I’ve got an older car covered by an Extended Warranty provided by Integrity Insurance. So far it’s been good… It’s a 2004 Toyota, the five year warranty was included by the dealer and has saved me over $1000 over two claims over the previous four years (alternator and power steering). It’s got lots of exclusions and requirements, but I’ve been careful to keep the car serviced according to the schedule to keep the warranty going.
The air conditioner condenser has now failed, which is a covered part by the warranty. However, the mechanic who inspected the part has said that the condenser failed because a high-pressure switch failed. And the switch is not a covered part, so the insurer has declined the claim as a consequential loss rather than a direct loss.
Does anyone have any advice / experience disputing this? Or should I just accept that I’ve gotten good value on the insurance for a 20 year old car and pay for the repairs?
It is difficult to assess whether you have the ability to take it further, as being an ‘extended warranty’ it will be dependent on what the terms and conditions associated with the ‘extended warranty’ say. This includes information about what is excluded and what is included. If the ‘extended warranty’ has a cap on claims, this is also something which may come into the equation.
The only recommendation I can make is potentially to seek a second opinion in relation to what caused the air-conditioning to fail. A second opinion would be through a service agent independent of who the car was bought through or the mechanics nominated by the insurer.
A second opinion may have costs associated with seeking it from someone else, to cover their time to ascertain the problem and what caused it.
If the second opinion concurs with that already received, then it will come down to the T&Cs to whether it is covered by the ‘extended warranty’.
Possible but not necessarily the only assessment. Suggest similar as @phb that if you wish to dispute the assessment? Engage a third party independent and recognised automotive AC trade service person to inspect and report. To note failure of the AC high pressure switch risks damage to the compressor.
Extended warranties usually have more caveats absolving cover than most realise. An uncovered part being the cause for an otherwise covered part is a common ‘out’ for payment.
When they sell the warranties they usually list every covered part. If any cause is related to an uncovered part none of it is covered. Your T&C need to be read very carefully. Unfortunately disputing a refusal to pay can cost more than the repair if one needs to engage third party expertise willing to ‘put it in writing’ that an uncovered part was not nor would/could have been the cause of a covered part failing. In most cases a dispute is going to be taken as a difference of opinion and on balance of probabilities the warranty company will prevail if only for having deeper pockets to deny a claim.
There is of course Australian Consumer Law coverage for major and minor failures due to faults. If the failure is due to a fault covered by ACL rules, then there is a possible different course of action that is useable. Should this also be investigated? It seems the car even if secondhand has been purchased after 2011 and so fits under the rules of the start of ACL coverage, it was sold by a business that sells secondhand vehicles as a primary role, there have been previous faults with the vehicle requiring rectification, is this showing that the vehicle had not been properly made fit for sale?
If a failure is due to wear and tear then no ACL coverage is possible, I don’t know that this circumstance has been shown? Any way forward is going to cost money to get some certainty as to what the fault is and why the failure occurred. Is this cost worth the possible outcome or will it be cheaper in the long run just to cover the cost of the repair by the owner and leave the issue behind?
Thanks, that’s exactly what I thought. The warranty company’s authorised repairer charged me $180 for the assessment- this would be refunded to me if the repair was subsequently covered, but I’m out of pocket if it’s not. I think to pay for another assessment would be throwing good money after bad compared to the price of fixing the problem out of pocket (which would be around $800-$1000). It’s a 21 year old car and it’s reasonable to expect things to break - I’ve gotten good value from the warranty so far, and it has also been a good incentive to keep my car serviced regularly.
