Car Written Off without Consultation

LDavidsullivan on 17/03/2018 - 13:37
Last edited 17/03/2018 - 13:50 by 1 other user

Hoping someone can assist and give some guidance after reading my post. 10 weeks ago our car was left at our local mechanic to have a general service, whilst there new tyres were required and as such our mechanic dropped it off to a tyre garage. Whilst the tyre garage was returning it to our mechanic it was involved in an accident, from the information we were told the other driver was at fault, crossing the road to hit our car.. apparently the driver at fault did not have insurance.

As the car was not under our possession at the time I insisted that our mechanic took responsibility and between him and the tyre company can up with who was at fault. Subsequently after 2 weeks of arguments the mechanic submitted a claim. It took approximately a month before the car repairs were established to be more than the vehicle and as such the car was written off by the mechanics insurer. As the policy was not under our name we were not kept up to date of all the decisions being made. Finally we recieved a letter from RMS here in Sydney to confirm the car was now written off and we needed to return the plates.

When we spoke to the insurer they confirmed that they had written off the car and would proceed with issuing a cheque. This is where our challenge occurred. We had an agreed value on the car of $9K with our insurer and they would only offer $5.5K we were advised by the insurer to submit our own claim through our insurer they would then pay the agreed value.

However Our insurer wanted to review the damage and decided that they would repair it rather than paying our $9K and agreed value. They claimed that the repairs would be a quick and we should have the car returned in a fortnight. This was around the 22nd February. From our understanding the repairs are still yet to commence as the the WOVR has yet to be processed.

Where does this leave us? Can anyone give any advice? Were our mechanics insurer able to write off the car without our permission as they have nothing in either writing or verbally agreed upon? We haven’t had a car for 10 weeks and would really like to understand how this can be escalated further?

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  whooah1979 on 17/03/2018 - 13:42

  +9

  I insisted that our mechanic took responsibility
  Were our mechanics insurer able to write off the car without our permission

  you requested that the other party accept liability, which they did. you know turn around and want to control their claims process. you can't have it both ways.

  file a claim with your insurer. provide the particulars of the other driver to your insurer and let them do handle the claim.

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  Cheap Charlie on 17/03/2018 - 14:02

  My thoughs are that when the incident intially occured the best approach would be to either lodge a claim with your insurer or go down the path of seeking quotations for a repair and issue the mechanic with a letter of demand.

  As to where to from here, I am really not sure.
  I would however be concerned about potential future issues in relation to WOVR.
  we all know what Gov departments are like.

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  JimmyF on 17/03/2018 - 14:34

  +3

  Were our mechanics insurer able to write off the car without our permission

  Yes they can. No insurance company will 'ask' permission. Even your own! Its in the T&Cs

  As per your policy or any policy for that matter, its a case of, which is cheapest, repairs or a payout figure, being market value or fixed.

  We had an agreed value on the car of $9K with our insurer

  Yes thats correct, YOUR insurance policy has an agreed value, but you're not claiming on YOURS now, are you?

  As the car was not under our possession at the time I insisted that our mechanic took responsibility

  As you pushed it to the mechanic, THEIR insurance policy will pay market value.

  As it was a not at fault claim, you should have claimed via YOUR insurance company and asked the mechanic to cover the excess for unnamed driver etc (shouldn't be any normal excess as they hadn't been at fault and you can name the other party right!?)

  Sorry OP, its basically a raw end of a deal, but you made it worse by not wanting to use your own insurance. Not that I don't blame you, but this is the outcome of that.

  Where does this leave us?

  With a chq for $5500 and a new car shopping trip ahead of you.

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  tsunamisurfer on 17/03/2018 - 15:00

  OP should have logged a claim with his own insurer, hence having control, then point to the other party as the at fault party so there is no excess or loss in NCB.

  Now it is a total mess

  • 

    JimmyF on 17/03/2018 - 15:57

    Well its not a total mess, its just not the outcome that the OP was maybe expecting.

