About 3 years ago my Dad bought a N reg BMW 520i from the Great Trade Center in White City, London. Great Trade Centre

 

Before purchase the BMW was checked by the AA, part of this check was a HPI check.

 

The car had no accident or mechanical damage recorded. So it passed and the car was purchased.

 

My dad maintained the BMW service history at BMW dealers.

 

The car was recently involved in an accident and was classed as an econmical writeoff by the insurers(Cat D I think).

 

They now claim that the BMW had a Cat B writeoff(Mechanical damage) against it since 1994 and should have a certificate of destruction!! The insurers claim this information was found in a "special" database only available to Insurance Companies.

 

The Insurance Ombudsman says this is very strange - due to the fact that the insurers didnt check this "special" database when the insurance was first taken out!!

 

So the insurers are saying this may affect the claim(possibly they wont pay).

 

What recourse would my Dad have(if any). I believe that HPI have some sort of guarantee, but I'm not sure if this would apply.

 

Should the Great Trade Centre have sold a vehicle without checking that it was a Cat B write off?

 

As you can imagine Insurance Co's aren't the quickest when it comes to paying out, but this is delaying and confusing the situation even more! :(

 

Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks

Trev

you have as much right to the information as they do, ask for the information, if they don;t supply threaten legal action and they will pay out.

My brother looked into these categorisation things a while back, ive just raided his room and found some of the info hes got and it says that both cat a and b vehicles must never reappear on the road.

 

Cat A = Scrap only (ie no economically salvageable parts and which is of value only for scrap metal) eg total burn outs

 

Cat B = BREAK for spares if economically viable (excluding any residual scrap value).

 

Cat C = REPAIRABLE but repair costsexceed the vehicles pre accident condition(PAV)

V23 marker will apply to these vehicles

 

Cat D = ALL OTHER REPAIRABLE VEHICLES

V23 not required

 

It goes on to say that all cat A and B vehicles Shell/frame/chasis must be crushed

 

I can get him to scan it for you tommorrow if you want, but i cant remember the source

When you take out insurance you sign a document saying that all the information you provided is correct to the best of your knowledge. You are not able to access this data about the car which they are, so its all their fault. If they keep being difficult, tell them you are going to seek a legal advice about it.

 

Also you sould tell your local police station. Some where along the lines, this car has been ordered to be scrapped and hasnt. So either the insurance company who said it sould be scrapped. This mean the insurance company who said it was CAT B scrap sold it to a scrap yard who didnt scrap it. And it also means that the insurance company didnt declare is scrapped. Some one is in big trouble.

 

Stuart