Car Crash Property Damage: Getting Fair Value When Totaled

• Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania,United States,Federal
• Law Firm: McNees Wallace & Nurick
• Subject Matter: Insurance, Transport, Insolvency/Bankruptcy/Re-structuring, Insolvency/Bankruptcy, Rail, Road & Cycling, Insurance Laws and Products
• Author: Mr Joseph Chapman
• Published date: 29 May 2023

Reprinted with permission from the March 30, 2023 edition of The Legal Intelligencer ' 2023 ALM Media Properties, LLC. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. All rights reserved.

'I have never been through this before, and I'm just not sure how to handle it.' If what needs to be 'handled' is a vehicle property damage insurance claim with no personal injury, you can confidently guide an insurance consumer in the right direction; it can be a DIY project. If you are dubious about the last sentence, read on and keep this article within easy reach for when someone walks into your life carrying the weight of a totaled vehicle claim.

An educated insurance consumer can get to a fair value for a car that is a total loss, if they keep these guidelines in mind:

• Understand the process;
• Do the research; and
• Remind the appraiser and the insurer of their responsibilities.

The process:

There are two remedies for most situations in which a vehicle is damaged:

• An insurer will pay to fix the vehicle, bringing it back to its pre-accident condition, or,
• An insurer will pay the owner the actual cash value for the vehicle, 'totaling' the car.

For this discussion, we will assume proper remedy is to total the car, and the car is not a specialized vehicle or classic and is not on a replacement cost-type policy.

In laymen's terms, getting to the actual cash value means paying the consumer enough to buy a similar car. Similar means the same kind and quality, which usually translates to the same make (GMC), same model (Acadia), of the same year, mileage, condition, and with the same features as the one totaled. It is impossible to find a car with identical attributes, so similar also means one which is comparable.

There are two types of people involved from the insurance company side who affect the value of the claim. There is an appraiser who values the vehicle and a property damage insurance adjuster who negotiates the value of the claim for the insurance company.

Let's get specific on the process to get to the value. The car is at a body shop. The body shop gives an appraiser for the insurance company an estimate to fix the car. The appraiser recognizes that the estimate is over the threshold for what totals the car. The adjuster tells the insured the vehicle is totaled, and that the insurance company will offer to buy the vehicle for what the car's actual cash value was before the wreck'settling the claim. The appraiser inspects the car and determines the actual...