Once in a while, a minibus hire is totaled or just ages out of commission. In the event of a total you should call your insurance company immediately.
You will need to determine the value of the damaged vehicle. They will take age depreciation and cash value of the damaged Minibus into consideration when making said calculations. When the value to repair or salvage of the car is more than the cash value of the Minibus is when most insurance companies consider the vehicle to be totaled or a total loss.
You may be able to auction the minibus to a salvage business. Often they can be repaired by an experienced auto mechanic and, if not, he can use what parts he may be able to salvage for resale of parts to be used in other Minibuses.
It’s not a very good idea to keep a totaled minibus especially if you can’t pass inspection. So, in this unfortunate case, try to negotiate a higher cash value for your totaled minibus hire if you feel that the vehicle may be worth more than the insurance claims adjuster has reported. You will need to make sure to have regular maintenance records on the minibus. It would take some extra work, but you’ll need to take pictures of the minibus throughout the time you owned it so that you can support your argument. If that doesn’t work maybe you could try hiring an independent auto appraiser to assist you with the negotiations. This might not be the most cost effective idea as the repair costs and appraiser fees may put you in the negative.
