Last spring, April 28, 2017, controversial amendments to the law regarding insurance payments came into force. We are talking about article 15.3 of the Law on MTPL. It says that after the adopted amendments, compensation for damaged vehicles is carried out by organizing or paying for restoration. In fact, many will exclaim that article of the same law, number 12, paragraph 15, states that each victim can personally choose - restoration or compensation. But, with the changes made, these paragraphs of the article were partially transformed. Under the new rules, repairs are provided, with some exceptions.
It is important to remember that if the policy was issued before April 28, 2017, then there is still the possibility of choosing the format of compensation for damage. For those who took out "insurance" after 28, this opportunity is no longer there. Another interesting fact is that everyone can get the right to choose compensation, with the exception of citizens of the Russian Federation, who have passenger transport on the territory of the country.
Despite everything, according to the new rules, there are certain "loopholes" that imply the possibility of compensation in monetary terms. When is payment made:
A grave, medium type of severity was caused to the victim.
There is a deceased.
The victim was recognized as disabled (regardless of the group).
Complete "death" of the car, without restoration.
The station is unable to carry out the work.
The person managed to negotiate the payment.
The amount of costs exceeds 400,000 rubles.
One more condition, it can be problematic to achieve payment on it, even taking into account the involvement of the court. The new provisions clearly define the framework where the work should be carried out, no more than 50 km from the accident site or the registration of the policy holder. All transportation costs must be borne by the company. If there are no stations nearby with which there is an agreement, you can agree on a cash payment.
Repair of vehicles, the age of which does not exceed two years, is carried out at the specialized services of an authorized dealer.
In the photo - the official service of GM
How to arrange repairs under OSAGO?
When an insured event occurs, it is necessary to provide the insurance company with a certain list of documents within five days:
Certificate of the accident that occurred.
Accident notification.
The inspector's decree, which identifies the culprits.
After providing the "papers", the insurer examines the application and makes a verdict whether the case is considered insured or not. The car is inspected and the amount of restoration costs is determined. Inspection, as a rule, is carried out by insurance appraisers, but in the absence of such, they turn to specialists. The car is photographed, all damages are recorded, and then the cost of costs is determined. The price for spare parts is calculated according to the Russian Union of Insurers (PCA).
After that, a car service is selected, the owner of the car must confirm his consent to work in this service station. After that, a request is sent to the selected service, an agreement is made whether they can guarantee the performance of work, and so on. Further, the parties' agreements are being prepared. Carefully study the agreement, the time frame for the production of work, the list of actions and the cost of costs must be spelled out. By the way, I wanted to clarify that the agreement is signed by three parties, that is, the owner of the vehicle, insurance and service station.
Remember, the period for which the car must be completely repaired is 30 calendar days.
The owner of the vehicle is given a referral for repairs, with which he is sent to the service station. Further, the recovery process is carried out. There is a small nuance that causes a lot of negative emotions on the part of the car owner. He is not allowed to carry out control over the performance of work, this is entirely the responsibility of the insurer.
Who is repairing?
The insurance company must publish on the website a list of service stations with whom the contract is concluded. In addition to the listings of station names, information is indicated:
What models and brands are serviced at the service station.
Terms (approximate).
The certificate of conformity that the given service station is entitled to carry out the restoration of such vehicles.
In addition to the service stations listed on the website, work can be done:
At the facilities of an authorized dealer, if an appropriate agreement has been concluded.
At the facilities of the insurance company itself (if any, in principle).
At the service station that the owner of the vehicle will choose. There is a reservation, it is imperative that the relevant agreements with the insurance company are required. Such a case is incredibly rare and is rather considered an exception.
An important point, which spare parts are being repaired? In general, there are no restrictions on the age of the car in the law. In theory, a 20 year old car should be repaired with new parts.
Timing
Initially, they must understand that it is necessary to agree and draw up an agreement for the work, this usually takes a week and a half. The law says that the period should not exceed 20 days. Further, in the directions, the period must be indicated, in the same law, we are talking about 30 calendar days. But, you need to take into account all kinds of force majeure or deliberate delays in the process. A postponement is possible if:
The service station faced financial difficulties.
