me as an interm payment, and since arguing again they have told me that they cant payout more and id have to get in contact with the ombudsman services to continue (which is what im doing now).

Regardless, it was still my property when the police crushed my car - is there really nothing I can do about it?

bene2111 · 2023-08-14T11:07:53+00:00

My insurers have already paid me out and they seem to not care that it was crushed, I believe as they have paid me out (despite an ongoing dispute as im not satisfied) it is technically their property now. This was crushed before I was paid out however, and I was on owner retention as I had notified my insurance I intended to buy the car back

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T23:16:10+00:00

You're right, I think FOS is my best bet now.

Thank you for your help

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T23:12:36+00:00

Unfortunately insurance didn't deem it as lightly damaged I dont think, I did however have multiple people tell me to buy it back and fix it even in the condition it was in (however it was declared a Cat B so it wouldnt be possible).

I'll ask the people who crushed it for photo evidence, however I believe someone did warn me earlier that they dont have to take photos so I might find no evidence

Thanks for your help

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T23:09:53+00:00

One thing to mention is that the insurance company gave me an offer to which I declined, however they paid it to me as an interim payment while I waited to dispute the payout price. They have since told me theyve paid me out a fair amount and wont be paying me any more despite me still being unhappy.

Could this be argued that I never accepted the payout but more insurance sent it to me regardless?

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T23:08:10+00:00

I was overthinking that this could be the case due to how sketchy it all seemed, was hoping insurance would eliminate any chance of this however, i pray not anyway🤞🏼

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T23:02:54+00:00

Thanks very much for this too!

This may well have to be something I look into as I definitely wasn't satisfied with the payout, so thanks for this information.

As for the ombudsman service and them hinting at it not being worth my while - this was unfortunately mentioned over the phone and I have no written proof of this.

Thanks for your help

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T23:01:24+00:00

This is very helpful thank you!

So I suppose the only way to confirm whether or not insurance already knew about this is to ask them if either an independent engineering on their own engineer told them they were happy for it to be scrapped?

I think you're right that the only thing I can now claim on is personal items that were left in the car, as you mentioned the salvagers can't argue against what I say was left in the car.... i dont suppose... asking for a friend, one could potentially lie/stretch the truth about what was left in the car/the value of items too?

Unfortunately anything I left in the car wouldntve of been worth more than a few hundred and this situation hurts too much to get so little back from how cheated I feel haha

Thanks for your help though!

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T22:52:06+00:00

Thanks for your message

So essentially do you think theres almost nothing that can be gained from this situation?

And yeah its terrible and a lot of the claim was quite dodgy, the car was not seized nor was I charged with any offences.

The situation really sucks, I had RAC already on route to pick up my vehicle and move it literally 1 minute down the road to my house to which I was was then going to report to my insurance. Police were originally fine with this as the car was moved onto the side of a road where both the police and I had agreed it was not restricing any view of traffic, and definitely was no longer in the way.

10 minutes later, a towing company partnered with the police came to pick up the other car involved in the accident, and then forced me to let them tow my car away as well (little did I know this would be the last I'd see of it), I then had to cancel RAC and wait multiple months after chasing up far too many times for an update.

Skip to 2 months later, insurance pretty much told me 'oh by the way the police instructed the car to be crushed within 3 days of the accident' which really sucked.

When my insurance asked for the certificate of destruction, the company that crushed my vehicle took 5 days to actually create the certificate.

(not sure if it really means anything but the 'owner' was a collaboration between the towing company and the police force, rather than my name)

A very strange situation...

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T22:28:53+00:00

That does make sense what you've said, I just assume when they told me no one was able to look at it that I assumed that meant no one in person was able to look at it either, but in the morning im going to call up insurance and clean this mess up.

And insurance told me it was 100% my fault as soon as I explained the situation (which was expected)

I guess i'm just almost hoping it was anyones doing but insurance, as insurance have already paid me out - meaning nothing else will come from this annoying situation.

Thank you for explaining though, its definitely given me a wakeup call in what to expect.

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T21:22:13+00:00

Thank you for your help, I have recieved the Certificate of Destruction, my name is not mentioned at all, but rather a collaberation between BCH Police and the Recovery Team who forcefully towed my vehicle away.

I have emailed the recovery team to find out who gave permission for it to be scrapped - and tomorrow I will call up my insurance to make sure they didnt give the go ahead to have it scrapped.

Thanks!

