In Austria, there are 2 categories of experts: On the one hand, salaried experts of insurance companies and expertise companies and on the other hand sworn and court certified appraisers and adjusters certified by their local regional court.
Usual process in Austria after a traffic accident
Be it for a claim in liability or a claim in damage, the owner will have to take his vehicle to the repair shop of his trust. On the basis of information provided by the car owner connects to one the 3 platforms to which are connected all insurance companies in Austria. Then he enters parameters in order to estimate the vehicle damage. The insurer of the liable party mandates an expert who goes to the repair shop to take pictures of the damaged car, make at his turn a summary of estimated costs and also draft an estimation report which can be downloaded from both repairer and insurance company platform. The repair shop almost only communicates with the concerned insurance company through one of its platforms. If the expert’s report and insurance claims notification is received by the claims specialist and the claim is being accepted by the insurance (or in accordance with the conditions of the full insurance) the repair shop will receive a confirmation of coverage of the repair costs via this platform.
