VW Rejecting Non-Clean Titles?

Ok, so the guy said I need to upload something that indicates it WAS driveable during the eligibility period. A traffic ticket, a repair shop sheet, a tow bill. I'm going to dig through and send up a couple of things. I have the police report from the accident, I may have a shop sheet from one or more oil changes/service visits.

Let's see what happens next.

halbert said:

Ok, so the guy said I need to upload something that indicates it WAS driveable during the eligibility period. A traffic ticket, a repair shop sheet, a tow bill. I'm going to dig through and send up a couple of things. I have the police report from the accident, I may have a shop sheet from one or more oil changes/service visits.

Let's see what happens next.

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This may be the next step for VW in trying to not pay out on these cars.

For people like me, who bought them already salvaged, obtaining the required "Proof of Vehicle Operability" will be difficult if not impossible. I can probably figure out where the accident took place and get a copy of the accident report from the police there. That would be the only thing I may be able to obtain and I am not sure I would even be able to get that from just the vehicle information.

Proof of operability = current (not expired) state registration.

Proof the vehicle can lawfully be driven on the highway; registration, tags, inspection are current.

halbert said:

Ok, so the guy said I need to upload something that indicates it WAS driveable during the eligibility period. A traffic ticket, a repair shop sheet, a tow bill. I'm going to dig through and send up a couple of things. I have the police report from the accident, I may have a shop sheet from one or more oil changes/service visits.

Let's see what happens next.

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What about a carfax? If it just has to be drivable at some point during that period, the carfax should show various registration events with differing miles.

If you are not a dealer you will need a rebuild title with registration.
If you don't have these vw is not going to approve your papers.
Because your car is not legally drive on highway.

And with all these papers approve and the green checkmark on all the papers you still going to wait until Vw is going to decide what to do and when to pay for the rebuilt titles.

halbert said:

I'm original owner (purchased June '14). November 25, 2016, car in accident, insurance totaled it. To maintain possession, took a reduced insurance settlement, under PA rules, had to convert to a salvage certificate (no registration allowed).
Engine does start and vehicle can (sort of) be driven. Also, to convert to a rebuilt title, vehicle would have to pass a 'new vehicle' inspection, so no value to be gained there. (again, PA rules)
It appears I'm hosed. Should have taken the full insurance settlement plus original owner restitution and called it a day.

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"November 25, 2016, car in accident, insurance totaled it. To maintain possession, took a reduced insurance settlement, under PA rules, had to convert to a salvage certificate (no registration allowed)."

This is what VW is looking for. Has your vehicle been registered and on the road since the accident, if it hasn't, I wouldn't expect restitution!

psd1 said:

"November 25, 2016, car in accident, insurance totaled it. To maintain possession, took a reduced insurance settlement, under PA rules, had to convert to a salvage certificate (no registration allowed)."
This is what VW is looking for. Has your vehicle been registered and on the road since the accident, if it hasn't, I wouldn't expect restitution!

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The question isn't whether it was on the road since Nov 25 2016. It's whether it was on the road on 9/18/15 or 6/28/16.

gtmule said:

The question isn't whether it was on the road since Nov 25 2016. It's whether it was on the road on 9/18/15 or 6/28/16.

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I'll bow out of this conversation. It looks like halbert has a 2.0 vehicle and I am not up to speed on the specifics of the 2.0 process.

Maybe we should add this info on new posts?

Based on previous experience, I don't have any faith in what the guy at the call center told me. However, I did upload the accident report from Nov 25, 2016..and my wife's name a driver licence number match the driver license VW has, so that shows she WAS driving the vehicle.

I'll let you guys know what happens next. Maybe in a few days I'll get something else from VW that is of interest.

I remember this being brought up before but has anyone had any success with cancelling their salvage buyback claim, changing ownership of vehicle to a family member, and then family member file buyback claim?

fookin said:

I remember this being brought up before but has anyone had any success with cancelling their salvage buyback claim, changing ownership of vehicle to a family member, and then family member file buyback claim?

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I spoke to a lawyer yesterday who said that ALL salvage titles are in front of the three person panel for adjudication. Thousands...

psd1 said:

I spoke to a lawyer yesterday who said that ALL salvage titles are in front of the three person panel for adjudication. Thousands...

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They WILL be. Right now they're being ignored...

jamesehatcher said:

The only titles that go before the three panel review committee (CRC) are those that filled an appeal to a denial.

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I appealed to CRC for a salvage claim that was not denied but is in limbo like many of them. Here is automated response from two weeks ago. I doubt I will get a decision until the court rules on all on all of these.

XXXXX

Dear (redacted):

The Claims Review Committee (CRC) has received your VW settlement appeal and is reviewing your claim. As you may know, the CRC consists of one representative from Volkswagen, one representative from Settlement Class Counsel, and a Court-appointed neutral who will be called upon to resolve disagreements between the Claims Committee’s other members, should they arise.

