Car Insurance Repairer Choice: Your Rights Explained

Someone t-bones your car in a shopping centre car park. You lodge a claim. The insurer tells you to take the car to their "preferred repairer" 30 kilometres away instead of the panel beater you have used for 10 years. You ask if you can choose your own repairer. The claims officer says no. Are they right?

The answer depends on your policy wording, your state, and whether you pushed back. Most Australian car insurance policies give the insurer the right to choose the repairer, but you have more room to negotiate than the claims officer suggests. Before you lodge a claim, confirm your car is insured. Our guide on how to check if your car is insured walks through the verification process.

Open your Product Disclosure Statement (PDS). Search for "repairer" or "repair." Most policies contain a clause that reads something like: "We will arrange for the repair of your vehicle at a repairer chosen by us, or we may agree to let you use a repairer of your choice." That second half of the sentence matters.

The major Australian insurers split into two camps on this issue.

Youi stands out as one of the few mainstream insurers that gives you an unrestricted choice of repairer. QBE also allows customer choice on several policy types. The trade-off: these insurers may not offer a lifetime repair guarantee, because they cannot vouch for work done by a repairer outside their network. A car insurance cover note can protect you while you shop around for a new policy with better repairer terms.

The Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) requires insurers to act with "utmost good faith" toward policyholders. Section 13 of the Act imposes this obligation. If an insurer directs you to a repairer that uses substandard parts, performs poor-quality work, or forces an unreasonable travel distance, you can argue the insurer breached this duty.

The Act does not give you an explicit right to choose your own repairer. It gives you the right to fair and reasonable treatment. If the insurer's preferred repairer sits 50 kilometres from your home and your local repairer is 5 kilometres away, requesting your local option is reasonable. The insurer may agree, disagree, or compromise. If the dispute drags on and you need to cancel your car insurance and switch providers, our guide covers the process.

The General Insurance Code of Practice 2024 adds more protection. Section 76 states that if you want to use your own repairer, the insurer should consider your request. They can refuse, but they must give you reasons. If they refuse, you can escalate to the insurer's Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) process and then to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).

Insurers negotiate bulk rates with their repairer networks. A panel beater charging the public $85 per hour might charge NRMA $65 per hour on volume. This saves the insurer money on every claim. Over millions of claims per year, the savings run into hundreds of millions of dollars.

Network repairers also agree to quality standards, parts policies, and turnaround times set by the insurer. AAMI's preferred repairers must use genuine or equivalent-quality parts and complete repairs within an agreed timeframe. The insurer audits these repairers and removes underperformers from the network.

The lifetime guarantee is the insurer's strongest argument for using their network. If a preferred repairer fixes your bumper and the paint peels six months later, the insurer covers the rework at no cost. If your own repairer does the same job and the paint peels, you chase the repairer yourself. The insurer has no obligation to fix work done outside their network.

Step one: get a written quote from your preferred repairer. The quote must itemise labour hours, parts (with part numbers and whether they are genuine or aftermarket), paint materials, and any sublet work (windscreen replacement, wheel alignment). A detailed quote gives the insurer something concrete to assess.

Step two: call your insurer's claims team and state that you want to use your own repairer. Provide the quote. The insurer will send an assessor to inspect the damage and compare the quote against their internal cost benchmarks. If your repairer's quote falls within the range the insurer expects, many insurers agree.

Step three: if the insurer refuses, ask for the refusal in writing with reasons. Common reasons include: the quote exceeds the insurer's benchmark by more than 15%, the repairer is not licensed or qualified for the vehicle type, or the insurer cannot guarantee the work. If the refusal seems unreasonable, lodge an IDR complaint. The insurer has 30 days to respond. If the IDR response does not satisfy you, escalate to AFCA.

Step four: if the insurer agrees but only to the value of their preferred repairer's quote, you pay the difference. Your repairer quotes $6,200. The insurer's preferred repairer quotes $5,100. The insurer pays $5,100 and you cover the $1,100 gap. This arrangement appears in most PDS documents under "using your own repairer" clauses.

The parts question sits at the centre of most repairer disputes. Preferred repairers may use aftermarket parts (non-genuine parts manufactured to fit the same vehicle) because they cost 30% to 50% less than genuine parts. Your local repairer might default to genuine parts, which pushes the quote higher.

