Diminished Value Claim

[riceboy22]

I know this has been discussed in threads on other sections of the forum, but I figured I'd check here if any of you have experience with or advice on filing a diminished value claim after an accident. If you did not see the picture from earlier, I got sideswiped on Saturday by someone turning right from the left lane. The car is already at the body shop for repairs and it looks like it will need at a minimum new front and rear driver side doors. There is also damage to my rear driver side wheel (WAH) which I will probably just get touched up since I doubt it can be color matched effectively.



Has anyone filed a diminished value claim before that can offer advice? The car is a 2015 SQ5 with about 15k miles on it currently. My plan is still to keep it long term, but in the event I decide to sell or trade it in at some point, I'm assuming I'll take a material hit on the value with the accident on record. I'm wondering if it's worth filing a diminished value claim and what's actually involved in the process.

[zcspec]

First question is, did the person who hit you stop or was it a hit and run? If they did stop and you have full insurance info, did you hire an attorney? I would highly recommend an attorney with DV claim experience. Unfortunately, the insurance company will fight you to the end. They will do their very best to lessen the impact of the accident.

If you don't have an attorney, it's going to be a long process. You need to source an independent shop that has extensive DV claims experience. They will assess the damages to determine how much of an impact the accident had on your SQ5. Once they have a final assessment (which should be several pages long), you'll submit it to the claims adjuster and fight them to the end.

There is no doubt, an accident on your Carfax makes your car less desirable to trade in or sell. That's why, it's a MUST to file a claim. Why should you take the financial impact when it wasn't your fault?

Good luck with the process, don't give up. PM me if you need additional feedback.

[riceboy22]

First question is, did the person who hit you stop or was it a hit and run? If they did stop and you have full insurance info, did you hire an attorney? I would highly recommend an attorney with DV claim experience. Unfortunately, the insurance company will fight you to the end. They will do their very best to lessen the impact of the accident.

If you don't have an attorney, it's going to be a long process. You need to source an independent shop that has extensive DV claims experience. They will assess the damages to determine how much of an impact the accident had on your SQ5. Once they have a final assessment (which should be several pages long), you'll submit it to the claims adjuster and fight them to the end.

There is no doubt, an accident on your Carfax makes your car less desirable to trade in or sell. That's why, it's a MUST to file a claim. Why should you take the financial impact when it wasn't your fault?

Good luck with the process, don't give up. PM me if you need additional feedback.

Thanks man! I should have provided some more context.

The other party did stop, and they've already accepted full responsibility with the insurance company. We're both insured by Geico, so the claim already went under his policy. I did have the police write up a report just in case, and it's all recorded on my dashcam as well. I'm not looking to profit from this, but as you said, I don't want to take a financial hit for something that wasn't my fault if I do need/want to sell the car at some point.

I'll do a bit of research and see if I can find a shop with DV experience in the area.

[zcspec]

Years back, I was T-boned in my Fx45. Like yours, it was hit right between the front/rear drivers seam. The damages totaled close to $17K. I fought the insurance company with full professional assessments. In the end, they cut me a check for roughly $3-$4K in loss value. Just do not cave in.

[ajee622]

Was going to say that my buddy was lightly rear ended in his Altima a few years ago. He argued diminished value and they wrote him a check for like $2700 after the car was fixed. He still has the car but you do need to fight for this. I don’t think he got a lawyer but he did go back and forth with his insurance company.


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[Mops@Nemesis]

Was going to say that my buddy was lightly rear ended in his Altima a few years ago. He argued diminished value and they wrote him a check for like $2700 after the car was fixed. He still has the car but you do need to fight for this. I don’t think he got a lawyer but he did go back and forth with his insurance company.

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Same with me. No lawyer, I fought insurance directly, and took hard lines. They wrote me a check for $3,400. And I sold the A5 for near clean dealer pricing. Big win! 😎

Eric - It's especially tough in NY. You need to reach out to Charlie "staticuxo" here on AZ. He went through it not too long ago in NYC.

[AudiDTMA4]

Same situation on the wife's Q5 right now....presently gathering data to send the other insurance the estimate.

[riceboy22]

Thanks guys.