There were no necessary spare parts in warehouses in Russia.
The car was transferred to another station, they need additional time to analyze damage, take into account already replaced parts, and the like.
In some cases, when the damage to the car is serious, the supply of spare parts is difficult and time-consuming, the repair can take more than a month.
By the way, if the company and the service station have difficulties with the delivery of spare parts, the owner can purchase the missing parts himself, but this requires an additional agreement of the parties.
Didn't have enough money for repairs?
It is determined that the amount of harm to health or life is measured at 500,000 rubles, and if property has suffered 400,000 rubles. If the compensation amount is not enough to carry out a full repair of the car, the difference is covered by the driver.
Of course, the driver has the right to go to court against the culprit for damages. As often happens, the culprit does not work anywhere or works, but receives the minimum wage, has no property, then it will take a long time to wait for compensation. In the best case, the court will appoint payments in the amount of 1000 rubles.
There is an option not to agree to evaluation studies, perhaps the price tag was deliberately inflated. If, after re-analyzing the damage, the cost of the costs has not changed, it is allowed to prepare a statement of claim to the court.
Do not rush to accept the act of acceptance / delivery. Check the performance of ALL vehicle components. If problems are found, quality work can be requested.
If deficiencies are found, the owner of the vehicle has the right to demand compensation.
New cars will lose their guarantees due to the CMTPL reform
The State Duma of the Russian Federation in the second reading approved the tightening of the draft law on compulsory motor third party liability insurance, which implies the abolition of payment in case of an accident in money. Among other things, the insurers dragged through one amendment of the bill, promising the Russians a continuous headache: only two-year-old cars will be able to be repaired by official dealers in the direction of the insurance company after an accident, all the rest - in unauthorized services. And this despite the fact that the overwhelming number of auto companies give a 3-year (and even 4-5-year) factory warranty for new cars. Car dealers and automakers explained that such a "clause" of amendments guarantees a person only one thing - big problems in the event of an insured event.
In case of an accident, Russians will choose car services for the body repair of their cars from the list provided by the insurer. If the car is not older than two years, then it will be sent to an official dealer, but not to the one who sold this car, but to the one with whom the insurance company has a cooperation agreement. Repairs by officials are carried out only with the use of expensive original spare parts (this is the requirement of automakers), and the price per hour is generally higher than the market indicators. The difference between the average check of an official and a regular technical station can reach double the size. It is logical that when pushing through the current amendments to OSAGO, insurers in every possible way opposed the arrival of their client for repairs to authorized dealers.
Motorists who are not lucky enough to get into an accident in the third (and if the guarantee allows - for the fourth and fifth years), risk losing the car company's warranty. You can not count on the replacement of components, assemblies and the car itself (and this happens often now) after repairs in an affiliated service station of the insurer. And this problem applies not only to the premium segment, but also to cars available, for example, like Renault.
For example, during the accident, the optics were damaged and instead of the broken headlights, new ones were installed in a third-party service. The manufacturer automatically gets the right to refuse warranty repair of the electrical wiring, since before that it was touched by the servicemen of an unauthorized service.
The situation will be aggravated by the fact that unauthorized services have a custom to put on the broken car not original spare parts, but used or Chinese counterparts. And it will be revealed only in case of a warranty breakdown.
The car owner, of course, can try to prove that there is no connection between the repair at the insurance service station and the subsequent warranty breakdown, but now the burden of proof lies solely on his shoulders. And this means the beginning of the trial. And it will be very difficult to prove the opposite to the car owner. In addition, the car owner will have to pay for the examination on his own.
On Friday, March 17, the State Duma adopted in the third final reading amendments to the law on OSAGO, which make car repairs the main method of insurance compensation, and not a cash payment. The norm will come into force on April 28 and will apply only to new agreements with citizens of the Russian Federation.
What's changing?
