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Insurance/Legal question after accident


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Was hit by another driver. They were cited and their insurance has accepted blame. They have stated they will give me fair market value for the vehicle. I have asked to either be reimbursed for my custom/aftermarket items or to be allowed to remove them and keep them. The adjuster said I will only get paid if it adds value to the vehicle and if I remove anything the value of that item will be deducted from the value of the vehicle reducing my settlement. I was under the impression they are responsible for replacing everything I have been deprived of (aftermarket stereo, performance parts, etc). Is this true? Can anyone point me to ORC/OAC citing what they have to cover? Any suggestions on a lawyer if it gets that far?

 

Thanks

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Sounds like you should talk to the adjuster after you make the list of things you will be removing. If the item doesn't add value, then you would not lose anything removing it. So the head unit doesn't add any value then taking it out doesn't remove any value. If something adds $50 in value but costs $500, then remove it and take the $50 hit to the overall value.

 

Another option is to talk to your insurance and work with them on value/parts. They may be willing to pay you for anything you've added to be covered (like aftermarket parts you added to your policy) and then get their money back from the other insurance company.

 

If none of that fits for you, the lawyer option may help. I do not know if they really get into the vehicle value discussion much (didn't back the last time I had an accident but that was many years ago).

 

Hope you get this resolved to your satisfaction!

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Was hit by another driver. They were cited and their insurance has accepted blame. They have stated they will give me fair market value for the vehicle. I have asked to either be reimbursed for my custom/aftermarket items or to be allowed to remove them and keep them. The adjuster said I will only get paid if it adds value to the vehicle and if I remove anything the value of that item will be deducted from the value of the vehicle reducing my settlement. I was under the impression they are responsible for replacing everything I have been deprived of (aftermarket stereo, performance parts, etc). Is this true? Can anyone point me to ORC/OAC citing what they have to cover? Any suggestions on a lawyer if it gets that far?

 

Thanks

 

In your communication to him, cite the manufacturer, the model, and the size. Do the same thing for the tires. They have to make you whole, as if the accident never occurred. If you just state that you had rims on the vehicle, they need to replace your vehicle as if you had rims. If you are specific, you will be reimbursed for the exact rim you had.

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Silly question do you have stock parts?

 

Some I do. That was one question is if I would be putting stock parts back. I would not be opposed to that. Some parts I trashed though. Cleaned out when I recently moved and some stuff went in the trash.

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If the item doesn't add value, then you would not lose anything removing it. So the head unit doesn't add any value then taking it out doesn't remove any value.

 

The way they are arguing it, the item doesn't add value because it is expected to be there where as the part missing would detract value because it is expected to be there. For example, I have MSD COP. $70/ea $33/ea for a replacement item on RockAuto. So 6 coils costs me $420. The car should have coils on it so, they do not add value but, removing them will remove value. I could remove the coils and replace them with "stock" ones and get about half my value back.

 

Problem is multiply this across the $11k in performance/comfort stuff (parts value only no labor) and it seems like a huge hit I shouldn't have to take as their insured deprived me of my property. I am fine with losing some of it, I would like to be able to either remove my parts (which would save them money since it is going to scrap) or have them replace the parts. Things that really hurt are like the $500 fuel pump I had installed for literally 2 weeks.

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Typically if you have documentation for everything they can be added. The problem lies when people claim they have 24k gold rims but "lost my receipt". Though as has been said, swap everything for stock parts and they can't detract from the value as they are there. If they try to detract, put it back and ask for full replacement value on the part.
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The way they are arguing it, the item doesn't add value because it is expected to be there where as the part missing would detract value because it is expected to be there. For example, I have MSD COP. $70/ea $33/ea for a replacement item on RockAuto. So 6 coils costs me $420. The car should have coils on it so, they do not add value but, removing them will remove value. I could remove the coils and replace them with "stock" ones and get about half my value back.

 

Problem is multiply this across the $11k in performance/comfort stuff (parts value only no labor) and it seems like a huge hit I shouldn't have to take as their insured deprived me of my property. I am fine with losing some of it, I would like to be able to either remove my parts (which would save them money since it is going to scrap) or have them replace the parts. Things that really hurt are like the $500 fuel pump I had installed for literally 2 weeks.

 

Yea - that gets tough. Did you have specialty insurance on the car? If so, use your company to get paid the value for the car/parts and let them deal with it. If not, you may have trouble getting value for the parts you upgraded. I've run into that in the past and had to basically put the car back to stock for them to 'take' and then I kept all my parts. I've also just bought the car back as a total for the salvage cost then stripped off all my go-fast parts to sell/reuse and scrap the rest.

 

Good luck - sorry you are having to deal with this. Never easy and usually just sucks during the entire process.

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