Appraisal Clause results in fair value for owner!

December 12, 2018By Jen Petty

Sometimes, when you invoke the appraisal clause, the two appraisers get in a sticky situation where they don’t agree and one tries to make up unwritten rules on the idea of “that is what we have always done”.

This case was one of those.

The owner had been through a pretty horrific hail storm and his new vehicle was totaled in the process. When he got his offer, he felt like it was pretty low. We took a look and agreed that his valuation contained the typical problems they normally do and seemed to be several thousand dollars off.

Read about how this Appraisal Clause case wrapped up!

Total Loss Help – What Can You Do?

October 1, 2018By Justin Petty

Total loss disputes are common.

The value of your vehicle is very important to you, but it may not be as important to your insurance company or the insurance company of that guy or girl that hit your car and totaled it.

There are some options to help get a fair value on your vehicle.

The most common and accepted is to employ the services of a non-interested professional. If the professional is truly a non-interested expert, then their opinion should be based on accepted appraisal methods and proper training and experience. The value you get from an independent appraiser should be in line with the actual value of your vehicle as it relates to the terms of the insurance claim.

READ ABOUT YOUR TOTAL LOSS OPTIONS!

Diminished Value, It’s Just an Opinion

January 9, 2014By Justin Petty No Comments

diminished value opinion

One of the most common questions I get comes from customers who have been negotiating for the recovery of their lost market value and get told by an adjuster that the amount of inherent diminished value they want is only an opinion. Faced with this argument, the customer wants to know what to say.

A claims representative or adjuster that simply refuses to acknowledge lost value and pretends that there is no way to prove the loss is a common obstacle and a tactic that is successful when there is an uninformed accident victim. Don’t buy it! Get informed and read on. . . . (more…)

Diminished Value and Kelley Blue Book

September 13, 2013By Justin Petty No Comments

Recently, I had a case where an adjuster was negotiating an inherent lost market value claim based on values and condition descriptions found in Kelley Blue Book. The amount of inherent lost value that the adjuster was willing to pay was about $4k less than what my research and opinion came out to. Obviously, I argued that Kelley was not accurate, and naturally, the adjuster requested a synopsis on why I believed that using Kelley Blue Book was not a reliable method for researching inherent lost market value, or DV as it is becoming common to call it (diminished value).

I happily obliged the adjuster, and here in this blog entry, I will re-cap why I think using Kelley Blue Book (or any other online valuation guide) to calculate DV is a severely lacking and inaccurate method.

(more…)

Main

Sometimes, when you invoke the appraisal clause, the two appraisers get in a sticky situation where they don’t agree and one tries to make up unwritten rules on the idea of “that is what we have always done”.

Total loss disputes are common.

The value of your vehicle is very important to you, but it may not be as important to your insurance company or the insurance company of that guy or girl that hit your car and totaled it.