Arbitration…
your right to appeal
Total loss claims
When your vehicle is “written off” for any reason (accident, theft, fire, hail etc.), you are not obligated to accept the offer from your insurer (MPI or otherwise). If you believe that your vehicle is worth more than what has been offered, you have the right to appeal that offer through a process commonly referred to as either arbitration or appraisal. The process requires each party (insurer and insured) to appoint an independent appraiser to act on their behalf in order to settle the dispute. Once the claim is in arbitration, the insurer (MPI or otherwise) is no longer in control of the settlement amount. They must pay the actual cash value established by the two arbitrators and in the vast majority of cases, the final value will increase.
In fact, if we agree to take on your claim, we guarantee to get you a higher settlement or we’ll refund our fee.
Advance payment
In the case of MPI, once the claim is in arbitration, MPI will, upon request, immediately pay you the amount of their final offer, plus applicable taxes, and the arbitration will deal only with any additional money payable as a result of the arbitration. This “advance payment” means you don’t have to wait to be paid until the process concludes.
Repair claims
The appraisal / arbitration process also applies to claims where the extent or the quality of accident repairs is in dispute. If you’re not happy with the work done by Autopac approved repair facilities or you don’t think the repairs were extensive enough, you have the right to appeal that as well.
It is sad, but true, that not all repair shops are created equal and MPI, like most insurance companies, does a very poor job ensuring that repair shops that they “accredit” live up to the standards that you, as a customer, deserve and expect. You don’t have to settle for second rate work.
We recommend that you set a very high bar when accepting a vehicle repair from any collision repair shop and that you document your concerns, and then present them, first to the insurer, and, if they fail to respond to your satisfaction, to an appraiser who can initiate the arbitration procedure to resolve the matter on your behalf.
It is important to remember that insurance companies, including public crown corporations like MPI, are not your friend and that they see their job, with rare exceptions, as paying out as little as possible to settle every claim. Our job, as we see it, is to make sure they don’t get away with it.