When repairing under compulsory motor liability insurance or compensating for losses, quite a lot of controversial issues may arise. The task of any driver is to carefully study all the nuances of car repair under MTPL. It is important to find out what are the features of the legislation on repairs under MTPL, to get answers to the most important questions: how can you get the necessary original spare parts, how to act correctly when repairs are delayed?
Key current repair rules for compulsory motor vehicle liability insurance in 2021 are of significant importance. A lot of questions arise when repairing a car using an MTPL policy, and the task of the car enthusiast is to understand all the intricacies. The main regulatory acts regulating this procedure are Federal Law No. 40-FZ dated April 25, 2001 “On Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance” and Bank of Russia Regulations No. 431-P dated September 19, 2014 “On the rules of compulsory civil liability insurance...”.
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How to get a referral for repairs under OSAGO
It is necessary to obtain a referral so that the car can be repaired according to compulsory motor liability insurance. The issuance of a referral for repairs is possible after consideration of the relevant application; it is written by the owner of the car and then sent to the insurance company. When the insured event does not fall within the existing provisions of the law, insurance is provided in the form of vehicle repairs.
At the same time, a referral for repairs under OSAGO is valid for 30 days - during this period the car should already be repaired.
To receive a referral for repairs under OSAGO, the driver must:
- Notify the insurance company about the accident.
- Collect a package of documents, which includes an insurance contract and the policy itself, a title, receipts for payment for a tow truck, examination and parking, a passport, copies of the protocol and resolution of the traffic police and a notification of an accident.
- Draw up an application for payment of the insurance amount and submit it to the insurance company.
- Provide the car for inspection to the insurer (this must be done within 5 days from the date of filing the application for insurance compensation).
- The car is inspected by the insurance company, and it may also be sent for an independent examination.
When all the necessary documents have already been received, the circumstances of the incident have been clarified and an assessment has been made, the car has been inspected and the appropriate examination has been carried out, the insurance company issues an official referral for repairs. The MTPL rules define specific deadlines for this: 20 or 30 days.
The direction includes the following data composition:
- information about the victim;
- details of the policy, insurance contract;
- vehicle data;
- the amount of additional payment for repairs;
- car repair deadline;
- the name of the service station where the repairs will be carried out, as well as its address and details.
When there are contracts between the insurer and the service station, the policyholder will be able to independently determine the service center from the corresponding list.
You need to choose as carefully as possible, since each service may have its own restrictions for vehicles.
The insurance company that provided the direction for repairs under the MTPL policy is responsible for compliance with the deadlines and quality of repairs.
Design rules
After contacting the insurance company, it is given 20 days to issue a referral to a car service center. The document indicates the time frame for the repair. If the insurance company delays providing the referral, then for each day of delay it will be required to pay a penalty in the amount of 1% of the insurance compensation. The total amount of the penalty cannot be higher than the insurance compensation. To receive it, you must fill out an application including the calculation, as well as indicate the account details for transferring funds.
The car repair period is affected by the condition of the vehicle and the list of work required to be performed. In most cases, the auto repair shop is given up to 30 days to carry out restoration work. The countdown begins from the moment the vehicle is presented to the service station. Sometimes the damage to the car is very serious or delivery of spare parts will take a long time. In this case, the repair period under compulsory motor liability insurance can last more than a month.
In some cases, the car owner can reduce the period of car repairs. For example, he can get some components on his own. However, this requires a written agreement with the insurer.
Yes, this opportunity is provided by the new rules. But this must be done before purchasing the policy. The insurance company provides a list of service stations with which it cooperates. The policyholder can choose the most suitable one for himself. At the same time, he can take into account reviews of other clients, repair deadlines under compulsory motor liability insurance, proximity to the place of residence or work, etc.
When a suitable car service has been selected for possible restoration work, you can buy a policy.
Costs for spare parts are calculated taking into account the degree of wear. It is determined by experts when inspecting a vehicle and developing a report. The highest wear rate is set at 50 percent.
If an insured event occurs, the policyholder is given five days to provide the insurance company with the following documents:
- Accident notification.
- Certificate of incident (from the traffic police).