If earlier, according to the law, the insurance company had to "make an insurance payment" to the victim in an accident, now - to organize and pay for the repair of the injured car. The client can receive insurance compensation in cash, but only in a number of cases: if the amount of damage is more than 400,000 rubles or the car is completely destroyed, if the insured person died or suffered serious injury, and also if he is disabled. Cash payment is also possible in agreement with the insurance company. But the main way of compensation for compulsory motor third party liability insurance should now be repair.
The service station (STO) will be chosen by the client, but from the list of partners by the insurance company. The choice will need to be made at the time of the conclusion of the insurance contract. If the car is not older than two years, then the repair must be at an authorized dealer. If the insured is not satisfied with the proposed service stations, he can arrange repairs in another car service, but only after the written consent of the insurer.
The insurance company must issue a referral for repairs within 20 calendar days (except for holidays), the repair itself should last no more than 30 days, and the service station proposed by the insurer should be located no more than 50 km from the place of the accident or the client's residence (except when the company itself organized and paid for the transportation of the car). By law, repairs must only be made from new auto parts. This is an important point, because the insurer pays money for OSAGO taking into account the wear and tear of spare parts (that is, the cost of not a new item, but a used one).
The insurance company will be responsible for the quality of the repair. The warranty is 6 months, and for bodywork and paintwork - 12 months. If a company receives many complaints, then the Bank of Russia, which is the market regulator, may temporarily prohibit it from sending clients for car repairs and force them to pay money.
Why is this needed?
The unprofitability of OSAGO is growing from year to year. In 2016, the ratio of payments (the ratio of payments to collected premiums) for this type of insurance increased from 57% to 74%, the Central Bank points out in a letter to the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market Anatoly Aksakov.
“A significant increase in the unprofitableness of OSAGO is caused not so much by an increase in the frequency of insured events, but by an increase in expenses for non-insurance costs due to abuse of rights by victims and their representatives,” says a letter signed by the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank Sergei Shvetsov. - A special type of mediation has emerged, the so-called auto lawyers who carry out activities aimed not at protecting the rights of victims, but at maximizing the amounts recovered from insurers in their own favor, auto lawyers. According to the Russian Union of Auto Insurers (RSA), in 2016, non-insurance legal costs (fines, penalties, legal fees, etc.) of companies engaged in OSAGO amounted to more than 13 billion rubles, which is about 6% of insurance premiums for this period. Unscrupulous auto lawyers are engaged in “redemption of losses from victims and unwinding of legal payments, including reimbursement of expenses not directly related to damage to the vehicle,” says Vitaly Knyaginichev, head of the Ingosstrakh retail business department. In fact, the activities of some intermediaries are not aimed at protecting the rights of victims, but at unjustified collection of funds from insurers in their favor, adds Marina Shchukina, deputy head of the department of compulsory and mass insurance products of RESO-Garantia.
Moreover, insurance payments do not grow evenly, but only in certain regions. For example, in the Ivanovo region, the Republic of Adygea and the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, the average payment is more than twice the Moscow one. The Central Bank also notes the illegality of court decisions in some regions.
This situation has led to the fact that in some places in Russia it is almost impossible to buy OSAGO. In the country as a whole, the number of agreements concluded in 2016 decreased by 3.6% compared to 2015, and in some regions - by 10-25%, the Central Bank points out. Insurance companies are obliged to sell OSAGO everywhere, not to refuse customers and not to impose additional services, however, in order to reduce unprofitability, they still commit violations. "Only in the most problematic Southern Federal District in 2016, the Bank of Russia considered 14,112 appeals and complaints about problems related to the issuance of OSAGO policies, 765 orders were issued against insurers to eliminate violations of the law, 210 protocols on administrative offenses were drawn up," the Central Bank says ...
The direction for repairs instead of monetary compensation for OSAGO will exclude the possibility for auto lawyers to profit from insurance companies, MPs and officials believe. The idea of the so-called “compensation in kind” appeared a year ago. In the course of the Direct Line with Vladimir Putin program in April 2016, the president of the Association for the Protection of the Rights of Policyholders, Maxim Khanzhin, proposed to instruct the Bank of Russia to work out the option of switching exclusively to the in-kind form of compensation for losses under compulsory motor third party liability insurance in order to exclude fraudulent schemes. After that, the president really instructed the government, together with the Central Bank, to prepare such proposals for improving OSAGO in order to make restoration repairs the main way of compensation. On December 14, 2016, the State Duma considered the bill in the first reading.
