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How to Determine If Your Insurance Company is Paying
You a Fair Value for Your Totaled Automobile?

Getting your insurance company to pay a fair value for your totaled
automobile is challenging. The value you receive may be limited by the
contract limits of your insurance policy. Such limits are part of the insurance
contract and restrict benefits to those that you purchased. Many people
have their vehicle insured for the full replacement cost of the vehicle;
however, insurance adjusters are motivated to reduce the “full” replacement
cost.
Adjusters often try to persuade their clients into accepting less than they are
entitled. Adjusters will use tactics such as discounting the value of certain
options and then threatening to take the entire matter to arbitration when the
client disagrees with the valuation. Most insurance contracts do contain an
arbitration clause that mandates binding arbitration when there are
disagreements as to value. Some adjusters try to scare their clients into
accepting the lower valuation by stating that if the disagreement goes to
arbitration, the client will have to pay more in arbitration costs, expert
appraiser fees, and attorney costs than the difference in the disputed
value.
You can increase the valuation amount by using Internet resources to serve
as the basis for your value arguments.   Kelly Blue Book and the National
Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) websites are easy to use and will
allow you to select the model, make, year, and options to generate a fair
value.
Insurance adjusters often feel that the Kelly Blue Book values are too high
and aimed at the consumer market (classified ads) rather than the car
dealer’s market. Adjusters generally believe the NADA values are more
accurate since it is more likely that a replacement vehicle with identical
options would be found at a car dealership rather than through the classified
ads. However, insurance adjusters don’t account for dealer mark-ups that
get tacked on to the trade in-values taken from NADA. You can also search
the internet for a car dealer ad for a similar car and use the ad prices as an
additional basis for your increased value argument. You also should insist
that sales tax is added to the final valuation amount since this is a cost that
you will have to bear when you purchase a replacement vehicle.
Sometimes these valuation strategies are not enough and an attorney
should intervene in order to cut or reverse the intimidation games that some
insurance adjusters play.