- Resolution indicating the culprit.
The insurance company must accept the motorist's application, review the document and decide whether the case is insurable or not. The expert must inspect the vehicle and determine the cost of restoration work.
Next, the car owner chooses a car service to perform repairs, and the insurance company develops an agreement. It indicates the period of repair of the car, the necessary actions and the price. The contract must be signed by the insurer, the owner of the vehicle and the car service center.
After this, the driver is provided with a referral for repairs under MTPL insurance. The owner of the vehicle cannot control the service center employees; all issues must be resolved through the insurer.
The length of time a car needs to be repaired depends on many factors. From the date of acceptance of the application, the insurer must issue a referral for repair work within up to 20 days. Provided that the service station is not included in the list of the insurance company, the period is increased to one calendar month.
The restoration work itself is allocated 30 days. The counting day is the day when the vehicle accepted the service station. A longer period may be needed for complex work if the consent of the injured party is obtained. All penalties in case of delay in repairs are covered by the insurance company.
A guarantee is provided for service station services. For body work, its validity is one year. Other types of repair work have a warranty period of six months.
The service station where the car should be sent depends on the insurance company. Each of them has its own list of service stations with which it has agreements. In each specific case, the decision to choose a particular service station is made on an individual basis.
The law states that a car service station should be located no more than 50 km from the scene of an accident or the victim’s place of residence. Provided that the insurance company pays for vehicle evacuation services, you can choose any option from its list of service stations.
According to the law, the insurance company must send the vehicle to a service that has the right to service cars of this brand. This is regulated by an agreement with the dealer or car manufacturer.
In the absence of a branded service station, the car is sent to any other service center from the list of service stations of the insurer, with the consent of the owner. If the latter refuses this, he can withdraw the funds.
This condition applies to vehicles not older than two years. This is a significant disadvantage because the manufacturer often gives a warranty of 3-5 years. If the insurance company does not have the required service station on its list, it can send the car to any service center. In this case, you will not be able to receive compensation.
Even at the stage of purchasing insurance, the car owner has the right to indicate a specific service center. The insurer is obliged to provide a referral to it in the event of an insured event.
The most common practice is to select a service station from the list of the insurance company. However, by agreement, other service centers can be indicated. In this case, these aspects should be reflected in the contract. The insurer's written consent is also required.
In circumstances where the company cannot pay for repairs at the service station you have chosen, the owner can count on monetary compensation.
When you purchase a new car, check with the dealer for a list of licensed service stations. This is important to maintain the warranty on the machine.
Select a company that cooperates with this service. If the insurance company responsible for the accident does not have an agreement with this service station, you can ask for financial compensation.
Are you planning to buy a used car? Ask the seller for receipts for parts that were recently purchased.
When buying an expensive car, think in advance whether you will have the funds in your budget to pay the difference in insurance for repairs yourself.
Remember that you won’t be able to get money from the insurance company and then repair it in a nearby garage!!!
Accidents and traffic incidents are force majeure circumstances that cannot be foreseen. It is important to always comply with traffic rules, purchase a compulsory motor liability insurance policy on time, and know your legal rights and obligations.
How does the car repair procedure work under OSAGO?
It is necessary to consider in detail the procedure for repairing a car under OSAGO. The Law “On Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance” has a corresponding article 12 , which, among other things, establishes criteria for the accessibility of the place of restoration depending on the location of the accident or the place of residence of the victim.
The maximum distance can be 50 km.
In certain cases, the insurer is willing to bear the cost of transporting the car. Then the distance to the repair site will no longer matter. Now the car owner can independently choose where the repairs will be carried out: this is done in a service center or at an insurance company service station, as well as at an official dealer.
Repair from an authorized dealer
Car repairs at dealerships are in fairly steady demand. It is performed when no more than two years have passed from the moment the car was released from the assembly line. If the warranty is valid, the dealer will perform the repairs at his service center. It is important to understand that this requires an agreement between the dealership and the insurance organization.
Sometimes the list of service stations does not include the corresponding official dealer. In this case, the insurer issues a referral for specialized repairs at the dealer.
