So since I've used this forum for a lot of good information regarding parts, DIY's, prices, etc. I figure it's about time that I gave something of value back.

I know a lot of you already know, but for those of you who don't, this may come in handy at some point. I tried running a search and it didn't return anything very useful.

Anyways, the purpose in filing a diminish in value claim is to collect on the unrealized loss that you have suffered when your car has been in an accident. The easiest way to understand this is an example;

You have been rear ended in an accident. Your car is worth $35,000 before the accident. Because your car has been in the accident (which will show up on Carfax and your car will show signs of repair upon inspection) your car has decreased in value - EVEN when fully repaired. Private parties and Dealerships pay less for cars that have been in accidents. So in theory, maybe your car's value (fully repaired) has decreased to $30,000. Your insurance (depending on which state you live in) is obligated to pay you that difference in value ($5,000 in our example).

Now here is where is becomes tricky. Insurance companies will not come up with the difference in value for you. And from personal experience, it is difficult/impossible to get them to pay you out without strong supporting evidence. To get this evidence, you really have 2 options.

1) Pay somebody to do it for you - e.g. an appraiser (typically runs $500-$1,500)
2) Do it yourself (For me, it was about 7-10 hours of work)

Now if you want to get an appraiser, it's on you to research who is good, etc. However, if you want to do it yourself, I will give a quick outline of what you need to present to have a strong claim (and a better chance of being paid out).

There are a few key elements that your claim agent is going to want to see.

1) Documentation and evidence that your vehicle has been properly repaired after the accident. (Pictures/Repair Invoices)

2) Proof that your car has suffered in value as a result of the accident (even with all repairs made)

A) This one is a little bit more complicated. The first step here is that you are going to want to get an appraisal of your car's value after the accident.

There are some free ways to do this. If you have a good relationship with the salesmen who sold you the car, you could ask him to do an appraisal for you - as if you were going to trade in the car. Sometimes they may even be willing to give you 2 quotes - 1 with the car having had the accident and 1 theoretical quote had the accident never happened. Insurance companies typically like to see at least 1 appraisal from a source who builds the car (any Infiniti dealership).

The next part is optional, but if you perform it, it only strengthens your claim. I would also get a second appraisal from a source such as CarMax. You can pretend to want to sell your car and they will give you a written offer good for 7 days. However, if they know that you're having them look at your car just to get an appraisal, they won't do it, so you'll have to be a little sly here. The reason I suggest CarMax is that their appraisers are typically very good at detecting damage/repairs. They will be able to notice that your vehicle had been in an accident and they will mark down the value accordingly.

Now that you have at least a couple independent values for your car after it has been repaired, you can move onto the next step.

B) The second step in to show the difference in value between your repaired car and others on the market. Personally, I did most of my research online - I searched on autotrader, carmax, newspapers, etc. for the value of G37's with similar options/miles/model year/transmission/etc. You will want to include the VIN numbers from the similar cars you use.

It is very important that you do your research in a way that shows that you are not biased and in a way that the claim agent can reperform the same research if he/she wanted to. What I did was include ALL search results (that returned from the criteria above) from CarMax/Autotrader/etc. and then I explained which ones were not comparable to my car (G37S vs Journey vs IPL, mileage differences, etc.).

Once you have enough values of similar cars and have documented them appropriately, you can move on.

C) This step is pretty easy - you compare the value of your car from the independent appraisals in step 2A to the value of cars on the market in step 2B to come up with how much you want to claim as your diminished value. This step is pretty judgmental. My best advice here is to compare apples to apples (compare CarMax quotes to the CarMax appraisal, and dealer quotes to the dealer quote you received). KBB can also help here a little bit - but only to support what you've already researched.

3) Now that you have your claim amount and all the related support - the next step is to put it all together in an organized manner so that the claim agent can review.

For those of you who are currently in this situation, I can provide an example of some support that I used for my claim.

Sorry for the long read - I know I have missed some things here and there so for anybody who has been through this process - feel free to chime in with your own suggestions/lessons from your own experiences.

Anyway, you typically have a couple years from your accident to make this claim - so even if you had the accident a year ago - you may be able to get paid out on this.

Hope some of this information was helpful!
Sean

 

This is good information! Thanks for typing all that up and sharing with us

 

Very good information indeed, hopefully none of us have to use it

 

Sigh.. I got into an accident last week. A taxi hit me on purpose. My airbag deployed.. I wonder if my car still worth any money after I fixed everything..

 

Good information! Thanks for the tips!

 

Good info...but at the end we all pay for this diminished value claims sooner or later.

 

I recently received a diminished value claim from an insurance company (Safeway Auto) without having to do all this research. The damage to my car appeared moderate, but the damages totaled up to $16,600. Mostly damage to rear quarter, with some secondary damage to front quarter. I received a check for $1700 for diminished value of the vehicle. It's possible I could have argued for more, but feel I would have to put in a lot more legwork and still may not get anything more.

It's good to know this information, as most people I spoke to had never heard of diminished value before.

 

So the diminished value pay out doesn't matter who fault when the accident happened?

 

Easier just to get a lawyer, who in return will fight to get you the most value, because in the end, he will only get 33.3% of what you get.

 

Most lawyers would not take a diminished value claim. It's not worth it to them. Their hourly rate can be over $500... Since most diminished value claims would range between 4k - 7k in damages, they wouldn't put in all the work for 33% of such a small amount.


I'm pretty sure you can have it pay out if you're at fault. However, it may spike your rate and you will be paying the deductible.

 

i see. man im trying to proof the taxi intend to hit me. I know he did. cause i saw him 30 feets away. he was traveling 35 mph. how cant he stop on time..

 

There are law firms that specialize in this type of business....I used them personally before.

 

In that case, if you want to skip the headache, you could get a legal firm to do it for you. I'm not entirely sure it is the best financial decision you can make though. I only say this because this is money that you are entitled to either way - you don't need a lawyer to make your case for you.

Lets take this example;

Your claim is worth ~ 6k.

If you use a lawyer it'll cost you ~2k.
If you do it yourself it will take you 10 hours and some stress.

That is a 200/hr after tax impact... I'll make the assumption that the majority of people who drive G37's will qualify for the highest federal tax bracket (35%). If you're in CA, like me, and if you factor in FICA taxes @ 7.65%, you're looking at about roughly 3.8k in pre-tax earnings that you are giving up by enlisting an attorney.

Assuming you make about 80k a year, this is roughly the equivalent of 2.5 weeks of pay...

For me at least, I would rather spend the 10 hours and deal with the headache then spend 100 - 120 hours working to earn that money.

 

Can you elaborate on this? I got screwed on my trade in value of my accord coupe due to the fact that I had a door ding, but all car fax said was accident so trade in value dropped thousands. It was from a guy who parked next to me and was held responsible, although the insurance claim was only $400+.

I traded in the Accord for the G in March of last year after months of frustration trying to resolve the Carfax issue but eventually gave in and took the reduced amount.

 

One thing that I did when I filed my diminished value claim was to use the dealers greed. I asked for written estimates from several car dealership as to what I would be given on trade-in, didn’t really attempt to up their low ball numbers and then took it back to the insurance companies. I had spoken with a company that specializes in Diminished value claims and was told that I should expect about 4k returned even though the damages were less than 7k.

I then presented the dealer offers to the insurance company and they offered 6500, I countered with 7000, to which they immediately (absolutely no hesitation) accepted. I also presented some prices from KBB and Edmunds (which is on the very high side – most dealerships use NADA for trade in values). Of course I kicked myself for not going higher but I was happy with the results none the less