Agreed Value Car Insurance / Laid Up Car Insurance
Before you set out shopping for an insurance policy for your car, it would be worthwhile to assess the true value of your motor. Insurance companies often determine the cost of their specialist car insurance policies depending upon the actual value of the car's model. The only gap that can arise is when the owner's opinion of his car's value will differ largely from the insurer's opinion. Thus, this problem should be addressed right from the time of inception. In other cases, you may not be able to claim the full market value of your classic model, if it is written off in an accidental event.
A standard car insurance policy often sets the value of the motor, based on the current market value, for replacement purposes. Thus, in that case, the return that you will get for your written-off car will be equal to the car's present value in the market. While this policy weighs fine for most of the claims, it is the classic car market which lacks any reliability and it can lead to problems if such a car is completely lost in an accident. It is quite unlikely for an owner to know the exact or the true value of his vehicle at a given point of time after buying it. The same applies to the insurer too who will have to calculate a price of the vehicle at a risk.
The insurer also has to make another decision and that is to decide the cost of repairs for his classic insurance policy. For claiming classic car damage, the owner would require replacement parts or specialist tools. To avoid all these problems, specialist car insurers dealing with collector vehicles like vintage or classics, have devised a policy option known as Agreed Value car insurance / Laid Up car insurance. This policy has been especially formulated for the classic vehicles, where the owner of the car can make total loss claims even when the car has been written off or is beyond repair.
In this policy, the underwriting company will have to guarantee the full payment of the claim which will be equal to the "agreed value" of the car. The agreed value claim of the vehicle is valid only for a given period of time. So, if there is a fluctuation in the car's value at any given point of time, the owner will have to inform this to the insurer and request for arranging a revaluation. While many specialist insurers pack in this valuation service as part of the policy and do not charge extra, there are others who treat it as an optional cover and hence, charge a small fee for the same.
The valuation process for most of the classic motors is fairly easy. One just needs to furnish the car details to the insuring company, including the car's photographs and the restore or purchase documentations. If you are facing problems in calculating your car's true value, it would be wise to consider a policy where the agreed valuations are a part of the insurance scheme. In some cases, the Agreed Valuations Certificate can be legally issued and used by the insurer only.
