What rights do i have

[aussiblue]

I think it's polite to send an invoice before the formal letter of demand. I do that 14 days later.

[fmc351]

Originally Posted by Yaw

THIS IS WRONG

Now before you jump up and down, read what I have to say.
The other persons insurance company does NOT have to repair your car. Thier only OBLIGATION UNDER LAW is to compensate your loss after you mitigate your loss. DO NOT confuse this with the fact that most insurers will offer thier services to repair your car...THEY DO NOT HAVE TO!!!!!

What they are perfectly in thier rights to do is say to you, get a quote, send it to us along with a letter of demand, Our assessor will look at the repair (either already done and paid for or just quoted) and adjust the quote to what is fair and reasonable, Then send you a realese form that you sign basically saying once we pay you $xxxx you have no further claim to this and then pay you out the fair and reasonable amount. (that way they do not have to worry about gauranteeing the work. any issue you have from there is your problem.

So once again to clarify what I have said, THE OTHER PERSONS INSURANCE COMPANY ONLY NEEDS TO COMPENSATE YOUR LOSS-----NOT REPAIR YOUR VEHICLE>

Which is why you should have the coverage you are happy with, make the claim through your insurer, choose your repairer if your policy provides for it, and let the insurance companies fight over the assessed difference. Given the chance insurers will look after their bottom line, not your property. Choice of repairer gives some control back to you.

[The G6ET Spot]

Originally Posted by Yaw

THIS IS WRONG

Now before you jump up and down, read what I have to say.
The other persons insurance company does NOT have to repair your car. Thier only OBLIGATION UNDER LAW is to compensate your loss after you mitigate your loss. DO NOT confuse this with the fact that most insurers will offer thier services to repair your car...THEY DO NOT HAVE TO!!!!!

What they are perfectly in thier rights to do is say to you, get a quote, send it to us along with a letter of demand, Our assessor will look at the repair (either already done and paid for or just quoted) and adjust the quote to what is fair and reasonable, Then send you a realese form that you sign basically saying once we pay you $xxxx you have no further claim to this and then pay you out the fair and reasonable amount. (that way they do not have to worry about gauranteeing the work. any issue you have from there is your problem.

So once again to clarify what I have said, THE OTHER PERSONS INSURANCE COMPANY ONLY NEEDS TO COMPENSATE YOUR LOSS-----NOT REPAIR YOUR VEHICLE>

This is exactly what 99% of insurance companies will do if you claim against another persons insurance.

When I had an accident very similar to the one That falcon6 had. I just took the car to my repairer of my choice and let him do the rest. 5 weeks later picked my car up.All good.

[GT-E]

I have found that if you tell them you are really fussy and will not accept anything that is not perfect, will usually tip the balance in favour of a writeoff.

[Sorted]

Originally Posted by YAW

What they are perfectly in thier rights to do is say to you, get a quote, send it to us along with a letter of demand, Our assessor will look at the repair (either already done and paid for or just quoted) and adjust the quote to what is fair and reasonable, Then send you a realese form that you sign basically saying once we pay you $xxxx you have no further claim to this and then pay you out the fair and reasonable amount. (that way they do not have to worry about gauranteeing the work. any issue you have from there is your problem.

So you dont think that as NRMA took 3 weeks to decide to repair or write off the vehicle that it may be close to be written off?

Personally I think NRMA have taken the option to make their repairer happy by giving them this HUGE job instead of replacing the car which may be more cost effective as said before with a $20k quote for repairs the final bill wont be $20k it will be blown out due to unforseen damage.

At the end of the day NRMA wont be footing the bill as it will be recovered from the Third Party or Third Party's Insurer

And due to this fact I cant see why they have delayed processing this claim nor writting the vehicle off.

[Yaw]

Originally Posted by DRHEMI

So you dont think that as NRMA took 3 weeks to decide to repair or write off the vehicle that it may be close to be written off?

Personally I think NRMA have taken the option to make their repairer happy by giving them this HUGE job instead of replacing the car which may be more cost effective as said before with a $20k quote for repairs the final bill wont be $20k it will be blown out due to unforseen damage.

At the end of the day NRMA wont be footing the bill as it will be recovered from the Third Party or Third Party's Insurer

And due to this fact I cant see why they have delayed processing this claim nor writting the vehicle off.

I know myself from larger accidents that it takes time to get a quote back from a repairer. Now we are talking 3 weeks, how much of the exact info do we know????

For instance when the accident happened where was the car towed? when did it happen?
I ask these questions because I have no idea of where or when it happened,
Possibilities could be it happened on a weekend or a friday. which in that case then the car would be towed to a holding yard, not a repairer or NRMA centre. So if it happened like that there are logistics involved in getting the car to either a repairer or an NRMA centre. it may have been the Monday or tuesday before it made it into the centre or repairer. Then the repairers need to quote on it, if at the NRMA centre possiblby that could be the Wednesday before a repairer has even seen the car to start the quoting process.
Not to mention When was the claim made? the same day as the accident or maybe not till the monday or tuesday. Was there a police hold on the vehicle before the holding yard was able to release the car to NRMA.
With major Damage there is a lot of work goes into doing a quote and pricing and sourcing parts etc. Could be a few days work in that, then an assessor needs to go over the quote and check what is being done is correct and fairly priced, afterall they MUST guarantee the work and repairs.

On the above possibilites it can show it may take up to 3 weeks to come to a final descion made on informed information.

As for NRMA not footing the bill, they will have to pay the entire repair in order to recover probably most of the repair bill, but not nessecarily all of it, so many factors can come in there also. We are assuming the other person has insurance or can afford to pay thier own repairs and our repairs, NRMA may have to enter into a payment plan with the Third Party for the cost of repairs or may need to suffer the loss if the third party declares backrupcy.But that is another story.

I hold no doubts that the descion to repair the car was made on 2 facts; It is safe to do so, and it is more economical to do so.
If the car was written off and the other insurer asked for proof of loss, they would see the quote done and come to the conclusion the repairs were cheaper than replacing the car and then only had to pay what was fair and reasonable and NRMA would have then been a few thousand out of pocket for making the incorrect descion. They still need to mitigate thier loss to the third party insurer also.

Choice of repairer as I have heard you say before is important, is not always the best thing to have. It actually then gives the insurer the ability to say to the customer if there are quality issues, Your the one that chose that repairer.
Case in point: GIO states you can have choice of repairer however if we do not agree with the repair methods use we will not give lifetime Gaurantee.