Is it possible to find out what damage caused a vehicle to be written off as Cat C/D

[UlstermanAbroad]

Hi Guys

I'm looking for a new daily driver and have tripped over a good looking TT roadster.
Its Cat D and the seller claims that this came about because of a vandal cutting
the hood. The seller has fixed the hood and the price / spec / mileage etc is right.

However, when the seller bought the car, he wasn't told it was Cat D. He only found out afterwards.
Before I proceed, if I do; I'd like to determine exactly what damage caused the write-off.

I'm trying to get hold of the last owner on the V5, in whose ownership the damage to the roof occurred.
After being written off, the car went to auction, was bought by a garage, who sold it to the current seller.

Would my insurance company have access to a database giving more damage details? I was going to ask them,
when I call for a quote.

Any other source of the info I'm looking for?

Cheers guys.

 

[Wack61]

If the current seller bought it from a garage and wasn't told it was a cat D he's well within his rights to return it for a refund

I don't think there's any way of finding out what the damage was unless you can contact the guy who owned it at the time and ask him.

I was lucky with my B class as the previous owners name and address was still on the V5c so I got the full story

 

[UlstermanAbroad]

Thanks. That's what I thought. The seller has dropped off the radar, so I'm guessing he's gone with potential buyers who don't ask so many questions!

 

[Wack61]

A trader selling an undeclared write off is leaving themselves open to legal action so I'd be very surprised if he didn't know when he bought it , if he paid retail why isn't he going through the courts to get a refund

There's more to that story

 

[outrun]

Agreed, although actually following through with a claim is not as easy as it could be. I have bought Cat D and Cat C before however in both cases I had full photographic evidence of the damage as well as all the repair bills and photos through the repairs etc. If these don't exist or are not being offered, I think it's too big a risk. There are repairs and then there are repairs.

Cat cars can be good value but only if the whole journey is understood.

 

[UlstermanAbroad]

Agree with all of the above.
I think that I eventually got to a fairly complete version of the car's journey, just before the seller dropped off the radar.

Owner A bought it from Evans Halshaw for £10.1k (2009, Mk2, 44k) in December 2016.
Whilst owned by Owner A, hood was vandalised.
Insurance company wrote off the car as a Cat D.
An unnamed garage bought the car via auction and sold it to Seller A for £6.2k with the roof unrepaired and 'forgot' to mention the car's Cat D status.
Seller A had the roof repaired and hoped to make a few hundred pounds profit by flipping the car, only to discover it was Cat D, when a potential buyer did an HPI check.
Seller A is now hoping to unload the car and not lose too much money.
All this came out bit by bit over a few days email Q&A.
Assuming the unnamed garage made a profit on the car, they may be guilty of fraud, theft and some other related offences. But, the police would be unlikely to investigate, hence the unnamed garage risking it.
Assuming the hood was the only damage done, I planned to replace it, then bimble down to Autoalign to see if I could get the Cat D status struck out.
It's a real pity, because it's a nice little runabout and I miss having a convertible.
Back to the drawing board :/
I shall have to cheer myself up this weekend, by cavorting around the North Coast in my Granturismo