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After an accident, one of the first things you will need to do is get your car fixed or get a new car. Negotiating car repair after an accident can be frustrating. The insurance company can give you the runaround. You might even feel like you are getting taken advantage of.

This guide will provide important information and tips to help you negotiate your vehicle damage after an accident. We’ll go over which insurance to use. What happens if they don’t respond? Your deductible and whether you can get it waived. Getting your car fixed, if it can be. What to do if your car is a total loss. We’ll also go over tow and storage charges, loss of use, diminution of value, and what that means.

I may be using words that you are not familiar with. Click here for a list of common terms and what they mean.

I’m going to be referring to California law because that is where I practice. Laws change from state to state and can even change from city to city. If you have a question about your specific case outside of California, talk to a lawyer in your area.

Your insurance v Their Insurance when negotiating your car repair after an accident.

When should you request your insurance to make the repairs versus having the other person’s insurance make the repairs? It depends on a number of factors.

Is there a dispute about how the accident happened? Is there a police report? If the other driver is going to blame you, even partially blame you for the accident, then their insurance company will likely not want to pay for any repairs until who is at fault is determined. That can take a long time. In that situation, you will have to go through your own insurance company to get your car fixed.

If you go through your own insurance company, they will usually be more responsive but they may make you pay a deductible if it is not clear how the accident happened. Sometimes your own insurance company might be the only way to get your car fixed quickly if there is a dispute about how the accident happened.

Another issue that could come up is if you don’t have coverage with your insurance company to fix your own car. If that happens, and there is a dispute about how the accident happened, then you could be stuck with your broken car until there is more investigation into who caused the accident. That’s why it is always a good idea to have your own insurance coverage to get your car fixed after an accident.

If Insurance doesn’t respond to your car repair claim.

It can be very frustrating if you reach out to your insurance company and they don’t respond to you. The other person’s insurance company might also ignore you. This has been known to happen with smaller or lesser-known insurance companies.

First, you want to document your requests in some written form. Write an email or letter demanding that you want your car fixed or evaluated. Give them a reasonable deadline to respond to you. That could be a week or two depending on the circumstances. If you still don’t hear from them you can warn them that you will be contacting the Department of Insurance and give them another deadline. Make sure it is all in writing. If you still don’t hear from the insurance company, you can then contact the California Department of Insurance to file a complaint how the insurance company is not responding.

You can also contact a lawyer who can help to get the insurance company to respond or to help in filing a lawsuit, although most lawyers will charge you a fee and it might not make sense based on the value of the car.

If you are not at fault, and there is clear evidence that you are not at fault, then you can ask your insurance company to waive the deductible. Typically they will want objective evidence that you were not at fault or confirmation that the other diver is accepting fault. If there’s a police report, that could be very helpful. However, if the other side is disputing fault, your insurance company will likely not waive the deductible until there’s been a resolution or further investigation as to how the accident happened. This is why sometimes it can be more beneficial to initially ask the other side’s insurance company to pay for your property damage. The other side will not require you to pay any deductible. But again, if there’s a dispute about how it happened, then they will likely not pay.

Even if you pay the deductible, you can get it reimbursed later after further investigation shows that you’re not at fault.

If you have coverage through your insurance to get your car repaired, they have to respond in a reasonably timely manner and to get your car fixed.

In California, there is an auto body consumer bill of rights (California bill (A.B. 1179). You can read it here. For example, the insurance company cannot require you to use a specific autobody shop. They are also required to give you an itemized list of the repairs and the parts. If, for some reason, they are using used parts or non-OEM parts, they’re required to disclose that to you. An insurance company cannot require that you use used parts.

California Business & Professions Code section 9875.1 provides in relevant part that “[n]o insurer shall require the use of nonoriginal equipment manufacturer aftermarket crash parts in the repair of an insured’ s motor vehicle unless the consumer is advised in a written estimate of the use of nonoriginal equipment manufacturer aftermarket crash parts before repairs are made.”

If you have coverage through your own insurance company, they will provide or pay for a rental vehicle. Your insurance policy will dictate the type of rental car or the maximum rental charge that is allowed.

You may also be able to negotiate with the other person’s insurance company for a rental vehicle if they are also handling the repair or total loss of your car. The rental vehicle will be reasonably equivalent to the damaged car. It’ll also be for a reasonable period of time. If your car is a total loss, for example, the insurance company may set a time limit after making an offer so that you don’t have a rental vehicle for weeks while deciding whether you want to accept a total loss offer.

The insurance company will make a total loss evaluation if your vehicle has sustained enough damage so that repairing it doesn’t make sense. Some insurance companies will use a formula to determine the total loss, like a percentage of the value of the car versus the cost to repair it.

Insurance companies typically use a service that will look for comparable vehicles in your area or where the car is insured and give you a total loss value plus the cost of licensing and fees, taxes, and any other reasonable charges.

If you believe that the cost or total loss evaluation is too low, you’ll need to be prepared to provide evidence of the higher value. That could include your own comparables. You can get comparables from websites where people purchase vehicles, including Carvana, Craigslist etc. If you believe the comparables provided by the insurance company do not include features that your car has, you’ll also need to provide evidence or whatever paperwork confirming your car had those features. For example, if you installed aftermarket parts that increase the value of the vehicle, you’ll need evidence of the purchase and installation of those aftermarket parts.

Be aware that once the insurance company has made a total loss offer, they usually set a tight deadline for the rental vehicle charges so you don’t take too long to decide.

If your vehicle was towed from the scene and stored at a tow yard or body shop, you need to let the insurance companies know that as soon as possible.

The insurance companies will often pay for a limited amount of tow and storage charges. If you leave the car at a storage yard and don’t tell the insurance company, they will blame you for the increased storage charges. Moreover, if the storage place doesn’t get paid or doesn’t hear from anybody they may consider the vehicle abandoned and try to sell it to recoup the storage charges.  For this reason, it’s imperative that you get your car out of storage as soon as possible if there’s a dispute or you don’t have coverage. Otherwise, you may lose the car.

Loss of use refers to the loss in your ability to use your vehicle. Sometimes loss of use is covered with any rental that’s provided to you. However, loss of use can also be more complicated if it’s a special vehicle or a commercial vehicle. For example, we had a client that had an accident while driving a street-sweeping vehicle. He used it for private construction jobs. He had a significant loss of use claim because he used that vehicle for business and it’s not something that’s easy to rent. The insurance company had to factor that into our loss of claim.

Diminution of value refers to the loss of value to your car as a result of it being in a car accident. The fact that your car was in a car accident often shows up in car reports and will affect the value if you choose to sell it later. For this reason, you may be able to make this claim related to the loss of value to your vehicle. Your own insurance company may not provide coverage for this but you may be able to claim it with the other person‘s insurance company.

Sometimes it can be tough to prove the diminution of value for your vehicle. It may make sense to hire a vehicle appraiser who will determine the value of the vehicle and how it changed as a result of the car accident. But you have to consider the cost of the appraiser versus the amount you’re claiming. For many vehicles, the cost of having an appraiser might be more than the actual diminution of value to the vehicle.

If you were in an accident in California, contact our office to schedule a consultation.