Insurance repair quotes

[Warby Boy]

Had a minor accident in WA a few months ago. My fault no question about that. The car I was in put a dent the size of a 50cent piece in the bonnet of the car behind me
I received a quote from the owner for just short of the $800 mark. They decided to process the quote through their insurance company. About a month later I get a communique from the insurer saying that the car has been repaired and that I owed them $1440.
I’m no law expert but there are a number of things about this that don’t seem right. Every time I question the insurer about this all I get is an email stating that I owe them the larger amount.
ANy advice/clues would be helpful here
Oh and noteworthy here is that I was transporting the car for a friend. He had no insurance on it, something I found out after the fact

 

[Tim W]

What part of this is not clear?

An insurer is typically entitled to recover from an at-fault party.

 

[Warby Boy]

Tim,
What isn’t clear is how an agreed quote for a repair (which I am willing to pay) can almost double and be actioned without warning or proof of another verified quote

 

[Tim W]

That's between the insurer and the insured.
The insurer can then in turn come after you to make good their loss.
You don't have any right to require them to use your quote.

 

[Warby Boy]

The original quote was supplied by them.

 

[Tim W]

...an agreed quote...

Agreed by whom?
The insurer is the party who gets final choice of repairer, not the insured.
And certainly not you.

The insurer's choice of repairer can be (and often is) the one the insured chooses/ gets a quote from.
But it doesn't have to be.
That you and the insured might have agreed something doesn't bind the insurer.

Was the original quote supplied by the owner, or by the insurer?
Was the quoted repairer the one that the insurer eventually used?
I can't tell from your posts, but it sometimes happens that an owner/ insured
goes on to use to use a different repairer - one chosen by the insurer.

In any event, you don't care. What you care about is having to pay the money.
Which, it appears, you probably do.

One last question... when you say

...transporting the car for a friend...

do you mean literally transport, like on the back of a truck, or
were you just driving it from A to B as a favour or similar?
What you're looking for here is some way for your friend to somehow be (perhaps partly) responsible
for your self-stated negligence. Nope.

 

[Warby Boy]

Hey Tim

Thanks for your candour
Re the transporting a - b; not sure why I added that nugget of info. It was as a favour. Whenever I do this particular job, I would normally be flown from Perth to Albany. When they asked me for the favour I forgot to ask if the car was insured or not. It wasn’t. I’m ticked off with myself because as someone who does a lot of driving of other peoples vehicles for a living I’m normally very careful about that.
Must be getting old
Cheers

 

[Jimbo!]

Tim,
What isn’t clear is how an agreed quote for a repair (which I am willing to pay) can almost double and be actioned without warning or proof of another verified quote

I'm guessing it went from a pulling out a dent job to a respray job. Still $1400 for a bonnet respray is extortionate. Should be closer to $500. I would ask for a breakdown of the work done and speak to insurance ombudsman if need be. Also speak to the panel beaters and ask what work was carried out. That's about triple the cost it should have been unless there were some complications with the job. Did you get any photos of the damage?