Who Picks the Shop? California Repair Rights Explained
Published April 13, 2026 · 6 min read
Short answer. In California the vehicle owner chooses the repair facility, not the insurance company. A carrier may recommend a shop only after telling you the choice is yours, and it cannot require you to use its network. What a carrier can do is limit what it pays to a reasonable amount for the required repair.
The short version of the rule
California regulation is direct about this. An insurer may not require you to use a specific repair facility as a condition of settling your claim. It may suggest one, but only after it has told you that the selection of the shop is yours to make. If you have already chosen a shop, the carrier is not supposed to keep pushing you toward a different one.
That is the whole legal core. Everything else in a shop selection conversation is either information, which is useful, or pressure, which is not.
It applies to recreational vehicles, trailers, vans and commercial units the same way it applies to a sedan. The vehicle type does not change who gets to pick.
What steering sounds like in a real phone call
Almost nobody says you must use our shop. Steering is softer than that and it usually arrives as a set of implications rather than a demand. Learn the phrasings and it becomes easy to spot.
We cannot approve the repair if you go outside our network. We will not stand behind work done at a non program shop. That shop is not on our list so there could be delays. We would have to send an appraiser out there, which will add time. If you use our facility we can start today.
Some of that is technically accurate in a narrow sense and misleading in effect. A carrier really does have to send an appraiser to a shop it does not have a standing relationship with, and that really can add a few days. But framing a normal step as a penalty is the thing to notice. The correct response is calm and specific: I understand, I have selected my shop, please note that on the file and send the appraiser.
- Any sentence that implies your claim will be harder if you choose your own shop
- Any suggestion that the carrier will not accept an estimate from an outside facility
- Any statement that the carrier's approval of a repair depends on where it is performed
- Repeated recommendations after you have already named your shop
What a direct repair program actually is
A direct repair program, usually called a DRP, is a contract between a carrier and a shop. The shop agrees to pricing, procedures, cycle time targets and administrative handling. In exchange the carrier sends it volume and gives it authority to write and approve certain scope without waiting for an adjuster.
There are real conveniences. Approval is faster because the shop can approve on the carrier's behalf up to a threshold. Paperwork is lighter. Rental coordination is often smoother.
There is also a real tension, and it is worth stating plainly rather than dramatically. The shop's ongoing volume depends on meeting the carrier's targets, including cost per repair. That is a structural incentive, and it exists whether or not any individual shop lets it affect a repair decision.
For RV work there is a much more practical issue. Very few DRP networks contain shops that can take a forty foot Class A indoors, section a laminated sidewall or set a front cap. A carrier recommending its nearest network shop for an RV loss is frequently recommending a competent automotive collision center that has never done the work.
What the carrier is genuinely entitled to control
Choosing your shop does not mean the shop writes a blank check. Carriers have legitimate authority in several areas and confusing the two makes for a bad conversation.
A carrier can determine what it considers a reasonable amount to repair the vehicle to its pre loss condition. If your shop's labor rate exceeds what the carrier pays in the area, the carrier can pay its rate and leave the difference to you, though the difference is usually negotiable and frequently gets closed with documentation.
A carrier can require an inspection before authorizing repair. It can require documentation for supplement lines. It can question repair method and ask for a manufacturer procedure. It can apply your deductible and any depreciation or betterment allowed by your policy.
What it cannot do is condition payment on your choice of facility, or refuse to inspect a vehicle because it is at a shop the carrier does not have a contract with.
How to state your choice so it sticks
Do it in writing, once, early, and keep it short. An email to the assigned adjuster that says the following covers everything: I am having the vehicle repaired at OCRV Center in Yorba Linda. Please direct estimate and supplement communication to their repair planner. Please confirm in writing that this selection is noted on the claim.
That message does three things. It removes ambiguity, it puts the shop and the desk in direct contact so you stop being the relay, and it creates a dated record.
