ABOUT CAMVAP

CAMVAP Is Fair

You will receive a fair hearing before an impartial arbitrator. Consumers with vehicle problems or warranty concerns like yours have used CAMVAP since 1994 and have given CAMVAP arbitrators high ratings for being fair, courteous and professional.

CAMVAP Is Fast

From start to finish, the CAMVAP process takes about 70 to 90 calendar days. Your hearing should be set up within fifty (50) calendar days of receiving your completed application. Then, within fourteen (14) calendar days after your hearing, we will send you a copy of the arbitrator’s Award. If an inspection of your vehicle is ordered by the arbitrator about twenty (20) calendar days is added to the process. If a decision regarding program eligibility is required by an Arbitrator, an eligibility hearing will be held. This will add about twenty (20) calendar days to the process.

CAMVAP works to meet the timeframes set out in the Agreement for Arbitration, but sometimes there may be delays that will lengthen the time it takes to complete the CAMVAP process. Also, some time process timeframes are extended over the new year’s holiday season, however, the times to submit an application and for implementation of the award are not extended.

CAMVAP Is Friendly

If your hearing is held in person, it will be held in a hotel meeting room, a business office setting, community centre or similar facility as close to your home as possible. Alternatively, it may be held by teleconference or video conference if both you and the manufacturer agree to do so. Hearings are less formal than court. Witnesses take an oath or make a solemn promise to tell the truth but you do not have to use special language. Other than common courtesy, there are no special rules about how to behave.

Although CAMVAP is less formal than court, the general pattern of a CAMVAP hearing is similar to court. The arbitrator leads everyone through the process. You (the “claimant”) make the first presentation. The manufacturer’s representative (the “respondent”) goes second. Then you may reply to anything new that the respondent brings up.

CAMVAP Is Free

There are no fees to use CAMVAP, but it will cost you to time to prepare and present your claim and possibly fees and expenses for your lawyer, witnesses or interpreter.

CAMVAP Is Final

Once the arbitrator makes a decision, it is final. You and the manufacturer have limited rights to ask a court to set aside an arbitrator’s decision or allow a new hearing, but this will not happen just because one of you does not like the final outcome.

When the manufacturer fully carries out the Award, your claim is over and the manufacturer is released from any responsibility for it.