Mont. Directs Insurers on Anti-Steering Law

Montana State Auditor John Morrison is reminding all licensed property and casualty insurers doing business in the state that a new law recently went into effect prohibiting a practice known as steering. Steering is when an insurer asks a customer to use a specific auto body shop for estimates or repairs after an accident. Morrison recently issued an Insurer Advisory putting the property and casualty insurance industry on notice that the new law is now in effect. In 2007 the Montana Legislature passed Senate Bill 204, a law changing the requirements for automobile repair estimates. Effective Oct. 1, 2007, any insurer that issues or renews an auto insurance policy in Montana will no longer be able to ask a claimant to go to a particular repair shop for the purpose of obtaining an estimate of damages resulting from an auto accident. Prior to this change, an insurer could ask the claimant to go to a specific shop for estimating purposes, but not for the actual repairs of the vehicle. The change in law now prohibits an insurer from asking the claimant to go to a specific shop, even for the initial estimate. With this change, the claimant now has the right to decide where to take the vehicle for the initial estimate and for subsequent repairs of that vehicle. The insurer still has a right to have its own appraiser or adjuster inspect the vehicle for a repair estimate. Upon a consumer’s request, an insurer can provide a list of direct repair facilities for the actual repairs, but the consumer retains the right to choose where the repairs will be done.