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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Zoe Wood

I tried to sell my car but was told it had been written off

Scrapyard with scrap vehicles
The make, model and registration were almost an exact match for another vehicle, the insurer said. Photograph: eye35/Alamy

Last summer I took my old Kia to a branch of the car broker webuyanycar to sell, only to discover that its database showed a car with my registration number had been “written off” and an insurance claim paid out.

This came as a shock. I have not been in an accident nor made any claims. I called up my insurer, which confirmed there was nothing on its records, and it told me to call the policy underwriter.

Initially the underwriter said it had no record of a claim either. However, after it consulted a national database, it could see that in February 2024 one had been paid out on my car.

It gave me the insurer’s name – 1st Central – and the claim number. However, when I called up, the company told me it had never insured a car with that registration and did not have any record of the claim.

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