You will receive a written response once the CRC has made a final determination on your appeal. This process may take several weeks, as the CRC will consider all of the relevant materials in your claim.

***You are receiving this email from an unmonitored, no-reply email account. If you have questions about the Claims Review Committee, please contact the Court-appointed Settlement Class Counsel at 1-800-948-2181.***

jamesehatcher said:

The only titles that go before the three panel review committee (CRC) are those that filled an appeal to a denial.

The thousands of others stuck in Green Check or Blue Eyeball land are being stalled in the process until VW Counsel and Plaintiffs Counsel (yeah right) come to an agreement on how to handle them. They will then take that agreement to the court for approval.

There is a group working behind the scenes with private counsel to have representation WHEN (not if) VW trys to screw us.

PM if you would like additional information.

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CRC, yes. It's been a whirlwind week for me.

In my case, my vehicle was denied and removed from the portal. I appealed their decision. Is it your understanding that the CRC is actively reviewing those appeals?

psd1 said:

CRC, yes. It's been a whirlwind week for me.
In my case, my vehicle was denied and removed from the portal. I appealed their decision. Is it your understanding that the CRC is actively reviewing those appeals?

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The CRC is not actively reviewing appeals at this time. Everything is on hold until Plaintiff Counsel and VW agree on how to handle salvage titles. Any agreement will then have to be approved by the judge

E2Tdi said:

The CRC is not actively reviewing appeals at this time. Everything is on hold until Plaintiff Counsel and VW agree on how to handle salvage titles. Any agreement will then have to be approved by the judge

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Your opinion? If fact, how do you know?

ujames said:

Your opinion? If fact, how do you know?

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It's my opinion based on all info I have read on this topic. The CRC cannot make any decisions because the decision criteria regarding salvage titles are being challenged by VW and supposedly "negotiations" are going on between Plaintiff Counsel and VW on how to handle salvage titles. Only when that has happened will CRC look at declined cars for which an appeal has been filed. Our CRC appeal was filed in April 2017 and still no response yet.

The November 2017 Progress Report by Claims Supervisor is available from vwcourtsettlement website. Volkswagen-2.0-Liter-November-Report-of-the-Claims-Supervisor.pdf

Page 40 describes activity/status of CRC.

Not a single word is mentioned regarding resolution of "salvage title vehicles" whereas they were addressed in the Aug 2017 report.

Well that's not good news. There's just 2 more weeks until the holiday break starts. I'm losing faith in a good outcome from this salvage uncertainty.

E2Tdi said:

The November 2017 Progress Report by Claims Supervisor is available from vwcourtsettlement website. Volkswagen-2.0-Liter-November-Report-of-the-Claims-Supervisor.pdf
Page 40 describes activity/status of CRC.
Not a single word is mentioned regarding resolution of "salvage title vehicles" whereas they were addressed in the Aug 2017 report.

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Thank you E2TDI for pointing out the claims report. I read it. Good reading. On page 10 it states the below. It seems there are 332 claims in this status. Surprised there are not more. Unless they are not counting the claims in the 'eye' status.

This report is a joke, though. The reports makes it seems like everything is rosey and things are going great. Here is really what is happening. No one at the VW call center knows anything. The Plaintiff Counsel never calls anyone back and when they do they are puppets of VW. The CRC does not address the Salvage Issue. The FTC has no 'teeth'. The people that do this claims report cannot be asked questions. Salvage owners have nowhere to turn. Speak of "Fake News".


XXXX
Volkswagen and the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee have been working with other stakeholders over the past several months to address how the eligibility requirements apply to certain consumers who purchased a vehicle that had both been branded with a salvage title and transferred to an insurance company after September 18, 2015. A vehicle is designated as salvage when it has been damaged or deemed a total loss by an insurance company that paid a claim on the vehicle. As of November 18, 2017, there were thirty such claims pending in the first ten-business-day review period, and 302 such claims pending in the second ten-business-day review period, discussed below. The Claims Supervisor has not factored these claims in the first and second-ten-business-day review period timeliness analyses while the parties determine how the eligibility requirements should be applied.

Thanks for that jeffcapp99. Personally, I believe VW is just stalling indefinitely. I do not believe "working with other stakeholders over... how the eligibility requirements apply to certain consumers..." is more than a 20 minute conversation.

I agree Fookin. They are stalling. The salvage section of the document can read in 5 minutes by a high school business law class to know how to adjudicate those claims.

Here is my wild guess why. They know the document is bad for VW. If they pay salvage claims now people will rush to junkyards to turn in more cars.

Here is my question - why only 332? Someone said the talked to a lawyer and the lawyer said 'thousands'. What about all those buying salvage to turn in (there were a lot bought); are they not turning in claims OR more likely - is this report is inaccurate? Perhaps they are not reporting salvage claims at all? My guess.

