Has anybody successfully received (won) a diminished value claim from an insurance company? My car was intentionally purchased with a no accident CarFax. I had someone back into me and the damage is minimal, cosmetic yet still expensive ($4,700). Now it will lose the accident free CarFax designation. Would like to hear what you did and how you did it so I can replicate.

2016 Z51

Thanks

PS. Yes, I know I need picture for the curious. I will get them posted soon.

 

About 2 years ago my wife's '13 Prius war rear ended here in WA. State. (Only) about 1500 bucks to replace the rear bumper. Within a couple of days I called the other driver's insurance, mentioned the term "diminished value" and they immediately transferred me to someone who handles that. So, yes, even 24 months ago the awareness was there. Now, all I found on line was a calculation from the state of Georgia (your insurance company should be able to plug in newer formulae that apply to your state). It came to about 1K.
Their rep offered me 500 bucks w/o hesitation, we agreed to split the difference so within one week I had a check for $750. And since we still have the car (only 55K on the odometer) it will outlive even that loss.
Hope this helps but DV is very real and is a part of the settlement process.

 

We are in similar situations. I spoke to State Farm today and as soon as I stated I was seeking DV the agent stated we can do that, and most people aren't aware of it and don't ask. She continued to note the burden of proof will be on me and I think there are enough resources to establish your high value and then you have to figure out the low value due to the damage in comparison to an identical car with no damage. Once you have both values you'll have a number you can prove and should be compensated for. I may have to work with an established noted appraiser for the after repair valuation and I don't think it will be a battle once I've got hard facts.

 

Are you trying to recover diminished value from your own policy or the policy of the responsible party? Every state is different, but diminished value can be "excluded" as a 1st party claim (check your policy).

 

Yes, I am going after diminished value and State Farm has accepted responsibility and noted that the burden of proof is on me.

I found a local appraiser who will determine what the DV is and then I can demand the reimbursement for the loss of value. State Farm didn't even flinch when I said I was going after the DV.

 

You are going about it the right way. I can only speak for California, but this is what I did:
I obtained an "Official" report from a licensed appraiser to come up with a diminished value figure and submitted it to the insurance company. Once my claim was denied. I ended up suing the person who hit me in small claims court. After I won, I presented the judgement to the insurance company and I was paid. It was a pain, but worth it. I was in front of the judge for less than 5 minutes.
As a side note, I have been employed with the same insurance company for 31 years in their claims department. Since I was an employee, I was suppose to be a "good" claimant?
After the insurance company repaired my vehicle, we were offered $200 to go away. My judgement was for $15K.
Good luck!!!

 

I went through this two years ago when my wife was hit while stopped at a stop sign. We have State Farm and the person who hit her had Progressive. Once I told the Progressive agent I wanted to submit a DV claim I was offered $1200 (vehicle was valued at $23K). Then I went to a DV Claim estimator who told me he would provide an estimate for $250 but if I didn't receive that estimate there wouldn't be any charge. His estimate was $2400. Progressive sat on the DV claim and wouldn't several weeks until I finally happened to catch the adjuster and told him I wasn't going to accept $1200 and he said he wasn't going to accept $2400. We settled at $1900.

Bill

 

Thanks Bill, $1900 may be considered reasonable considering it was roughly 80% of your DV, I'll hope for 80% once we determine what the loss is.

 

 

who did you guys use for a DV appraiser?

 

Thanks for the comments. I am going through the insurance of the person that hit me (Farmers) and he (ins adjuster) said it was a separate claim after repairs were done and that he would help me set it up.

Good question on where would I get an DV appraiser.

 

Do a search locally for someone with an established track record, preferably one with Corvette experience. I'd advise you to stay away from Farmers, the burden of proof is on you to prove the DV. Don't wait! The longer you wait the lower the DV as time will lower your car's value. It's going to cost me $350 for the DV appraisal!

Also, you may find that you are owed for loss of use. As the 3rd party, you had no prior contract with the insured. You may be owed a reasonable rental car of a similar value or rental reimbursement if you are inconvenienced. You may want to inquire with your state INS commission to know yours' and the INS Co's limitations and liabilities.

