stolen ducato van

[Vombil]

they are stamping out backyarders pumping shitty damaged repaired shit heaps back onto the road. Once the insurer calls is an economic right off i'm pretty sure its dust.

[playwme]

Yes it has been a statutory write of so can that be reversed? I think its all to hard

No they won't reverse that. The car theft rings were stealing cars, stripping parts off, then letting the cars get "recovered" so they could buy them cheap at auction. Then they had all the parts ready to put back on and the numbers were all clean and legit.

[adam perth]

That's cunning !

[SLR_dave]

Very tricky, this is difficult but may not be impossible, you will need to act fast, very fast no question about that. There is an unanswered issue in your post which makes the big difference as I see it.

That question is; Has the vehicle actually yet been placed on the written off vehicles register in your state?

You need to get onto the RTA immediately to asscertain this. It seems to me that the person you spoke to in the "yard" has told you this. Has it actually happened?

Even if the written off vehicle documentation has actually been submitted to the RTA, it may still be in the post, or on a desk somewhere, it may not have been processed yet. If not, you have a chance to stop the vehicle being placed on the written off vehicles list. If its not actually registering on the list you have to work big time with the RTA to stop the papertrail before it hits the computers.

You will need to speak to the Officer in Charge of the Written Off Vehicles Register, not just a lower admin service officer, you will need patience and be polite and work your way through the system to speak to the in charge officer and find out. It will take a while, be prepared to be on hold, get cut off, hold your breath, try again (for hours) and use huge diplomacy etc. If you are not getting through the base levels, politely insist that this could go as high as the deputy of the minister and you require first level assistance. You need to do this pretty much immediately Monday morning. If you get given a number for the ministers deputy - great - ring them!

If, on this investigation, you find that it is not yet actually on the written off vehicles register, you have your best chance. Explain the situ to the correct senior officer tell them the notice of write off is probably still in the post/admin and that it is spurious, and that you, (as a victim of motor vehicle theft- a crime after all!), need help get it stopped, you will need a reason for why the write off is not applicable/innapropriate/unfair (or at least be able to say you are preparing one, and can get an enginering or other assessment) and get their work email address and work with them to accept a letter or email in in writing from you and to stop that vin number going on the register. It will be important to ensure this by some form of writing - email is OK, providing it goes to the correct officer and you are assured they are focussed on your specific vehicle and are alerting the relevant data enty officers).

If it is actually already on the written off vehicles list, then things get very difficult, not neccecarily impossible, but yeah, really problematic.

If the van is not rare (i.e.; sandman or other rare variant) and it is actually on the written off vehilces list, I would tend to agree with the comments above, providing your insurance payout is enough for you to build up a satisfactory replacement. That is, probably not worth it, sad though it is.

It would take great effort to attempt to fix this, and it may be fruitless, but, that said, it is possible sometimes to get mountains to move.

If it were me, and the vehicle was on the witten off vehicles list, and I decided to see if I could save it, heres how I would begin;

Firstly, you need to find out find out why (and it may help to know by whom) it has been declared a stautory write off. (You will probably need to know/find this out in chasing the above step as well).

Then/ at the same time, you need to obtain the list of reasons for a vehicle to be declared a statutory write off in your state. It is probably printed on the back of the form which a requisite person/yard/dealer submits to the RTA declaring a statutory write off. This will also be available from the RTA (probably have to spend time to get it though).

You can get the RTA to email or send these to you, or see if you can get them from the yard/insurance company. Just a thought, but fingers crossed that the yard isnt playing silly buggers, they may see more money in parts than its worth to the car sell back to you, so if you go this far, you may need to assess that situation as well, but sounds like you'll need their cooperation too, so... yeah

Once you have the list of reasons for issuing a statutory write off, specific to your state, then investigate the vehicle yourself and see if you think the reason given for issuing the statutory write off notice is challengeable or not.

In the ACT for instance, (from memory only), reasons for a person declaring a vehicle to be a statutory write off include; damage to more than a third of the roof, damage to x amount of the floor, submersion above the floor in salt water for x length of time, submersion above the floor in fresh water for x amount of time, many others etc etc etc, but there is also room i think for assessment of general, less specified write off ).

