All collision repairs must be conducted to the highest safety standards and compliances. IVIC promotes adherence to the motor vehicle manufacturer’s specifications are the optimum level of safe integrity.
If the collision repairs conducted to your vehicle were insurance company administered, your insurer promises you that your collision-damaged vehicle will be repaired to either:
It really doesn’t matter which promise your insurer has made because the underlying essential factor of each these promises is they MUST repair your collision-damaged vehicle to a safe structural integrity, anything other than this is a direct breach of their Duty of Care and the Smash Repair and Insurance Industry Code of Conduct. (see sect 1.1(a))
You will find however few smash repairers have the correct collision repair equipment or who can reinstate safe integrity particularly within the repair budget allocated. It is paramount for your safety to have your collision repaired vehicle undergo an IVIC ‘Structural Tolerance Report’ immediately.
If your collision damaged vehicle fails the IVIC ‘Structural Tolerance Report’ you are entitled to claim ‘reworks’ under the ‘Insurers Repair warranty and Guarantee’ usually at no further cost to you.
As the insured owner you have certain obligations you need to comply with under the terms of your insurance cover. Any breach to these conditions is taken seriously by your insurer and may result with your claim being refused.
Whilst the above may seem to be restrictive and controlling, vehicle owners should not be bullied into believing they will have their claim refuted or have insurance cover cancelled because they choose to have their own choice of repairer.
However make no mistake about it whether it is a recommended smash repairer or a repairer of your choice, you (the insured) have the absolute right to have your collision damaged vehicle repaired to a safe and ‘crashworthy’ standard and pursuant to the conditions and promises as defined in your insurance policy.
Your insurer makes certain warranty and guarantees to repair your collision damaged vehicle to either:
Whichever promise your insurer has made to you; they are obliged to reinstate safe structural integrity and crashworthy compliant collision repairs no matter who repairs your vehicle.
The recently adopted Smash Repair and Insurance Industry Code of Conduct clearly identifies your insurer’s voluntary obligation to ensure safe structural integrity. (See Motor Vehicle Insurance and Smash Repair Industry Code of Conduct section 1.1(a))
However and regardless whoever ultimately repairs your vehicle, you will find very few repairers have the correct collision repair equipment or can repair it to a safe integrity or within the repair budget allocated.
To ensure your vehicle has the best possible chance of being repaired to a crashworthy integrity you must insist on the following:
WARNING – NEVER ACCEPT A CASH SETTLEMENT IN LIEU OF COLLISION REPAIRS FROM YOUR INSURER
As the motoring public becomes more aware of their rights concerning crashworthy collision repairs, IVIC is noticing an increase with some insurance companies offering to cash settle collision repair claims rather than repair the collision damaged vehicle for the owner.
This is a very cunning ploy by insurers as it legally absolves them from many statutory responsibilities and other expensive costs. Cash settlements also allow insurers to maintain a very low collision repair average which helps them to maximise profits for their shareholders.
This is how it works: A customer purchases a motor vehicle insurance policy. Pursuant to the insurance policy contract the insurer accepts responsibility to repair the collision damaged vehicle to a safe crashworthy integrity when the vehicle sustains collision damage.
In addition to the above the insurer is also responsible for all other indirect costs that apply which include upholding their legal Duty of Care responsibilities and providing a collision repair warranty for each collision repair for the lifetime of the repaired vehicle.
Some insurers offer a fully transferable lifetime collision repair warrantee which allows for all future owners of collision repaired vehicles to also claim against the original policy.
As mentioned in the ‘The Truth about the Smash Repair Industry & Smash Repair Budgets and Stakeholders ‘links of this web site, smash repairers do not receive an adequate budget from insurance companies to repair collision-damaged vehicles to safe crashworthy integrity. Yet to their financial determent, smash repairers operating under the insurance controlled regime are prepared to accept whatever work that is offered to them from insurers.
Insurance companies and their assessors are notorious for reducing the initial repair quote leaving very little (if any) profit for smash repairers in such jobs. However smash repairers knowing they cannot provide safe integrity repairs for the reduced amount, foolishly are prepared to cut corners and sacrifice on quality and safety during the repair process and accept these quantum reduced inadequate jobs. Unfortunately, the vehicle is later returned to its owner with defective repairs and with disguised unrepaired damage.
There is certainly no rational explanation why smash repairers accept these jobs; perhaps it is to sustain a false cash flow requirement, whatever the reasons, their actions are definitely negligent and clearly breach their Duty of Care responsibilities.
This method of quoting and allocating repair work is beginning to backfire on insurers as the owners of collision repaired motor vehicles are beginning to realise that their collision repaired motor vehicle has not being repaired to a safe crashworthy integrity.
The IVIC ‘Structural Tolerance Report’ provides owners with the required forensic technical evidence to help support their complaints of unsafe and defective repairs. It also allows owners to successfully claim additional yet more expensive remedial reworks against their insurer and usually free of any cost to the vehicle owner.
Let’s put this into perspective. – A smash repairer might quote collision damage for say $5,000. This is the amount required to repair the collision damage to what is known as safe crashworthy integrity. However, before the repairer can commence repairs he first needs to obtain an authority to commence works from the insurance company.
