Can insurance rescind a write off?

[J-hop]

So odd situation. Relative’s car got stolen, vehicle took a while to be recovered. Vehicle was finally recovered and insurance company wanted to write off the vehicle. I’ve been maintaining this car for a while now for them and essentially zero damage was done to the car, it’s almost 30 years old so you can pretty much get in and start it with nothing more than a screw driver. Only thing I replaced was the ignition lock cylinder ($50), it probably wasn’t even needed as it wasn’t damaged badly.

Owner spoke to insurance and said they didn’t want a payout they wanted the car. Insurance did not pay a dime to the owner and agreed to allow them the car back and not write it off.

Now 2 weeks later the owner receives a letter from Alberta registrar saying the vehicle is titled salvage and cannot be driven.

Immediately the owner called the insurance company and they said “don’t worry you are fine to drive it” and from my understanding they made it sound like they were in the process of writing it off but then canceled that but they had already submitted something to the Alberta gov so that letter got sent out due to a delay in processing the “cancelation”

This seems odd. I’ve asked my relative to call the insurance company again as i wouldn’t think they could cancel a salvage declaration after.

The car is in great shape other than typical (non-structural) cosmetic panel rust. I feel if a salvage inspection is the same as an OOP it’s going to be a pain given the rust so I’ll probably help her dispute it if it has actually been titled salvage.

But does this sound even possible? (Insurance ‘cancelling’ a salvage declaration)

[mr2mike]

Paging @Masked Bandit

[Tik-Tok]

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Paging @Masked Bandit

or @dannie

[Masked Bandit]

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or @dannie

I think this will be more of a @dannie question, she's the registry wizard. This sounds like a miscommunication somewhere between the insurance company and the registry folks, I never see that side of things.

[pheoxs]

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I think this will be more of a @dannie question, she's the registry wizard. This sounds like a miscommunication somewhere between the insurance company and the registry folks, I never see that side of things.

From an insurance side, if they agreed to just leave the car as is (active) with no claim but the insurance company accidentally issued paperwork making it a write off, could they re-open the claim? Is would it be settled and their basically SOL?

[J-hop]

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I think this will be more of a @dannie question, she's the registry wizard. This sounds like a miscommunication somewhere between the insurance company and the registry folks, I never see that side of things.

Yea that’s what I’m hoping (just a miscommunication between insurance and registry) but to be on the safe side I’ve told them not to drive the car.
@Masked Bandit , do you know if under any circumstance an insurance company would talk to me even though I’m not the policy holder? The insurance company has my name as I’m often driving the car after repairs to drop it off and/or test drive it but I’m not the policy holder.

They aren’t too savvy with cars/insurance so it would be way easier if I could talk to them myself

[Masked Bandit]

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Yea that’s what I’m hoping (just a miscommunication between insurance and registry) but to be on the safe side I’ve told them not to drive the car.
@Masked Bandit , do you know if under any circumstance an insurance company would talk to me even though I’m not the policy holder? The insurance company has my name as I’m often driving the car after repairs to drop it off and/or test drive it but I’m not the policy holder.

They aren’t too savvy with cars/insurance so it would be way easier if I could talk to them myself

In theory they're not supposed to speak with anyone other than the policy holder buuuuuut...it's probably worth a phone call anyway.

[dannie]

It happens. The insurance co chooses to write it off, sends the docs to transportation and they write it off. In the meantime, a deal gets struck to not write off. However, what happens is the insurance co fails to follow up with transport to revert back.

The jist is this - you cannot drive it. It is illegal for a salvage vehicle to be on the road. The policy holder will need to contact the insurance co, have them follow up with transport and then have the status changed. It is not something a registry agent can handle for you as the department for this is not something that front counter clerks would have anything to do with.

[J-hop]

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It happens. The insurance co chooses to write it off, sends the docs to transportation and they write it off. In the meantime, a deal gets struck to not write off. However, what happens is the insurance co fails to follow up with transport to revert back.

The jist is this - you cannot drive it. It is illegal for a salvage vehicle to be on the road. The policy holder will need to contact the insurance co, have them follow up with transport and then have the status changed. It is not something a registry agent can handle for you as the department for this is not something that front counter clerks would have anything to do with.

Do you know if the registrar will send a notice saying it’s been reverted? According to their first call and second call to the insurance company the insurance company says everything is resolved and it is fine to drive.

I’m tempted to go to a registry soon and pull the status myself to see.

I agree I don’t trust the insurance company to have sent everything off to revert and the owner can’t afford a ticket and/or take time off work to fight the ticket. Therefore they are car less for the time being.....

[dannie]

Yes, they will send a letter from transportation regarding the status. It will be sent to the owner tho.

I certainly would not trust the insurance company - I'd go and pull a vehicle information report at the registry. It's $22.45. I would not be driving it until its confirmed

[J-hop]

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Yes, they will send a letter from transportation regarding the status. It will be sent to the owner tho.

I certainly would not trust the insurance company - I'd go and pull a vehicle information report at the registry. It's $22.45. I would not be driving it until its confirmed

Thanks for the info. Yea it’s currently parked off the street so should be fine. I’m going to pull a report tonight probably.

Such a pain in the ass for the owner.

Don’t know where they came up with the idea to write off the car. It’s old but there was literally no damage done. I don’t even think the insurance company sent someone to look at it. Some pretty crooked people in the insurance industry (masked not included of course) if you ask me

[GTR_Auto]

Yes they can change the title. I have even gotten cars from auction that I was able to change the title on

[ShermanEF9]

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Thanks for the info. Yea it’s currently parked off the street so should be fine. I’m going to pull a report tonight probably.

Such a pain in the ass for the owner.

Don’t know where they came up with the idea to write off the car. It’s old but there was literally no damage done. I don’t even think the insurance company sent someone to look at it. Some pretty crooked people in the insurance industry (masked not included of course) if you ask me

writing the vehicle off doesn't really do them any good, especially if there was no damage done...

[J-hop]

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writing the vehicle off doesn't really do them any good, especially if there was no damage done...

The only reason I can think of is they make no money insuring the car. It’s worth nothing being almost 30 years old and 400,000kms on it so it’s nothing but a liability for them.