“Fraudsters, criminal 'auto lawyers' and various organized criminal groups appear where there is a cash turnover of funds, - says Sergey Pechnikov, insurance development director of MAKS IC. “And for respectable citizens it is important, first of all, to eliminate the consequences of an accident, that is, to repair the car”. The introduction of a natural form of compensation in OSAGO will, on the one hand, make the activities of auto lawyers unprofitable, and on the other, will increase the level of protection of victims, Shchukina believes.
Is everyone unhappy again?
In theory, the amendments to the law should make both insurance companies and their customers happy. The former will no longer suffer losses due to intermediaries, the latter will receive their repaired cars. But in practice, many questions arise.
For example, how to get the insurer's consent for repairs in a proven car service, and not in the one offered by the company? Representatives of insurance companies cannot yet answer this question for sure. “We are talking about individual decisions based on specific circumstances. It is impossible to indicate in advance what is needed for this. The insurance company will make a decision based on the argumentation of the insured, ”says Knyaginichev from Ingosstrakh. This is a matter of practice, Pechnikov agrees. “The fundamental point is the prices that the service station will apply, the quality and timing of repairs. If the prices correspond to the applicable reference books, like all other parameters, including the reputation of the service, then in many cases this will be enough for insurers, ”he says. But Knyaginichev argues that if the repair is in the service at the choice of the insured, then "the insurance company will not be able to guarantee the quality and timing."
Citizens are used to receiving money from the insurance company for MTPL and repairing the car on their own. But there will not be many dissatisfied with the changes, the representatives of the insurers believe. “It is important for respectable citizens that the damaged property be brought to the state in which it was before the accident. Thus, potentially converting the bulk of the compensation in kind should not lead to problems, ”Pechnikov says. In the hull insurance segment, the natural form of compensation has long been introduced and the overwhelming majority of customers are satisfied with car repairs, adds Knyaginichev.
Inna Zhavrid, the deputy general director of GlavStrakhKontrol, has a different opinion: “There will be few satisfied, and some may even refuse compulsory motor third party liability insurance”. Even before the amendments were adopted, insurance companies had the opportunity to refer clients for repairs, she emphasizes: “Why didn't they? Why hasn't the system been made attractive and victim-friendly? Previously, they could not, but now they can? I doubt. Problems will remain: violation of deadlines, endless approvals, refusals, quality of repairs, etc. " If the client is dissatisfied with the quality of the repair, then he will need to conduct an independent examination, and then contact the insurance company and the court, explains Inna Zhavrid.
The insurers themselves, apparently, are also not satisfied with the amendments. The costs of auto lawyers should fall, they admit, but the unprofitableness of OSAGO will not decrease. It's all about the wear of the parts. As already mentioned, the law assumes that the insurer pays for repairs using new parts, and makes cash payments for used parts. And the tariffs approved by the Central Bank are calculated on the basis of payments, taking into account the wear of parts. “The authors of the amendments, without making calculations, assume that the increase in payments due to compensation without wear and tear will be offset by a drop in court costs. Unfortunately, this is not so. Our calculations show that even if we exclude all legal costs, compensation without wear and tear will require an increase in tariffs by at least 25%, otherwise the unprofitability of insurers will grow, ”says Pechnikov from IC MAKS. In addition, the dynamics of the development of the situation with legal costs is not yet fully understood, since disputes over the amount of compensation can be transformed into disputes over the quality of repairs and terms, he adds.
Denis Makarov, head of the underwriting department of compulsory types of AlfaStrakhovanie, points to one more problem for insurers - official dealers. It is to them that the insurance company should send cars no older than two years, while the services should be no further than 50 km from the place of the accident or the client's residence. “For now, it looks like we will have to artificially populate the spaces of remote cities of Chukotka, the Urals, Western and Eastern Siberia with official dealers, where they may not be available not only within the city limits, but also for several hundred kilometers around,” comments Makarov.
