[LEGAL] PERSPECTIVE by James A. Castleman, Esq.
Where Is That Appraisal? The insurance appraiser was at your shop two weeks ago, yet you still don’t have his supplement in hand. Maybe the car is sitting on a frame machine, or maybe it is sitting in pieces on the shop floor taking up needed space, or maybe it is just sitting outside in your lot. In any of these situations, your customer is calling every day, wondering what is going on and why they don’t have their repaired vehicle back. How did it get to this, and what can you do about it? The Law Statutes and regulations governing auto damage appraisers set strict time limits on how long an insurance appraiser has to deliver an appraisal to a repair shop and how long an insurance appraiser has to inspect a vehicle when a repair shop requests a supplement. The statute that established the Auto Damage Appraiser Licensing Board (“ADALB”) says, with regard to ALL appraisals, whether original or supplemental: “The appraiser shall leave a legible copy of his appraisal with the repair shop selected to make the repairs at the time he inspects the vehicle, which appraisal shall contain the name of the insurance company ordering it, if any, the insurance file or claim number, the number of the appraiser’s license and the proper identification number of the vehicle being inspected. All unrelated or old damage should be clearly indicated on the appraisal." [Emphasis added.] That statute also indicates: “Every appraiser shall reinspect damaged motor vehicles when supplementary allowances are requested by repair shops within two days of a request.” So, under the statute, if a shop requests a supplement, then the insurance appraiser has only two days to reinspect the vehicle and is required to leave an appraisal with the repair shop at the time of that inspection. Admittedly, there is some leeway allowed by the regulations that the ADALB adopted when interpreting the statute. But that leeway is less than insurers would have you believe and should not really alter the statutory time frames in the vast majority of cases. The ADALB regulation initially adds an additional time restriction, requiring an insurer to assign an appraiser to appraise damage to a motor vehicle within two business days of receipt of a claim. This is for ALL claims, whether made orally or in writing, whether made directly to the insurer or to their agent, whether the insurer ends up covering the claim or not, and whether the insurer assigns a staff appraiser or an independent appraiser. The only exception is for claims of less than $1,500 – but only because the insurer can choose to voluntarily cover these 36 February 2022
New England Automotive Report
claims without its appraiser preparing an appraisal at all. If the claim is under $1,500 and the insurer wants to have an appraisal prepared, it still must assign the appraiser within two days of receipt of the claim. Critically, the regulation provides: “The appraiser shall mail, fax or electronically transmit the completed appraisal within five business days of the assignment, or at the discretion of the repair shop, shall leave a signed copy of field notes, with the completed appraisal to be mailed or faxed within five business days of the assignment. The repair shop may also require a completed appraisal at the time the vehicle is viewed.” If the shop does require a completed appraisal at the time of inspection by the insurance appraiser, the shop “shall make available desk space, phone facilities, calculator and necessary manuals.” This antiquated requirement still exists, even though almost all appraisals are computerized today and can usually be prepared on the appraiser’s laptop while he or she is standing in front of the damaged car and inspecting it or sitting in their own car in the shop’s parking lot. But, even if the shop does not require that the appraisal be written on the spot, the appraisal STILL must be transmitted to the shop within five days of the claim being assigned to the appraiser, and, if the shop requests it, the appraiser MUST leave a copy of their field notes with the shop at the time of inspection. With regard to requests for supplementary appraisals, “[t] he insurer shall assign an appraiser who shall personally inspect the damaged vehicle within three business days of the receipt of such request. The appraiser shall have the option to leave a completed copy of the supplemental appraisal at the registered repair shop authorized by the insured or leave a signed copy of his or her field notes with the completed supplement to be mailed, faxed, electronically transmitted or hand delivered to the registered repair shop within one business day.” The regulation does make an exception to this rule for supplements, providing: “A reasonable extension of time is permissible when intervening circumstances such as the need for preliminary repairs, severe illness, failure of the parties other than the insurer to communicate or cooperate, or extreme weather conditions make timely inspections of the vehicle and completion of the supplemental appraisal impossible.” Note, however, that the exception applies only if the circumstances make it IMPOSSIBLE to be able to leave the completed appraisal or field notes at the time of inspection or make it IMPOSSIBLE to transmit the completed appraisal by continued on pg. 40