Might also be worth a check to find if the write off notice was properly filled out, is it signed and dated, does it have a name of the assessor on it, does this name match the signature and RTA requirements. It may sound surprising but often it will not be properly filled out, this then provides good ground for the department to re-assess it as unreliable.

So far, thats a fair bit of effort. But it hasnt cost you anything. I'd go that far and then make an assessment I think.

If you have then decided there are grounds to challenge the reason and apply for a reversal of the decision, you will be initially told by the RTA this is not possible. You will need to be convincing and patient and explain that the minister always has the ability to veto a process of the department if there are good grounds (remember that ministers never allow legislation which removes power from their office) even at the earliest discussions this may be useful, and you will need to provide reason for why this is a special case and negotiate your way into the higher levels of the RTA. (Stolen vehicle with special attachment/rarity may sometimes be enough.... possibly... maybe. ) Find the officer who is in charge, gain their trust and understanding, gain their agreement to accept a letter or email detailing everything in writing. Again, you need their workplace email address, or name and position if it is a letter, it is probably also worthwhile checking that they will be at work over the upcomming week(s) and will be there to receive your email, not on leave! Be prepared to write to the minister, convey that you are prepared to do this if it assists the enquiry by the officer (dont let them feel threatened, you will most likely need their help).
Send your communication immediately make it concise and accurate, give it a day and then politely follow it up continually untill you get an answer.

They will however possibly require an engineering certificate at some stage (unless you are an engineer yourself or have a friend who is one and can speak on your behalf) depends how you go, and even then, after all that, the answer may still be "no".

Another thing, is that once the vehicle has been tagged as a statutory write off, even if you are successful, getting it off all the lists could be difficult, it may come up again in the future so you'd have to retain all paperwork, and discuss trying to prevent this as you negotiate with the RTA.

Trying to save it could be heartbreak after heartbreak, but you might just get lucky.

However, it strikes me, that if the van is special to you Sandman or not, you could go ahead with the initial stages, but I'd advise against putting cash into it, if it's actually on the written off vehicles register this would be a battle, and you may not win it. You have more of an argument I imagine if it is rare. It's possible, depends on what you find has actually happened.

It sounds like its worth the initial RTA investigation at least to see if it really is on the written off vehicles register.

Beyond that, its possible, but geeze I dont envy you, they've been working hard on written off vehicles its true, but nothing is stagnent in time. The RTA can actually be helpful sometimes.

Best of luck

Dave.

[buck]

mate of mine got his car back from the insurance company as a repairable writeoff, cost him hardly anything to get it back, repaired the front strut got a roadworthy and a viv certificate which was about a $1000 and all good back on the road again, but it will always be on the repairable write off register, and this has to be declared if it is ever to be sold, otherwise you can be sent to jail for not declaring this when you sell it.
Also i think the time period was about a maximum of 6 months to get it repaired, otherwise there are other issues.

[Calum]

SLR Dave may just have some thing their... But be polite don't get angry and don't swear at em.
Sounds like you need to chuck a sicky tomorrow

[SLR_dave]

I should also add, that I don't want to give false hope, the idea of the written off vehicles register is that once a vehicle is on it, it's forever. This is about gaining uniform records between states. Its big deal to try and negotiate it. Give it a see how it goes! Hopefully its not on the register yet - also, I left out, they are supposed to stamp a cross line through the vin when assessed as a stat write off, doesn't always happen due to no stamp avail to do it - want to watch for that though too!

[Dago]

[QUOTE=Vombil;68757]they are stamping out backyarders pumping shitty damaged repaired shit heaps back onto the road. Once the insurer calls is an economic right off i'm pretty sure its dust.[/QU

I'm not familiar with the term 'economic write off'

Can you explain what that means, thanks.

[adam perth]

Economic write off is if car is worth $1000 and has $1500 of damage. Determined by an insurance assessor

[Dago]

Thanks.