Diminished value auto claim?

Skippy918

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 29, 2012
Does anyone here have experience filing a diminished value claim after an accident? I wanted to know how to go about doing this and what your experience was and if it was worth the effort to do it. Do I need a lawyer or appraisal after the car gets repaired? I've googled but yet to come across others experience in the matter.
I was rear ended in my fairly new car and it suffered some bumper and trunk damage. I don't know what the repair costs are yet. I am in Texas if that matters.
Thanks!
 
Does anyone here have experience filing a diminished value claim after an accident? I wanted to know how to go about doing this and what your experience was and if it was worth the effort to do it. Do I need a lawyer or appraisal after the car gets repaired? I've googled but yet to come across others experience in the matter.
I was rear ended in my fairly new car and it suffered some bumper and trunk damage. I don't know what the repair costs are yet. I am in Texas if that matters.
Thanks!
I am assuming this was a rental car go to this site www.elliott.org it is a consumer advocacy website go to the forums and click car rentals. And read to your hearts content. There is actually a thread there now about a 2600 diminish value claim and you can register and ask questions lots of good advice on that site

Good luck
 
This is what I do for a living...auto insurance claims. I've actually written guidelines and handling procedures on diminished value (DV) for a few companies.

First, you cannot make a DV claim against your own carrier, it's very likely specifically excluded in your policy language.

You can make a claim through vehicle that struck you. Every state in the union recognizes your right to do that. There is no law, however, that dictates how a carrier must handle it. Each carrier has their own guidelines. They don't even have to make an offer if they don't feel it's warranted. You really won't be able to do anything until the repairs are complete, because you need to know the full extent of the damage. DO NOT go by the dollar amount of the repair. It's irrelevant. The reason why is that the same repair could cost different amounts on different cars. A headlight for a Mitsubishi Mirage is about $200, a headlight for a high end Mercedes is well over $2000. Same part, different price. So don't look at dollar amount, look at actual damage. Cosmetic only (the bumper cover and trunk are just cosmetic), structural damage? Age and mileage are a factor too. The older the car, the less likely you will be to have a claim. Also, DO NOT try to show them trade in value, again, it's irrelevant. DV is based on a vehicles retail sale value, not trade in. Trade in by its' nature is a "buy low, sell high" market, so it's not a true reflection of value. You must show that the cars' retail value is lower, not trade in.

Lawyers are very unlikely to take a DV case. There's no money in it for them. They also wouldn't know what to do with it anyway...I've seen some try, and it's pretty sad. There are some fly-by-night services that will charge you $150 to hand you a 9 page "report" to give to the insurance company. I can tell you from decades of experience that those are just boiler plate templates and they plug your name and a number they pull out of the air into them. They don't have a ton of value.

Truly, the best way to handle it is to let the other carrier know you want to make a claim and try to appeal to the common sense route. If you have something you can show them to prove diminished value, then definitely do so, but like I said don't show them trade in value or one of those fly-by-night place reports.

Reality is that it'll depend a lot on the insurance carriers' judgment and the adjusters' opinion. In my opinion, in some cases it is warranted. But in many cases, it's not. In a vast majority of cases, I can find used cars for sale that have accident reports in their Carfax history (by the way, no guarantee your accident will ever hit Carfax anyway) that are asking the exact same price as another one that wasn't in an accident. DV truly is a case by case thing.

If you want specific input, let me know when your repairs are done, I'd be happy to give you an honest evaluation.
 


Thank you Klayfish for your detailed response. My car is a 9 month old Honda Civic. I filed a claim with the other driver's insurance since I was hit from behind and the driver admitted to not paying attention.
 
In Georgia, you are entitled to diminished value. When my DH was hit by a driver insured by State Farm, they just sent us the diminished value check without doing anything. I was recently hit by a teen girl insured by USAA. I waited for them to send me the diminished value check like State Farm does - it never came. I had to call them and request a certain form to fill out. When I sent it back, they had to evaluate it to see if I was entitled to the diminished value claim.