There is another option: compensation of costs in monetary terms. The limit of insurance payments is 400 thousand rubles (Article 7 40-FZ).
At the service station of an insurance company
Free car repairs under MTPL are carried out by the insurance company. In this case, an agreement is concluded between the service, the insurance company and the client. The documents must describe in detail all the work, its features, deadlines, as well as a list of spare parts indicating their specific prices. If the level of 400 thousand rubles is exceeded, the client will have to independently cover the additional costs of restoration repairs.
In addition, only new components are used during repairs. For example, repairing or replacing a bumper requires the use of new parts, rather than refurbished, previously used parts.
Warranty periods are set in the following amounts: one year for painting and body work, six months for restoration.
When the repair work is completed, the car is handed over to the owner for acceptance. The acceptance certificate can be signed only after there is confidence that all faults have been properly eliminated. If there are any shortcomings, you can already solve the problem through a complaint procedure.
If problems are discovered after signing the acceptance certificate, it is almost impossible to file a claim.
Rules for repairs in an independent service
It is important to remember the requirements for a service station when repairs to a warranty vehicle are carried out by a third-party service. To issue a referral, you will need to obtain the appropriate written permission from the insurance company. It indicates the details of the service station, as well as the address, contacts and name of the specific service center.
The insurance company may agree and send the car to a third-party service. Then the costs are covered without taking into account the wear and tear of spare parts. In addition, the insurer will have the right to consider the application for a longer time (10 days more, 30 days in total).
If the deadlines are not met, the insurer is obliged to pay a penalty.
How to receive a payment instead of a referral under compulsory motor liability insurance?
If it is not important for you, and if the insurer does not have contracts with dealers for your make and model of car, you agree to the payment, then the legislation of 2021 gives you the opportunity to receive it, but with one important condition.
You can receive a payment instead of being sent for repairs if the insurance company does not have a single agreement with the “officials” for your car if it is no more than 2 years old.
The fact is that compensation in kind in compulsory motor liability insurance is a mandatory and priority type of compensation for damage rather than payment. That is, this is not even a desire of the insurance company, but an obligation. But there are exceptions to this obligation in the law, when the insurer must only make a payment in cash.
And one of these exceptions is the age of the car is not older than 2 years from the date of production. Clause 15.2 of Article 12 of the Federal Law on Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance tells us this.
Please note that we are talking specifically about 2 years from the date of manufacture, and not the sale of the car to you.
But there are other conditions when you can qualify for payment in lieu of repairs, which we covered in our special article.
But a significant disadvantage of receiving money instead of sending it to an official dealer for repairs is that the payment under compulsory motor liability insurance is calculated taking into account wear and tear, and during repairs the insurer is obliged to organize the restoration of the car with new parts to the condition it was before the accident. Therefore, if you choose to pay the money and then repair it yourself, the dealer will most likely not have enough money from the insurance company. Therefore, next we will consider the possibility of forcing the insurer to organize repairs.
Car repair time under MTPL
The car must be repaired within a maximum of 30 days (Clause 15.2, Article 12 40-FZ). This period is counted from the very moment when the owner brings his car to the service station or transfers it to the insurer for transportation to the place of repair. It is extremely important that the maximum repair period under OSAGO is not exceeded.
Did the repair take longer? Then you can send a corresponding complaint to the service station, as well as to the insurance company. These authorities are required to promptly consider the appeal.
The maximum period for consideration of a complaint is 5 days/
The specific period required for high-quality repair of a vehicle is determined in each case individually. This is done at the service center after inspecting and diagnosing the car. The repair instructions indicate the exact repair time frame, but it is possible to change them.
The service can accept the car for repairs without additional payment.
If you come to a car service center and they calmly accept your car for repairs, then this is a serious signal that something may be wrong.
If you have already received a referral in advance, please read it carefully. There should be no additional consents or agreements on the part of the victim. For example, to increase repair time, consent to the use of used spare parts, consent to repair work not using the manufacturer’s technology.
These phrases can be indicated not only in the direction for repairs, but also in other documents that will be given to the service station for signature. Read everything you sign carefully and ask for copies for yourself. Signed documents can and should be photographed.
