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I post this in the offtopic but has no response. I need to know this urgently.

When insurance appraisal came to see my car's damage, should they put in the estimate their own labor rate or they must follow the bodyshop's labour rate?

I ask this because my friend's car is in accident and bring to a bodyshop that charge $50/hr for structural repair. But when the insurance appraisal came, they put the structural repair rate as $38/hr. How does this work usually?

 
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it usually works on a company by company case by case basis. if you raise enough hell they will let you do what you want. they must let you use any shop you want no matter what they say. talk to the shop and ask them to help you. if they are interested in making money they will know what to tell the insuarance company.

 
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Depends on each insurance company. I know that when I got in an accident I just had the shop call my insurance and deal with all the cost of it. I had Farmers back then.

 
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Well, thanks for the reply, this is the worst insurance agent that I had ever seen. A sear's van backed up on my friend's car, and do you know how long they take to repair 1 bumper, 1 headlight and 1 fender? 1.5 months man...they make everyday a living nightmare when dealing with them. The claim company that take car of this is sedgwick cms in Illinois and my friend is in Irvine, CA. Firstly, they keep blaming my friend for bringing to a different bodyshop (initially they ask for 2 estimates from 2 diff bodyshops).Next, they refuse to pay the rental of 37 days because my friend's car is still working. But the fender wall is scraping the tire, so its naturally felt unsafe to drive that way. And now, they only want to pay the structural labor rate as $38/hr, but the shop charges $50/hr. I did not know they can do this.

 
Rep Power: 318

insurence gets everything cheaper than you from a body shop. It has allways work like that

 
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^^ yah i know, but this isn't the problem about my friend and the bodyshop. This is about the sear's insurance does not want to pay the labor rate that the bodyshop charge. My friend usually ask the bodyshop to deal with this kind of matter, but since 1.5 months to repair is taking too long as he decided to sell the car, he decided to pay the bodyshop first and ask the insurance to reimburse him.

 
Rep Power: 453

if it isnt your fault, then the insurance company, by law, has to pay for what it costs to fix the car. And you can take it were you want and request OEM parts. If they refuse or give ****, you sue them. It happens everyday.

 
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so if the bodyshop labor is $50/hr, the insurance have to pay that too instead of $38?

 
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It is common for shops to have higher rates for structural or frame work because it requires special equipment to pull and/or measure , this is common practice. If the shop's $50 structural rate is in line with the other shops in the area, then the insurance company must pay. Remember, your insurance policy is for THEM to PAY to restore your car or friend's car to pre-loss conditon. Insurance companies have market surveys from body shops in the area to establish that area's rates, simply find out from other shop's what their structural rate is and present your findings to them. They hate when you fight them with knowledge. Good Luck!

 
Rep Power: 320

well $50/hour for repair is much too expensive...most flat rate is $38/hour like the insurance quoted u...i worked in a shop and our average body repair cost was $25/hour for body and $38/hour for frame repair......it shouldnt be any more than that and if it is than find another shop...a lot of times it doesnt even require special machines other than a simple frame rack...i've fixed many cars now on a frame rack from the 70s...all those laser guided **** is useless if the person fixing it cant do anything right

 
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the shops in my area have a range of rate, they range from $38-$50...but this isn't us who is paying, its the insurance of sear's since its his driver back up into my friend's car, so it does not matter if it is expensive or not. But in the shop that my friend's brought, there are many kinds of labor rates, there are body rate, paint rate, frame rate, structural rate, etc. and i wasn't sure structural rate is included as frame rate or body rate. But the bodyhsop had separated that rate. Frame and structural rate is $50/hr each and body and paint is $38/hr each. So what you guys think? Does the insurace company have the right to charge the structural labor rate as body labor rate? Because I have seen the estimates given by the appraisal and the shop, everything is the same, except that those structural (its usually marked) labor in the appraisal's estimate is included in body labor ($38/hr), but the shop's estimate has separated the structural rate ($50/hr).

 
Rep Power: 314

i dont think u should be involved with that ****... bring ur car to the bodyshop... show them your estimate... then they'll say we can fix it or we cant fix it.... most often it is we can fix it. then when there working on it, if they find anything else that needs to be done that isn't in the estimate, they send in a request to the insurance company for the extra money and then they send the bodyshop a check or u an extra check to pay for it. you shouldn't care what the insurance company is giving u. bodyshop sees it in the estimate and they'll decide if they want to take what the estimate says or not.

 
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^^^ I know, but this is taking too long (1.5 months for the repair), that is why my friend ask for my help on what to do since he decided to be involved in it. My bodyshop says I should file a claim at the city court. Maybe I should just do that.

 
Rep Power: 319

I got hit once, I called my insurance company (state farm at the time) and they fought the other guys insurance company for me. Most people don't realize you pay your insurance to protect you, and that may mean they have to fight for you.

 
Rep Power: 320

some douchebag rear ended my civic...didnt cause too much damage but he creased and scratched the hell out of the rear bumper...and when the trunk closes it has a very different sound and its noisier cuz of that...on monday (5/15) an adjuster is gonna take a look at it, write and estimate, and cut me a check...i've done a preliminary estimate myself...heres what i got using an estmate of $25/ hour labor body repair prices
using prices from honda list for parts and materials cost from my old shop

Bumper cover: $247.94
replacement labor: .5 hours
inner foam: $56.47
paint: $150.75
painting labor: 3 hours
masking materials: $7.00
masking labor: .5 hours
color sand and polishing: 3 hours
prep time: 1 hours
total: $708.69

what i got...we'll see when the adjuster from the douchebags insurance comes and gives me