    The car was written off and a market value was paid out.

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  Stewardo on 17/03/2018 - 15:47

  1. You should have discussed with your insurer first and they would have talked to other parties insurance companies.
  2. If my car was worth 9k I wouldn’t be paying mechanics to get third party work done, doing this might be easier, but will drive the price up. And leave you in a position where things are out if your control and cost you money.
  3. Now you have to wait, and hope it hasn’t been written off. Let the insurance companies sort it out, that’s why you have insurance.
  • 

    JimmyF on 17/03/2018 - 15:58

    1. yes they should have

    2. could be time poor, so easier to get someone else to do it. But agreed, you pay for it

    3. Its way too late for all that. OP is left with what it is, regardless if they like the outcome.

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  spackbace on 17/03/2018 - 15:58

  $6k worth of repairs inside a fortnight…? Sure.

  Let it get written off and buy another. Do you really want to drive a car which got hit so hard?

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  Quantumcat on 17/03/2018 - 22:54

  -1

  Can you cancel the claim made by the mechanic and make a claim through your own insurance? If so I would do this, and issue a letter of demand to the mechanic for the excess. Even if you have to pay the excess you'll be better off.

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  [Deactivated] on 17/03/2018 - 22:57

  +1

  If it is a statutory write off, it doesn't matter who is and isn't informing whom. It is a matter of safety and minimum standards for a car to be roadworthy.

  If it is a repairable write off, ie cost vs value, you need to be informed and your consent is required.

  If you are being compensated under your agreed value, bring it up with your insurer. You are not at fault and the liable party has already been identified. The issue of repairs and reimbursement is entirely between you and your insurer at this point.

  The financial liability is entirely between your insurer and the liable party. That may be the driver of your vehicle at time of incident, the other driver, your mechanic… Who knows and you shouldn't care.

  As for the inconvenience, if you paid for replacement car whilst under repairs, you are entitled to your replacement car. If you are not, you can have one provided to you by the liable party, or rent one and pass the cost on. Bear in mind the liable party may refuse (although it is a cake walk taking that to court) or fail to pay if they are not financially able to.

  Ultimately, don't get worked up. You paid for your insurance, your insurance will cover you. The liabilities are none of your concern.

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  BobD on 18/03/2018 - 08:20

  Did you also have to pay the cost of the new tyres? That would be a bit sad. Don't rely on third parties (your mechanic) to arrange your tyre buy in the future. You may then get a better deal.

  • 

    pegaxs on 18/03/2018 - 22:21

    Don't rely on third parties (your mechanic) to arrange your tyre buy in the future

    Lol… because that was totally the cause of the accident. It could easily have been OP driving the car when it got hit and has nothing to do with getting a third party to organise tyres for it.

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  Davidsullivan on 18/03/2018 - 21:39

  Thanks for everyone’s feedback, sounds like I probably should have posted on here before proceeding with our course of action.

  I had insisted on the mechanics taking responsibility as I didn’t want our no claim bonus being impacted over the coming years.

  The accident occurred on 19th January on the 22nd of February there was a request by the mechanics insurer to reverse the write off as we then made a claim with our insurer. So we are currently in limbo.

  The damage is across the side of 2 panels of the car, the impact was not significant enough for the side air bags to be deployed.. so the decision was definitely over the cost of repairs rather than safety.

  From the 22nd February we opened a claim with insurer and we will continue requesting our insurer who want to progress with the repairs to follow up, however it appears that until the write off is lifted they won’t do anything.

  • 

    Quantumcat on 19/03/2018 - 22:57

    -1

    Did you try asking the mechanic for a courtesy vehicle? If so what did they say?

    Keep us updated, even if you don't get a resolution for a while. It's an interesting situation.

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  dogboy on 19/03/2018 - 12:35

  +1

  I had a similar thing happen although it wasn't a write off. I put through my insurance and received a hire vehicle at the mechanics expense for the time of repair. Not fair that you are negatively impacted by this.