A car owner has lost a dispute with his insurer over a paint mismatch on his repaired vehicle.

The policyholder said panel repair work overseen by Suncorp following an attack by vandals was of poor quality and the paint used did not match the rest of his car.

He argued the insurer should either fix the issue or paint the entire car a uniform colour.  

Suncorp acknowledged an inconsistency but said it was due to wear and tear on the older panels, and cited its assessor, a qualified spray painter, who said the work was adequately completed.  

In a dispute decision, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority says the repaired panels had a cleaner look and the older ones appeared “dull in comparison”.  

But it accepts the assessor’s opinion and says the work was carried out to a “reasonable standard, achieving a clean and new-looking finish”.  

It says the mismatch was “unfortunate” for the owner but was not due to an error by the insurer.  

“The policy only requires the insurer to repair parts of the vehicle damaged during an incident,” AFCA said. “It does not require the insurer to repair pre-existing damage.

“As such, it would not be fair to require to insurer to repair panels that were not damaged during the incident or repair the pre-existing deterioration.”  

See the ruling here.