settling with ICBC, what should I do?
 

Long story short a guy backed his truck up into my vehicle while parked at a restaurant and caused some front end damage. I filed a claim the same night and immediately got an estimate done. I got quoted around 1600.00$ for parts,labor,+taxes. I was told by someone that a cash settlement was one of my other options so i called my estimator today and asked how much would be offered.

I was told that they would only settle for 1100$ and that I would have to repair my headlamp(still working just some clips broke) before they would settle(which would cost 2-300$ parts+labour out of my own pocket). I was also told by the estimator that settlement would decrease because the cost of labour included hours for a courtesy vehicle(?!?). I don't have collision on my insurance atm so im not able to get one anyways.

Was there something I did wrong? is there something I can say/do to get a larger amount? should i be speaking to someone else other then my estimator? because after repairing my headlamp im only left get 8-900$ cash. After quoting me at 1600$ for all repairs i dont think its fair.

If you have had experience with anything relevant to this, your input is highly appreciated. thank you.



EDIT:

if its not your fault and your going through ICBC, go get it done at dealership... there might be other damages not visble if you dont take bumper and what not..

so with the $8-900 cash, you will have to use that to have get your front end fixed?

so your saying i should get a second quote from someone else?
since my father is an autobody man i was already planning to get my car re-painted this summer. thus reason i'm looking to get a cash settlement instead

yes

like ferrarienzo said,

since you are not at fault. why cut corners? make sure its done right.

Wait, why would you settle for a cash settlement and not go through ICBC to do the repair.... unless your trying to repair it cheaply and pocket the rest :/

if you read, he said his dad is a bodyman

It doesn't matter.. personally I'd take it through ICBC no matter what, just to keep record of everything. Especially if you're not the one at fault.
But if you wanna take cash from him, I don't see why you wouldn't try and ask for more.

Ask your dad what to do if he works in autobody..?

Ah my bad, missed his response.

For my experience could take my car anywhere as long as it as an ICBC certified body shop. Does your father happen to work/own such a buisness?

yeah he used to own his own shop but now he works for an icbc certified shop. i dont care much about dealing with the repairs cause that comes cheap for me. All i really want to know is how i can get more out of this claim instead of the shitty 800$ ill end up getting from icbc when they orginally quoted me at 1600

so you basically want free money? since repairs for you will be cheap.

you are just trying to make a buck?

:fullofwin:

I seriously hope OP is just giving off a HUGE misunderstanding.

If not, you're not going to find any help here.

Am I missing something here?
An estimator makes an estimate.
You have to pay for labour to get your car fixed at a shop.
It doesn't matter who you get it fixed by, the amount they propose takes into account the damage on your car, approx. labour, parts, etc.
If you wanna skip the ICBC step and try and pocket some extra cash with your dad fixing your car, then that's all on you. Nothing anyone can do to get you more money.

Your dad should explain this to you if he works in autobody.

Hopefully, that's how i read it the first time through :/

I got the same impression but I'm hoping that I'm wrong.

Giving the benefit of the doubt that people aren't inherently greedy and trying to screw everyone and anyone they can in the process.

Call me naive or ignorant but I'd rather believe that humanity is at least fair than down right greedy.

maybe he doesn't want the claim to show up on his car? can affect resale

did u even ask your dad about it? your dad would know more how much you would be saving if u were to go the route of getting a cash settlement and fixing it thru him, and his bodyshop.

Ive always got bombared with questions similiar to this because i also work in a bodyshop and the only time where it would actually make sense to do this is when u dont care about the repairs on ur shitbox thats if u own a shitbox

well technically im trying to get back money that i gave to icbc in the first place, am i wrong?

Well CRS you are wrong. This is not some huge misunderstanding. Why would i not find any help here? i'm sure other people have negotiated there cash settlement with icbc. Is it wrong? yes, if i wasnt paying icbc a shitload of money annually, and for what? so that when someone hits me they can lowball me? all i want is for icbc to pay me what they originally quoted me on. not trying to get any more then that.

its irrelevant to my dad, he does the work. hes doesn't negotiate with icbc.

not saying that your dad's judgement is wrong but what if you took off the bumper and notice other things damage that cost more but you already took the cash settlement... just saying to be on the safe side, thats all...

well thats the thing, if you try and see it through icbc's perspective, 1600 is how much it would cost to fix it, and if i'm not mistaken, there would be no problem if you go that route and have it fixed for 1600. but your choosing to take cash. So instead of getting the work done, you could be off spending it on other stuff.

i'm not 100% sure on how to phrase this but, i dont think you can really expect to get "more" than the cash settlement that they told you

put it this way, if your car got into an accident and it was a total write off, wouldnt you want to settle for what your car was worth at the time? lets say your cars value is at 20 grand and they quoted you the repairs of the vehicle were 21grand, you would rather have a cash settlement and buy another vehicle right? but what if they lowballed you and decided to offer you a cash settlement of only 14grand. what would you think of that? wouldnt you try and fight and get more

two different scenarios here..

your car isn't a "total write off" so your example here is completely irrelevant