We Work With Every Major Insurance Carrier
You choose the shop. Your insurer pays the claim. Those are two different decisions, and in Washington only one of them belongs to the carrier. We write the estimate, argue the supplement and bill your insurer directly, so the paperwork doesn’t become your second job this month.
Collision damage hides behind panels, and what an adjuster can see in a photograph is a fraction of what a technician finds once the car comes apart. The gap between those two numbers is called a supplement, and getting it approved — documented, photographed and argued line by line — is the largest part of handling a claim properly. It is also the part you should never have to do yourself.
Every major insurer, and five we bill directly.
Bring us any carrier’s claim. We work with every major insurance company in Washington, and the estimate, the supplement and the billing run the same way whoever is paying.
With five of them we are a direct repair shop: State Farm, Allstate, Travelers, Mapfre, and National General and its subsidiaries. We also handle claims administered by Sedgwick and Gallagher Bassett, which are third-party claims administrators rather than insurers — they settle claims on behalf of self-insured companies and carriers.
A direct-repair relationship means the approvals and the paperwork are already established, so the file moves faster. It does not narrow anybody’s options, and it does not change what the repair costs.
It also does not decide where your car goes. Washington law gives you the right to choose your own repair shop, and a carrier’s preferred list is a suggestion, not an instruction. If you want the longer version of that, with the statutes and the two places the answer has edges, it is in our guide on what to do after a car accident.
Five steps, and only two of them are yours.
Call it in on (425) 641-5475 and tell us what happened. If you have not opened a claim yet, open it first — the number is what lets us talk to your adjuster on your behalf. Bring the car in, or drop it any time in the after-hours key box.
Free, written, and itemized. Under Washington’s Automotive Repair Act you are entitled to a written price estimate before any parts or labor go on the car, and to require us to get your authorization before exceeding it. Both of those are on the form you sign.
The panels come off and we find what the photographs could not show — bent structure, a cracked bracket, a sensor knocked out of aim. Everything we find is photographed and written up as line items before anybody orders a part.
That documentation goes to your adjuster as a supplement, and we argue it. This is the part of the process that decides whether your car is repaired properly or repaired to the first number somebody guessed at. You do not have to be in that conversation.
Your insurer pays us for its share of the approved repair. You settle your deductible here when you collect the car, along with anything you chose to add that the claim does not cover.
Washington caps what a repair facility can bill you above its own estimate.
A supplement is between us and your insurer. What it must never become is a surprise on your side of the counter, and Washington law says so in a number:
The repair facility may not charge the customer more than one hundred ten percent, exclusive of retail sales tax, of the total shown on the written price estimate. Neither of these limitations apply if, before providing additional parts or labor the repair facility obtains either the oral or written authorization of the customer, or the customer’s designee, to exceed the written price estimate.
RCW 46.71.025(2) — app.leg.wa.gov
Ten percent, and after that a shop has to come and ask you. The same section requires us to offer you a written choice up front — the standard wording is “Contact me if the price will exceed this estimate by more than ten percent” — and the definitions the chapter runs on, RCW 46.71.011(2)(b), name body collision repair, refinishing, frame and unibody work explicitly, so there is no question about whether it reaches a shop like ours.
This is a summary of published Washington statute with links to the source, not legal advice. Read the sections yourself — that is why they are linked rather than paraphrased.
Who you pay, when you pay, and why we will not make it disappear.
Your deductible is the part of the loss your policy says you carry. Your insurer pays its share of the repair straight to us and holds that amount back, so you settle it here at pickup — not up front, and not to the carrier. You pay it once against the whole claim. A supplement that doubles the repair does not double the deductible.
If another driver was at fault and their carrier is paying, there is usually no deductible for you at all. If you are not sure which of those you are in, that is a question for your adjuster before the car comes in, and we would rather you asked it then than found out at the counter.
You will also find shops that offer to cover your deductible. Be careful with that. The money has to come from somewhere, and there are only two places it can come from: the repair gets quietly cut, or the estimate sent to your insurer gets padded to absorb it. The second one is a false claim under RCW 48.30.230 — a gross misdemeanor in Washington, and a class C felony over $1,500. We do not do it, and a shop that offers to is telling you something about how it writes estimates.
