If you use the repairer your insurer puts in front of you, three things change in practice. The insurer usually carries the guarantee on the work. Your policy, not the shop, decides how parts are specified. And the insurer is who you go back to if the finish is wrong. Going elsewhere is what insurers call the any repairer option. Whether you have it depends on the policy you bought, not on any law. Your excess is the same either way.
Most people meet this question at an awkward moment. The claim is lodged, someone has given you a shop and a booking time, and you are deciding whether to take it.
An approved repairer is a smash repair shop that an insurer has a standing commercial arrangement with. It covers repair rates, methods and how work is allocated. It is a deal between two businesses, not a qualification the shop holds.
Approved, preferred, recommended, network and partner all describe the same arrangement. None carries a separate legal meaning.
To judge the shop itself, look at VACC membership, manufacturer approvals for your make, and industry accreditation.
The any repairer option is a policy feature that lets you pick the shop, instead of taking the one your insurer allocates. It sits on comprehensive cover and comes three ways.
Your product disclosure statement, or PDS, tells you which one you bought. Clause 9.1 of the Motor Vehicle Insurance and Repair Industry Code of Conduct sets the rule. The PDS must list that policy in the contents with a page reference, and set it out there in plain language. You should not have to ring anyone to find it.
Whether you can choose your own smash repairer in Victoria is a contract question, not a statutory right. No Victorian law requires choice, and none forbids it.
Usually not to you, where your policy includes choice of repairer. The repair is authorised and paid the same way, and your excess does not change because you picked the shop.
A cost can appear in three places, and none surprises you if you ask early.
Get the figures in writing before anything starts. Ask the insurer what it has authorised, and the repairer what they have quoted. What happens once your insurer approves the repairs covers what comes next.
A repair guarantee covers workmanship and materials. If paint lifts or a panel gap opens in two years, someone puts it right at no cost to you.
Where the insurer allocates the repairer, it usually carries that promise. Most major Australian insurers guarantee work they authorise through their own network, commonly for as long as you own the car. You go back to the insurer, not the shop.
Where you choose the repairer, it depends on the policy. Some insurers extend the guarantee to any repair they authorise and pay for. Others limit it to their network, and you rely on the repairer’s own guarantee. Where a claim is cash settled, the insurer’s guarantee generally does not apply.
The guarantee also decides who handles a complaint. Where the insurer chose and authorised the shop, it takes responsibility for the work and materials, and complaints run through its internal process. Unresolved after 30 days, it can go to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, or AFCA, at no cost.
So ask two questions, of two people. Ask your insurer, in writing, whether its guarantee covers a repairer you pick. Ask the shop what their guarantee covers and how long it runs.
Often, and that is worth saying plainly. Agreed rates and steady volume make claims quicker to settle, and a shop that wants repeat work from a large insurer has a reason to keep its standard up.
It is worth slowing down on structural damage, a car inside its new car warranty, a make with its own repairer approval programme, or a shop you already trust.
Five questions on the phone, while the claim is being set up, tell you what the policy wording will not.
You can accept an allocated repairer later. Unwinding a repair once it has started is much harder.
Ask for a second quote, from a shop you choose, before you agree to anything. Have your claim number ready, because most of what a repairer can tell you depends on it. It costs a phone call, commits you to nothing, and either confirms the allocation or gives you something specific to raise with your insurer.
Surrey Accident Repair Centre works with all major insurers and can walk you through where your claim sits, whether or not the car ends up here. Smash repairs are quoted from the car rather than from photographs, and a loan car can be booked at the same assessment. Get in touch with your claim number.
Yes, where the policy you bought does not include choice of repairer. That is a term of the product rather than a decision about you, and it applies to everyone holding it.
Not for that reason alone. Sitting on a network tells you an insurer has agreed commercial terms with that business, not that its work is held to a higher standard. Judge a shop on its accreditations and its guarantee.
Yes. Your excess comes from the policy and is not affected by which workshop does the job. It is one of the few parts of a claim that does not move either way.