Most Australian car insurance policies state that the insurer can use "genuine, aftermarket, or recycled parts that meet the vehicle manufacturer's specifications." Some policies specify genuine parts for vehicles under a certain age (two to five years). Check your PDS. If your policy promises genuine parts and the preferred repairer uses aftermarket parts, you have grounds for a complaint.

For vehicles under the manufacturer's warranty (most new cars carry a five-year warranty in 2026), using non-genuine parts can void the warranty on the repaired component. The Australian Consumer Law prevents manufacturers from voiding an entire vehicle warranty over one non-genuine part, but they can refuse warranty claims on the specific component. A non-genuine radiator that fails within warranty gets no coverage from the manufacturer. Drivers who question whether they need comprehensive cover at all can read our breakdown of whether car insurance is necessary in Australia.

Beyond your policy wording, insurers signed up to the General Insurance Code of Practice commit to standards that apply to every claim regardless of what the product disclosure statement says. The code requires plain-language explanations of decisions, timeframes for responding, and a stated reason when a claim or a request is refused.

For repairs, that means an insurer declining your choice of repairer has to tell you why, in terms you can act on. An answer of "we only use our network" is not a reason, and asking for the refusal in writing changes the conversation more reliably than arguing about it on the phone.

The code also covers the quality of the work. Insurers accept responsibility for the workmanship of repairers they choose, so a repair you did not select coming back faulty is the insurer's problem to fix rather than a dispute between you and a smash shop.

The warranty point carries the most weight and gets used the least. New vehicles commonly require repairs at a manufacturer-authorised shop using specified parts to keep structural or paint warranty intact, and an insurer directing you elsewhere is asking you to accept a cost you would carry later. Put the manufacturer's requirement in front of them in writing.

Where your preferred repairer quotes above the insurer's assessment, the usual landing point is that the insurer pays its assessed amount and you pay the gap. That is a legitimate outcome rather than a refusal, and knowing it is the likely result lets you decide whether the difference is worth it before you dig in.

Internal dispute resolution comes first and every insurer must have one. Lodge in writing, state what you want and why, and attach the manufacturer requirement or the competing quote. The insurer has 30 calendar days to give you a final response.

If that response does not resolve it, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority takes the matter at no cost to you, and its determinations bind the insurer. Complaints there are decided on the policy wording, the code and what a reasonable person would expect, which is a different standard from the one a claims officer applies over the phone.

Two practical habits improve the outcome before any of that. Photograph the damage from several angles before the car moves, including a wide shot showing the whole vehicle. And get one independent quote of your own, even if you expect to use the insurer's repairer, because a second number is the only thing that turns a disagreement about scope into a factual question.

An insurer declares a total loss when the repair estimate passes a proportion of the vehicle's value, often around 70% once parts, labour and hire car are counted. At that point choice of repairer stops mattering and the settlement figure becomes the argument.

Market value settlements are assessed by the insurer, and you can contest the assessment with evidence: comparable listings for the same model, year and condition, plus receipts for anything that adds value. An agreed value policy avoids the argument by fixing the figure in advance, and it costs more each year for exactly that reason.

Ask what happens to the salvage. Retaining a written-off vehicle reduces the settlement by its salvage value, which occasionally suits an owner with a use for the parts and rarely suits anyone else. The written-off vehicle register records the outcome either way, and that record follows the car.

If the insurer's preferred repairer returns your car with defects (misaligned panels, paint mismatch, rattles, leaks), contact your insurer's claims team first. The insurer's lifetime guarantee means they must fix the problem at no cost to you. Document everything: photograph the defects, note the dates, and keep copies of all correspondence.

If the insurer drags their feet or disputes the defect, lodge an IDR complaint. Reference the General Insurance Code of Practice and the lifetime guarantee in your PDS. If IDR fails, escalate to AFCA. AFCA can order the insurer to pay for rectification at a repairer of your choice.

If you used your own repairer and the work fails, the insurer has no obligation to cover rework. You pursue the repairer under the Australian Consumer Law. Repair services carry a consumer guarantee that the work will be done with acceptable care and skill. If the repairer breaches this guarantee, you can demand they fix the work at no additional cost, or you can seek compensation through your state's consumer tribunal (NCAT in NSW, VCAT in Victoria, QCAT in Queensland).

The repairer question comes down to what matters more to you: convenience and a guarantee through the insurer's network, or control and familiarity through your own repairer. Neither choice is wrong. Read your PDS before you need to make the decision, because reading it after an accident adds stress to a situation that already has enough.