The Vehicle Identity Check (VIC) scheme that is required before repaired write-offs are allowed back on the road is to be abolished from 26 October 2015.
Discarding VIC has the following implications for vehicleowners:
• From 26 October 2015 a new simpler process that will notrequire a VIC where the insurer has categorised the vehicle as suitable forrepair.
• Transitional arrangements will apply from the 1 – 26October 2015 to make sure that VIC inspections can be completed for vehicleapplications already in the system.
Following the abolition of VIC, the DVLA will no longerissue V5C’s for Category A and B vehicles, helping to ensure that the mostseriously damaged vehicles are processed via the ‘End of Life Vehicle arrangements’in line with the ‘Insurance Industry Code of Practice for the Disposal of MotorVehicle Salvage’.
Category A and B vehicles will continue to require a VICcheck to obtain a replacement registration document up to 25 October 2015. Forapplications after this date these vehicles will no longer be issued with a V5Cand must be destroyed (if cat A) or can be broken for parts (cat B).
Feedback
Commenting on these changes, the National Association ofBodyshops (NAB) and Vehicle Builders and Repairers Association (VBRA) haveissued the following statement:
‘While NAB and the VBRA welcome the much needed changes tothe current system of managing total losses, following high-profile casualtiesarising from accidents involving rebuilt write-offs, we do notbelieve these measures go far enough.’
‘Our members continuously have to deal with previouslywritten off vehicles, which have been sold to unsuspecting consumers andre-insured, only to be found unsafe when dismantled for a subsequent repair.’
‘In our dialogue with Department for Transport (DfT) and inour submissions to the recent Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), duringtheir investigation into private motor insurance market, we have consistentlywarned about the risks to consumers and potential for abuse that arises fromthe voluntary categorisation and disposal of vehicle salvage, particularlywhere there are no sufficient checks and balances.’
‘The scandal that has recently been uncovered in the vehiclemanufacturing sector is a classic example of market distortion and abuse thatcan occur through poor regulation.’
‘Where stakeholders continue to have a commercial interestin maximising the value of motor vehicle salvage, any voluntary code ofpractice will remain vulnerable to abuse.’
NAB and the VBRA have vowed to keep the pressure ongovernment to safeguard consumers by seeking improved legal, ethical and moralbehaviour within the motor insurance claims sector through the appointment ofan independent watchdog, The Motor Insurance Conduct Adjudicator (MICA).
