Queenslanders cautioned to steer clear of write-offs

The Queensland government has amended the state’s written-off vehicle scheme to align better with other states which already apply more stringent regulation.

But the changes, which will take effect from next year, don’t immediately address what is arguably the worst shortcoming of the current scheme – owners neglecting to advise buyers when the car on sale is a repaired write-off.

According to Queensland’s minister for transport and main roads, Mark Bailey, the revised legislation will impose on repairers a higher quality of work before a vehicle can take to the road once more.

“These changes focus on improving processes and standards for written-off vehicle inspections for light and heavy vehicles and will bring us more into line with other states,” Bailey was quoted in a government press release.

“Once classified, the quality of the vehicle repairs and identity requirements for written-off vehicles will be more stringent and comprehensive than the current system.”

State motoring club, RACQ, has welcomed the change overall, but the association’s road safety and technical manager, Joel Tucker, has questioned why the legislation allows repaired write-offs to be sold to buyers without warning.

“This is clearly a significant consumer issue as these repaired vehicles eventually found their way onto the used-car market and were purchased by unsuspecting buyers,” Tucker was reported as saying in one of the RACQ’s online articles.

The story has flared again, following a report this week by news.com.au, in which both the RACQ and Motor Trades Association of Queensland (MTAQ) denounced ‘backyard operators’.

The associations suggest such unscrupulous operators are taking advantage of Queensland’s current legislation to put written-off vehicles back on the road, making big profits during this period of volatile used-car pricing.

According to the report, repairers only need a roadworthy certificate and proof of the vehicle’s identification to re-register it for Queensland roads.

This situation is contrary to Victoria, where any repaired write-off has to be fully inspected for quality of work by an independent professional before the car will be allowed back on the road.

The law is even more draconian in New South Wales, where repairable write-offs aren’t permitted back on the road for anything worse than hail damage.

The claim is that with used cars in high demand across the country, repaired write-offs from the southern states are finding their way to Queensland buyers – even though these same cars could not be re-registered in their respective state of origin.

The MTAQ calculates that in 2019, just 500 written-off cars returned to the roads of New South Wales. It was higher in Victoria, where up to 2000 cars made their way back from oblivion in the same year.

But in Queensland the figure was an astonishing 12,000 cars that had been previously written-off and subsequently repaired for the road.

In some cases, these repaired cars are being sold to new owners without the airbags being replaced, says the RACQ’s principal technical researcher, Russell Manning.

“We know of cases where vehicles have been repaired without the full complement of airbags for instance, and there’s also nothing in place in Queensland to stop someone using safety items like airbags or seat belts from a wreck to repair another vehicle,” Manning was quoted as saying in the News report.

The new legislation is expected to reduce the incidence of improperly repaired cars back on Queensland roads, but residents of the northern state are strongly advised in the meantime to take care.

carsales offers a number of services which can help buyers establish the bonafides of used cars. Buyers can purchase a carsales vehicle history report or have the car inspected before the purchase via RedBook Inspect.