Diminished Value

[clover]

My question involves insurance law for the state of: Indiana

here's the situation: i was hit, and the other guy's insurance accepted liability for the accident. when i took it in, the final cost of repair was 87% of the car's total value, but they didn't total it out, which is what i would rather they have done.

at this point, i'm trying to get compensation for the loss of value since the car has now had major body work done. they haven't done an inspection of the repairs yet, but they've been saying that the fact that it's been repaired should make the car equal in value to before the accident.

this simply isn't true because anyone who sees that work has been done on the car (via say, carfax, or just a good mechanic) won't pay as much for it, so they haven't actually brought me back to where i was before the accident, if in no other way than that i cannot say with a clean conscience that there hasn't been any major work on the car as far as i know.

so, what can i do? i don't know anything about this stuff and i've never been in a major accident before.. so i don't really know even where to go from here. i just don't get how they can even begin to say that the car is worth as much as it was before.

anyway... help!

[Mr. Knowitall]

Did you sign a settlement agreement with the other driver's insurance? If so, you've probably signed away your rights to make an additional claim. If not, be careful about signing anything and consider trying to negotiate an additional payment. See if you can get a car dealership to tell you the market value of the car with and without the collision on the title history, and use that to negotiate.

[clover]

Did you sign a settlement agreement with the other driver's insurance? If so, you've probably signed away your rights to make an additional claim. If not, be careful about signing anything and consider trying to negotiate an additional payment. See if you can get a car dealership to tell you the market value of the car with and without the collision on the title history, and use that to negotiate.

i haven't signed any settlement agreement, and i actually do have a diminished value claim in the works, but they're approaching it from the angle of "was it repaired well?" rather than the difference in market value my car has now versus before it had body work done. according to them, if it was repaired well than it's worth the same, and as far as things like carfax "well, we don't report to car fax and there's no law that says you have to say that it's had body work."

so they're asking me to lie, or say "well, i don't have to tell you" which basically screams that it's had work done.