@Mops@Nemesis, I'll reach out to Charlie. I may also be reaching out back out to you if insurance is willing to get me a new wheel! My concern with that though is that I've heard diamond black can look different if it's not from the same batch.

[Mops@Nemesis]

It’s a no-go Eric. They killed the 20x10 fit

A pro will touch it up to where you’ll never see the spot again unless you go looking for it.


Mops On The Move

[riceboy22]

It’s a no-go Eric. They killed the 20x10 fit

SAD!

[BG SQ5]

You should get DV on that Volk too then!

[Mops@Nemesis]

SAD!

And MAD! I would have run that spec many times over the years to come. Thankfully there will always be plenty of 5x114.3 options, and that re-drill is cake.

[SQ5Nva]

My previous Lexus was rear-ended. 2015 under 10k miles in Dec 2015.

When I filed the report w/ their insurance company, I requested the diminished value claim at the time, so that their adjuster can note the extend of the damage to the vehicle (they didn't send one out - they just called and asked for a copy of the quote, so I took it to a shop to get a quote directly, used the one Lexus recommended). The adjuster asked me for the current value of the car, I found the highest priced comparable (threw black book value and NADA value at them) plus few that a selling at the highest price within 250 miles. This was in 2015 so that car was still practically new. Then I found one with a bad carfax report (accident) to show what they would resell for, minus a few grand you lose if trading in. After I got the car back, the adjuster asked how was the repair. I explained they didn't blend the paint well - you can feel in the door jams, rear bumper has gap on one side, and trunk doesn't close softly anymore), and frame damage. Over $7k in damages and even more on the diminished value check. Don't give in, go OCD on the repair work if they don't send out an adjuster to review the work, then fight them on the $ amount, its a rare color, custom packages, special ordered, 1 of a kind, low miles, blah blah blah.

Their agent did dodge my calls and emails. She did call me right when I requested for her supervisor and got the final check amount agreed to within 3 days. Also, I made the shop use all OEM parts for the repair.

[alpineaudi]

Killer timing on this thread! I am going through this process as well after being rear ended. I've contacted 2 local dealers and after explaining that I was looking for a valuation with the accident reduction in value noted no one had ever heard of this process. Are you all going somewhere else than the dealer? If I can get a reasonable amount I'll be happy - put it towards an AWE exhaust.

[Mops@Nemesis]

Killer timing on this thread! I am going through this process as well after being rear ended. I've contacted 2 local dealers and after explaining that I was looking for a valuation with the accident reduction in value noted no one had ever heard of this process. Are you all going somewhere else than the dealer? If I can get a reasonable amount I'll be happy - put it towards an AWE exhaust.

Hey Jarrett. My Audi dealer told me (6 years ago) laws were passed that made it illegal for dealers to advise. Or maybe not illegal, but insurance will not accept dealer recommendations. No matter, the dealer is the wrong tree to bark up. There are orgs you can hire to handle it all for you, but that's only eating away at the DV check.

[alpineaudi]

Hey Jarrett. My Audi dealer told me (6 years ago) laws were passed that made it illegal for dealers to advise. Or maybe not illegal, but insurance will not accept dealer recommendations. No matter, the dealer is the wrong tree to bark up. There are orgs you can hire to handle it all for you, but that's only eating away at the DV check.

Makes sense... Any other options other than hiring a private company to eval?

[coolwater]

I got a near 5k check for getting rear ended in my suv on i95 in Maryland. Some frame damage. We were both geico and it was obviously their fault. I used a Virginia based company that specifically handles these types of claims. VA has laws that protect you against DV.
NYC is going to be harder to get this covered. Check what the laws around DV are in NY.

-cW

[Jimminez]

Damn Eric, sorry to hear but glad everyone if okay and your daughter made a new friend.

[ThunderDent]

That sucks Eric. Glad everyone is ok. Good luck with the claim.

[vocabsr]

I got a near 5k check for getting rear ended in my suv on i95 in Maryland. Some frame damage. We were both geico and it was obviously their fault. I used a Virginia based company that specifically handles these types of claims. VA has laws that protect you against DV.
NYC is going to be harder to get this covered. Check what the laws around DV are in NY.

