Diminished Value Claim and a Second Collision...

[owen6288]

Hello everyone. I was rear-ended at a stop light this past September. Been dealing with at-fault driver's insurance (State Farm) since. They have paid the $5k in damages to the body shop. I hired a third-party to come up with a diminished value for my 2010 Honda Civic with 35k miles, I've owned since new. Came out to about $4,500. State Farm offered me $500. I declined and they would like to send out their own appraiser to see my car.

The problem is that last weekend I was side-swiped by an AT&T van. I wasn't at fault, just bad luck. This is backed up by the police report. Anyways, my driver's side is now banged up to the tune of $2k.

Does the State Farm appraiser - which has not been scheduled and is not aware of this new damage unrelated to the first wreck - have to evaluate the car as-is (in its current condition) or as it existed prior to the first wreck and its post-repaired condition? My diminished value write-up has pictures of the driver's side, which is now damaged due to the unrelated second collision this past weekend.

Argh!

Any advice would be appreciated. Should I just delay the appraiser until my car is repaired by AT&T's insurance?

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All this is in Oklahoma if that is helpful.

 

[DIMINISHED VALUE]

The second collision has no bearing on your current diminished value claim.

 

[BlockO]

your car must be worth considerably more than 5k. otherwise, 5k worth of damage would have deemed it totaled.

 

[owen6288]

your car must be worth considerably more than 5k. otherwise, 5k worth of damage would have deemed it totaled.

I specifically asked is the $5k damage bill would total it and they said it wasn't close. But then when I submitted my $4.5k DV claim they said it wasn't worth that much.

 

[LostDollar]

Long time back, I bought a used car-was insured with State Farm.
2-3 weeks after purchase, it was totalled in a hailstorm.
State Farm's settlement book value was $500-$1000 less than we had just paid for the car. My wife was very upset about that and argued with State Farm people for several weeks-and finally recovered our money.
I have never known whether it was the quality of her arguments or their persistence that brought her success.

The only point for your situation being that persistence may get you some additional amount you would otherwise not get.

 

[BlockO]

I specifically asked is the $5k damage bill would total it and they said it wasn't close. But then when I submitted my $4.5k DV claim they said it wasn't worth that much.

That doesn't make any sense.... if your car wasn't worth that much, they wouldn't have paid 5k to the body shop.

anytime damage exceeds 70-75% of the market value, the vehicle usually gets totaled.... that's what I found confusing when I read your post.... the numbers don't add up, or make any sense.

was it your claims adjuster that told you this, or perhaps a CSR who doesn't know what they're talking about?

 

[owen6288]

That doesn't make any sense.... if your car wasn't worth that much, they wouldn't have paid 5k to the body shop.

anytime damage exceeds 70-75% of the market value, the vehicle usually gets totaled.... that's what I found confusing when I read your post.... the numbers don't add up, or make any sense.

was it your claims adjuster that told you this, or perhaps a CSR who doesn't know what they're talking about?

It was the claims adjuster who finally admitted his specialty was injury claims adjustment and not diminished value. I made the same comment.... if my car wasn't worth that much why did they pay out $5k to fix it?

 

[LostDollar]

Maybe state farm is saying the car isn't worth 5.0 + 4.5 = $9.5K.

Paying $5K to body shop + offering op $0.5K seems to imply state farm valued car at $5.5K.

So ? becomes what is proper valuation of a 2010 Civic w 35k miles? OP may be having to argue about better than average book value because of better care or something.

 

[BlockO]

Paying $5K to body shop + offering op $0.5K seems to imply state farm valued car at $5.5K.

5k in damage divided by 5.5k = about 91%, which is well beyond the threshold of deeming it totaled.

5k divided by 6.5k is 76%.... so they had to value it at least higher than 6500.

and as far as offering $500 to the insured, that baffles me also.... if they payed to fix your car, you were made whole. so why would they offer anything at all?

 

[LostDollar]

5k in damage divided by 5.5k = about 91%, which is well beyond the threshold of deeming it totaled.

5k divided by 6.5k is 76%.... so they had to value it at least higher than 6500.

and as far as offering $500 to the insured, that baffles me also.... if they payed to fix your car, you were made whole. so why would they offer anything at all?

This post is the first time I have heard of the term "diminished value". So the following is an "uninformed comment".

The op has not been "made whole" by the repair of the car. Pre-accident he had a popular, low mileage, one owner vehicle. Post accident he had a popular, low mileage, one owner vehicle with substantial repaired collision damage. Just the fact that it has been in a collision would reduce the amount an informed buyer would pay for the vehicle.

So if it was worth $7k pre accident, the body shop was paid $5k to repair it, but then post repair it is only worth $6k because of the fact that it has had an accident, there is a diminished value of $1K because of the accident.

I did not know one could make claims for that kind of loss, but if it is possible, I think op has a legitimate claim. The spread of $500 to $4,500 is probably too big to succeed with, but op might have a chance with $1.0- $1.5K if the vechicle is popular enough and pre-accident condition was pristine enough.