By Paul Murphy
Ireland has become a destination for car write-offs brought in from other countries, mainly the United Kingdom but also from places as far away as Australia. Known as Category B write-offs, these cars have been designated elsewhere as unroadworthy and unfit for repair but a lack of legislation in this country allows cars to be repaired to a state of roadworthiness and put back on the road.
Consumer legislation dictates that car dealers have a legal obligation to reveal the full truth about a car’s history but we have learned that some of these cars are being sold to unsuspecting motorists by dealers who do not reveal the vehicle's history. This can leave motorists with not only a potentially unsafe car but also a major headache. If a motorist driving a Category B write-off has an accident and the insurer discovers the car's history the driver may find that the payout for the car will be substantially reduced, even if they did not know the car's history.
While countries like the UK and Australian have stricter systems to deal with Category B cars, Ireland has no specific laws on write-offs. It is currently legal to import a Category B car and register it for road use even if it has been written off elsewhere. New legislation was promised by the previous government to make it illegal to drive a Category B on the roads, but that was never delivered.
Unlike the UK, insurers are under no legal obligation to share their information about write-offs. Ireland has a voluntary system where insurers log details of write-offs with the Department of Transport and they are locked down, meaning they cannot be taxed or insured. But not all Category B write-offs are logged in this system. In fact, for purchasers it is generally easier to get details of a car's accident history if it is a UK import than if it is a car originally registered in Ireland. Our investigation shows that some insurers will insure a write-off because they simply cannot access information about a vehicle's history.
