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Diminished Value claims
This is a bit of a touchy subject with me, because I believe that the insurance companies have it all wrong.
A Diminished Value claim is simply a claim regarding property, usually a vehicle, that was damaged and has been repaired. But it still may never have the same value as it would if it has not been damaged at all. At one time, if the vehicle was properly repaired, then there was truly no Diminished Value. Now we have CarFax and similar information providers. These are great tools for buyers, but if a vehicle has been damaged in an accident, I don’t care how well you repair it, its always going to have a CarFax notice for that accident. Therefore the value is permanently diminished.
Georgia is one of the few states that has legislated Diminished Value. (Georgia legislates a LOT anyway, so this is not too surprising.) What’s surprising is that the insurance industry had a formula it used based on the Georgia statute. I used this formula as an adjuster myself. Well, it appears that the insurance industry has now run afoul of the statute. (I know, you’re surprised.) It seems that the insurance companies have been saying that their “formula” was approved by the Georgia Insurance Commissioner. According to the Insurance Commissioner, that statement was not true.
You know, if insurance companies would simply be nice and give the consumer the benefit of the doubt, there wouldn’t be any need attorneys who handle insurance matters for the consumer. But it appears that we have plenty of work to do because of them.
If you want to read more on this topic, check out this blog post.
If you have a question about a Tennessee Diminished Value claim, please feel free to contact the Dowlen Law Firm, PLLC at 615.497.0763 to discuss it.
September 29, 2008 at 10:55 am
Good point when you say:
“You know, if insurance companies would simply be nice and give the consumer the benefit of the doubt, there wouldn’t be any need attorneys who handle insurance matters for the consumer. But it appears that we have plenty of work to do because of them.”
Well…it’s just the nature of business. I’ve run across insurance companies that immediately dismiss the idea of an inherent diminished value claim. Some companies will tell people that they simply don’t honor a claim.
Crazy…
Glad to see that you are helping clients as we are. I highly recommend that BEFORE anybody tries to file a diminished value claim, they talk to someone like Advocate Auto Claims or Dowlen Law Firm to help walk them through it first.
Once a value is determined by the insurance company, they draw a hard line in the sand and it’s hard to get them to budge. If you submit a claim based on knowledge and experience…it’s likely that you will get a higher dollar amount for your claim.