It is based on the value of your car and the extent of the auto repair. We have never gotten a very big diminished value check, even though our cars are new and the repair claims weren't inconsequential.
 
Great thread. I have never heard of diminished value. Hope never to need it, but given that my newest car is 14 years old, not likely it would amount to much money if any at all.
 


We have filed two diminished value claims in the last year for our 2016 Odyssey that was hit. Both times we just told the other insurance company that we wanted diminished value. Each time they fought back saying that it was repaired at one of their preferred shop and that it wouldn't effect the value. Both times DH called bull crap because it's on the Carfax report. Then they made us an offer, we countered, and landed somewhere in the middle both times. It was actually pretty quick and easy.
 
So far the insurance company quoted my repair at $1600. I am waiting to see what the repair shop finds once they take off the bumper. I don't know if there was any other damage underneath the bumper.

The purpose of diminished value from what I read is that because your car was in an accident, you won't be able to sell your car in the future at the same price as a like car that was never in an accident.
 
Yes, that is the theory of DV, but it's extremely subjective and in my professional opinion very often it's completely untrue. Carfax is quite a marketing machine, and can be a good tool, but it is not the be all and end all it wants you to think it is. It probably only catches 50% or less of accidents vehicles may have been involved in.

Remember, DO NOT use the dollar amount of the estimate to determine DV, it's irrelevant. What is the actual damage to the car? Just knowing what I know, generally speaking $1600 of damage to a Honda Civic (awesome car by the way) is probably just cosmetic damage. If they don't find hidden damage to the rear body panel (which is behind the rear bumper cover), I frankly wouldn't expect much of a DV offer, if any. I probably wouldn't make one to you. Just being honest.

In Georgia, you are entitled to diminished value. When my DH was hit by a driver insured by State Farm, they just sent us the diminished value check without doing anything. I was recently hit by a teen girl insured by USAA. I waited for them to send me the diminished value check like State Farm does - it never came. I had to call them and request a certain form to fill out. When I sent it back, they had to evaluate it to see if I was entitled to the diminished value claim.

It is based on the value of your car and the extent of the auto repair. We have never gotten a very big diminished value check, even though our cars are new and the repair claims weren't inconsequential.

In Georgia, it's not automatic entitlement to DV. The only difference between Georgia and the rest of the states in the US is that Georgia allows you to make a claim against your own insurance policy, where in the other states you typically cannot. Some carriers...notably State Farm...have adopted policies to pay DV on all claims in Georgia. They have a way they calculate it and just send a check. However, most other carriers don't do that. Even in GA, it can still be declined, and often is.
 
The body shop added another $1000 to the damages since there was damage underneath the bumper.
 
CarFax gets their information from accident reports filed with each state. Absolutely request payment for diminished value for your car! $2600 in damage is a pretty big % of the value of your car! Are you making the claim with your insurance carrier and surrogating to the at fault's carrier?
 
CarFax gets their information from accident reports filed with each state. Absolutely request payment for diminished value for your car! $2600 in damage is a pretty big % of the value of your car! Are you making the claim with your insurance carrier and surrogating to the at fault's carrier?

I filed the claim directly with the other driver's carrier.

Klayfish- the shop mentioned the rear body panel and reinforcement beam was damaged. So what would my Dv claim be? I'm assuming this is above and beyond what the repair shop gets to fix it?

I wasn't even hit that hard, but it was by an SUV.
 
CarFax gets their information from accident reports filed with each state. Absolutely request payment for diminished value for your car! $2600 in damage is a pretty big % of the value of your car! Are you making the claim with your insurance carrier and surrogating to the at fault's carrier?

That is not correct. Carfax gets some registration and ownership information from the state. However, accident data is gathered from a large industry website that most insurance companies use to report information. That's why not all accidents get on Carfax. Some accidents are never reported to insurance, and of the ones that are...some carriers don't report the data to that database, some may not enter the VIN number into their system, some may enter it wrong. Like I said, Carfax is a tool, but it is far, far from "the authority" it wants you to think it is.