-cW

Hi, my Q5 was just hit. I'm in PA. Do you know if the company you used works in PA? I have 15k in damages to mine. I know the values has to be effected. Thanks

[coolwater]

Hi, my Q5 was just hit. I'm in PA. Do you know if the company you used works in PA? I have 15k in damages to mine. I know the values has to be effected. Thanks

Hi check with them. They do appraisals where you drive to them for Eval. Could be worth the drive from PA. Good luck.

http://www.reedappraisers.com

-cW


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[ColeQ5]

I did a claim for this once. I got rear ended, so I called the insurance of the driver and started the claim. Took my car to the shop to do the repair. Got them to pay for all of it and a rental car while it was being done. Then I call the insurance back and told them I want to do a DV claim. They offered me $500 after a few calls. I checked with an appraisal service that handles DV claims. They told me since I had no frame damage and it wasn't a substantial accident that it probably was not worth the claim and paying them for the appraisal for a fender bender. They asked if I was offered any thing and I told her the about the $500 and the rep said take it! So what I learned was that in order to get a large amount on a DV claim there has to be serious work that was needed to get the vehicle back on the road and the record of that would really decrease the asking price of the car in the market (like frame damage). The bigger the accident and repair, the bigger the check. I called the insurance guy and told him I accepted the offer and he sent me a check for $500. My accident was basically a new rear bumper and a new rear bumper cover painted to match. So I got a nice $500 bonus to ease the pain of driving a rental ford fiesta for a week. Keep in mind that your carfax will show an accident on record now, so the insurance company should give you something.

Glad everyone is OK and hope you get a fair deal.

[riceboy22]

Just a quick update on this. I ended up having a lawyer handle the claim. The insurance company agreed to pay out $4,500 in diminished value, so it definitely ended up being worth pursuing. I’m not sure if I could have gotten the same without the lawyer but satisfied either way.

[ColeQ5]

Glad it worked out for ya!

[turrifik]

Glad to see a positive outcome. Is that net of lawyer fees?

Too bad your TEs were harmed.


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[Kevin1]

Just a quick update on this. I ended up having a lawyer handle the claim. The insurance company agreed to pay out $4,500 in diminished value, so it definitely ended up being worth pursuing. I’m not sure if I could have gotten the same without the lawyer but satisfied either way.

Nuisance value for the insurance company

[ThunderDent]

Glad you got something decent out of it.

Hopefully everything was fixed to your standards.

I’ll be up in Newark again this weekend, btw. Taking my daughter to a concert up there.
Flying in Friday afternoon and out Sat morning. One of these times I make it up that way, we def need to grab a beer tho.

[Fourpoint282]

I’ve filed DV claims on 2 (count ‘em) 2 Audi’s. Def worth it. Your car is going to take a hit (no pun intended) on value regardless wether you file a DV claim or not. My advice: hire a consultant (cost should be $250-$300) and they will build a case that gets you way more money than you could have gotten on your own. Simply put...it’s a game and you have to play it to win. PM me if you want more details


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[riceboy22]

Glad to see a positive outcome. Is that net of lawyer fees?

Too bad your TEs were harmed.

That's before lawyer fees sadly. I probably could have tried first without, but i'm pretty damn lazy.

I've sort of reached the stage of acceptance that the TEs will never be perfect again. It was probably inevitable anyway living in NYC. I may just get them fully refinished at some point.

Glad you got something decent out of it.

Hopefully everything was fixed to your standards.

I’ll be up in Newark again this weekend, btw. Taking my daughter to a concert up there.
Flying in Friday afternoon and out Sat morning. One of these times I make it up that way, we def need to grab a beer tho.

The repairs were pretty much flawless. My detailer said you really can't tell what was redone without knowing it happened. He might just be trying to make me feel better though lol.

Enjoy the concert and definitely hit me up the next time you're in NYC/NJ. There's no shortage of options for beer and a burger here. We bought a place in the city, so we'll be here for the foreseeable future!

[VroomVroom]

That's before lawyer fees sadly. I probably could have tried first without, but i'm pretty damn lazy.

I can't speak first-hand, obviously, but I think you made the wise call. A good friend of mine is a "reformed" (his word) attorney, and a lot of his work was for clients going up against insurance companies. The catalyst for a recent discussion was the Steve Lehto podcast (one of my ways of dealing with a commute on BART), and he confirmed one of Lehto's common themes. Namely, these folks won't even give you the time of day unless they see an attorney's letterhead, and even then it's often to simply respond, "See you in court." The math of bluff calling obviously works in their favor.

