Hidden defect car, truck, motorcycle, boat, plane: judicial expertise is essential in the face of amicable expertise, even contradictory
Contact 02 51 05 38 23 et Mail : jsiret@siret-associes.com
You have just bought a car, a motorcycle, a boat, a plane…
Your property has problems or breakdowns that make it unsuitable for its intended purpose or that require major repairs.
You do not want to initiate the procedure and you think that a contradictory amicable expertise will allow you to find the problem, the solution and will encourage the seller to accept the resolution of the sale, with restitution of the price, or to bear the cost of the repairs.
You may have legal protection insurance and your insurer offers to organize, at its expense, an amicable expertise which, in its opinion, will resolve your problem.
This proposal seems attractive, because it does not advance you any costs.
The expert appointed by your insurance will organize the expertise. The seller comes, or does not come…
And you think you have expertise, supposed to solve your problem…
But this expertise is not a panacea, it may not be the best way to achieve your ends: cancel the sale or have the repairs paid for.
The expert, paid on a flat-rate basis by the company, is more or less competent and, due to the cost, may not have spent the necessary time, or had the oil or filter or compression or other analyzes carried out.
His expertise may therefore be incomplete or insufficient to determine the cause of the problems, which would require additional analyzes or meetings not provided for in the insurance package. It doesn’t get you what you want.
Apart from the costs, the amicable expert, whom you could also personally mandate, could be prevented from carrying out investigations if one of the parties does not appear for the expertise.
Indeed, although regularly convened, the operations of amicable expertise and the findings of the expert will not be contradictory with regard to your seller who can easily challenge the findings and conclusions of the expert who could however be in your favor.
Aware of this difficulty, in such circumstances, the amicable expert will limit his investigations and will not dismantle the vehicle, which will make his conclusions more easily contested by the opposing party.
And we have just opened a file for the seller or the buyer, having an amicable expertise, saw his request rejected by the Judicial Court of Bordeaux (although the defaulting seller, not notified of the quotation, had not not defended), on the sole ground that the amicable expertise, on its own, could not prove the hidden defect…
But why, beyond the aforementioned insufficiencies of certain amicable expert opinions, case law prefers a judicial expert, to an amicable expert, both from the same profession, regulated by the Highway Code (R. 326-1 a R326– 4) and by a code of ethics providing probity and independence?
First of all, because, unlike the amicable expert, often appointed by the insurer who is economically dependent on it, the legal expert is appointed by an impartial court: he constitutes the projection of the court, of which he is the watchful eye.
The legal expert has the time necessary to accomplish his mission.
Finally, the legal expert was included on the list of experts, after a verification of his skills. He also has a methodology and a height of view imposed by expertise that allow him to organize a real contradiction, including in his first analyses, which can be contradictorily criticized.
A debate is established and allows an objective analysis of the case, allowing everyone to understand their interests, and, in the absence of a transactional agreement, the Judge to have an expertise on which he can base his judgment.
If the amicable expert allows a first approach to the problem and, sometimes, to find the solution between parties in good faith and well advised, the legal expert is always essential for more complex files or between intransigent parties…
The Siret et associés firm, established for more than 40 years in the Great West, and having 3 main offices, in Bordeaux, Aurillac, La Roche sur Yon, is at your disposal.
Judicial expertise latent defect auto truck motorcycle
Implantations : CHALLANS – LA ROCHE SUR YON – POUZAUGES – BORDEAUX – AURILLAC
Contact 02 51 05 38 23 et Mail : jsiret@siret-associes.com
SELARL SIRET & Associés – RCS 390 567 519
Numéro d’Identification Intracommunautaire FR 90390567519