Cars are machines that are damaged quite a bit and most of the times the garage will repair what is damaged and their owners can continue to use them. If the damage is done as a result of an accident or another insurance event such as weather damage, fire, etc., the owner of the vehicle will contact the insurance company to demand the cost of the repair, in accordance with the terms of their policy.
Thousands of road accidents occur in Israel every year, many of them end in small fractures and repairable injuries, many of them do not reach an insurance claim at all due to the low cost of repair, others lead to activation of the policy and dealings with the insurer.
The thing about repairing a car, unlike any other machine we use in our lives, is that there are vulnerabilities that can compromise its safety level and there are vulnerabilities whose repair cost is so high, that you decide to give up. When this is the case, we are already entering a complex situation with a name and clear definitions stipulated in the regulations of the Ministry of Transport. This is the famous concept of total loss (total loss) and in Hebrew total loss. And we - the car owners - are not authorized to decide on it.
Total Loss is a situation in which a certified vehicle appraiser determines that the damage to the vehicle does not allow for repair to return it to a usable condition (such as in the case of damage to the windshield, even repairing it will not restore the level of safety it is supposed to provide to the vehicle), or that the gross damage to it is at a rate of 60% or more The vehicle lineup. That is, when the cost of the repair exceeds 60% of the cost of the vehicle.
In such a situation, the appraiser must, within 15 days, report the case to the licensing authority so that it cancels the vehicle's registration and it can be sent for dismantling and scrapping. At the scrap yard they will remove all the parts from the vehicle that can still be used for other cars and then scrap the rest. In other words, destruction of the vehicle. Sad, but necessary.
About Total Loss and car insurance
The compensation for total loss in the comprehensive insurance is equal to the value of the vehicle according to the price list in the market and according to various variables, of course according to the conditions of the specific policy. Pay attention to the following matter: the value of the vehicle determined by the appraiser does not include additions installed by the driver, even if these increased the value of the vehicle. But if there are any, it is customary to apply for another appraiser's assessment that includes the additions and inform the insurance company accordingly for a recalculation. When operating a car insurance policy In the case of Total Loss The final value of the compensation will be determined according to the list price, the add-ons and other parameters such as extremely high or extremely low mileage.
Loss to Halacha vs. Total Loss
In the insurance world, there is another concept that you may not have heard of and it is called "loss to law." This is a situation in which the vehicle suffers damage whose repair cost reaches 50% of the value of the vehicle. According to the definitions and regulations, this is not a situation of total loss and the vehicle, on paper as they say, should not be sent to the abyss of the women of vehicles. But, nevertheless, it may be that the smartest thing to do is not necessarily to invest in the cost of the repair. And the consideration here is not only financial, but also safety. A repair of this magnitude may damage the safety of the vehicle.
In such a case, the insurance company can declare a "legal loss": it offers the vehicle owner to allow it to sell the vehicle to a car dealer and pay him the full payment for the damage only. In this way, the vehicle owner benefits from receiving a significant amount as a basis for purchasing a vehicle to replace the damaged one and the insurance company benefits from the proceeds of the sale of the vehicle to the dealer.
The car dealer can use the vehicle for dismantling into spare parts and can also use it and return it to the road, (only after official safety checks). Such a vehicle that returns to the road has a note attached to the vehicle license that defines it as such. This is to inform the buyers who are interested in it about its condition and its past in the garage.
About Total Loss and weather damage
A comprehensive car insurance policy provides protection not only for damages that occurred as a result of an accident, but also for damages that occurred through no one's fault - flood or inundation, particularly strong hail that damages the car roof or windshields, falling trees or objects flying in the wind, fire as a result of lightning or cold another and more.
In recent years, we have witnessed the strengthening of winter storms and an increase in flooding events. Alongside this, the country's roads are filled with fully electric cars or those with many computer-based systems. These are vehicles that are very seriously damaged during a flood, and when the water reaches the height of the electrical and computer systems, the vehicle will often reach a state of total loss.
During a storm, today's insurance companies face more cases of total loss of a vehicle than in the past.
About Total Loss and third party insurance
Owners of old cars with a relatively low value are often forced to give up comprehensive car insurance and settle for third party insurance only. These are situations of vehicles of very low value, so much so that the cost of comprehensive insurance already reaches considerable percentages of the value of the entire vehicle. They insure themselves with car insurance that protects them from paying compensation expenses to a third party that they may injure. The same third party may, of course, reach a state of total loss from the same injury.
A third party insured only is not entitled to total loss compensation for his own vehicle from his insurance company. when yes If he succeeds in proving that he is not at fault in the accident, then he will claim total loss compensation from the offending driver's insurance company. That is, he himself is a third party to the car policy of the driver who is at fault for the accident.
The article is promoted content in collaboration with Fenix Smart.
