QuestionI wrecked my can back in August of 2011. I ran a carfax on it last weekend because I wanted to trade it in and come to find out that not only was there the obvious damage, but there was also frame damage to my car that nobody informed me of. As you can imagine the car is now basically worthless and its paid off. The car has been repaired but in my opinion it should have been totaled and I don't think the insurance company did the proper, if any research to find out the market value before authorizing the repairs. I paid $19,500 for my car in 11/2009 have put roughly 32k miles on it. They are trying to tell me that the market value of the car was $20,000 at the time of the accident and I know for a fact this is not correct. On top of that I'm at 80% of the value of the car verses repairs. Heres how I get my numbers: My car was worth about $18,000 at the time of the loss (which is still a little high but I want a bigger check, the repair bill was $12,739.50 before my deductible, rental coverage paid $1,200 of rental costs (which didn't cover the entire bill, the repair shop picked up the rest since it took them so long to fix#, towing was $150
So far we have a total of $14,089.50 for repair, rental, & towing. I then had to take my car back to the repair shop for incorrect repairs and missed repairs all together causing another $310 in rental fees that #$157 of which came out of my pocket# now we are at $14,709.50. My car is back at the repair shop now costing me another $306 out of pocket. Now we are at $15,015.50. My insurance company nor the body shop never let me know the extent of the damage, in fact when I would call to ask they would tell me it wasn't that bad. No one disclosed to me that the car had frame damage. No one ever gave me a estimate until I picked up my car and the repair was complete. I'm still having problems with the work that was done not to mention the diminished value on the car which my insurance company is saying they are not responsible for. Even though the car has been repaired I'm trying to get them to total it out because of the loss of value and the fact that the repair is more than 80% of the value of the car at the time of the loss. My insurance company is trying to tell me they don't include rental costs etc.... when calculating the repair % to market value of the car and they cant produce any research they did on the value of the car & why it wasn't totaled to begin with. I live in Florida, was not at fault #the at fault party who cut off the person I hit took off) or ticketed for the accident even though I rear ended someone. I go to meet the adjuster this morning at 9am. How do I get them to total this worthless car out?
AnswerHi Mathew,
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to force the insurance company to total your car. The decision to repair or total a vehicel is solely up to the insurance. The vehicle owner has no say in the matter. The 80% to total is not a law, it is simply an industry standard. This only applies if the cost of repairs is known to be 80% or more of the value before any repairs begin. Once the repairs begin and especially once they are completed, there is nothing that will cause a vehicle to be totaled. The insurance company is simply not going to pay for 15k in repairs and then turn around and pay you 20k for the car that was only worth 20k to begin with.
Another issue is the diminished value of your car. Also unfortunately, in the state of Florida you can not collect diminished value from your own insurance policy. An insurance policy is a contract and you can only get what is covered and/or not excluded in the contract. A few years ago there was a class action law suit in Florida. The supreme court of Florida determined that the Florida auto policy did not provide coverage for diminisihed value. If the at-failt party had been known and had insurance, you would have been able to collect diminiahed value from them. But in this case you can not.
You are entitled to a properly and completely repaired vehicle. You may want to find another local body shop that is not associated with your insurance company or a post repar inspector to inspect your car to determine what is at issue. If your insurance company referred you to the body shop that did the repairs then they are responsible for the quality of the repairs. Unfortunately, when an insurance company refers you to a body shop it is because they have a contract with that body shop that is specifically designed to save the insurance company money. This often results in poor quality repairs so the shop can still make a profit.
I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh
