Car Total Loss Claim Advice

A car total loss claim is a type of insurance that is claimed when the cost of repairing your damaged vehicle exceeds your car’s current value.

Informally, this is also known as a “write-off” because the damage done to your vehicle has written off its value leaving it worth next to nothing.

An insurance company will calculate whether or not your automobile is a total loss by taking three factors into consideration:

• How much your vehicle was worth at the time of the accident (depreciated market value).

• How much it will cost to repair your vehicle at an auto repair shop.

• How much a scrap or junk yard would pay for your vehicle.

You car is deemed to be a total loss if the cost of repairing your car is greater than its value at the time of the accident minus any salvage value from the scrap yard. This can be summarized as follows:

Repair cost > Depreciated Market value – Salvage Value

Whether or not your vehicle is deemed to be a write off therefore largely depends upon the type of vehicle you have, its age and the extent of the damage it suffered as a result of being in a road accident or traffic accident.

In general however, the probability of your vehicle being written off will increase the older your vehicle is, the lower its original purchase price was and the greater the damage it has suffered.

Basically, if your vehicle is old, badly damaged and didn’t cost very much to begin with, then you can expect to file a total loss claim.

If you are ever involved in a car accident in which your vehicle becomes badly damaged, keep on reading below to find out how to get the most amount of money back from a car total loss insurance claim.

Car Insurance Claim Process

If your car is a total loss, the insurance company will need to calculate the value of your car at the time of the accident. This is known as the actual cash value, which is different from the blue book value.

Book value tells you the average selling price of a car like yours with similar features and mileage. It will be used to help calculate the actual cash value.

However, it is worth bearing in mind that the actual cash value and the book value are likely to vary somewhat. This is because the book value shows only the average price of similar cars, so there would have been instances where your automobile was sold for more or less than the book value states.

When calculating the actual cash value, the book value is used as an estimation guide only and not a definite pricing guide.

You can help to get a more accurate valuation of your vehicle by looking for other cars like yours which have been sold within the past few months. You can also ask used car dealerships what they would expect to sell a car like yours for.

The more figures you can come up with, the more accurate of a valuation you are likely to make. Having this figure will be of great help to you in ensuring that your insurance company gives you a fair automobile valuation.

One common mistake people make when filling automobile total loss claims, is just accepting the valuation given to them by their insurance company without doing any independent research by themselves.

Of course, one would hope that an insurance company would provide you with a fair valuation of your vehicle, but you will never know for sure unless you are able to compare the figure they give you with an average of how much you think your car is worth.

Getting A Fair Vehicle Valuation

In order to determine the pre-accident value of your car, your auto insurer will need to check with other used car dealers to see what your automobile would have sold for. The value that they determine will ultimately affect your claim, so it is in your best interest to make sure that you get a fair valuation.

Whilst you can request that the insurance company seeks multiple valuations from different used car dealers, the best way to get a fair valuation is to do it yourself.

Speak to the managers at used car dealerships, and then write down their estimate, their name, the dealerships name and their phone number.

If your automobile was in good condition before the accident and you have photos, be sure to show them to the manager as this will likely affect the final valuation that you get.

After you have spoken with several used car managers and received estimates, take those estimates and average them with any other values you find such as in your local newspaper or on the Internet to determine your cars pre-accident value.

It is important to note however, that because cars lose their value so quickly, the valuations you make must be done around the same time that you are making your claim in order for those valuations to be valid.

At most, you are probably looking at a time period of around 2-3 months, perhaps less, for a valuation to be considered as being valid by your insurance company. Any longer than that, and your valuations will be considered to be out of date and will likely be rejected.

You can therefore strengthen your valuation figure when making a car total loss insurance claim by getting as up-to-date vehicle valuations as you can. The closer those valuations are to the time your car accident occurred, the more valid they will be seen as being.

Once you have your figure, you can then use it as a guide to determine whether to accept or reject the estimate the insurance adjuster offers you for how much they think your automobile is worth.

If you have rejected their offer, be sure to clearly state why and present any evidence you have collected. If your evidence is strong enough, your car insurance company will have to accept your valuation and revise their total loss claim payout settlement amount.

Extra Tips To Maximize Cash Return

Don’t forget to factor costs such as sales tax and title fees when you first purchased your vehicle into your insurance claim.

Also, don’t forget about other fees such as the prorated share of your license plate fee. The value you come up with should be based on how many months you have left over until your license plate expires.

Both of these points can be easily overlooked, and often are, which results in you receiving less money in your settlement claim than you are entitled to. Of course, the insurance company won’t remind you about these things, so be sure to bring them up yourself.

Another point that is worth remembering is to ensure that your auto insurer is in fact basing their valuation upon the correct specification of your vehicle.

So double-check with their specifications and let them know about any modifications you have made such as to the windows, seats, stereo system, wheel rims, lights, bodywork, exhaust and suspension. Engine size is also another important specification to double-check as that can affect the overall value of your automobile quite substantially.

Finally, when your car has been totaled and the accident was not your fault, file an insurance claim with the other driver’s car insurance and your own collision coverage car insurance at the same time. By doing so you will receive two offers for the value of your vehicle, thereby allowing you to then take the highest one.