Repair confirmation

It is also called a repair certificate or repair follow-up check. CleverCrash issues it after a follow-up inspection of the repaired car.

When do I need a repair confirmation?

You need a repair confirmation whenever you must prove a further claim that the repair shop invoice alone does not cover. Three cases are the most common in practice.

Fictitious settlement (fiktive Abrechnung) with continued use. Suppose the repair costs in the report are higher than the replacement value (Wiederbeschaffungswert), which is the price of a comparable used car. They are still within the 130% rule. In this situation, the courts require two proofs. The first is a complete and professional repair in the scope set by the expert. The second is that you actually keep using the car for six months. The repair confirmation is the usual proof for the first point.

Proof of loss-of-use compensation (Nutzungsausfall). If you have the car repaired, the repair confirmation can show that the car was really in the repair shop during the stated period and was not in use. You can find more about this and the limits of this proof in the section Legal context below. You can also read our page on loss-of-use compensation.

History of prior damage (Vorschaden). Your car may appear in a damage database with an older entry for prior damage that is said to be unrepaired. Then insurers and information agencies ask for concrete proof that this damage was fully and professionally repaired. Several court decisions show how such disputes about a database entry end. You can read them on our page on the HIS entry (HIS-Eintrag).

Without a confirmation, you often lose these three claims in practice. The reason is that the person whose car was damaged must present the facts and prove them. A fourth case is rarer. It happens when you sell a car shortly after a major repair. A buyer or the buyer's expert can ask for a repair confirmation. They want to be sure that the stated prior damage was repaired professionally before they accept a price. Here too, the repair confirmation gives the proof that the seller would otherwise have to give.

Who may issue a repair confirmation?

A reliable repair confirmation comes from an independent vehicle expert. Usually this is the same expert who wrote the first report. A simple certificate from the repair shop or its invoice is often not enough for insurers and courts. The reason is that the shop earns money from its own invoice and is therefore not independent.

CleverCrash issues repair confirmations as a separate service, usually right after an Damage report. We do the follow-up inspection throughout Erlangen, Nuremberg, Fürth and the rest of the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region, for example when you need an inspection in Erlangen. It does not matter whether we wrote the first report. This also applies if another expert wrote it. What matters is that the report clearly lists the repair items that were calculated. It does not matter who first recorded them.

What does a repair confirmation prove, and what does it not prove?

It documents the comparison between what the first report calculated and what was actually done on the body. We support this with photos and a written assessment of the quality of the work.

Note: Show the repaired car soon after the repair. Ideally do this before any further work and before you drive long distances. This is necessary for a reliable confirmation, because many items can no longer be checked without damaging parts after further work or longer use. The repair confirmation is expressly not a new full report. It does not determine a new extent of damage, a new replacement value or a new diminished value (Wertminderung). It refers to the original damage report and only checks whether its specifications were followed.

It is just as important to know what a repair confirmation cannot change. If the report missed an item or calculated it too low, the follow-up inspection does not correct this afterwards. For that you need a supplement or a new inspection of the original report itself. A confirmation also does not replace a repair. If the car was not repaired, or only partly, the confirmation documents exactly that. It cannot turn an incomplete repair into a complete one afterwards.

How does the follow-up inspection work?

The follow-up inspection is much shorter than the first inspection. In practice it usually takes a little under half an hour. We check only the items listed in the report. We do not record the whole damage again.

We check the bodywork and the paintwork against the manufacturer specifications. We check that the calculated parts were installed correctly. We also check mechanical, electrical and safety-related parts, as long as we can reach them without taking anything apart. For structural damage, we check whether the repair planned in the report really took place. We document the result with before and after photos. This way, the comparison stays clear for the insurer.

The follow-up inspection is deliberately non-destructive. Hidden items are only visible when parts are taken apart. After daily use of the car, we can no longer judge them with certainty. We may find a difference from the calculated scope, for example a missing item or a part that was not approved. We document this in the same way as a complete repair. The repair confirmation is therefore a neutral finding. It is not an automatic confirmation that everything is fine.

