who is responsible,GARAGE OR INSURANCE?Our insurance sent an independent assessor out to check our car?

Question

But after the garage started the repair work they found a problem which required further permission for the cost of repair from the insurance.Our policy states if the cost of the repair is 50% or more of the value of the car they would scrap it.Well the original estimate without the new turbo was 48.8%.The insurance are telling us they are going by the original estimate and not the revised one as the garage are at fault for not discovering the problem in the original quote.Who is to blame? Garage or the assesor from the insurance as they both missed the problem when checking out the car before the repair work was started.Our car was flooded and we have been without it since July 4th.We are being penalised for the garage and insurance companys incompotence.Our car was 7months old at the time of the flood and because someone else didnt do there job right we are being expected to accept a car back that smells so bad we cant sit in it as it makes us sick.The insurance and garage are both>

been giving us the run around. the only victims are us.We never complained till the last few weeks when we found our car still wasnt ready after being assured it would be when we came off holiday Oct 2nd.They discoverd the turbo problem while we were away so we knew nothing about it.The garage is a main dealer and the deputy manager agreed how bad the smell was,but the service manager when asked by the insurance complaints dept told them he didnt think the smell was that bad.The deputy manager actually told me on tuesday after I took my cousins in to smell our car to see if it was just us that "No we certainly weren't imagining it and we weren't going mad as he could smell it too and would be prepared to back us up on that.My cousins described the smell as a mouldy mop.We are both suffering from stress through all this as my husband even lost time off work which he wasnt paid for after the flood as we had no car.why wont anyone tell the truth?We are the victims but being penalised.

According to our insurance documents which we have pointed out to the insurance company as they had failed to point it out to us and we only discovered when they tried to tell us we were liable to pay 5% towards the cost of a the new engine which we also had to point out that no! we arent liable to pay that,from begining to end of this whole saga it has been us who has had to do the ringing to both the insurance and the garage to see whats been going on.We were promised calls and waited in for them,but they never came.We were even told by someone at the insurance company that we werent allowed to speak to a manager as it would do no good as the manager would only tell us what he was.According to our policy if the car is less than a year old we would get a replacement if repairs came to 50%,before turbo they were 48.8%,they wouldnt even allow new mats in the original estimate even though they came as standard not extras.We've been well and truly done by both parties.

In answer to simon and greg,we aren,t mechanics and we arent blaming the garage solely,we are angry at both sides because the garage gave us the runaround for 3months and the insurance because they arent fulfilling there side of the contract which as I said we only found out when someone from the claims dept tried to charge us for the money toward a new engine.We fulfilled our obligation to the letter,if this is the case about unforseen problems why hasn't that been taken into account?according to the service manager we were one of 10cars to be at the garage for flood damage work.Were we the only car to be found with extra problems.We are refusing to accept the car on health grounds as the man who valeted it twice found spores growing where the spare wheel is kept,how did that get missed I wonder the first time round?

Answer 1

I'm not going to make too much comment, but stick to your guns and don't accept the car back until you are completely happy with it. It is down to the insurance company to sort it out, and you will probably need to hound them to get it done. The insurance companies are so big though, sometimes this is difficult, and as individuals you end up feeling like you are being mis-treated which is no good for your own health. Relax about it, and take them head on, perhaps see if you can visit one of their offices, or get a solicitor to help you out.

As the car was nearly new, did you take out GAP insurance to cover any difference between the new value of the vehicle and any outstanding finance? If so, you need to contact this insurance company too, they may be able to help you out.

Most people don't realise that you don't have to accept the first offer made with regard to any claim. I did have damage on a car of mine a few years ago, which was more than half the value of the car, so the insurance company wanted to write it off. The damage was to the doors and didn't affect the safety or security of the vehicle, so I didn't accept the write off, and took the second financial settlement made instead, which was put towards another car!

Answer 2

You did a lot of talking but didn't give much information. First -- I've never heard of a state that required a vehicle to be totaled at 50% of it's value so do some checking (this is a state mandate, NOT an insurance rule). Second -- you have been without your car since JULY?? I would have had some a-hole's head on a stick months ago if I were you! Third -- you didn't say what sort of flood damage was done to your vehicle. I live in an area where we get over 60 inches of rain a year and we know flash floods. If your car was parked and water simply got inside then I doubt that your turbo damage is going to be related. This could be why your insurance company isn't covering this item. Like I said, not very much information to go on here. Insurance is obligated to pay for ALL loss related damages up to the total loss threshold of your vehicle. If the shop disassembled the intake and allowed rain water to seize the turbo, for instance, then it would be a liability on their part to repair/replace damaged parts, not your insurer. Here's some advice: grab a notepad and call your claims adjuster tomorrow and start asking questions -- LOTS of them, until you have a good understanding of what's happening. Once you determine who dropped the ball on this mess then you need to take action. When this is all over I suggest you buy a premium insurance policy from a company that has it's own apprasier and research staff.

Answer 3

There was a lot of information that you posted and it was a little difficult to understand. Your policy states the 50% mark? I've never seen a policy state this (as it does not need to) and who totals a vehicle only at 50%????? Usually it's around 80%.

