Undertaking work on flood-damaged vehicles

In light of the recent flooding of Auckland and Cyclone Gabrielle, it is likely that many of our members will receive inquiries from customers about vehicles that have been damaged during these severe weather events. Some vehicles will be easy to identify as flood damaged, but others may be harder to spot once water has subsided and vehicles have been dried out and cleaned.

If you are presented with a vehicle that is obviously or suspected to be flood damaged, have a conversation with your customer suggesting they contact their insurance company and/or broker and let them direct the client on the best next steps to take.

It is MTA’s understanding that following the Auckland floods, insurance companies are finding most cars are being written off due to the scale of the water damage, but insurance data for Cyclone Gabrielle is still not available at the time of writing this article.

If a vehicle has flood damage and is insured, do not undertake repairs on it without first contacting the insurance company to confirm that these repairs have been authorised. If a vehicle is flood damaged and not insured, MTA would strongly recommend that you carefully consider undertaking any work on the vehicle.

The danger in repairing flood- damaged vehicles

Water-damaged vehicles can experience new and continual faults for months or years after they have incurred the damage. This can cause a multitude of issues from easy-to-establish