In this case, that settlement amount certainly seems reasonable, if not generous, in terms of resale impact from the event. Glad it's behind you.

The repairs were pretty much flawless. My detailer said you really can't tell what was redone without knowing it happened. He might just be trying to make me feel better though lol.

I bet he's spot-on. One of my best detailing clients over the years has been the owner of a body shop. While their final finish work is atrocious by our standards, the quality of metalworking and painting is downright impressive. Often times their hardest challenge is in hacking their work enough to blend with the factory orange peel and panel imperfections. Mass manufacturing, indeed.

[alpineaudi]

I just recently got an offer from USAA from the $4k worth of rear end damage. $169.00...
I had to call them to confirm they didn't miss a digit.
Sent another request for re-evaluation and they stuck to their guns.
For a vehicle that I own with a clean and clear title which was in excellent per-collision condition this was a kick in the nuts

[SQive]

I just recently got an offer from USAA from the $4k worth of rear end damage. $169.00...
I had to call them to confirm they didn't miss a digit.
Sent another request for re-evaluation and they stuck to their guns.
For a vehicle that I own with a clean and clear title which was in excellent per-collision condition this was a kick in the nuts

That's why you have to have an attorney. Several years ago, I was T-boned by some punk-ass kid doing 50. When his daddy arrived on the scene he made some remarks to me in extremely poor taste. It was then I decided to rape his insurance policy. At first, they offered $7k. Hell, the doctor's bills were over $9k. They came back with $7.5k, and then $8k. My lawyer demanded a court trial and after two days, including voir dire, we were awarded $22k by the court. Realizing their mistake, the insurance company paid us $25k so we wouldn't go after legal fees. I hear they fired that attorney, as it should never have gone to court in the first place (she was really bad). Sometimes. . .not very often, but sometimes, justice prevails.

[ThunderDent]

Enjoy the concert and definitely hit me up the next time you're in NYC/NJ. There's no shortage of options for beer and a burger here. We bought a place in the city, so we'll be here for the foreseeable future!

Eric, we actually ended up heading into the city a bit. We had about 6 hours to kill before the show, so we took the NJ Transit in to Penn Station, walked to the Empire State Building, then down to Times Square. Took an Uber down to the 9/11 memorial, then went through Oculus in lower Manhattan and took the subway back up to midtown, and back over to Penn Station, where we grabbed the train back over to Newark to the show at Prudential Center. Good Father/daughter time spent tho.
It was a whirlwind trip, but I certainly would love to meet up sometime in the future when my wife and I can come up and stay for several days.

Side note: NYC roads are S.H.I.T. I don’t know how you can stand the traffic my man. No way to unleash the beast.
I’m thankful I live in some decently wide open spaces, even though I’m in the metro valley in my area, I can open it up.
And the mountains are just a quick drive away.

[BG SQ5]

Just a quick update on this. I ended up having a lawyer handle the claim. The insurance company agreed to pay out $4,500 in diminished value, so it definitely ended up being worth pursuing. I’m not sure if I could have gotten the same without the lawyer but satisfied either way.

Glad you got something decent out of it. If you still plan to keep the car for a long time, the actual deminished value probably won’t matter much in the long run anyways. I’d definitely be satisfied with end result. Far too often the insurance companies get the best of us.

[riceboy22]

Joel, sounds like you covered a lot of ground in the city in a few hours. Glad you had a good time. Definitely shoot me a message when you make that next trip.

Berk, you’re right that the diminished value will basically be negligible given how long I’ll have this car. We barely have over 15k miles on it at this point, and we’re driving even less now that before. Free money essentially.

[vocabsr]

Hello,

I would like to hear more about your story. My Q5 was with more than 16k worth of damage. They are trying to screw me. The adjuster is saying i can't prove a DV case.

[SQive]

Hello,

I would like to hear more about your story. My Q5 was with more than 16k worth of damage. They are trying to screw me. The adjuster is saying i can't prove a DV case.

Just tell him that you have a lawyer that can.