Assignment agreement
I would like to draw special attention to cases when at the service station, at the direction of the insurer, they offer to sign an assignment agreement (assignment of rights).
Signing such an agreement with a car service is usually very unprofitable for the victim. In addition to the fact that there may be repair conditions, which I wrote about in the paragraph above, any claims regarding the quality of repairs will no longer be presented to the insurer. After all, the right to make claims has already been transferred to the person who will carry out the repairs. Brilliant, isn't it?!
Moreover, the assignment agreement of a car service may indicate that the victim also transfers the right of claim to the culprit of the accident, which means that having made repairs with low-quality or used spare parts, the service will then have the right to receive money from the culprit, as if they were repairing the car with new ones spare parts at market prices.
Calculation of the cost of repairs according to OSAGO
You can roughly calculate the cost of car repairs in advance. The price of spare parts will be of significant importance here. Keep in mind that the spare parts cost catalog according to PCA reflects current information, so it is always useful to check with it.
How to properly accept a car after repair
Judicial practice regarding poor-quality car repairs is widespread: the number of trials is increasing literally every day.
The most important thing in such a situation is not to sign the car acceptance certificate after the repairs have been made if you are not sure of its quality.
Be extremely careful: the car needs to be inspected and tested.
Is it possible to refuse repairs under compulsory motor liability insurance and get money?
Some car enthusiasts prefer to receive money under compulsory motor insurance for self-repairs rather than use the services of a service station. Therefore, many car owners are interested in the question: when the insurance company pays money instead of repairs, what should be done for this?
Now insurance companies themselves decide whether to issue compensation in cash or refuse payment. But you can find a way out. For example, if repairs do not fit within the 30 days required by law, it is appropriate to demand compensation in monetary terms. When the car is not older than 2 years, it must be repaired by an authorized dealer. But if it is not there, and the insurer does not want to pay for transportation, it is better to request compensation in money.
Is it possible to repair a car at an official dealer under compulsory insurance?
New cars will lose their warranty due to the MTPL reform. The State Duma of the Russian Federation in the second reading approved a tightening of the MTPL bill, which involves the abolition of cash payments in case of an accident. Among other things, insurers pushed through one amendment to the bill, which promises Russians a complete headache: only two-year-old cars will be able to be repaired at official dealers on the direction of the insurance company after an accident, all others - in unauthorized services. And this despite the fact that the overwhelming number of car companies provide a 3-year (and even 4-5-year) factory warranty on new cars. Car dealers and car manufacturers explained that such a “clause” of amendments guarantees a person only one thing - big problems in the event of an insured event. In case of an accident, Russians will choose auto repair shops for body repair of their car from the list provided by the insurer. If the car is not older than two years, then it will be sent to an official dealer, but not to the one that sold the car, but to the one with which the insurance company has a cooperation agreement. Repairs from officials are carried out only using expensive original spare parts (this is the requirement of automakers), and the price per hour is generally higher than market prices. The difference between the average check between an official and a regular technical station can reach double the size. It is logical that when pushing through the current amendments to the compulsory motor liability insurance policy, insurers strongly opposed their client’s visit to authorized dealers for repairs. Motorists who are unlucky enough to get into an accident in the third (and if the warranty allows, in the fourth and fifth year) risk losing the car company’s warranty. You can’t count on replacement of components, assemblies and the car itself (and this happens often now) after repairs at an affiliated service station of the insurer. And this problem concerns not only the premium segment, but also affordable cars, for example, like Renault. For example, during an accident, the optics were damaged and instead of the broken headlights, a third-party service installed new ones. The manufacturer automatically receives the right to refuse warranty repair of electrical wiring, since it was previously touched by unauthorized service technicians. The situation will be aggravated by the fact that unauthorized services have a habit of installing not original spare parts on a damaged car, but used or Chinese analogues. And this will only be revealed if there is a warranty failure. The car owner, of course, can try to prove that there is no connection between the repair at the insurance service station and the subsequent warranty failure, but now the burden of proof lies solely on his shoulders. And this means the start of the trial. And it will be very difficult for the car owner to prove otherwise. In addition, the car owner will have to pay for the examination himself.
