How do Insurance companies assess hail damage?

[Ringo]

Victorian people will have seen on the news that Melbourne had a ripper of a hail storm on Christmas afternoon.

A link for those not aware http://www.theage.com.au/photogaller...225-1p9b2.html

We are in Eltham and it blasted our house and our 2 cars well and truly. For about 10 minutes we had marble sized hail just tearing into everything.

Our house is Ok, but the garden is shredded and both cars now are now pitted all over. They look like golf balls they have so many indentations. Roofs, bonnet and boot but also the rear quarter panels and tops of the door skins, in fact I don't thinks there a complete panel on either car that doesn't have some sort of indentation on it.

I have a company car so couldn't care less about it but what about Mrs Ringo's car that is insured with AAMI and worth about $10k-$12k max?

Mrs Ringo is a bit upset about the damage to her little car but I think she will forget about it if we get a cheque and can go car shopping....

My question is how will the damage be assessed and what are the chances of Mrs Ringo's car being written off if every panel is pitted on some way?

[Falc'man]

Most likely a write off...

When I saw the thread title I was expecting bruised butt cheeks... Can one of the mods add an "s" to asses?

edit: NO, oh ok this one time.....

[Smoke Pursuit]

Depends... If each panel has 50 + dints and the car is only worth 10 kay then they will write it off...

Paintless dint repairers charge insurance company's around $55 a dint I have been told... So for every 100 dints its $5500 to fix.

[ConradP]

I think they go along the lines of, if it's more than 50% of the value of the car they write it off, so if it's only insured for 10-12k getting all the panels fixed may write it off.

Also with the roof/pillars if they are badly done they may instantly call it a write off because of structural damage.

[Iggypoppin']

Sorry to hear about the cars mate. As a side note, I believe hail that writes a car off but only cosnetically damages the vehicle is great for 2nd hand car buyers that don't care about the looks(me) or want a donor engine. If I could find a B series GT real cheap but covered in dints I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Then cane the crap out of it at mallalla!

[JoshXR]

Mrs had a 3month old Mazda 3 in 2010 when the last set of storms hit had hail damage to roof bonnet drivers side quarters and doors no massive dings just a lot of little pits, it took aami 10 mins to write it off,

[prydey]

Originally Posted by ConradP

I think they go along the lines of, if it's more than 50% of the value of the car they write it off,

once upon a time there were some fairly general guidelines most went by but these days there are a lot more specifics and fine print. you really need to speak to your own individual insurer to find out about your own situation.

sometimes they write cars off after a certain value, other times they will fix it if its cheaper to fix than write off, even if its only a small difference cost.

i wonder if any people saw the storm coming and wheeled their cars out into the street

[2011G6E]

In Blackwater a couple of years back they had massive hailstorms, and the car transporters ran hot for a few days taking dozens of cars away, all write-offs.
One guy I work with had a six month old Hilux twin cab loaded with options, a lease car. It was under a carport and the only damage it had was a few dents on the rear right quarter panel, some dents on the rear drivers side door, a broken rear drivers side window from a ricochet off a post by a big stone, and one or two on the drivers door. He drove it to work for a week or two until the assesors got out to see it, and then a few days later we were standing out the front of the station and saw another car transporter, with what looked like his Hilux on the back. He said yes, that was it, they wrote it off!!
He wasn't overly concerned, as it was a lease car and was replaced fairly quickly...but it certainly made the rest of us realise why our damn insurance premiums are so high, and whether it's a good idea ringing the insurance company about very minor damage on a new car, as they could just write it off and you lose your car...

[wrongwaynorris]

" i wonder if any people saw the storm coming and wheeled their cars out into the street "

I'm sure some people did but equally there would have been people distraught having to sit and watch their pride and joy destroyed because they had no available shelter .

[mash again]

It all about the economics to the insurance people, say car value is 20k and damage is 10k. if wreck value is 11k write it off insurance compoany 1k in front if wreck value is only 4k repair, insurance 6k better off. if you have a newish car with 6k of damage and they can sell it and get their money back they will, unless you have specific insurance and have buy back option etc like with shannons, im waiting on the report for wifes mk2 golf GTI insured for 7500 with shannons for hail damage in rural SA saturday before xmas, only has about 25 dents and the PDR peopla have set up out here for a while working with local repairers

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

^^^^^ What he said, its what ever works out best financially for the insurance company, all about loss minimisation for them!

[ohzone]

Sounds like a "write-off" to me

[MelsGolf]

Originally Posted by DASH GT

Depends... If each panel has 50 + dints and the car is only worth 10 kay then they will write it off...

Paintless dint repairers charge insurance company's around $55 a dint I have been told... So for every 100 dints its $5500 to fix.

That was how my car was assesed after the last big melbourne storm, it had 180 dints, $45.00 per dint, being a new Golf it was worth allot more than $8100.00.
They removed the roof linning and paintless repaired them all, car looked brand new afterwards.
I was told by a friend in the paint game that the dinting can cause microscopic cracks in the clear so many years down the track you might get surface rust if you dont keep the polish and wax up to the car.

[BadMax]

There are waaaay too many variables concerning hail and write off's...and too many wives tales getting passed on.

As a hot tip, don't be tempted to add a few extras hoping your car will write off. I recall a friends shop had a brand new Craptiva in the shop for hail, all looked legit until, a trained eye was used. Let's just say the insurance company denied the claim on a brand new car. It was suspected the owners couldn't really afford the car and this was going to be an easy way out...But it wasn't

As a rule of thumb, anything peppered on most panels and is valued under 15k, it will be border line. Anything even with minor damage under 10k will more than likely write off. I would say the on average a reasonable hail job goes frm about 6k to around 12k, of course this all depends on other factors like parts prices. If ou're with someone like AAMI, they probabkly fit ne gen parts to your car if it's out of warranty period.

The the question of the car meeting ADR's comes into factor as these tin foil parts have not been tested to ADR standards.

[Ringo]

Thats everyone. I think the wife car will be close to being a write off and my company car may be close as well.

Wife's cars because of the value and my company car because only the passenger door seems to be the only panel free of dings. We will see.

We were thinking about a new car in 2012 for my wife anyway so this may work out well.

Friend picked up a 3 years old GTi Golf in mint condition 3 weeks ago...dinged in every panel now. Hail stroms are tragic things.

[fakegt]

We had a 95 Pajero written off in the last storm. It was only roof and bonnet and pretty minor in my opinion but the metallic paint on it was in very average condition. So even though most of it could of been done by PDR some couldn't and the whole car would of needed a respray. We got about 2.5K over what we could of sold it for. If its cheaper to repair they will repair, if not its a pay out and you need to push when it comes to extras to get the best pay out.