Market Value of 2009 Nuevo

My Nuevo was badly damaged in a collision with a speeding car on Monday last. The car driver admitted it was his fault. The Recovery agents tell me it is likely to  be a write off, and the Insurers' value will be Market value. It was in excellent condition with one previous owner to me. I bought it in 2019. Low mileage now of 27,200 miles. On 2019 I paid for new Continental Vanco camper tyres, and for the chassis to be treated with waxoil.It had bike rack and wind out awning. It  had a habitation service only last week, 9th Sept. and a new Banner 105 Amp Leisure Battery fitted. All the usual internal fittings. I would be most grateful if any one could give me some idea of what the Market Value might be.

Unless you were on an agreed-value policy I'm afraid you'll only get the "book price" for your motorhome.  And sadly I'm afraid you'll not get anything for the new/replacement/updated items 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but insurers are quite ruthless in their valuations and payouts 

Sorry to hear of your accident - it's galling that it doesn't matter how carefully you drive when there are idiotic drivers everywhere.

I'm fairly sure that it will make no difference at all what the members of this forum think the van is worth. What you need to do is gather evidence of vans actually on the market at the moment, and those recently sold, for submission to your insurer. So an online search of all similar vans currently on the market would be a good starting point.

Autotrader, for example, has a specific section for Motorhomes, and they have good filters to narrow down by make, model and year of registraion, so it should be fairly easy to find everything they have that is comparable.

Anecdotally they will start with a low offer, so be prepared to reject it (with evidence to confirm your objections). Good luck with your claim!

[Edit: also, as RogerThat says, the new items that you fitted will count for nothing, sadly.]

Don't be afraid to use the financial ombudsman and tell your insurers that you are doing so....

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/insurance/motor-insurance/vehicle-valuations-write-offs

If you are very unhappy with any write off offer made to you consider retaining the services of an independent motor engineer who specialise in vehicle valuations. Even taking their fee into account you may end up financially much better off.

Hi, back in june  our nuevo was hit from behind and tipped onto its side on the m25 later declared a write off we found the insurance company very good this is what happened
Firstly arrange to go to the recovery company & empty ALL your personal stuff from the motorhome (we filled our suv & a camping trailer) as your will not have a second chance
Then research the Retail price to replace like for like by finding adverts and phoning dealers explaining the situation and asking what they would sell a van the same for
Next when the insurance co contact you use the info to argue your case(this is when you find out how good your insurance is)
We were insured with the nfu (they were not the cheapest) but they paid us in full the price we asked for based on our own research 11 days after the acciddent (highly reccomend)

Many thanks, T & H, Most encouraging. I will keep in touch.

The principle of your claim shod be that you are placed in the same position post accident as you were prior to it. If the insurer offers you a sum for which you cannot replace your van with one that is broadly equivalent then put the problem back to them - tell them to provide you with an equivalent vehicle (and, if you want to.be picky, that includes new tyres).  The principle of indemnity is that you should have an equivalent vehicle. That is not the same as giving you the cash to buy such a vehicle because that would be betterment of you had been considering selling your old van just before the accident.  Good luck!

Many thanks, Ron. Sound advice. I will keep the forum informed of the outcome.

Hope all goes well for you Patrick and you get the price you require.
Boaby

Many thanks for all your advice, which I followed carefully. It certainly worked. I received a cheque for the full market value of a 2009 Nuevo, which had increased considerably since we bought it 2 years ago. Thank you all very much for your help.

Excellent - What Insurer?

Patrick Macdonald wrote:Many thanks for all your advice, which I followed carefully. It certainly worked. I received a cheque for the full market value of a 2009 Nuevo, which had increased considerably since we bought it 2 years ago. Thank you all very much for your help.

Good news glad it worked out for you are you going to replace it with another one or wait a while

Did you have to haggle?

Thanks for replies. I did not need to Haggle, I provided a list from Autotrader and dealers of current market prices. My broker is Grove and Dean and Insurer L.V.

Maybe now is not the time to have agreed value insurance if the values are rising also dont be suprised if in a few months time your old nuevo is up for sale “repaired” it happened with ours