But what about my car!? Diminished Value Claims in NC
Greetings, faithful readers. You are of course aware by now that I handle auto accident claims. Generally, there will be a property damage component to these claims. In other words, your car needs to get fixed. For the most part, you don’t need help with that; you can use your own collision coverage to take care of that, or normally, with a little poking, the bad guys will get your car repaired. There are a few tips I can give you to help that move along, but that’s for another post.
But can you do anything about the value lost on a repaired vehicle? Yes, you can. Obviously, when a vehicle undergoes considerable repairs from an accident that information is going to follow the vehicle for the rest of its life. If you have a newer car with limited mileage, this can result in a significant loss of value in the re-sale value of your vehicle. So what do you do?
As part of your claim you can raise a diminished value claim. This kind of claim is what I call a “pay to play” type of claim. You have to spend some money to get a positive result. In other words it normally won’t help you to just say, “Hey, my car is worth $3000 less. Write me a check.” You will want to hire an appraiser to give an educated opinion in a report as to the loss of value and then present that to the adjuster. Often times this can help cushion the blow of making your new car a little less shiny and new.
Probably the most important thing to remember on diminished value claims is the timing. The regulations state that you must make that sort of claim in a “reasonable” time frame. They don’t say what time frame isn’t reasonable, but they do say that 30 days is reasonable. Is after 30 days OK? Maybe, but let’s not be the test case. Do it right after it gets repaired.
Of course, as with virtually all aspects of these auto claims, having an attorney will help that go more smoothly. How? Well, we can give you a good idea as to when it might make sense to make this sort of claim and when it might be best to punt (we know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em, for the most part). We can also give you an idea as to the type of appraisal you want in your particular situation (does it merit a super fancy one, or should you go cheap?). We are professional negotiators, too, so that helps.
So, if you’ve been in an auto accident and want to talk about your injuries and maybe your car’s injuries too, let me know. 919-929-2992.
Trackback from your site.