A new advisory ruling from the Massachusetts Auto Damage Appraiser Licensing Board (ADALB) reminds appraisers of the timeframes under state regulations for original, supplemental, and expedited supplemental appraisals.

For original appraisals, appraisers have five business days to submit the completed document, or at the discretion of the repair shop. Supplemental appraisals must be completed within three business days, and expedited supplemental appraisals within two business days.

“It’s unfortunate we have to keep on saying what the rules are,” said William Johnson, an auto body repair representative on the board. “It’s like you got a kid and you got to tell him to clean his room up every Friday. That’s the way I feel [with] a lot of these appraisers. We shouldn’t have to be doing these advisory rulings.”

Johnson added that shops should keep in mind that the vehicles in their shops that are there for repairs are under possessory liens, so they don’t have to be released until supplements are approved and received, and/or they know they will be paid for their work.

“A lot of the shops create their own issues by just releasing the car,” he said.

Johnson and ADALB member Carl Garcia, who is also on the board to represent auto body repairers, noted insurance companies that were previously taking 14-15 days on appraisals are starting to “get a lot better.”

The ruling allows for a “reasonable extension of time” for completed original appraisal or supplemental requests “when intervening circumstances such as the need for preliminary repairs, severe illness, failure of the parties other than the insurer to communicate or cooperate, or extreme weather conditions make timely inspection of the vehicle and completion of the appraisal impossible,” according to the ruling.

Evangelos “Lucky” Papageorg, Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Massachusetts executive director (AASP-MA), told Repairer Driven News the advisory ruling should benefit collision repair shops and vehicle owners if shown to appraisers when they visit shops to remind them of their responsibility to act and respond in a timely manner.

“But only if shops are willing to force appraisers to abide by the timeframes as specified in the advisory ruling, which is a reiteration of the language they should already have been following in 212 CMR 2.0,” Papageorg said. “When an appraiser habitually disregards the timeframes, complaints need to be lodged to the DOI [Department of Insurance] and specifically to the ADALB, then enforcement and punitive action must be taken.

“This is one reason there is legislation pending to move the ADALB to the Division of Occupational Licensure (DOL). The appraiser’s license has nothing to do with the business of insurance. Opposition to the move is based purely on the fact that the ADALB, in its current housing and makeup, is inherently biased and only serves to protect the bad actors in the insurance industry. The regulations are specific, and there should have been no need for the advisory ruling. The issue is enforcement.”

Papageorg noted that delayed repair times have been an issue due to holdups on appraisals by insurance companies and/or supplements for as long as he can remember but has gotten increasingly worse, especially by national insurers who don’t know Massachusetts regulations, he said.

According to 212 CMR 2.0, and echoed in the advisory ruling, failure to comply could result in fines and penalties under Massachusetts state law.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated after original publication to add comments from the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of Massachusetts. 

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