More expensive after an accident
After all, as a rule, it is the assessment of such damage that causes the greatest number of disputes. Car owners want to get as much as possible, and insurers want to pay as little as possible.
Moreover, until a unified methodology for assessing the cost of restoration repairs appeared, the emergence of disputes was logically explained. One expert calculates using one method, another - using a second, and a judicial expert - using a third. But, despite the fact that the assessment procedure is now spelled out in laws and other regulations almost thoroughly, questions still arise. Moreover, as it turned out, the judges themselves underestimate the amount of payment to the victim. The arguments for this they present are quite unexpected.
Determining value based on the price specified in the sales contract is illegal
The Supreme Court has to deal with such complex disputes. And the victim has to wait several years for compensation.
So this story began with the fact that at the end of April 2015, a certain Volodin, while riding his motorcycle, fell under the wheels of a car driven by a certain Fomichev. The traffic police established that Fomichev was the culprit of the accident.
As a result of the accident, the motorcycle that was damaged the most was beyond repair. Moreover, it was purchased literally three days before the accident.
It must be said that Fomichev was insured under MTPL with extended coverage up to a million rubles. The victim, Volodin, first turned to his insurance company for direct compensation for the damage. However, the insurer refused to pay on the grounds that the driver allegedly did not provide documents proving that he was the owner of the motorcycle.
At the same time, it is not clear what the insurer had in mind: the purchase and sale agreement for the motorcycle, as well as the certificate of its registration, were presented.
At the same time, when concluding a contract with a motorcyclist and receiving a premium from him, the insurer had enough documents. But they are not enough to pay.
Also, the insurer did not order a technical examination. Volodin then decided to conduct an independent examination at his own expense. But the insurer never sent an expert for an independent examination, although he was invited twice by telegram.
The valuation of a destroyed car does not depend on its value specified in the purchase and sale agreement. Photo: REUTERS
Meanwhile, the examination established that the damage to the motorcycle is such that it cannot be restored. At the same time, experts indicated that the cost of this vehicle at the time of assessment was 1 million 156 thousand rubles. And the cost of usable remains is almost 149 thousand.
We subtract one from the other - we get the cost of damage. That is 1 million 7 thousand rubles. This is exactly how much the motorcyclist should have received as compensation for the destroyed equipment.
However, under compulsory motor liability insurance with his insurance, he could count on an amount of no more than 400 thousand rubles. But the culprit of the accident had a compulsory motor liability insurance extended to a million rubles. Therefore, Volodin turned to the insurance company of the person responsible for the accident for payment under the extended limit. And he also received a refusal. There are allegedly no documents on the cost of restoration of the vehicle. That is, for some reason the insurer was not satisfied with the presented results of the independent examination.
Volodin went to court. At the same time, demanding payment of a penalty and a fine. But the Ozersky City Court of the Moscow Region decided that a motorcycle purchased under a sales contract for 650 thousand rubles cannot cost more after three days of its operation. And therefore, he calculated the damage, fine and penalty from this amount. The appellate instance of the Moscow Regional Court also agreed with this.
However, the Supreme Court did not agree with this decision. The actual value of property is understood as its market value, which is the current value of the product, determined on the basis of supply and demand at any given moment in the market. That is, the court’s determination of the value based on the price specified in the sales contract cannot be considered correct and in accordance with the provisions of the law, the Supreme Court found.
Determining the actual value of property on the day of the occurrence of the insured event or the amount of expenses necessary to bring the property to the state in which it was before the occurrence of the insured event requires special knowledge. The court had to order an examination. But none of the lower courts cared about this.
On this basis, the Supreme Court overturned the decision of the lower courts and sent the case for a new trial to the appellate court.
Indeed, the amount specified in the purchase and sale agreement may be lower than the market value. For example, a seller urgently needs money and sells his motorcycle cheaply. But this does not mean that the buyer bought cheap. For the same money, he will not be able to purchase exactly the same product that he got at a big discount. And in the event of the loss of property, the law requires compensation in the amount of its actual value.
The cost of conducting a forensic examination of a car in Moscow
The final amount depends on the number and content of questions posed to the expert, on the type of object and the availability of mandatory documentation, scale, structural complexity of the building and territorial remoteness.
ANO “MSEB” has established a uniform pricing of expert time (hours); depending on the complexity of the study, categories of complexity have been determined for each type of examination, taking into account the expended expert time. Forensic examination of a car, 1st category.
from RUB 2,082.40 for 1 expert hour, 22 hours
Forensic examination of a car, 2nd category. from RUB 2,082.40 for 1 expert hour, 38 hours
Forensic examination of a car, 3rd category. from RUB 2,082.40 for 1 expert hour, 77 hours
How to apply?