If the recommendations continue after that, respond once more in writing referencing your earlier message. Escalating on the first repetition is rarely necessary. Most continued suggestions are a call center script rather than a deliberate push.
The one thing worth checking before you choose
Having the right to choose is not the same as choosing well. On RV and specialty vehicle work, the decision that actually affects your outcome is capability, not network status.
Ask any shop you are considering four questions. Can the unit be worked on indoors, and for how long. Have you sectioned a laminated sidewall or set a front cap, and can I see photos of that work. Do you write manual labor entries with written justification for operations that are not in automotive databases. Who will be my point of contact for supplement communication with the carrier.
Those four answers tell you more than any list a carrier hands you. A shop that cannot bring a forty foot fifth wheel inside is going to bond a laminate outdoors in variable temperature, and that repair will not last.
What this looks like for a West Covina owner
The practical version for someone in South Hills, Woodside Village or off Nogales is straightforward. Report the claim, get the claim number and the assigned adjuster, send the one paragraph shop selection email, and get the unit scheduled.
The drive to the facility is the 10 or the 60 west to the 57 south, then the 91 east to Imperial Highway. That is roughly twenty two miles, thirty to forty five minutes depending on the 57. Carbon Canyon Road to the 71 is the alternate when the 57 stacks up in the afternoon. The shop is at 23281 La Palma Avenue in Yorba Linda. It is not a West Covina location and we do not offer mobile service. Everything is performed in shop.
Insurance walk ins are welcome, and adjusters routinely inspect units on site at the facility. If you want to talk through a steering conversation before you have it, call (949) 799-3387 and ask for the repair planner.
Questions on this
Can my insurance company refuse to pay if I use a shop outside their network?
No. A carrier cannot condition payment of a covered claim on your use of a particular facility. What it can do is pay what it determines is a reasonable amount for the necessary repair, which is a separate question from where the work happens. If your shop's rate or method differs from what the carrier initially allows, that gets resolved through documentation and negotiation between the shop and the desk adjuster, not by moving the vehicle.
Does a network shop repair get better treatment on the claim?
It gets faster administrative handling, which is a genuine benefit. A network shop can often approve scope up to a threshold without waiting for an adjuster, so the first few days move quicker. That advantage shrinks substantially on RV work, where almost everything requires manual labor entries and supplement review regardless of network status. Capability with laminated walls, caps, slides and roofs matters more to your outcome than administrative speed does.
The adjuster keeps recommending a different shop. What do I do?
Send one short written message stating your selection and asking for written confirmation that it is noted on the claim file. Keep it factual and unemotional. Most repeated recommendations come from a script rather than from a deliberate effort to move the vehicle, and a written statement usually ends it. If it continues after that, you can raise it with a claims supervisor and, if needed, with the California Department of Insurance, which handles complaints of this type.
Who chooses the shop if the other driver's insurance is paying?
You still do. When you are the claimant on someone else's liability policy, that carrier owes you the cost to repair your vehicle, and it does not get to select your facility either. In practice, third party claims involve more back and forth over scope because you have no contractual relationship with that insurer. Having the shop communicate directly with the adjuster, and keeping your own written record, matters even more on a third party claim.
Do these rules apply to a trailer or a fifth wheel too?
Yes. The right to select a repair facility attaches to the vehicle owner regardless of vehicle type, so a travel trailer, fifth wheel, toy hauler, camper van or box truck is treated the same as a car. The practical difference is that carrier networks contain very few facilities equipped for those units, so exercising the choice matters more. Confirm the shop can house the unit indoors for the duration of the repair before you commit.
More on insurance claim guides
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Agreed Value or Actual Cash Value on a Motorhome Policy
The valuation basis on your RV policy decides what a total loss pays. Here is how agreed value, stated value and actual cash value differ, and which one you actually have.
Ready to get a written estimate
We write estimates at the shop and bill your carrier direct. 30 to 45 minutes from West Covina on the 57 and the 91.