Body Shop Finds A Few Insurers Resistant To Paying For Sanitizing Vehicles For COVID-19

Recent GEICO and Safeco messages to a Denver, Colo., body shop stand in contrast to rival leading insurers that have agreed to reimburse time and materials spent disinfecting vehicles against the COVID-19 coronavirus.

“As far as the disinfecting for Covid 19 we are not paying that as there is no way to properly disinfect the entire vehicle from the time it is dropped off for repairs, during the repair process, and after the repair process,” an adjuster for No. 6 Liberty Mutual’s Safeco subsidiary wrote to Nylund’s Collision Center about a 2018 Mercedes CLA.

“Any steps the shop chooses to take to attempt to protect their employees is a cost incurred by them, just like every other business operating during this time. This is a situation that is a Pandemic and there is no way to properly disinfect a vehicle in this case without completely taking it apart.”

No. 2 GEICO also recently rejected a disinfection charge on a 2015 Lexus LX 570. The carrier wrote on a supplement dated April 2, “DISINFECTING VEHICLE IS RECOMMENDED AT ALL TIMES AND FALLS UNDER THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS.”

“Paint materials rate changed to zero and paid from invoice,” the GEICO adjuster wrote in an email to the shop that day. “Use of OE front bumper is denied unless a/m is appropriately disqualified. Disinfect for covid-19 is not a covered operation. Thank you!”