Getting paid on a repair: the excess, storage and releasing the car

On a private job the customer owes you the whole bill. On an insurance job the bill is split: the insurer pays what it authorised, usually on its own assessor's figures, less the excess, and the customer pays the excess. Who owes you, and what keeps you safe, depends on the kind of job:

Cash in lieu is when an insurer pays the policyholder cash instead of authorising a repair. SAMBRA warned in October 2025 that it's growing. If that customer brings the car to you, treat it as a private job: there's no authorisation and no insurer payment, and the customer is the only person who owes you.

Insurers' own customer guides say the excess goes to the repairer. OUTsurance tells clients with non-financed cars to pay it upfront to the panel beater. MiWay says it's usually paid once the claim is approved, before the repair is finished, and that repairs or release can be delayed if it isn't. King Price tells clients the repairer will contact them about when and how to pay it, and that the claim isn't settled until they have.

• Take the excess amount from the insurer's authorisation, not from the customer's memory, and tell the customer at check-in what it is and when it's due.
• Collect it before the car goes home. Once the car is gone, so is your strongest reason for the customer to pay.
• Some claims carry no excess or a smaller one, for example where an insured third party caused the accident under some policies. Go by the authorisation.
• If the insurer later recovers the excess from the other driver, it refunds the customer. It doesn't come back to you.
• Take cards, but don't add a surcharge for paying by card: the card rules don't allow it.

No insurer publishes how quickly it pays repairers: payment terms sit in each insurer's agreement with its approved repairers. SAMBRA said in March 2025, and again in March 2026, that delayed payments and longer payment cycles are straining small repair shops. In April 2026 some insurers added a per-job fee to help shops with fuel costs. SAMBRA also says the Competition Commission has allowed it to negotiate service level agreement terms with individual insurers on behalf of qualifying small members.

What you control is how fast your side of the paperwork moves:

• Send the final costing the day the car is finished, with photos and the approval for every additional.
• Get every additional approved before you do it. Unapproved work is the first thing cut from a payment.
• Keep a list of unpaid insurer invoices by age, and follow up anything past your agreed terms.
• Hold the car until you're paid, or until the customer has signed that they owe the balance if the insurer doesn't pay.

South African law gives a repairer a lien: the right to keep a car until the repair is paid for. Against the customer who agreed the work, it comes from your contract. Against an owner you never dealt with, such as the bank on a financed car, it's an enrichment lien, limited to what your work added to the car's value, and you must be able to prove that. Either way, know its limits:

Nor can a lien be sold. In July 2025 the Pretoria High Court declared that improvement and salvage liens can't be ceded, sold or transferred, and that any deal doing so is void (Nedbank v Abandoned Vehicle and Truck Solutions). Leave to appeal was refused in February 2026. Only the shop that did the work may hold the car.

In 2019 SAMBRA introduced pay before release for its members: a member may keep a completed car until the work is paid for. It was aimed at claims authorised by brokers and other intermediaries, where shops had finished the work and then waited to be paid, and it doesn't apply where an insurer's agreement sets the payment terms. At check-in, the owner signs a document making them liable for the full invoice if the insurer doesn't pay. We found no later SAMBRA statement changing it.

You can only charge storage the customer agreed to. When courts have been asked, they've refused storage that wasn't agreed upfront: in Steenkamp a claimed R350 a day was rejected as an afterthought, and in Behane v ATE Automotive Repairs(Johannesburg High Court, August 2025) the car was ordered returned free of storage costs. Courts also disagree about whether you may add storage while holding a car under a lien, and the Supreme Court of Appeal hasn't settled it.

• Put the collection period and the daily storage rate in every quote, so the customer agrees to them before you start. Our quoting guide shows the wording.
• Tell the customer in writing the day the car is ready, and keep the message.
• Look after the car while it's with you. The Consumer Protection Act expects you to take the care of someone managing another person's property, and makes you liable for loss.

You can't sell an uncollected car. A lien is security for a debt, not a right to sell, and the Consumer Protection Act has no rule letting you dispose of an uncollected car. The lawful route is a letter of demand, a court judgment for what you're owed, and a sale in execution by the sheriff. Talk to an attorney before you do anything with the car.

On private work, especially when you order parts for the car, take a deposit. The Consumer Protection Act lets a supplier ask for a reasonable deposit when it accepts an order for later supply, and sets no percentage. Agree the deposit and the balance on the quote, and take the balance before the car leaves.

Fleets, rental companies and dealers expect monthly terms. Before you open an account, get a signed credit application with the business's registration details and your terms, and agree any interest on late payment in writing.

Does the National Credit Act apply?

Not to a customer that is a company or other juristic person with assets or annual turnover of R1 million or more. A plain 30-day account with no fees or interest is generally not a credit agreement either. If you charge interest or a fee on late payment to individuals or smaller businesses, the account becomes incidental credit: the interest must be disclosed and accepted before you do the work, it's capped at 2% a month, and before you sue you must send a section 129 notice and give the customer time to respond.

Where no rate was agreed, you can still claim interest on an overdue debt at the prescribed rate: 10.5% a year from 1 July 2026. It moves with the repo rate.

1. 1

   Follow up early

   A statement when the account falls due, then a phone call. Most late payers pay once someone asks.
2. 2

   Send a letter of demand

   What is owed, for which job, by which date, and what you'll do if it isn't paid. The Small Claims Court needs one giving 14 days, delivered by hand or registered post.
3. 3

   Pick the right court

   The Small Claims Court hears claims up to R30 000 (since 1 August 2026), but only individuals may sue there, so a shop trading as a company or close corporation can't. Otherwise use the Magistrates' Court: district courts up to R200 000, regional courts up to R400 000.
4. 4

   Don't let it prescribe

   An ordinary debt prescribes three years after it fell due. A written acknowledgement of the debt or a served summons interrupts that.

• Every quote states the collection period and the daily storage rate.
• Every insurance customer signs at check-in that they owe the balance if the insurer doesn't pay.
• The excess comes from the authorisation, and you collect it before release.
• The final costing goes to the insurer the day the car is done, with every approval attached.
• Cars go home when they're paid for, or when payment is properly secured.
• Accounts have a signed credit application and written terms.
• You review unpaid invoices every week, and send demands before they reach 60 days.