- First you need to find a suitable expert organization. She must have the appropriate license to carry out such activities.
- Next, you contact the selected organization, where a competent expert will first simply look at the car and say, even before payment, whether it is worth or not to do an independent examination based on how much damage to the car can be calculated according to a preliminary assessment, taking into account the damage to the car.
- The next step will be to set a date and time for the examination. You will need to invite a representative of the insurer to attend. To do this, it would be correct to send a telegram to the legal address of the insurance company indicating the place, date and time of the event. Insurance companies rarely send their representatives for examinations, but sometimes they are present.
- During rush hour, the expert inspects your car, and then it will take him about a week (maybe less) to draw up documents with calculations. You will need to obtain these documents and another duplicate of them.
- Now it is necessary to send a pre-trial demand to the insurer, where in your own words indicate all the circumstances of the situation: that the payment was made to you, it turned out to be insufficient, and therefore an independent examination was initiated, which counted so much, to demand compensation for the missing amount of money, as well as expenses for telegram and the cost of the examination, indicate a reasonable period (10-20 days) for payment and write your bank details or desire to receive in cash. The pre-trial request must be accompanied by the original payment documents, a cash receipt for the examination and a receipt for payment for the telegram.
- After this period plus 3 banking days, if the required amount has not been credited to the account, you should file a claim in court, where you must attach a duplicate of the examination documents. In this case, it is best to contact an auto lawyer, verified by reviews or by your acquaintances/friends/relatives, since this case is already a little more complicated than a pre-trial claim, and you will also be reimbursed for the costs of a lawyer if you win the trial, the likelihood of which increases when the case is handled well and competent lawyer. However, nothing prevents you from contacting a car lawyer at the pre-trial stage.
What questions should you ask the appraiser?
Automotive technical expertise, which establishes cause-and-effect relationships of the circumstances of an accident, is designed to answer the main question: whether the driver complied with the basic requirements of traffic rules in accordance with the road situation at the time of the incident, whether he had the technical ability to avoid the accident.
In order for strong arguments to be collected in favor of the car owner, and the amount of damage to be assessed at market value, when conducting an auto technical examination, questions for a car accident expert must be formulated competently and meaningfully .
The detailed list consists of several dozen questions. To assess the damage, the auto expert is asked the following questions:
- How is the residual value of the vehicle and repairs to restore it determined?
- What is the market value of the vehicle?
- What is the amount of lost commodity value?
- What is the value of the wear coefficient of a vehicle and its components?
- How much do the surviving and usable remains of a vehicle after an accident cost?
- How much do spare parts cost?
If additional equipment is installed in the car or repair work was carried out before the accident, the auto expert should ask questions about the serviceability and quality of fastening of components and parts that could have caused the accident.
Notes:
- this procedure for conducting an examination ( independent auto examination and assessment of road accident damage ) is regulated by RD 37.009.015-98 (in some cases, a telegram call is not required - detailed information by phone);
- the cost of an independent auto examination (including a repeat one), as well as telegrams sent, upon presentation of the necessary documents confirming the expenditure of funds, is subject to reimbursement (including under OSAGO Federal Law No. 40, Article 12, Part 5);
- all work on independent auto examination (including vehicle inspection) is carried out only by certified specialists;
- Our specialists have more than 10 years of experience;
- When an independent auto expert report is issued, free legal advice is provided on further actions to compensate for damages from an accident.
Actions in case of an accident
The first thing that participants in an accident need to remember is that they are prohibited from leaving the scene of the accident. For this violation, the punishment is deprivation of the right to drive a vehicle.
It is also worth considering the following:
- It is forbidden to drive the car to the side of the road. It is necessary to ensure that violations are recorded by traffic police officers. An exception is for minor violations, if both parties agree on who is to blame for the incident (when drawing up a European protocol). But, in this case, you must first record all the circumstances;
- In the car you need to turn on the emergency signal, and also put up an emergency stop sign;
- make sure there are no casualties. If they are, you need to immediately call an ambulance. If necessary, assistance must be provided, for example, dressing wounds;
- If the parties do not draw up a European protocol, you need to call the traffic police. Further recording will be carried out by department employees.
It is better to call an expert as early as possible. If our specialists have the opportunity to inspect cars immediately after a collision, the accuracy of the analysis will increase. Therefore, you can contact us immediately after an accident - we will give a preliminary consultation.
