With all this talk of insurance, one bit of advice that hasn't been mentioned:
Once you get the evaluation form, FILL IT IN AND RETURN IT ASAP!!! Learnt that
the hard way. I took photos of my previous BGT, Sammy, soon after I got the
form, but didn't return it for ages because I was waiting to finish the film
and have the photos developed (back in the medievel times when cameras still
had films...). Then I got rear-ended. I posted the form off the next morning,
meanwhile I got onto the claims department. A couple of days later I got back
my agreed valuation (clearly the valuation dept. didn't talk too closely to the
claims dept.).
BUT, once the claims dept. got into my claim, they spotted that the agreed
valuation was dated a couple of days after the date of the accident - so they
said it wasn't valid (despite the valuation dept having signed off on it), and
tried to give me #1400 for my #2200 insured car.
For 2 or 3 months we argued with the insurers, and they came up with almost
every ploy to avoid paying, claiming that the photos must have been taken years
earlier and weren't representative of the condition of the car (even though I
had only owned the car for a year!), claiming that values of MGs weren't that
high (utter nonsense, you couldn't buy a car with an MOT, let alone a reliable
runner, for the price they offered), every trick they could think of.
Eventually my wife (in whose name the car was) took to calling our contact at
8:55 every morning until he couldn't stand it any more and gave us the full
amount.
What I still fail to understand was why they fought so damned hard when it was
the other parties fault, so their insurance company was going to cough up
anyway!
So, I repeat, RETURN YOUR VALUATION FORM ASAP!!
Richard & Sammy II ('73 Black Tulip BGT)
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