Vehicle accident reports and car accidents

by Sujeet

I own a Honda Civic. 2 years ago, I had an accident in which another vehicle collided with my Honda's front drivers side. Since I had comprehensive coverage, my insurance carrier took care of complete replacement of damaged parts. There was some structural damage and there was no airbag deployment.

I am now looking to sell the car, and recently purchased a CARFAX report to make sure that all my records were checking out correctly.

To my pleasant surprise, CARFAX stated that I had no accident on my vehicle.

My question was as follows- since CARFAX does not show an accident on record, can anyone (dealer or an individual buyer) be able to find out if this car was ever in an accident?

I had a low-balling dealer ask me if this car was ever in an accident and I didn’t know whether to tell him yes or no because I didn’t know if he could find that out from some other source besides CARFAX

Your help would be highly appreciated

Thanks


Answer:


Hello Sujeet,

Your question is difficult. Legally speaking, you can be “misrepresenting” the vehicle if someone asked you if the car was in an accident and you answer negative.

The car was in an accident and this could be a “material misrepresentation” which can get you in a lot of legal trouble. Legal misrepresentation of material facts and sometimes be considered “fraud.” Be aware of that, the only thing you can do is be honest when asked.

To answer your question, are there “other” reporting systems or ways to find out that this vehicle was in an accident? The answer is yes.

Carfax is by far the largest and best accident reporting system. I am surprise you had a claim with structural damage and Carfax did not pick it up.

Insurance companies keep accidents on their records and they might take some time to report. DMVs also keeps records. It is possible that both places will report to Carfax eventually. Also, if you take the car to a dealer (Honda in this case), they would probably be able to tell that the car was hit before. They will report to Carfax almost immediately.

There are many other ways to find out the car was in a accident. Be careful with any misrepresentation.

Good Luck,
http://www.auto-insurance-claim-advice.com