speedlife

does the other insurance company cover you for depriciation as well? nw that i have a record for a rear end accident it will bring the value down when i go to sell it.

brushman

No

BlueIrishS2k

There is a lot of info available on the Internet about this. You CAN attempt to pressure the insurance company into paying you additional damages based on depreciation. It's much easier to do if you go through an attorney but then you only get about 40-60% of the money. You can do it on your own but be prepared to be an a$$ if you need to!

Tigger

I had an Explorer that was less than a year old and was very badly damaged when somebody ran a light and broadsided me. Geez, this was almost 10 years ago now.

I can't remember for sure the name of the other guy's insurance company, so I won't say what it was, but they were a major pain to deal with. I asked my insurance company about the lost value and the term is "lost residual value". They told me it's real, but hard to prove. When I raised the issue of lost residual value with the other company, they pretty much said that it was up to me to prove it.

I went through quite a bit of effort to find somebody who would give me a post-repair written estimate for the primary purpose of proving lost residual value. It seems that most of the appraisers depend on the insurance companies for business and aren't willing to cross them. I finally found a custom car restorer who is was a certified appraiser and was willing to give me a written estimate. I filed the estimate with the other guy's insurance company and they cut me a check.

It was a major hassle, and I don'tl think that the check covered all the value I lost when I sold the vehicle shortly after this episode. If your vehicle is old and already has a depreciated resale value, I'm not sure it would be worth the effort to recover your lost residual value. If it's a new vehicle, you could recover a sizeable chunk, but be prepared for a lot of effort.

nastinupe1

You can do this, but you will have to do some extra work. Your insurance company will provide you with an attorney for this. You have to ask both parties though. But first, get an appraisal on how much the car has depreciated as a result of the accident if you sold it today. If the difference is about $4000, call the other insurance company and fax the information into them with a formal letter requesting compensation for the difference. They should be able to pay it. If not, that's when you call in the lawyers to box it out.

Scot

I could not get a lady's insurance to give me extra $ towards my typhoon when she door wedged it. It was $1k to fix, but I told them I had to tell the next owner it was damaged and repainted... they were like.....


"You have obviously confused us with someone who gives a shit"

Scot

johnnydev

If you can document the "lossed residual value" and it's less than $5k, (or whatever the limit in NY is) could you file this in small claims court? That would alleviate the need for the lawyer and might be less of a hassle. Just a thought...

jd

jschmidt

I think the term you are looking for is "diminished value", not depreciation.

kato

In British Columbia, accident damage over a certain amount (I believe its two or three thousand dollars) must be declared to the new owner. The fact that this is mandated suggests that there is some difference between a car that has been in an accident and one that hasn