How to Claim Diminished Value After a Car Accident
After a car accident damaged your vehicle, you may be wondering if and how you can claim diminished value. In order to do this, you may need to collect proof of the diminished value of your vehicle and request compensation from the responsible party in a diminished value claim letter.
There are three general ways that you can calculate diminished value after a car accident:
- Inherent diminished value
- Immediate diminished value
- Repair related diminished value
It can be difficult to know how to calculate the diminished value of your car or whether the insurance companies are paying a fair value. An Fort Lauderdale Personal Injury attorney may be able to help you protect your rights and make sure that you are being treated fairly. They may also be able to help you access a diminished value claim calculator to determine the diminished value of your vehicle.
Ways to Calculate Diminished Value
In general, diminished value is defined as the loss in value of a vehicle after it is damaged in a crash. There might be a diminishment in the value of a car even if repairs were done to fix whatever was damaged. Just because your car appears to be good as new, the accident report for the vehicle may still show its damage history. This can make the vehicle less appealing to potential buyers down the road. You can contact Fort Myers Personal Injury Lawyers at the Law Offices of Wolf & Pravato for more legal help.
As stated, there are three methods for calculating the diminished value of a vehicle:
Inherent Diminished Value
This category is a common way to determine the loss of value that a vehicle has suffered after an accident. It is defined as the loss of value that the car now has because of its history of damage, which may be verified in the vehicle’s history report.
In this method, there is an assumption that the vehicle received optimal repairs to restore it to as good of condition as possible. This method then reduces the value of what the owner may receive for the vehicle if he or she tries to sell it in the future compared to the value they may have received had the vehicle not been involved in a crash.
Immediate Diminished Value
This category calculates the difference in the resale value of your vehicle immediately before the accident and immediately after the accident before you have completed any repairs.
Repair Related Diminished Value
Finally, this category measures the loss of your vehicle’s value if low-quality repairs are completed after the accident. For example, if your vehicle needed to be repainted with a color that does not match its original color, it may lose even more value on top of the fact that it was involved in an accident. This may also be true if aftermarket or low-quality components were used to complete the repairs.
The Law Offices of Wolf & Pravato May Be Able to Help You Fight for Compensation
The Law Offices of Wolf & Pravato may be able to help you file a diminished value claim in Florida. Our team can carefully evaluate all of your damages when we represent you. Once we have an estimate of the potential value of your case, we can request compensation on your behalf in an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit.
While you deal with your injuries and the general disruption that the brain injury from accident has caused in your life, the Law Offices of Wolf & Pravato can handle all of the legal work in your case. We pride ourselves on providing clients with honest, responsive, and prompt communication during their claim. Our staff is caring and attentive and wants you to feel like you are part of the family.
The Law Offices of Wolf & Pravato represents car accident victims across South Florida. To learn more about our legal services in a free, no-obligation case review with a member of our team, call us today at (954) 633-8270. We can answer your diminished value claim questions during this call.
If you qualify, the Fort Lauderdale Accident Attorney from the Law Offices of Wolf & Pravato may be able to provide you with representation on a contingency-fee-basis with no up-front payments required. In this arrangement, you only pay us attorney fees if and when you win your case and recover compensation.
We also help the victims of a car accident in the following cities:
