Does the insurer have to buy back an irreparable vehicle?

The insurer's expert concluded that the vehicle was not repairable. As a result of this assessment, the Alsatian motorist left his car permanently damaged in the garage without paying the child-care costs claimed. He also refused to take back the wreckage, as requested by the body builder. For him, this was the responsibility of the insurer. The garage owner was assigned to the car. Who's responsible?

Service-Public.fr replies:

The insurer had refused its guarantee on the ground that the initial assessment had revealed significant modifications made to the car before the accident in order to increase its technical capacity. A forensic study finally concluded that those changes had not altered the vehicle’s characteristics. The insurer maintained its position.

By judgment of 7 July 2023, the Colmar Court of Appeal ordered the owner of the vehicle to pay the security costs and dismissed his appeal against the insurer as security.

The Court of Appeal ruled out any fault on the part of the insurer and condemned the owner. For her, the Highway Traffic Act "does not provide for an automatic transfer of ownership of the vehicle involved in the accident to the insurer, since such a transfer requires the agreement of the owner and the completion of various formalities".

It considered that the insured person should have instructed his insurer "to send him his offer of assignment or to apply to the courts for the compulsory regularization of the sale".

The insured appealed on a point of law, holding that the insurer had committed a fault.

Drivers rely on the Highway Traffic Act (Article L. 327-1). It states that where an authorized motor vehicle expert considers the amount of repairs to an injured vehicle exceeds the value of the insured thing, the insurer must, within 15 days of the expert's report, "offer the insured a total loss compensation with the transfer of the vehicle to his benefit". In other words, the insurer must offer to buy back the vehicle.

The Court of Cassation convicted the insurer. Once the contract had been deemed valid, he should have offered the insured to buy back his car, without conditions.

An insurer must offer the insured to buy back his vehicle if it is irreparable, without conditions, ruled the Court of Cassation.