Does the insurance just decide your car is totaled and that’s it? Can you appeal? What are the consequences of having a car being declared totaled?
In: Other
From an Australian insurance perspective, when we talk about a car being totalled, it’s considered a “write-off” (note: I did work in the industry, though that was nearly 20 years ago now, but I imagine the definitions hold up). There are two kinds of write-offs:
* Statutory write-off: the car has sustained damage that makes it unsafe to drive even if repaired; generally chassis damage or something like that.
* Economic write-off: the car has sustained damage that makes repairing it not cost-effective, which usually means that the repair cost is equal to or greater than the insured amount (ie. you insure a car for $5000 and the repairs would cost $6000; it’s an economic write-off as it’s just cheaper to pay you out the $5000)
I believe the insurance company I worked for was typical in that part of the policy agreement was that in the case of a write-off, the insurance company would gain the rights to the wreckage. As such, if you decide “no, I’d rather repair the car even if it’s an economic write-off” the company would pay you the insured amount, minus how much the wreckage would likely have sold for (they had a wrecker they worked closely with that would estimate the salvage cost). Then it’d be up to you to organise the repairs yourself.
Latest Answers