I am NOT a conspiracy guy but it seems everyone is in bed together and I am on outside looking in.

jeffcap99, I too believe the plaintiffs and defendants are nodding heads together and just putting these claims aside, perhaps just letting the expire without any payment. I'm not sure there's any legal requirement to pay any claims at end of next Sept if the plaintiffs lawyers are satisfied, in some way, that VW has done enough.

The funny thing about about cars at auction yards right now is they will still be bought up by a dismantler/dealer/dealer-surragate-for-private-party and a lot of them will get restored and re-titled. Whether or not they file a buyback claim is another thing.

Agreed

Agreed
"The reports makes it seems like everything is rosey and things are going great. Here is really what is happening. No one at the VW call center knows anything. The Plaintiff Counsel never calls anyone back and when they do they are puppets of VW. The CRC does not address the Salvage Issue. The FTC has no 'teeth'. The people that do this claims report cannot be asked questions. Salvage owners have nowhere to turn."

One way or another these cars need to be fixed or bought back, I am also in the same boat as many here.

Every time i contact Class counsel, they repeat that a Magistrate Judge is working on a resolution check back in 3 weeks or they will email, was first advised end of the year, last i checked no time frame at all. Something is going on, working together keeping the plaintiffs out of the loop of anything going on or what actual options are other than wait.

In vws eyes anyone who has one car is in the spirit of the settlement, then things get moving. If a car is purchased today claim put in right away as i did, they put it on hold red flag. As it seems until a judge makes a decision, we will all get various bs answers by class counsel and vw claims.

I have a clean title car with accident history purchased from a dealer. I did put in a appeal with crc as no movement, car is not denied. Wondering if they even look at or consider appeals until a car is denied?

As far as the latest report there is no way there are only 332 cars in salvage rebuilt or on hold status. Look how many people here are looking at this thread weekly. Has to be some other authority we can bring attention to this problem. FTC EPA or?

johtdi said:

Has to be some other authority we can bring attention to this problem. FTC EPA or?

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We are all looking for that problem solver JOHTDI. My concern is the judge is not getting good information from any source. I tried to contact judge and he will not talk to me because it is Ex Parte Communication.

jeffcapp99 said:

We are all looking for that problem solver JOHTDI. My concern is the judge is not getting good information from any source. I tried to contact judge and he will not talk to me because it is Ex Parte Communication.

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I agree, so what's the solution?

psd1 said:

I agree, so what's the solution?

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My suggestion is we wait until end of year. That is the soft deadline that plaintiff counsel has kept saying a decision would be rendered.

Three things can happen in January of 2018 -

1. VW says they are going to accept salvage claims
2. VW says they will rejects all salvage claims
3. Counsel says it will be another X months for a decision.

If it is option #2 or #3 we may need to try to form some alliance (pooling of funds) and get another attorney to help all of us. Perhaps others have done this?

Of the above options - my guess is #3.

To add a data point, I turned in several salvage 2.0L cars (in addition to many clean ones) at the beginning of this year and held two 3.0Ls until 2018 for tax purposes. When I decided to log in to schedule the appointments this past sunday, (one in Jan, one in Feb of 18), I went from uploaded docs to appointments scheduled in about 2 days.

So for those of you afraid your account was blacklisted from turning in salvage cars and have some clean ones left to go back, you should be ok (or, at least it appears that way). I may be the only one here in that situation, but hopefully if there is anyone else out there like me you can rest a bit easy.

Good luck you all of you in limbo!

So, what are people's on opinion the hypothetical, which of these two scenarios has a higher likelihood of squeaking by and getting a buyback right now (assuming 3.0 cars, both 'salvage' cars are now fully rebuilt, road-going cars that were repaired/re-registered during the correct timeframe to be eligible):

Car A - Totaled and rebuilt/re-registered all before September 18, 2015

or

Car B - Totaled and rebuilt/re-registered, all happening between the dates September 18, 2015 to June 28, 2016


I am up in the air on which scenario is more likely to squeak by right now, because the claims portal specifically asks if the car was salvage titled as of September 18, 2015, which means if you select yes, then you are likely already filtered out automatically by the computer into the 'no-go' group.

So, if the car was totaled/rebuilt after that (like in the scenario with Car B), then you select No, and it seems like it would be up to the manual review to catch it, rather than being automatically dismissed.





HOWEVER, according to the latest status report in December, the phrasing makes it seem like they are only *supposedly* holding back titles that were transferred to an insurance company after September 18, 2015. So (if that were true), that would mean that Car A has a better likelihood of squeaking by right now, as it had the title transferred etc. all before September 18, 2015. That would be assuming that selecting "Yes" on the salvage title question in the claims portal does not automatically dismiss you.

jeffcapp99 said:

XXXX
Volkswagen and the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee have been working with other stakeholders over the past several months to address how the eligibility requirements apply to certain consumers who purchased a vehicle that had both been branded with a salvage title and transferred to an insurance company after September 18, 2015.

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Thoughts?