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Understanding Diminished Value Claims

Example:

You bought a minivan one year ago for $32,000 and its value is now $29,000 because you've taken good care of it and haven't driven it more than usual. You're driving along, and someone cuts in front of you and causes an accident.  Luckily, the air bag deploys and you're wearing your seatbelt, so you are not injured. Your minivan, however, is a different story.  It has some serious damage, and when you take it to the body shop to get an estimate, the cost of repairs comes to $4450!  You take it to the shop and they do an excellent job.  Your vehicle looks about as good as it did before the accident.  Then you decide to buy a sportier car that better fits your new lifestyle now that the kids have gone. You list your minivan for sale in the classified section of the newspaper for $29,000 and a buyer comes to look at the car the following weekend.  The first thing they ask is "Has the vehicle been in an accident?"  Even if you didn't tell them the minivan was in an accident, the buyers could still look up its history.  (CARFAX gives you the real history of any used car.  Get a CARFAX report on your car.)  Once they found out about the accident, the buyer would no longer be willing to pay you $29,000, but instead would offer $23,000. In this case, the diminished value would be $6000. 

Original value - after accident and repairs value = diminished value claim

$29,000 - $23,000 = $6000

Even if you've already settled with the insurance company on the body damage, you can still file a separate diminished value claim if the repairs were done recently.

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