Haters Gonna Hate.. Questions On Insurance Claims

[RB_purr]

So a group of little pricks acetone my mint R33 and the paint is bubbled and F*****d so i require a full respray thanks to whoever did it

Questions for the forums is whether or not it is worth it to pay the 800-$1000 excess and claim for vandalism and malicious acts or just pay a painter privately? do you reckon ill get shafted by the insurance company or not?

[GH05T]

find out what your premium will go to aswell, there is a flow on affect to claiming, aswell an loosing a possible no claim bonus.


however thats allot less than a respray will cost

[Micah.]

My excess is 1k as well, so unless it's stolen or written off, I'd do it myself privately. I wouldn't because insurance goes up every year / month. Depends how bad but it sounds like it would be cheaper for you to do it private.

[V28VX37]

A full respray is so much more than 1k that it'd take years of insurance hikes to make up the difference. Also if they start playing funny after the claim just change insurers.

I hate this kinda of crap, all the headaches of having to get something repaired that is in no way or form your fault Having to pay for it adds only insult to injury..

[Micah.]

Sorry, I didn't read the question properly. I didn't see fully respray. Probably better to go insurance because resprays are north of 2-3k. Try and get them to take it to a place that you trust so they don't give it to someone who does a dodgy job. get as much out of them as you can for making you pay an excess so high.

[R31Nismoid]

Full respray might end up seeing the car written off through insurance. Too little/too vauge level of information to accurately say much more than that.

If they do write it off, and you have salvage options - you financially could be well better off... Something to think about

[DoseVader]

My parents had their car wirtten off cause it needed a full respray due to a factory fault

Edited January 22, 2015 by DoseVader

[GH05T]

lul what did they buy... cherry?

[Micah.]

Written off for paint? what happens to the car? I don't understand who keeps it, get's the money.

[Sklyn]

if the car is written off (repairable write off) the insurance company will take ownership and pay you the insured amount.

They may then offer you a buy back price so they don't have to deal with it. You could buy it back at a very cheap price and then pay for the respray yourself. May or maynot work out though.

Best you ring them up and find out what the costs would be and all the details before making your decision.

I'd say most likely to make the claim as any half decent respray will cost more than the 1k + any premium increase.

I pay a little extra premium to protect my no claims bonus so that i can claim for anything without fear of increased premiums.

[GH05T]

I pay a little extra premium to protect my no claims bonus so that i can claim for anything without fear of increased premiums.

good to do

anyway paint fault from manufacturer is taken care of by the manufacturer, when when new anyway. i have seen Holden take a car back and give a new car. heaps of times actually.

[Micah.]

How much is the increase guys? I already pay 2000 a year for my car if you can work out by the percentage

[evil_weevil]

depending on state you are in, if a vehicle is under 15 years (you skyline boys will be fine!) if written off, it goes on the WOVR and unable to be rego'd again.

if you manage to buy it back, some insurers wont insurer it again as they'll say it has pre existing damage

anyhoo, as someone said - weigh up the costs. get a quote yolurself, speak to insurer and speak to them about next renewal and see what may happen

[evil_weevil]

rate will depend on insurers rating and pricing structure

say its $2k currently on 60% NCB

you may drop ratings to rating 4 or 40% ncb

so...

2000 / 4 x 6 = 3,000

thats a very basic example

[GH05T]

and this is way off topic

[Micah.]

How is it off topic? Title is questions on insurance claims. To me that's dead on topic. This can help someone before the same or similar situation happens.

[mad082]

Go and get a few quotes on getting the damage repaired. Then compare to insurance excess. That is the only way to know for sure whether or not it's better to fix it out of your own pocket or through your insurance. You have to remember that insurance companies will only pay for the minimum amount of work required to fix the car. So if only a few panels are damaged that's all that will get fixed if insurance pays. They won't pay for a full respray if half the car is still fine.

When you go to get quotes make sure you only get quotes on fixing what you'd be claiming insurance on, not a full respray (unless every panel is damaged).

If the car is written off then generally you will be given the option to buy the car back for a small amount. This can work out well if you can get the work done to fix it cheap. My sister in law had a vk Commodore that she wrote off a few times (relatively minor damage, fender benders), got paid out a few thousand each time, got the car back for a few hundred dollars (and one time got it back for free), and spent a few hundred fixing it up (helps when you can get it repainted for free). Had no problems insuring it again, just had to show that the damage had been repaired. She made about 5k profit from crashing that car.