Your insurance policy is a contract between you and your insurance company that dictates what both of you are responsible for. If you have collision and comprehensive coverage (full coverage), your insurance carrier is responsible for getting you financially to “pre loss condition”. That means if you would have needed $30,000 to buy your car in the local market in the condition it was in the moment before the loss (accident), you either need $30,000 in your hand (minus deductible/co insurance and/or your portion of the liability) or an equivalent vehicle.

The appraisal clause is what guarantees you that you have $30,000 not $20,000. Policies are vary in language, however the essence is “if you and your carrier can’t agree on a value of the vehicle, you can both hire impartial parties to appraise the value. If the new agreed upon value is higher than the insurance’s last offer, the insurance carrier must reimburse the customer the money invested in the appraisal process.”

Example language in a policy: “If we cannot agree with you on the amount of a loss, then we and you may mutually agree to an appraisal of the loss Within 30 days of any mutual agreement to an appraisal, each party shall appoint a competent appraiser and shall notify the other party of that appraiser’s identity The appraisers will determine the amount of loss If they fail to agree, the disagreement will be submitted to a qualified umpire chosen by the appraisers If the two appraisers are unable to agree upon an umpire within 15 days, we or you may request that a judge of a court of record, in the county where you reside, select an umpire The appraisers and umpire will determine the amount of loss The amount of loss agreed to by both appraisers, or by one appraiser and the umpire, will be binding. We will reimburse you for reasonable appraisal costs if the amount of loss agreed to by both appraisers, or by one appraiser and the umpire, is greater than the amount of our last offer to you prior to the incurrence of any appraisal costs.

Otherwise, you will pay your appraiser’s fees and expenses; we will pay our appraiser’s fees and expenses; and we and you will share equally all other expenses of the appraisal, including payment of the umpire if one is selected. Neither we nor you waive any rights under this policy by agreeing to an appraisal.

If your vehicle has been deemed a total loss by your insurance company, they will contact you with a settlement offer. You can accept it, you can explain why you think your vehicle is worth more and they will ask for proof from you. Generally this means finding comparable vehicle for sale in the local market.

If you aren’t satisfied with the amount offered you can invoke the appraisal clause in your policy. You select an appraiser as does the insurance company. This is where we go to work for you. With the photos of the vehicle used to make the claim, some supporting information from you and our state of the art software that allows us to see vehicle sales and prices from everything from auctions to big name dealers in the area, we can assess and prove how much it will cost you to purchase an equivalent vehicle.

As long as the value is higher than the insurance’s offer by any amount, the last step is the insurance company reimbursing you for our services.

Contact us for a free case review. We will review what you were offered, the documentation you have on the claim, the amount you think is fair and how we can assist in documenting that value.

If you have collision and comprehensive insurance your insurance carrier has different obligations to you than the person who was at fault for the loss. Your carrier has a contract with you to make you whole and represent your mutual financial interest. You can dispute the value with the at fault driver’s carrier, but your carrier is beholden to the language in your policy including the appraisal clause.

If you make a claim with your carrier even if you aren’t at fault, you carrier will pay for the damage in the moment to make you whole, then demand payment from the other driver’s policy via an internal process called subrogation. In short this means, just because you make a claim with your carrier, doesn’t mean the money for the claim is being paid by your policy ultimately.

Diminished Value is compensation for the loss of revenue someone incurs through the damage to their vehicle through no fault of their own. Simply put, if I have a $50,000 sports car that has been in a loss and I want to sell and someone else has one for sale that hasn’t been in an accident, I will have to lower my price to sell the vehicle even though it’s been fixed. Diminished value is assessed and applied when you are not at fault for the accident and takes place after the repairs are completed.

If you invoke the appraisal clause of your policy, you pay for the appraisal up front and are reimbursed if the final decision is higher than the insurance companies offer to you.

You have a contract with your insurance company, they are obligated to protect you from financial loss based on the coverage you sign up for. If you have made a claim with another driver’s carrier and are having issues getting what you need, you can make a claim with your carrier and they will subrogate for the loss.

This is common after a total loss. The insurance company gets charged storage by tow yards and body shops for total loss vehicle they have on site. The carrier is trying to minimize cost by towing the totaled vehicle to a facility that doesn’t change storage AKA their facility. Even if your vehicle is towed to an auction yard, this doesn’t mean you have to or have accepted the value they have offered you.

If the insurance carrier wants to move your vehicle to a storage free facility and you decline, they may send a letter of storage cutoff. This is a notice saying they will not pay for storage past a certain date. This means if you leave your vehicle at XYZ body shop after the cutoff the additional storage charges are your liability as opposed to the insurance company’s. Storage charges can add up quick, contact the facility storing your vehicle as soon as possible to make arrangements.

You have the right to retain your vehicle after a total loss. If you do, the insurance company will reduce your settlement by the amount they planned on selling the car for scrap. Example: If your car is worth $10,000 pre loss, and the insurance company gets a bid for it for $1,000 after it is totaled. You can take the settlement for $10,000 or retain the salvage unit and payment for $9,000. You vehicle won’t be repaired with insurance money and it will have a salvage title moving forward.

If you are going through your own insurance, you are subject to the rental car policy you have purchased. Most of the time that is a specific dollar amount, per day for a maximum of 30 days. Some rental car companies will allow you to continue to pay for the rental after the 30 days, but at the insurance company’s rates.

After your vehicle is deemed a total loss, the insurance company should create and send you a valuation report. This explains the condition they deemed your car to be in as well as the listings of the other cars for sale they used to determine your value. Often these valuations are generated automatically using collision estimating software like CCC or Mitchell and have various guidelines such as only using comparable from a specific distance from you. This isn’t always to your advantage.

At FD Auto we take a different approach, we utilize software that dealerships use to find and price cars based on the market. We can provide detailed and provable values, however we have a plethora of data points to utilize, thus can represent what it will actually take for your to replace

All money isn’t always directly recoupable, however letting your appraiser know what money you have invested can help generate an accurate value and settlement. Did you know your insurance company is obligated to account for any upgrades you have invested in? Right down to the all weather floor mats we all have in this part of the country!