Some damage that your car sustains is either too negligible or too expensive for you to do anything about it. As long as the car can get you where you need to be without any problem, you might not see much use in spending any money on the repairs. If you happen to get into a serious car accident, you might think about getting the previous damage repaired by your auto body shop along with the new damage and seeing if your insurance company will foot the bill for everything.
The Old and the New
The truth is that if you try to claim that the old damage on your car is part of the new damage it will be considered as insurance fraud. Your insurance company will take a close look at the damage and they’ll be able to tell what damage is part of your accident and what damage is from a previous incident. You have to realize that insurance companies have been doing this for a while and know that some of their customers try to get one over on them, so they’ll examine the damage and your insurance claim with the utmost level of scrutiny. You’d be better off not trying to falsify your claim and outright ask the insurance adjuster if there’s any way they can pay for the old damage. The worst thing they can say is no and the best is yes, there’s no harm in trying. Your next viable option is for you to simply go ahead and pay for the old damage yourself while your car is in the auto body shop.
Pre-Existing Damage
Even if your insurance adjuster isn’t able to tell that the old damage wasn’t caused by your auto accident, a good auto mechanic and collision repair expert (like us at Grand Sport) most likely will. So even if you think you’ve gotten one over on your insurance company in the beginning, there’s no guarantee the insurance company won’t find out later, because we work with the insurance company throughout the repair process and it’s our duty to let the insurance companies know if we think there is damage that we believe wasn’t part of the current incident . There’s even the possibility that your insurance company won’t pay as much as they originally offered for your new accident. Honesty truly is always the best policy for everyone.
In the event that the old damages and the new damages are in the same place, your insurance adjuster might say that you and your vehicle are no worse off than you were before. If this is the case, you might have to learn how to do some savvy negotiating in order to get any of the damage repaired.
When to Report an Accident
If you’re involved in a minor accident, you might be tempted to not call either the police or let your insurance company know. Maybe that’s how you sustained your pre-existing damage in the first place. If the total amount of the damage is less than $1,000, you don’t have to call the police, but keep in mind that that $1,000 limit includes the damage done to both cars. If anyone is injured in the accident, no matter how minor that accident is, it’s best if you call the police, even if the injury itself is minor. This is for your protection as much as it is for the injured person. You never know if they’ll want to come back and blame you for the constant crick in their neck and try to sue you. There’s also the chance that after you leave the other driver will call the police and you could be charged with leaving the scene of an accident, which is a serious conviction.
While you aren’t required to call the police if the damage is less than $1,000, you should still get in touch with your insurance company, even if that means your insurance rates will go up. It’s better that you know for a fact that your insurance rates will be higher instead of living each day with unease worrying about if your insurance company will somehow find out and penalize you.
You should always be honest with your auto insurance company, even if it means you have to spend more money. Spending extra money is always preferable to losing your insurance completely or being sued for thousands of dollars. It’s best for your auto body shop doing the repair, your insurance company, and of course YOU!
The post Will my auto body shop repair previously existing damage? appeared first on Grand Sport Auto Body.
Source: http://www.grandsportautobody.com/blog/will-my-auto-body-shop-repair-previously-existing-damage/
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