How does a repair confirmation differ from a repair shop invoice and the original report?

The three documents answer three different questions. Before the repair, the original report sets out what a professional repair would include, and it states the calculated costs. After the repair, the repair shop invoice shows what the shop billed. It does not say whether anyone independent checked that the scope was followed. The repair confirmation closes exactly this gap. It states whether the repair that was actually done matches the scope calculated in the original report. It does not matter who did the repair.

This is why the repair confirmation becomes especially important when there is no repair shop invoice. An example is a repair you did yourself or through an acquaintance without an official invoice. It is also important when the invoice does not fully show the calculated scope. In practice, a shop may bill the full calculated amount but only do some of the items. A comparison with the report shows this. A check of the invoice alone, without inspecting the car, does not.

Calculation example

These are illustrative numbers to explain the topic. This is not a real case.

Replacement value of €14,500 gross, residual value (Restwert) of €3,200. This gives a replacement expense (Wiederbeschaffungsaufwand) of €11,300. The repair costs in the report are €17,900 gross. That is about 123% of the replacement value and therefore within the 130% range. Both values are deliberately on the same tax basis. The 130% limit is calculated gross against gross when the person whose car was damaged actually pays the VAT.

Suppose the person whose car was damaged has the car fully repaired in the calculated scope, gets a repair confirmation and keeps using the car for at least six months. Then the full €17,900 can be reimbursed. Without this proof, the insurer usually reduces the payment to the replacement expense of €11,300. The difference of €6,600 depends on exactly one document.

Legal context

The repair confirmation has no legal basis of its own. It follows from the general principle of compensation for damages in § 249 of the German Civil Code (BGB). If you claim certain items, you must show that the conditions are met. The decisions below show how courts have applied this duty in detail. They are educational information and not advice for your specific case. They are also not a full overview of all case law on the three cases in the first section.

• On the 130% rule: Federal Court of Justice (BGH), judgment of February 15, 2005, case no. VI ZR 70/04. Repair costs up to 130% of the replacement value are only reimbursable if the repair is done professionally and in the scope that the expert used for the calculation.
• On the six-month period: BGH, judgment of November 23, 2010, case no. VI ZR 35/10. If you sell the car before the six months end, in this case after five months, you lose the claim for the fictitious extra costs up to the 130% limit. On this point, the result went against the person whose car was damaged. Only the costs that were proven in detail stayed reimbursable.
• On loss-of-use compensation with fictitious settlement: BGH, judgment of July 15, 2003, case no. VI ZR 361/02. The decisive time is the repair time that the expert calculated and that was objectively necessary. The time actually used is not what counts. A repair confirmation can show the actual downtime. A longer actual time is not paid extra.
• On the costs of the confirmation itself: BGH, judgment of January 24, 2017, case no. VI ZR 146/16. With a purely fictitious settlement, the costs of a repair confirmation obtained later are in principle not reimbursable separately. The reason is that this would mix fictitious and actual settlement, which is not allowed. There are exceptions. One is when the person whose car was damaged switches to settlement based on actual costs. Another is when the confirmation was needed on purpose to prove an additional loss of use. A third is the 130% case. Here the fictitious repair costs are above the replacement value, and the confirmation proves a roadworthy repair.
• On presenting prior damage: Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) Frankfurt, judgment of December 12, 2019, case no. 22 U 190/18. The person whose car was damaged must explain the type and extent of a prior damage and the repair work done. A simple reference to the outer condition of the car is not enough.
• On the same question, with easier proof: Higher Regional Court Bremen, judgment of June 30, 2021, case no. 1 U 90/19. It is enough to present and prove the main facts of the prior damage repair. Missing invoices do not rule out proof. Witnesses can also provide it.

Further court decisions on our page on the HIS entry show how a dispute about a database entry can end when a repair confirmation was judged not verifiable.

Important: Your traffic law lawyer assesses the legal side of your specific case. This includes whether and how much of the cost of a repair confirmation is reimbursable. CleverCrash provides the technical finding as an independent vehicle expert.