Carrying out a damage assessment in case of an accident: why is it necessary?
As judicial practice shows, insurance companies are increasingly underestimating or even refusing to pay insurance compensation. The first stage in the fight against an unscrupulous insurance company is to conduct an independent assessment of the car after an accident. It is necessary in order to establish the average market cost of restoration of a damaged vehicle.
The assessment of damage after an accident is carried out by the insurer himself, but, as a rule, these experts do not have the appropriate education required by the legislation of the Russian Federation, therefore, the insurance assessment of a car after an accident is not adequate evidence of calculating damage after an accident. The law does not provide for the mandatory provision of a vehicle for inspection after an accident to the insurer; it is enough to notify the insurer by telegram about:
- place;
- date;
- time of vehicle assessment.
But in this case, most likely, the insurer will not miss its chance and will wrongfully refuse to pay the insurance compensation due to failure to provide the car for inspection after the accident.
Why you should use an independent expert assessment
In order to assess the damage caused, policyholders use the services of companies that cooperate with them on an ongoing basis. Often after an inspection, the amount of damage caused decreases and the amount of compensation, accordingly, also decreases. Then many additional questions arise. Therefore, you should contact an uncontrolled expert organization.
Such experts do not need to submit incorrect information and underestimate or overestimate the amount of compensation. More often, victims use such an examination to fairly assess the damage and repair their car at the expense of the insured.
ATTENTION !!! The examination should be carried out in due time, and under no circumstances should repairs be started. Having the insured's technical report in hand and starting to repair the car, the victim will not be able to prove his case in the event that insurance payments are significantly reduced.
When the amount is finally determined, you can begin to repair the car.
To submit an application to an independent examination, you should prepare the following documents:
- technical passport for the car,
- a certificate of a traffic accident and a traffic police inspector’s protocol (copies certified in the prescribed manner),
- if the insurance contract contains a clause on expert service, a referral for an expert examination should be issued,
- other documents, if any, regarding the incident.
How to assess damage after an accident?
Now there are a huge number of people on the market who evaluate cars after an accident, so when choosing an independent appraiser for an accident, you will encounter many pitfalls along the way.
Before you start looking for a car accident appraiser, you need to understand the difference between an expert and an appraiser. Everything is quite simple here. Appraisers determine the market value of the property being appraised, and experts answer questions such as:
- presence and nature of technical damage to the vehicle;
- causes of technical damage to the vehicle;
- technology, scope and cost of vehicle repairs.
Therefore, it is best to choose an appraiser who should have the status of both an expert and an appraiser.
Contesting an assessment report
To avoid arbitrariness on the part of the insurer, the law provides for the possibility of conducting primary, repeated and additional research.
The primary one is carried out in the direction of the insurance company. A secondary one is prescribed if one of the parties to the dispute does not agree with the results of the first study. Additional appointments are provided if any questions remain. Before each new study, the initiating party is obliged to warn the other party.
If the initiator agrees with the results of the inspection, but does not agree with the conclusions of the specialist, an inspection of the vehicle is not required. It is enough to provide documentation of the inspection. This allows you to review the result even after repairs have been carried out.
If the examination results were deliberately underestimated, the insurance company may voluntarily reimburse the difference based on the claim.
To challenge the examination, proceed as follows:
- Find out the type of research conducted (commodity research, auto technical research, traceability research).
- Study the expert's opinion.
- Ask the expert to provide a reasoned explanation of the report's findings.
- Contact an independent expert to challenge the first report.
Automotive technical expertise determines the amount of damage, investigative expertise determines the circumstances of the incident, and merchandising expertise determines the amount of compensation for loss of marketable value.
If the insurance company refuses to satisfy the claims, you will have to defend your interests in court. The court does not take the reports of the insurance company or the applicant as a basis, but orders a forensic examination.
Peculiarities of examination under compulsory motor liability insurance
Carrying out an assessment after an accident for insured events under compulsory motor liability insurance has a number of its own characteristics. According to the Federal Law “On Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance”, ONLY an expert technician is involved to conduct an independent technical examination. In accordance with the Federal Law on OSAGO and the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated April 24, 2003. No. 238 “On the organization of independent technical examination of a vehicle”, an expert technician is recognized as an individual who has undergone professional retraining in independent technical examination, professional certification for compliance with established requirements for expert technicians and certification, with positive results, entered into the state register of expert technicians .
Also, when assessing a car after an accident under compulsory motor liability insurance claims, you should remember that, in accordance with Art. 12, clause 19 of the Federal Law “On Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance”, the assessment of damage to a vehicle for spare parts is determined taking into account the wear and tear of components (parts, assemblies and assemblies).
Independent examination of a car after an accident
Let's consider the most common questions related to the independent examination of a car in an accident.
The first question we are asked quite often is: how long before I can contact the insurance company to submit documents? They are very afraid that five, ten, fifteen days have already passed.
You can contact the insurance company for compulsory motor liability insurance within three years after the accident. This is the statute of limitations. According to CASCO, respectively, two years. But you shouldn’t delay it, because during this time the car may rust and some new damage may appear.
Should all damage be recorded in the traffic police certificate?
In the traffic police certificate, the traffic police officer must record only the external damage to your vehicle. He is not required to record any hidden or internal damage.