The reinforcement behind the bumper cover is not structural. However, the rear body panel is. I would be curious how much damage they found to it. Without seeing the estimate, I'd say the DV claim is somewhere in the $300-$400 range.
 
That is not correct. Carfax gets some registration and ownership information from the state. However, accident data is gathered from a large industry website that most insurance companies use to report information. That's why not all accidents get on Carfax. Some accidents are never reported to insurance, and of the ones that are...some carriers don't report the data to that database, some may not enter the VIN number into their system, some may enter it wrong. Like I said, Carfax is a tool, but it is far, far from "the authority" it wants you to think it is.

The reinforcement behind the bumper cover is not structural. However, the rear body panel is. I would be curious how much damage they found to it. Without seeing the estimate, I'd say the DV claim is somewhere in the $300-$400 range.

Carfax is nice, but nothing is better than an inspection by a qualified mechanic before you buy a car. Just too much information can slip through the cracks. Klayfish, what is your feeling on cars with salvage titles? It has always been my feeling that if an insurance company felt a car wasn't worth fixing, it isn't worth me buying after it is fixed. Yet I know some people, who work in the auto repair industry, who only buy used cars with salvage titles. They feel they are safe, and are a better value.
 
Carfax is nice, but nothing is better than an inspection by a qualified mechanic before you buy a car. Just too much information can slip through the cracks. Klayfish, what is your feeling on cars with salvage titles? It has always been my feeling that if an insurance company felt a car wasn't worth fixing, it isn't worth me buying after it is fixed. Yet I know some people, who work in the auto repair industry, who only buy used cars with salvage titles. They feel they are safe, and are a better value.


Salvage title cars are always a gamble, especially if you don't know for sure exactly why it was totaled. Yes, sometimes they're totaled because the insurance company doesn't feel it's worth fixing...i.e. the damage is more than the car is worth, but that's not always the case. Cars can be totaled for other reasons. A few...

High salvage value. I'll use the Prius as an example. They often bring a lot of money at salvage auction. So let's say it's worth $10,000. If it has $5000 in damage, plus rental during repairs, I could spend $5800 total in repair. However, it's not impossible the car sells for $5000 at salvage auction. So my net spend is $5000 if I total or $5800 if I repair. That doesn't happen often, but it can.

Recovered theft - if a car is stolen, the insurance company pays for it, then it is recovered, the insurance company now owns the car. Those cars are sold at auction, often with a salvage title (or altered in some way). Sometimes they are in 100% perfect condition. Sometimes they aren't.

Flood - Any car that goes in the water is a total loss. It may be a nightmare to fix, but it may just need the carpets removed and dried. Insurance companies don't want to take that gamble.

Customer service - sometimes it's just the right thing to do, so a car may be totaled even if the damage doesn't quite meet threshold. This happens sometimes with high end European cars where parts are very hard to get.

If you know what you're looking for/at, and if you have a good shop you can really trust, then a salvage car is a good value. But just be aware that when you go to sell it you will have a hard time. You also may have a tough time getting comp/coll coverage for it.
 
High salvage value. I'll use the Prius as an example. They often bring a lot of money at salvage auction. So let's say it's worth $10,000. If it has $5000 in damage, plus rental during repairs, I could spend $5800 total in repair. However, it's not impossible the car sells for $5000 at salvage auction. So my net spend is $5000 if I total or $5800 if I repair. That doesn't happen often, but it can.t.

Wow, interesting example, the Prius. I have noticed that a large number of Prius' for sale on Craigs List have salvage titles. I laugh when they all seem to say "salvage title after suffering minor damage".
However, hybrid prices here are plunging. You can even buy a brand new Prius for under $20,000 now. And used hybrids (and electrics) are selling at very low prices at Carmax. The depreciation on them now is huge. So funny it is a high value car.
 

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