SALVAGE RETENTION AND VEHICLE WRITE-OFF

Salvage retention is included with all Heritage policies (except Optima), and is a type of additional cover that allows you to keep the salvage of your vehicle in the event of a Category S or N write-off. The only time you will not be able to retrieve the salvage of the vehicle is if the write-off is classified as Category A. For Category B categories, the shell of the vehicle cannot be given as salvage but other parts of the vehicle can.

Usually, the insurer would own the salvage of the vehicle in the event of a write-off. If you have salvage retention in place, you have the option to keep the salvage of the vehicle yourself and the value of this would be deducted from the insurer’s payment to you.

HOW DOES SALVAGE RETENTION WORK?

Every salvage has a scrap value. Salvage retention works by deducting the value of the salvage of your car from the insurance payment due to you for the damage, enabling you to keep ownership of the salvage.

In a case where you don’t have salvage retention in your policy, the insurer would own the salvage and would be able to scrap the car and claim this amount. You would receive a pay-out for the insured vehicle value, and the claim would be recorded against your policy at the value you were paid.

In the event of a write-off claim, you will need to express to the claims department that you want salvage retention. If you do not request it at this point, you may not receive the salvage.

IS SALVAGE RETENTION INCLUDED IN MY POLICY?

With Heritage, salvage retention is free of charge and is included within all policies except Optima – because of this, we don’t offer salvage retention as an add-on. As salvage retention is standard on Heritage policies, you do not need to ask for this level of cover at the inception stage of your policy.

WHAT COUNTS AS A VEHICLE WRITE-OFF?

An insurance write-off is a car that’s either sustained damage to the point that it’s considered unsafe to be put back on the road, or that is beyond economical repair. Economical repair is generally decided on a repair-to-value ratio, which may vary depending on the insurer and the vehicle.

AN AGREED VALUE EXAMPLE

Say you have a classic car valued at £10,000 and this is written off as a Category S. The value of the salvage, the vehicle after the accident, is £2,000.

Without salvage retention

The insurer pays you the £10,000 value of the vehicle, and records the claim against your policy at this value. They become the owner of the salvage and scrap it for £2,000; this is not shown on your claims record.

With salvage retention

The insurer pays you £8,000, having deducted the £2,000 value of the salvage from your pay-out. You retain the ownership of the salvage, and the claim is recorded against your policy at £8,000.

Why agreed value?

Without agreed value on your classic, you won’t know what your insurance payout figure will be as the insurer will determine this based on market rate at the time of the claim. You can get free agreed value for your classic vehicle through Heritage

VEHICLE WRITE-OFF CATEGORIES

The way in which vehicles are classified as write-offs was changed in October 2017. The vehicle write off categories are now:

A: scrap – not suitable to be repaired. It must be crushed without any parts being removed.
B: break – not suitable to be repaired. Usable parts can be recycled.
S: structural repairable – repairable vehicle that has sustained damage to any part of the structural frame or chassis, and the insurer/self-insured owner has decided not to repair the vehicle.
N: non-structural repairable – repairable vehicle that has not sustained damage to the structural frame or chassis, and the insurer/self-insured owner has decided not to repair the vehicle.

I store my car at a professional facility; does this affect my insurance?

No, all you need to do is notify us of the storage address.

What savings can I make with multi car insurance?

This very much depends on how many vehicles you want to cover and how many drivers you need included. We work out a discount for you of up to 25% based on the ratio of cars to drivers.

The best way to find out how much you could be saving is to give our Multi Car team a call on 0121 248 9470 or email multicar@heritagecarinsurance.co.uk

Can I add an additional driver on a short-term basis?

Yes, we can offer cover for temporary additional drivers – just give us a call on 0121 248 9229.

What ages can you cover on a specialist car insurance policy?

The standard minimum age that we can arrange specialist car cover for is 25. In some circumstances we may be able provide cover for drivers 21 and over, subject to strict terms and conditions. The current maximum age for specialist car motor cover is 79.

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