Another point, unfortunately, concerns motorcyclists. On a motorcycle, almost everything is outside. Therefore, try to ensure that all damage to the motorcycle is recorded in the traffic police certificate. It’s just that if you don’t do this, the employees of the insurance company or appraisal organization will not calculate these elements for you and you will have to defend your interests in court, or many will resign themselves.
Are all damages described on the car?
You should try to identify all the damage, but in some cases, the machine may have hidden damage that can only be detected during partial disassembly or lifting.
For this purpose, there are service stations where the car can be disassembled and all this recorded.
The cost of an independent assessment of a car after an accident. Read here which independent examination to choose after an accident.
Find out how to conduct an independent technical examination of a car at the following link:
Why does an independent examination differ greatly from the examination performed by an insurance company?
As a rule, experts from an insurance company's appraisal organization work using universal calculation software systems that do not contain original catalog numbers of spare parts.
Not all, let's say. Because there are a great many modifications of vehicles, and it is more correct to check them with the original catalog numbers from the original catalog spare parts.
Therefore, for example, the following case: Kia Rio (car 2015 and 2016), the difference in the price of the headlight is 4 times. That is, the 2021 headlight does not have this catalog number in the software package used by insurance companies, including independent experts.
Regarding painting work on elements and materials for painting
The insurance company now very much demands that all calculations be carried out according to the AZT system. But, unfortunately, looking at their conclusions, you see that for some reason both the cost of work and the cost of materials are lower than they should be according to this system. This is a very good system, and if calculated correctly, it will be about one and a half times more.
If your car is no older than five years, then you have the concept of loss of marketable value of the car. That is, after restoration repairs, your car will no longer be worth the money it was worth at the time of the accident.
And this difference can be withdrawn from the insurance company under compulsory motor liability insurance. It is included in the calculation of damages. Another question is that for some reason insurance companies stubbornly do not want to count it.
Some insurance companies calculate only based on the application. It is better to contact independent experts and make the correct calculation. Now receiving the underpaid portion of the insurance compensation has become much easier.
According to Article 16 of the law on compulsory motor liability insurance, you can submit a claim with a conclusion, and the insurance company must consider it within five days and, as a rule, a positive decision is made, and an additional payment is made to your account. Otherwise, we advise you to contact auto lawyers and sort it out in court.
Innovations you need to know about
From December 1, 2014, in accordance with Art. 12.1 of the Federal Law “On Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance”, the assessment of damage in case of an accident is carried out in accordance with a unified methodology for determining the amount of costs for restoration repairs in relation to a damaged vehicle, approved by the Bank of Russia. This means that when compiling an independent assessment after an accident, an expert technician is required to use this methodology.
Assessing a vehicle after an accident is not just a formal action. The success of the entire legal process largely depends on the correct assessment of damage. The assessment of damage from an accident must not only be carried out by a competent and qualified expert, but must also be carried out extremely carefully. An independent assessment of an accident primarily includes an inspection of the wrecked vehicle. All damage must be described in detail and outlined in the inspection report, which is drawn up by the expert.
The assessment of cars after an accident also includes an examination by an expert of hidden damage that is not indicated by the inspector in the traffic police certificate. Hidden damage is best recorded immediately along with obvious damage. The rules for assessing damage in an accident require that an expert must record only those hidden damages that relate to the accident and correlate with external damage.
Carrying out automotive technical examination
An examination may be ordered in the following cases:
- during an investigation in a criminal or administrative case;
- at the request of judicial authorities;
- at the own request of the participant in the accident who ordered an independent examination.
Automotive technical examination is carried out in several stages:
- the client contacts specialists and submits a request for an examination;
- an agreement for the provision of services and an indication of the cost are drawn up;
- a specialist inspects the car and identifies problem areas;
- check the body for interference;
- draw up a conclusion that can be used in court.
Often, attackers try to disguise welding marks in various ways; examination often manages to reveal these actions, and you can easily find out everything that the seller was hiding from you. Such an examination is of particular value if carried out before purchasing a car. This will protect you from buying a car with a dark history or involved in an accident, which they want to sell at an inflated price.
That is why an examination must be carried out before you buy a car. This will tell you in advance about the existing shortcomings and the real cost. It is recommended to entrust the examination to professionals, otherwise you may face large financial losses in the future.
What happens if you file an accident report after an accident?
If for one reason or another you were unable to register the accident immediately (and this can happen for completely different reasons), then nothing prohibits, if all participants agree, to register the accident later: after a few hours, the next day, after a few days, a week, etc. etc. The main thing is not to exceed this deadline, so that the insurance company does not refuse for the reason that the damage was clearly received earlier than the date of the incident.
But it won’t be possible to register an accident retroactively if you call the traffic police. In the case of the European protocol, nothing prevents such fraud from being carried out.
Important note!
- This article describes the basic principles of how legislation works. Meanwhile, in judicial practice everything depends on specific circumstances.
- In 96% of all cases there are subtleties that can affect the outcome of the entire case.
- Therefore, we recommend entrusting the matter to professionals who will study your business and select the right winning strategy.
The TonkostiDTP website employs professional road accident lawyers with experience in all major types of disputes (MTPL, guilt, administrative penalties).
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