If an insurance adjustor gives an estimate twice what's expected, should I worry?

October 25, 2007 6:48 PM

What happens if an insurance adjustor gives you an estimate that's twice as large as the original body shop estimate you got before the adjustor saw the damage?

A friend was in an accident. This friend called the insurance company, but the company wasn't able to get an adjustor to look at the car until a few days after the accident. In the meantime, this friend got a couple of body shop estimates, just to get an idea of the damage. Anyway, body shop came in at $1500, insurance adjustor came in at $3000. My friend's car is basically brand new and is only in the second year of making payments.

Is there anything weird going on? Should my friend worry about the rather large bill (that my friend won't pay anyway because my friend has a deductible) in the future? Should my friend be worried about having a rather large claim being filed on the car when trying to sell it, should that be necessary?

Is it worth trying to lower the actual amount fixed (i.e. some things aren't mechanically necessary and very minor cosmetic damage) so that in the future a potential buyer of the car doesn't get scared away by such a large fix?

More importantly, since my friend isn't actually worried, am I worried over nothing?

posted by SeizeTheDay to travel & transportation (11 comments total)

When you say your friend got "body shop estimates", were they from shops that actually saw the car in person, or were these phone estimates?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:02 PM on October 25, 2007

Is it worth trying to lower the actual amount fixed (i.e. some things aren't mechanically necessary and very minor cosmetic damage) so that in the future a potential buyer of the car doesn't get scared away by such a large fix?


No, you want to fix as much as possible so that a potential buyer of the car won't get scared away by a poorly repaired car.

Does your friend's insurance company want more work done, or did they just authorize $3000 worth of repairs?

When I had work done on a car after a minor collision, the shop made it very clear that their price depended entirely on whether I was paying out of pocket, or the insurance company was paying. When I sold the car, I told the buyer that there was a minor collision, but the insurance company was willing to restore the car to better than perfect condition. The buyer happily paid my full asking price.
posted by b1tr0t at 7:02 PM on October 25, 2007

Also - make sure you go to a shop that your insurance company recommends. There may be very good safety reasons for going with a premium repair shop rather than the lowest bidder. This is particularly true with the complex systems in modern cars like traction control and rear-seat airbags. Damage that looks minor might render these important systems inoperable, endangering your friend and others on the road.
posted by b1tr0t at 7:05 PM on October 25, 2007

i don't know how their policy works, but his premium may be adjusted upward by the value of the repair...a $3000 repair may put him into a higher bracket than a $1500 repair would....

of course, i could just be cynical.
posted by thinkingwoman at 7:13 PM on October 25, 2007

Wait, who was at fault?

Body shops never know the extent of the damage until they get the car apart, and at that point, they end up calling the adjuster back to authorize the repair/charges.

Friend should let the insurance agent and the body shop work it out - they know what's best and what's "necessary" or not... Also consider that Friend doesn't really own this car - whatever bank that is financing this car for Friend does and there is a responsibility to the lender to get this car back in condition. There could be issue with the lender if Friend doesn't fix the car.

My brother does auto body by trade. $3000 isn't a huge claim. Individual shop mark-up on parts as well as labor can swing a bill in one direction or the other. What seems like a minor fender ding that could be banged out and smoothed over to one shop, might mean an entire bumper replacement working with a different shop.

Save the paperwork from the repair that details what was fixed and replaced. When Friend goes to sell the car, Friend can explain the damages and show that the insurer wanted this expensive body shop to restore the car to new condition. Short of major body damage (bent frame or something like that) I can't imagine people being that concerned about it.

And yes, if Friend doesn't care, then I am not sure why you are stressing over this.
posted by jerseygirl at 7:17 PM on October 25, 2007

Is it worth trying to lower the actual amount fixed (i.e. some things aren't mechanically necessary and very minor cosmetic damage) so that in the future a potential buyer of the car doesn't get scared away by such a large fix?

Absolutely not. You want to get everything fixed back to like-new condition, regardless of how much the bill is. If the insurance company says that's going to take $3k, it's $3k.

Also, from personal experience, get the work done at a place that the insurance company has a relationship with, and will warranty the results of. Don't shop around for some shady hole-in-the-wall.

A while back my car was in an accident, and I took it to a weird little independent place in the hope of getting the work done cheaper than my deductible. Anyway, I got it done, but the work was never right, and a few weeks later the place went out of business and disappeared. I ended up selling the car at a loss to get rid of it.

Go wherever the insurance company says, and let them pay whatever they want to pay. Just make sure you (or your friend) gets everything documented, and that there's a lifetime warranty on the repair workmanship.
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:17 PM on October 25, 2007

The body shop my friend went to turned out to be (purely by coincidence) a place that the adjustor often sends cars. So the original estimate was "good". And we did go there in person. Maybe I am just cynical, but when an estimate doubles the way it did, I have my doubts.

The insurance company never saw the original estimate. They just authorized $3000 worth of repairs.

My friend was at fault. But no one else was involved.

So, upon quick reflection of the comments here, I'm really worried for nothing.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 7:20 PM on October 25, 2007

I would tell your friend to take pictures of the before and after. That way when selling she can show the damage if there is any concern.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:26 PM on October 25, 2007

I think the two estimates are just serving different purposes. The body shop is trying to keep the price low to win business, while the insurance adjuster is probably trying to set the upper limit on what it should cost (and is therefore including all the unseen things that could be wrong).

I'd read this situation like this: The body shop thinks it will cost $1500, unless they find something really unexpected when they take it apart. The insurance company thinks that, no matter what they find when they take it apart, it shouldn't cost more than $3000. I don't think there's a contradiction between the two estimates.
posted by winston at 10:16 PM on October 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

In all seriousness, you should be worried if the body shop says it'll cost $3000 and the insurance company will only allow up to $1500. The way you're describing it, everything will work out fine.
posted by davejay at 1:05 AM on October 26, 2007

Seconding Winston: I had a similar situation recently where the adjuster included some items that could not be checked until the car was taken apart, but the shop's estimate did not include them. Turns out they were BOTH wrong and the damage was worse (More costly) than either of them thought. They still worked it out between themselves and did not involve me. The deductible stayed the same, the damage was all fixed.
posted by BigLankyBastard at 6:43 AM on October 26, 2007