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Car totaled or not? Is the insurance company telling you that your mangled car will be fixed? This is a pretty common problem. There is no question that in many accidents, you just want your car fixed (properly) and then move on with your life.
There are those certain accidents where you want car totaled. You know that there is no way the car can be put back to a safe estate. You also know that the damage is so severe that when you trade the car or go to sell it, buyers will turn away or will give you a faction of what the car is worth.
You need to be honest with the claim adjuster, or at least made it clear to insurance company that you want your car totaled. You will not be negotiating with a total loss claim adjuster. You will be negotiating the control adjuster or a field representative.
Review all the documents the insurance company is looking at.
They will tell you that the car did not “reach the threshold” of a total loss. Ask them what that threshold is so they can render the car totaled? In other words, you need to find out what percentage of the value of the car they use to determine the total loss, and what dollar amount the repair estimate is missing to make the car a total loss.
Knowing these two things will help you document your claim. Simply arguing with a claim adjuster will not suffice. Showing documentation will and objective arguments will help you get what you want, the car totaled.
Many claim adjusters will tell you that they do not know what is the percentage that they use, or they do not what the value of your car is. Or that you need to talk
Do not allow for this. If your car is a probable total loss, then the insurance company already has some objective idea of the value of the car.
For example, if the repairs are $11,000 and your car is worth $22,000, then the car is not a total loss (the repairs are only %50 of the value of the car), however, the insurance company cannot conclude like this objectively unless they know the value of your car. They will not want to disclose this, but you can press the issue until you get an answer.
Talk to the adjuster and the adjuster’s managers. Also, send an overnight and certified letter to the insurance company requesting them to disclose the value basis they are using to render the car fixable or that they present some kind of research as to the value of your car.
The next step is looking over the repair estimate. Make sure that all the parts broken will be painted. Also make sure that the labor rate is where it is supposed to be. Better yet, take that estimate to a body shop of your choosing (not the dealership because they will argue that their values are not reasonable) and asked them to review it. They will tell you if the estimate is not missing something critical. Also, ask the body shop for the possibility of “hidden” damage.
A common practice is to write a damage estimate based on what the adjuster sees. The adjuster will not be taking anything off the car. This means that whatever is broken under the body will not be accounted for. This “hidden” damage can be the difference between getting your car totaled or fixed.
You can request the insurance company to do a “tear down”. This is the process where the insurance company pays the carrier pays the body shop to take the pieces of the car and write an estimate on damage on what is not “visible”. One would think that insurance companies will make sure that everything in the car was correctly accounted for, but unless you ask them to look pass the visible damage, they will not. Your car totaled will not be a reality unless you push the insurance company.
This strategy has two effects. The insurance company will have to spend money (something they do not like to do), they will run the accounting knowing that they run the risk to having to pay for a tear down and a car totaled, and they have to justify to you that there is no significant damage under body. This will compel them to work with you and simply declare the a total loss.
Read more about how to get your car totaled.
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