[riceboy22]

I would definitely contact someone who specializes in diminished value. The lawyer I hired took one-third but was well worth it in my opinion. The insurance company gave us pretty much the full amount we requested I think in part to avoid dealing with a lawyer.

You could end up doing just as well on your own, but I would be prepared for a lot of back-and-forth and lowball offers to start. The adjuster did explain to me that the final amount was based on a search of comparable vehicles with accident histories versus clean vehicles. You can start there. It just wasn’t worth the headache for me to do it on my own.

If you want contact info for who I used send me a PM.

[VroomVroom]

I mentioned this above, but it really is worth your time (and money) to engage legal counsel. For many claim issues (including injury settlement, but that's a whole other story) adjusters simply won't stray from the zero or low-ball company line without it. Things become much more fluid once escalated. In informal terms, they're just calling your bluff until you show them it's not a bluff.

To that end, a good attorney will also vet your claim, since they're not likely to accept a case unless they know there are dollar signs at the end. The initial consult will usually be free, or at a reduced flat rate.

[Salty Mope]

Figured I'd bump this thread and chime in now that I have my own experience with a DV claim (in Massachusetts. DV laws do vary state to state from what I have read).

My 2014 Q5 3.0 S-Line was hit while parked in July 2018. An 18 wheeler rolled across the street after the driver got out and didn't engage the brakes correctly. His truck rolled away and struck a sedan in front of me, pushing the sedan into my front end, primarily damaging the front bumper and grille, along with all the sensors involved in the front end. In total my Q5 required $8,000 worth of parts, paint, and labor repairs, but had no mechanical or structural damage.

During the initial claim process I mentioned to the adjuster that I was interested in pursuing a DV claim. They told me that could not move forward until the initial claim was finalized, as the final damage and repairs factor into the DV claim.

Once the initial claim was finalized, the adjuster submitted paperwork to his client (company that owns the 18 wheeler) on 12/28/18. He explained to me that phase 1 is a simple approval or denial of any DV claim from his client. If they deny, I need to get a lawyer. If they approve, then the adjuster and I can begin negotiating the claim value. It took 3-4 weeks of me chasing with weekly phone calls before he got the approval and made an initial offer.

He informed me that DV claims typically use a formula, which I've seen online referred to as "17c", which has been approved by several major insurers. The formula takes 10% of your vehicle's Blue Book value at the time of the accident. It then multiplies that amount times a "damage multiplier" (minor = .5, moderate = .75, major =1.0). Lastly it takes the new value and multiplies that times a mileage multiplier (~.8 if 20-40k miles, .6 if over 40k).

So if you start with a Blue Book value of $26,500, 10% gets you to $2,650. A "moderate" damage multiplier (0.75) for $8k worth of non structural damage, gets you to $1,987.50 Finally you apply the mileage multiplier of 0.8 for a vehicle with 20-40k miles, and you come to $1,590.

They initially offered me exactly half of that value, but did not break down which multipliers they used, or why. I responded saying that I felt the true DV was close to $2,500 based on my research and discussion with a local Audi dealership, and wanted a clearer breakdown of their formula. I also indicated that I was hoping to avoid referring the claim to a lawyer, but if they were unable to raise the initial offer, that would likely be my next course of action. 2 more weeks of me chasing them with a few phone calls, and finally they increased the offer by 75% and we agreed on $1400.

Overall, I'm satisfied with the result. I may have been able to get an extra $500-1k if I used a lawyer, but the lawyer would have taken a fee which would negate any additional value I could have gotten on the claim.

TL;DR cliffnotes:
-You will need to fight and follow up for weeks, if not months, to get a DV claim paid out

-You will initially get denied, or lowballed. Here you can decide whether to hire a lawyer, or simply imply/threaten that you're thinking about doing that.

-During the negotiations the adjuster will tell you that your numbers are arbitrary, anecdotal, inflated, etc. The formula they use is no less arbitrary and the multipliers can be applied incorrectly to achieve their lowball target.

-whether or not you should hire a lawyer probably depends on the overall value of your vehicle as well as the total damage/repairs. If you expect the claim value to be under 2k, you may be better off fighting on your own. If your vehicle's current Blue Book value is higher, or the total damage is major, then you most likely would benefit by having a lawyer pursue the claim.