Bottom line, it's your insurance company who needs to correct this situation. It's _not_ the shops responsiblity to determine all the damage to a vehicle from the beginning. It's just stupid for anyone to say this (person should be slapped). The repair company is not an agent of/for the insurance company. The appraiser from/for the insurance company is the agent and _he/she_ missed the additional damage! But this happens all the time. Because the _insurance company_ missed it, they now have to pay for the repairs that were done by the repair company and then also total out the vehicle (which gets us back to that stupid 50% amount... and I am still finding it had to believe an insurance company would put this in writing).

As mentioned, you need to file a complaint with your states Dept. of Insurance (your wasting your time if you think the attorney general addresses these issues... they do not). You also _do_ need to speak to a supervisor if you've not done so already. If any one denys this to you, ask for their name and let them know you need it to report this denial to the DOI.

Insurance companies HATE (HATE!!!) complaints going to the DOI. If the DOI gets enough of them, they like to pay a visit to the carrier, sit down in their office, and audit claim files. The insurance company then gets fined for things done wrong... and the DOI _will_ find things wrong. :) It's the DOI's way of saying, "we don't want to hear of valid complaints about you".

Answer 4

I, too, think there's something odd here. No insurance company I've ever seen states that a write-off will occur at 50%. In the UK (and it seems the same in the States) insurers tend to work on 80% of the vehicle's value at the time, and they never state this in the policy documents as every case is different. I think you need to take a deep breath and settle down with your insurers to thrash this out.

Answer 5

Who is responsible,GARAGE OR INSURANCE?Our insurance sent an independent assessor out to check our car?

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Answer 6

Who is responsible,GARAGE OR INSURANCE?Our insurance sent an independent assessor out to check our car?

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Answer 7

You are the innocent party in this matter and it is for the garage and insurance company to sort it out. So make sure your facts are right, literally not by reading between the lines. Are you sure the fault was not a pre-existing one/? before you do that have another discussion with the insurance company, in writing. Give them 14 days before further action will be taken

Answer 8

Not everthing is right out in the open. This happens quite often in the auto indrustry, expecially with quotes. Without ripping everything apart, it is impossible to tell the condition of componts interiors, or componants that are buried benieth other parts, and sometimes a componant is just missed by mistake. The garage was doing just what they were suposed to. Sometimes to get to a componant, it can take several hours to get to. On an estimate, its just not economical for the garage to rip the car apart this far. Parts can also be hard to find problems without taking apart, and to take everything from an engine would take several days to do. Again, its not economical, if the garage does it, then you would be charged huge amounts for the initial inspection, but if they don't rip everything apart, sometimes unseen problems can exist.

I work in a garage and its not uncommon for us to find a problem after getting half way though a job. Something leaking that was in a spot that we couldn't see until we took several componants off, or bolts and nuts that may have been cross threaded or damaged that you coldn't possibly have known about until they were taken out or attempted to be taken out. Mechanical work is not an easy task now adays, expically with all the electrical componants involved. An inspection is just that, and inspection, nothing major is removed, and things do pop up that were unforseen.

At work today, I had to replace a leaking axel seal. I had it all apart when I realized that the bearings scored and had damaged the axel shaft itself by inflicting a huge scratch into it. Without taking everything apart, it would have been impossible for me to tell that the bearing had a rough spot that was scoring the axel, eventhought he axel still spun without problem. On the inspection I found that the axel seal was leaking and that was the cause of the leak, after the job was started we ran into a complication with a damaged bearing. Was it our fault for not ripping the rear axel apart and checking the bearing. If the customer said no to the work and we had ripped everything apart, we would have been out about a liter of gear oil, a rear differential gasket, and about an hour and a half of time. Is that fair for us to be blamed on something that we couldn't have found without 45 minutes of removing parts, expically when most technicans work Flat Rate and only get paid for the book time of the jobs they do, not the inspections (in some cases), and have charged the customer almost as much to do the inspection as the job was to do to find that damaged bearing. It was in neier parties intrest to go that far in depth on an inspection expically when the bearing was showing no signs of being damaged from the test drive (bearing nosies), or roughness while the axel was spinning free, or excessive play in the bearing. Sometimes when trying to solve one problem, another one arises that was completly unforseen.

Personally, I would not blame the inspection facility for this unless they said they checked the part(s) that now need repairing or replacing, and that they were for sure good.

Answer 9

The insurance adjuster that initially looked at the car missed this one. People occasionally make mistakes and initial estimates are ALWAYS incomplete/low! It is literally impossible to catch everything until tear-down is complete. Also, depending on the severity of the flood (if water entered the interior or the engine was running when the engine was submerged) I would insist that the insurance total the car anyway as you will have major electrical problems down the road.
Water + electrical connectors = corrosion and severe problems

Answer 10

the way i see it is that your claim is still pending settlement as the repairs are not yet complete and cannot be completed unless the dispute in hidden damages is resolved.

Also if u did not participate in appointing the assessor then he is not independent or impartial as his fees r paid by the insurance company.

So clearly the problem is between the assessor (who by the way is insured for these kind of errors) and his employers the insurers.