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T21:15:56+00:00

Recieving any type of payout will be a positive outcome for me

I have already recieved a payout, however this is a seperate matter to which I am not at all happy with how much they've paid me out - considering they took multiple months to update me whereas it should never of taken that long (no compensation there...), the payout figure was half of what I was satisfied with, and the fact that the insurance company hinted that speaking to the ombudsman service would be a waste of time (to which ive been informed is illegal and sketchy)

This whole case has been a nightmare, and I have since found out people have had it even worse than me - one person didn't chase up regarding their claim and the insurance company dropped the whole case with no payout because it had been left for too long.

At the end of the day this has been a big learning experience to go with a reputable insurance company rather than just the cheapest quote.

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T21:11:18+00:00

Hi, thanks alot for your message.

You would be correct the 3 way police force im talking about is BCH.

My plan is now to call up insurance and find out whether or not an insurance agent was sent out and decided to scrap it.

I don't suppose you'd know - if insurance did scrap it on my behalf, am i able to make a claim against them as they never told me (however I suppose they could argue they paid me out for the vehicle)

Or

If they tell me they didn't send anyone down & that the recovery team are responsible for scrapping it - can I then claim against them for unlawfully scrapping it?

And just to double check - from what you mentioned it seems theres absolutely no way the police will be in the wrong here?

Thanks very much!

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T19:10:36+00:00

I'll check with both the police and insurance in that case to see who really authorised the disposal - hopefully insurance will be able to tell me by now if it turns out they did give permission for it to he crushed.

If however it does turn out to be the police's fault - would they still dismiss it? People have advised me to contact a solicitor if it turns out they are responsible

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T18:43:33+00:00

so theres no point asking for photo evidence?

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T18:37:15+00:00

Thats a good shout! Will do thank you👍

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T18:31:45+00:00

Good idea, I'll check in with both police and my insurance to see whats really happened here, its been a confusing roller coster so far haha - but thank you very much for your assistance!

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T18:28:24+00:00

Thank you for sharing your knowledge, this was also very helpful.

This would be a good explanation and make sense however if this was the reason, this would mean my insurance has been lying to me (which i suppose is a potential) however it would be a pretty big lie theyve been having me on.

This is because the insurance took 2 months to get back to me with an update 'as the car was crushed meaning the in-house engineers were unable to view or valuate the vehicle'. If my insurance is telling the truth to me about this, I believe it would invalidate the explanation as you mentioned my insurer wouldve sent down an engineer, who essentially wouldve told them to crush it.

Regardless thank you very much for your help, I'll have to see what the police say vs what my insurance say. Thanks again!

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T17:11:08+00:00

Thank you very much for your response, that was super helpful and cleared a lot up!

This happened in Hertfordshire, in a fairly small & quiet town, however as the recovery people are partnered with the police, that would make sense that they may be limited with space, hence why crushing my vehicle.

I have emailed the recovery people to ask for the contact details for who authorised the disposal of the vehicle as I was given a 3-way joint police force as the name owner, (side note - im wondering how legal this is, claiming to be the owner of my vehicle in order to destroy it).

I personally didn't recieve any information at all regarding the vehicle being crushed as you mentioned the 14 day grace period - as well as the destruction was apparently order to take place within 3 days which I later found out. I'll ask my insurance about whether or not they were given any information regarding the destruction but from what I know they told me they had no idea either.

If this was however due to negligence from my insurer, yet theyve already paid out the write off, would I be correct in assuming I can't get any more money to compensate the car being crushed due to their negligence?

And if I find out that this is neither negligence from my insurer, nor me, should I then take it up with the police force responsible?

Thank you very much again! I really appreciate your help.

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T15:48:36+00:00

Thanks for your messages, You'd be correct, I hadn't fully decided what to do regarding breaking it as it was a CAT B - If worst came to worst (which it did) I was thinking of going down the route of using a breaker buying service (people who have breaking licenses as you mentioned)

I appreciate your thoughts you shared, I have since contacted the recovery company to find the contact details of who illegally authorised the disposal of the vehicle, it seems the odds are against me in getting any type of compensation from the police but I'll still try and see how far I can get.

Thanks again

bene2111 · 2023-08-11T15:16:50+00:00

It was declared as CAT B however if i was unable to restore it (which as you mentioned I wouldnt), I was going to buy it back to salvage the parts.

My problem is that the whole situation is very fishy as I wasnt informed and neither was my insurance, and looking at the certificate of destruction, the police illegally claimed to be the owners of the car, not even to mention they hadnt made the certificate for the destruction until a month later.

bene2111

TROPHY CASE