Not upheld: claim valuation dispute complaint against Aviva Insurance Limited trading as Quotemehappy.com

Decision detail

Summary

Mr M complained about Aviva's valuation of his 2008 car following a third-party accident, initially valued at £1,532 and increased to £1,973 after his challenge. Mr M believed the car was worth approximately £2,500 based on market advertisements and argued Aviva should have based its valuation on a comparable car advertised at that price. The ombudsman found that Aviva's use of valuation guides (£1,980, £1,715, £1,705) was standard industry practice and that the £1,973 valuation was fair, as a single advertisement was not persuasive evidence to override the guides and Mr M's other advertisements were not directly comparable. The complaint was not upheld, and the ombudsman found the £100 compensation offered by Aviva to be fair and reasonable.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the policy definition of market value as the cost of replacing the car with one of the same make, model, specification, year, mileage and condition. The ombudsman found that Aviva's use of valuation guides was standard industry practice and that the £1,973 valuation (aligned with the highest guide) was fair. While Mr M found a car advertised at £2,500, a single advertisement was not persuasive evidence to override the valuation guides. The adverts Mr M provided were not directly comparable due to age, mileage, or specification differences. The ombudsman concluded Aviva followed a fair process and the £100 compensation was reasonable given Aviva's prompt response to Mr M's challenge.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website