The law puts a clock on your insurer, and it is one you can check.
Waiting is the part of a claim people find hardest to read, because nothing tells you whether a week of silence is normal. Washington’s insurance regulations put a number on it:
Every insurer must complete its investigation of a claim within thirty days after notification of claim, unless the investigation cannot reasonably be completed within that time.
WAC 284-30-370 — app.leg.wa.gov
Separately, WAC 284-30-330 lists nineteen practices the Insurance Commissioner has defined as unfair claims settlement practices. Three of them are the ones a stalled repair usually runs into: “failing to acknowledge and act reasonably promptly upon communications with respect to claims” (2), “failing to affirm or deny coverage of claims within a reasonable time after fully completed proof of loss documentation has been submitted” (5), and “failing to promptly provide a reasonable explanation of the basis… for denial of a claim or for the offer of a compromise settlement” (13).
None of that is a repair timeline — the repair starts when the estimate is approved and then runs on parts, and what sets the repair clock takes that apart segment by segment. It is the claim clock, and knowing it exists is the difference between waiting and chasing. If yours has gone past thirty days without an answer, call your carrier, and tell us so we can push from this end too.
What your insurer decides, and what you get told either way.
Which parts a claim pays for is your insurer’s decision, written into your policy, and we comply with it. What we do not do is fit a part that does not work. When an aftermarket panel will not line up or will not perform, we photograph it, document the failure and order the OEM part — and if the carrier still declines, you have the option of paying the difference yourself.
Either way it is on the paperwork. RCW 46.71.015(2) requires the invoice to list every part supplied, identified by name and part number where one is available, and to say where a part is an aftermarket or non-original-equipment body part. RCW 46.71.021 goes further: ask at the time you authorize the repair and the parts we take off your car come back to you, unless they have to go back to a manufacturer or supplier.
The longer version of the parts argument sits on our collision repair page. If your car has driver-assistance cameras or radar, the other thing your claim will carry is a calibration, which we explain in what ADAS calibration is.
What drivers ask about insurance claims.
Do I pay my deductible to the body shop or to my insurance company?
To the shop. Your insurer pays its share of the repair directly to us and holds your deductible back out of that payment, so you settle it here when you collect the car. You pay it once against the whole claim, not per panel, and a supplement that raises the total does not raise it.
Do I pay the deductible before or after the repair?
After, at pickup, with the rest of the paperwork. We do not ask for it up front, and you will know the exact figure before the car is finished. If the other driver was at fault and their carrier is paying the claim, there is usually no deductible for you at all.
Do body shops charge more for insurance claims?
Not for the work itself. What changes is documentation, not the labor rate: an insurance job carries a written estimate, a supplement when hidden damage appears, and an itemized parts list that Washington law requires on the invoice. More of the same repair is written down. Compare line items between shops, never totals.
What is a supplement in auto body repair?
A second estimate, written after the first one turns out to be incomplete. Most collision damage stays hidden until the panels come off, so the shop documents and photographs what it finds and sends it to your adjuster for approval. Supplements are routine on almost every repair, not a sign something went wrong.
What happens if the insurance estimate is lower than the body shop estimate?
The two get reconciled before the work is authorized, not after it. We send our line items and teardown photos to your adjuster and they agree a figure — that negotiation is ours to run, not yours. Under RCW 46.71.025 a shop cannot bill you more than 110% of your written estimate without asking you first.
Will my insurance pay me directly or pay the repair shop?
Either one, depending on the carrier and on whether the car is financed. Most insurers pay the shop directly once a repair is authorized, which is simplest. Some send the check to you, and if you have a loan it may be made out to you and your lender together, who then has to endorse it.
How long does an insurance claim take for car repair?
Washington gives your insurer thirty days to complete its investigation of a claim, under WAC 284-30-370, unless it reasonably cannot. That is the claim clock, not the repair clock — repair starts once the estimate is approved and then depends on parts. If your carrier has gone quiet past thirty days, call them.
Get your free estimate.
Start it here, or call us at (425) 641-5475. Bring your claim number if you have one and we will take it from there. If you have not filed yet and want to know what a repair like yours typically runs before you decide, we wrote up what bumper repair costs as a worked example.