 

Great site for DV FAQs (disregard the Georgia references). You can do your own DV appraisal by using Formula 17c (Google search, there's a spreadsheet out there). If your car was perfect before the accident, it works out to roughly 10% DV of the value of the car. You'll not get more than that unless you sue. I'm not sure if you are using a rental or not. I did not take a rental (I have another car) and made a claim for roughly $300.00/day (Hertz, Turo). After all was said and done, the claim was roughly $30k. Had to negotiate down to $15k due to their insured party maxed out at $15k (yeah, IKR). I'd have to sue the individual to get the other $15k. I wasn't a big fan of that. My car was fixed whole, I got a couple bucks and I'm happy.

 

I'm headed in basically the same direction, though I don't think my repair is as much as yours. What INS co did you have to work with? I also read about the 17c formula and some use it and in other cases, it's not enough, especially with higher value or specialty cars with collector value like ours. I don't know what I'll get for loss of use, would it be possible to share your info with me offline?

I hate what I'm driving now, I feel like I'm driving a drunken pig... Additionally, after removing the rear bumper cover we found additional damage and a chunk out of the tail light pocket inner-structure. We know the INS co will not want to replace it and I'm sure will put up a fight. If I agree to the repair of the inner tail light panel it will be a good repair, but the car will then always have that repaired section and it would be noticed upon inspection. If we replace that section of the inner structure it will no longer be the OEM structure and it's a significant amount of work air chiseling the composite structural adhesive to break the sections apart to fix it right. Regardless of which repair is done either will hurt the value which I'm not happy about! But, hey it's just a car and I don't have cancer and no one died, right? Regardless of any monetary compensation, the car is tarnished.

 

Weird, I couldn't attach a file to a direct message to you. There's no personal information, just numbers. Attached is the spreadsheet I used. It was a mute exercise for me, since the insured had only 15k to pay. Regardless, the insurance company (USAA) was good to work with. I did not rent a car because that is insurance company out. They contract very low amounts on similar cars. I wanted the real rental rates (Hertz and Turo are the most popular). The didn't balk at all, but in the end, they could only give what the insured had.



They would not give me: car payments (I don't have any, but the claim should have been valid), insurance, OnStar, XM/Sirius or registration. They claim those are items I would be paying for regardless of accident. Their formula 17c was $5012 (meh), although when I asked how they arrived at that number, they said it was an internal formula. Really though, the big number came from rental. Don't take their rental, but claim it.

 

I collected mine from progressive. Rear end that cost $4,000 to repair. I got an appraisal from 2 Chevrolet dealers on the 'before' and 'after' accident value. One form selling dealer, one from a local dealer.
The values was 10-15% deduct. I prepared documents that established the value from other sources, plus some stats from GM production that indicated my car was one of 42 built.
I then first call Progressive and over the next month talked to three different adjusters. the 'best' they could do was $1,300.About 1%. My estimated DV was about $8000.
I then engaged an attorney and he prepared court documents and began the filing process. They had by this time raised their price to $1,800.
At his advice I called again and said we were ready to file to go to court. This is where the big expense occurs.I was directed to yet another adjuster, and he asked 'what would I take'.
I said $6,000, he countered with $5,000, I said see you in court, he said how bout $5,500. I agreed. This process took 6 months. I was beat down, but not out. they really beat you down with the process.
I felt I could have won a larger settlement by going to court, but expenses would reduce my actual value. I was confident my documentation would be convincing, but could see another 6 months, plus time, etc.
I'm satisfied. I didn't do anything on the daily expense part, this was bad enough.
BTW, my body shop guy said insurance companies do NOT want to go to court for anything less that $10,000, so push hard if you are less than 10 grand, over that and you probably need court time.
Remember they make money by NOT paying claims.
Good luck, my friend

 

Thanks, I got $19,825‬ difference in the DV and don't understand the difference of that number related to the $5,182 for the 17c formula, what am I missing?

 

Yep, me too. I could not find anything that came back with the actual DV loss (19k). Everything was referred to this formula 17c which really doesn't give the actual DV, but roughly 10% DV. I didn't understand it enough to try to argue without an attorney.

 

Lol, Nice!