An assessor employed by the insurance company (or an assessor contracted by the insurer) has a responsibility to control and mitigate costs for their employer or contract provider. The assessor will subsequently assess and quantify the collision damage against the original quote as supplied by the smash repairer and interestingly, in almost every situation the quantum amount will be reduced from the repairer’s original quote.
The assessor justifies the reduction by slashing either the quantity of hours (the labour content) required or repairing, rather than replacing damaged components or substituting genuine replacement parts in lieu of cheaper and more inferior aftermarket replacement parts, or a combination of each.
The assessor then values the damage at say $2,200 (a reduction of $3,800 from the original quote) and approves only that amount ($2,200) for the repairs. Wanting to keep the workshop full of work and keep in favour with the insurance company, smash repairers foolishly almost always accept the cheaper quote.
This method of quoting and repairing motor vehicle collision damage is obscenely negligent. It will not be long before we see all stakeholders joined as co-respondents in potentially huge industrial contributing negligence actions.
In the meantime however, vehicle owners can access the IVIC ‘Structural Tolerance Report’ product to obtain the technical evidence required to support their claims that their collision-damaged vehicle was not repaired to a crashworthy compliant integrity and pressure their insurer to rectify accordingly.
Apart from the actual cost to repair the vehicle, there are also further and continuing indirect costs which the insurer is responsible, they being:
For insurers, these indirect ongoing costs and continuing legal responsibilities are very high and is clear to see why they favour cash settlements over repairing collision-damaged vehicles.
Another very important consideration why insurers favour cash settlements is they can remove themselves from any legal liability from potential negligence suits which might be brought forward in the future. To ensure there will never be any confusion as to who is or isn’t responsible for future problems with the subject vehicle, the insurer will always insist for the insured to waiver their rights to sue the insurer in cash settlement cases.
However on the other hand, the insured will always be left in a financially desperate position if they accept cash settlements.
The insured will find:
If you do not disclose that you have had an insurance policy cancelled to any new insurer, you run the risk of having any potential claim refused and possibly find yourself being classified uninsurable.
NEVER ACCEPT A CASH SETTLEMENT IN LIEU OF COLLSION REPAIRS FROM YOUR INSURER
Used car dealers usually offer a warranty on any vehicle you buy from their yard. Whilst the warranty will cover you for some defects, it will not cover you for structural defects.
Unless the dealer can produce a genuine and recently dated IVIC ‘Structural Tolerance Report’, buyers are urged to use great caution when buying used vehicles without first ensuring the car has proper structural integrity.
Many potential used car buyers use the mobile roadworthy inspections operated by motoring groups to establish if the vehicle they are looking to purchase is safe and roadworthy.
Roadside inspection reports issued by the various motoring body groups do not take into account or inspect structural integrity or collision crashworthiness of motor vehicles. The structure integrity of a motor vehicle is fundamental foundation of roadworthiness and it is surprising that it is omitted from these inspections. (See Misleading Roadworthy Reports issued by Motoring Body Groups link)
Before you commit to the purchase of a new used vehicle (whether privately or through a dealer) insist for the vehicle to undergo an IVIC ‘Structural Tolerance Report’. Having the true integrity measurements for your proposed new used vehicle before you buy will assist you to avoid purchasing a ‘lemon’ or worst still, a death trap.
Used car dealers buy large quantities of used vehicles through auction houses or car yards each day without any vehicle being subjected to a thorough roadworthy inspection. What’s also surprisingly is that there is no collision history data base available to dealers to ascertain if the vehicle they are buying from auction, or as a trade from a customer, has been involved in any prior motor vehicle collision or repaired to collision crashworthy integrity.
Dealers have generally relied upon only a cursory visual inspection of any vehicle they wish to deal and consequently have unknowingly accumulated large numbers of collision repaired compromised vehicles in their sales yards which they sell.
As the IVIC ‘Structural Tolerance Report’ becomes more accepted and used by the motoring public, reputable dealers who uphold their Duty of Care responsibilities will soon find they will now need to meet the cost of remedial repairs to all their compromised vehicles in stock before they can be legally sold, or alternatively disclose the defects to any potential buyers and discount the sales price. Whichever they decide, they apparently will incur a financial loss on those vehicles.
With the advent of forensic technology, it is no longer difficult to ascertain if the cause of any motor vehicle collision was attributable to inferior collision repairs or human error, or a combination of both. In those circumstances where injuries or fatalities are sustained, used car dealers especially the ‘dodgy’ dealers will find themselves the respondent in expensive litigious negligence suits.
IVIC believe used car dealers can better protect themselves and uphold their Duty of Care responsibilities (and avoid potential litigious suits) by requesting for a current IVIC ‘Structural Tolerance Report’ be produced by the seller before the dealer buys or trades any vehicle
Many insurance companies have in the past issued fully transferable lifetime collision repair warranty which may offer dealers and private vehicle owners, an avenue of recovery for remedial collision repair work at no further cost for the vehicles they hold as sales stock.
Used car dealers are advised to contact IVIC for more information concerning this warranty.
