Working with Write-Offs

Vehicle owners and garages have an entire vocabulary describing a write-off, but whatever term you use, a motorhome is considered a total write-off when the cost of repairing it is greater than the cost of selling it in its current state – it’s market value. Usually a write-off is caused because a vehicle has been involved in an accident or, occasionally, cumulative breakdowns or a large engine failure mean there is little to be salvaged from your vehicle. What happens when your vehicle is written-off and how can you recover the maximum amount possible?

Insurance Payouts

The first port of call will be your motorhome insurance provider. Your insurer may give you a number of options; they may choose to replace your motorhome with something new or they may cover you for the cash value. If you have been involved in an accident there can often be additional damages to recover from the other side, but in the case of successive breakdowns, what you’re offered will normally be equivalent to what you’d have got if you’d sold your vehicle before your incident.

Market vs Agreed Value

Sometimes there are discrepancies between the ‘market’ value of the car and what it’s actually worth. If your motorhome is a rare breed or particularly old then you should look into taking out an ‘agreed value’ cover which will pay out more in the event of a write off and will properly reflect your motorhome’s value.

Salvage and parts

The term ‘write-off’ can be misleading to some owners, though, and actually your motorhome may be worth something from salvage and parts. Some insurance companies will simply pay out to cover this value, but if you can it’s worth investing some time trying to sell on your write-off to salvage companies. You might recover up to thousands of pounds by doing this.

A write-off is often pretty distressing for the owner but do remember to keep your business head on and try to recover as much as possible. Plus, there is always a sunny side – if you’re able to recover some cash you can probably justify a motorhome shopping trip!