Mr. See (not the real name) was driving a van when a motor cyclist collided into his rear. A man saw the incident and claimed that he is representing workshop X. He took Mr. See to the workshop and advised that this is a straight forward claim and agreed to make a claim against the insurer of the motor cycle.
Mr. See was asked to sign some papers in small print and was offered a free rental car for 8 days. The car was also repaired at no cost to him.
!8 months later, workshop X told Mr. See that he was not able to claim from the insurer of the motor cycle and asked Mr. See to pay for the repair cost, amounting to over $10,000. Mr. See refused to pay this bill, as it was above the market rate. He received a writ from the lawyer acting for the workshop.
What can Mr. See do?
1 comment:
Thanks Mr Tan for highlighting this case for the public especially those who are motorists. I do not have any helpful suggestions for this case. However, this case does point out the importance of being very careful when making repairs and claims from an accident. Unless one is very confident of settling the repairs and claims between both parties involved (in the case whereby no parties are injured) without going through insurance companies and making a traffic police report, it may be afterall better to settle repairs and claims through one's car insurance company.
Even as we also hear stories of bad experiences when settling repairs and claims through car insurance companies such as excessive loading of insurance premiums on the subsequent year's premiums, it may be a case of the better of the worse compared to settling the repairs and claims oneself which may result in further complications. Getting into an accident is already a bad enough experience, what's more getting hit by another case of unfair treatment in terms of settling the car repair costs and insurance claims. This is a double blow.
No one intentionally wants to get into an accident. Can we (car repair workshops and insurance companies) be fair to the victim and even to the party at fault and not overly penalise him/ her through unfair charging of car repair costs or car insurance premium loading unless he/ she is a repeat perpetrator who has a track record of causing road accidents?
Post a Comment