I have reveiwed many of the other posts on this subject, but I felt like sharing my situation here to see if I have missed anything. Our car was totaled and the at-fault driver's insurance carrier gave us what we believe is a very low offer on our vehicle.
In spite of providing several examples of for sale listings in the local market that show cars with similar mileage and condition valued at (net of dealer profit) $2K or more, the carrier has now responded with a take our offer or we will send you a failure to settle letter. We do not want to go to our carrier because we don't want this to add to our already sky-high premium (teenage drivers and accidents).
What options realistically do we have other than going to our carrier and/or litigation? Since it is the other driver's carrier, I assume we cannot invoke the appraisal clause. Can we still get an independent appraiser to review? Is there anything else we may have missed?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Would love some help regarding total loss – have done a search already
byu/grandpiper inInsurance
Posted by grandpiper
5 Comments
Take their offer or go through your insurance company. If you decide to go through your company they will likely come to the same Actual Cash Value amount as the other party’s insurance. If you don’t agree with that amount you can invoke the appraisal clause in your policy. There is no applause clause available when you are making a claim with another insurance company.
Have you asked why the comps you provided aren’t sufficient? If they refuse, then I think that could be worthy of a DOI complaint. An appraiser likely won’t help, because the carrier isn’t required to listen to them. There might be other things that apply, but without location, we don’t know.
Your insurance will find out about this anyway when they run your ISO reports and MVR at renewal, FYI.
The two options you listed are pretty much it. I’d your own insurance or sue. “For sale” prices aren’t “sold for” prices. That’s why they’re rejecting it.
Have you contacted the sellers listed on the CCC report? Did the vehicle sell for the price listed? Did the vehicle have same options mileage? If not, were values corrected to recognize the variance.