Back in April 2016, the President of Russia instructed the Central Bank (it is he who regulates the OSAGO system in Russia) and the government to prepare their proposals regarding the restructuring of the current OSAGO system. In June 2016, the State Duma considered a bill on replacing payments under OSAGO policies to reimbursement of losses resulting from an accident with repairs.
Important changes in the OSAGO system
The new bill assumes that from the moment of its signing, insurance companies will be able to choose one of the following methods of compensation for damage:
- - this option for compensation for damage remains unchanged. The insurance company assesses the damage and gives the money to the victim to repair the car.
- Repair under OSAGO in 2019 at a service station owned by an insurance company. In this case, the insurer assesses the damage and sends the car to a service station with which the insurer has signed a contract.
- Repair under OSAGO from an official dealer is possible when the car is not older than two years. The insurance company, at the request of the injured driver, must send the car to an authorized dealer for repair. An appropriate contract must be concluded between the dealer and the insurance company.
In order for the insurance company to offer the owner of the OSAGO policy to repair instead of paying it, send the car to a service station, it is important that certain conditions are met. So, the service station should be located no further than 10 kilometers from the city border (over 500,000 people) where the driver lives. Compensation for spare parts is paid taking into account their wear and tear. If the insurance company sends the car for repairs, then spare parts are paid without taking into account wear and tear. The bill does not regulate the issue of delivery of the damaged car to the service station.
At the moment, the bill allows insurance companies to send a car to "their" service stations. This can be done only after agreement with the owner of the damaged car.
Car repair after applying for a refund
When submitting an application for compensation for damage to an insurance company, the injured party will be able to receive funds for repair and restoration work or receive a referral for repairs under OSAGO at a dealership or service station. Repair is possible only in cases where it is still possible to carry out restoration work. If the car cannot be restored, then it is sent for recycling. The driver is reimbursed for all damages.
To get the maximum amount for the restoration of the car or referral to the service station, the driver must contact the insurance company with a corresponding statement. The motorist should proceed as follows:
- inform the insurance company about the accident;
- draw up and submit to the insurer a written application for compensation for damage within the period specified in the OSAGO policy;
- attach documents confirming the fact of an accident to the finished application.
After submitting the application, the driver has to wait for the decision of the insurance company. Before that, a specialist of the company with the appropriate qualifications will assess and indicate the amount required to repair the damaged car. If the driver agrees with the indicated amount, then he will be able to receive monetary compensation and carry out repairs with someone else's help or on his own. The maximum payment for OSAGO that a driver can receive from an insurance company under an OSAGO policy is 400 thousand rubles... This option for compensation for damage under the OSAGO policy is known to drivers from the first days of the existence of the OSAGO system. According to the new bill, after the assessment of the damage to the car, the insurance company will offer the driver three options for solving the problem:
- The driver agrees with the amount for damages assigned by the expert and receives money in his account for further work on the restoration of the car.
- The driver agrees to have the car repaired under OSAGO, which the insurance company proposes to carry out in "his" service station and receives a referral for repair work. The amount required to repair the car is transferred to the account of the car service.
- The driver himself chooses one of the options for resolving the problem and informs the insurance company about it, which has no right to refuse repairs under OSAGO.
Referral for free repair
If the driver chooses free repairs under OSAGO, then the insurance company issues a referral to the partner's auto repair shop. Insurers have several such workshops, so the driver will be able to choose the most suitable option from the list.
When the owner of the car agrees to the repair instead of money under the OSAGO, an agreement is concluded between the auto repair shop, the owner and the insurance company. The following points must be prescribed in it:
- the period for which the car will be repaired at the service station;
- calculation of the cost of all work that needs to be done;
- list of work on the repair and restoration of the damaged car.
If the driver, picking up the repaired car at the service station, notices that the work was done poorly, then he should not sign the vehicle acceptance certificate until the repair work is carried out efficiently.
Repair under OSAGO RESO, to which the driver agreed by signing an agreement with an insurance company, is carried out absolutely free of charge.
If you still have questions on the topic, you can ask them in the comments.
