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What are the steps that i need to follow in order to submit a diminished value claim in Texas?
Back in July of last year my 2006 BMW X3 was involved in a car accident, the total cost for repairs was about 7-8k. I was rear ended by an uninsured driver, therefore my insurance (Allstate) paid for all the repairs. Recently, I have been contacted by a 3rd party group offering to do all the paper work for 30% of whatever i get back and honestly i think that is way too much. I have been researching the steps to submit a claim myself to the insurance company, but it seems kind of hopeless because the information is not really straight forward. I understand i have to buy a diminished value report from a company that offers this service, but my real question is which company is the best to do this with and what are the steps that i need to do, in order to make my claim successful? Thanks
You do not have to buy any type of diminished value report from any company. Those are cr@p and a waste of money. The insurance company does not care about those and does not even consider those reports.
If you want to make a diminished value claim – call up the adjuster handling your claim and say "I’d like to make a claim for diminished value please".
Diminished value considers a lot of things: What part of the car was hit? What type of parts were used? What were the quality of the repairs? What was the overall condition of the vehicle prior to the loss? What is the age of the vehicle? What are the state laws regarding disclosure of damage? Those garbage diminished value reports don’t consider any of these things. They are just arbitrary junk that comes off the internet.
Allstate will probably send their appraiser out to reinspect the quality of the repairs and will come up with a determination.
Note: if the repair costs were 7-8k, you will not get 7-8k as diminished value. Your car does not diminish by the amount of the repairs.
Here’s why: example: you have a car that would sell for 20K. It sustains 5K in damage. If you were to sell the un-repaired car, you would sell it for 20K-5K = 15K.
If you repair the car and go to sell it….would you still knock 5K off the price? Probably not. But since it’s been hit and repaired, you may have to reduce the price a little bit….but not for the amount of the repairs.
Also….not every car loses value just because it was hit. At this point, you have a 3 year old car. You will probably get a little something….but don’t expect big bucks.
You do not have to buy any type of diminished value report from any company. Those are cr@p and a waste of money. The insurance company does not care about those and does not even consider those reports.
If you want to make a diminished value claim – call up the adjuster handling your claim and say "I’d like to make a claim for diminished value please".
Diminished value considers a lot of things: What part of the car was hit? What type of parts were used? What were the quality of the repairs? What was the overall condition of the vehicle prior to the loss? What is the age of the vehicle? What are the state laws regarding disclosure of damage? Those garbage diminished value reports don’t consider any of these things. They are just arbitrary junk that comes off the internet.
Allstate will probably send their appraiser out to reinspect the quality of the repairs and will come up with a determination.
Note: if the repair costs were 7-8k, you will not get 7-8k as diminished value. Your car does not diminish by the amount of the repairs.
Here’s why: example: you have a car that would sell for 20K. It sustains 5K in damage. If you were to sell the un-repaired car, you would sell it for 20K-5K = 15K.
If you repair the car and go to sell it….would you still knock 5K off the price? Probably not. But since it’s been hit and repaired, you may have to reduce the price a little bit….but not for the amount of the repairs.
Also….not every car loses value just because it was hit. At this point, you have a 3 year old car. You will probably get a little something….but don’t expect big bucks.
References :
Insurance Adjuster 12 years
Pretty sure you cannot make a diminished value claim against your own coverage unless you have uninsured motorist coverage(Property Damage).
You will have to file a claim directly against the at fault party. Unfortunately, he is not insured. Doubt you will ever see a dime from him. Sorry.
References :
Claims – 23 years
You don’t need another party to handle this for you. You can approach your own carrier and request a review on diminished value…you’ll have a difficult time with this as under normal circumstances diminished value is not paid off your own policy whether the other party was insured or uninsured.
References :
Claims Adjuster 17yrs
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