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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Zoe Wood

DARK SECRETS: I tried to sell my car but was told it had been written off | Rare Historical Photos

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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