A request for a class action in the amount of NIS 2.5 million was filed against the Menorah Mitvathim company, claiming that the insurance company is "punishing" insureds whose vehicles were damaged in a traffic accident, who choose to repair their vehicles at a garage that is not the insurance company's regular garage.
The request was submitted to the Central Lod District Court by lawyers David Schwarzbaum and Mayan Yohai, from the Markman and Tomshin law firm.
The court ruled that the company violated the law, photo: no
After Direct Insurance and the Phoenix, the Menorah insurance company also recently started a new procedure, according to which the car repair can be hundreds and even thousands of shekels more expensive at a garage that is not a Seder garage.
A request for a class action lawsuit was filed against Menorah and Direct Insurance.
As with any standard car insurance policy and like all insurance companies, Menorah has so far offered its policyholders two options.
One is the repair of the vehicle at the Seder garages - garages that work with the company without a deductible, or with a reduced deductible.
The second option was repair at a garage of the customer's choice with a deductible, with the cost determined by an appraiser from the company's list of appraisers.
Menorah has now informed its policyholders that if they choose to repair their vehicle at a garage that is not licensed and that does not buy the parts from it, they will pay out of pocket the difference between the cost of the parts at the garage they chose and the cost of the parts at the Hesder garages, that is - a "fine" of hundreds to thousands of shekels for each repair.
change the rules
Sources in the insurance industry point out that this is a move designed to protect the insured from the increase in the cost of spare parts and this rolling into the insurance premiums, and that the solution is to contact the Seder garages.
According to Shay Sade, chairman of the General Insurance Committee at the Chamber of Insurance Agents, "This is an outrageous decision by insurance companies, who decided to change the rules in the middle of the game and put their hand deeper into the pockets of their policyholders.
De facto, they created an 'appraiser bypass route' - which is the professional who is supposed to determine the cost of the repair, and is supervised by the ministries of transportation and justice - within the framework of which the insured is supposed to take care of comparing the prices of spare parts himself."
An increase in spare parts prices
Manorah Mivathim stated: "The company operates in accordance with the provisions of the policy and the law.
The increase in the cost of repairs resulting from an increase in the prices of spare parts, brings with it an increase in insurance premiums for the entire insured public.
Our company contracted with spare parts suppliers to enable the supply of spare parts at reasonable and fair market prices, thus trying to prevent a significant increase in the premium paid by our insured.
As stated above, this conduct came into existence in order to give our policyholders the best and highest quality service, and all with an effort not to cause harm to our policyholders as a result of the abnormal and unjustified increase in the prices of spare parts.'
Direct Insurance stated: "The cost of repairs due to the price of spare parts leads to an increase in the cost of insurance for the public."
The Phoenix reported: "The Phoenix company is trying in every way to avoid increasing the cost of the insurance premium in the car policies, which is mainly due to a continuous and unrestrained increase in the prices of spare parts."
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