Vehicle Write Off Tips Thread

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by Flacker

Not a write off, but had a vehicle stolen.

Like any insurance interaction, they tried to offer and settle as quickly as possible. Any documentation you have to help prove mileage and condition will help.

After providing recent photos of the car, and maintenance records showing mileage, they came back with a closer to fair number.

Agreed.

Probably worth pulling the carfax report on your vehicle to prove maintenance, mileage, and repairs made. Good to show a maintenance record.

[GGG]

Understand what the arbitration process like within your insurance, what your rights are and there obligations. Then you know your options.

Your insurance company is incentivized to settle the claim for the lowest possible value quickly without spending resources on appraisals, arbitration, or even just call center time. So they have a nice person who is just trying to help get you money so you can move on.

They have a number internally that they will settle for that is greater than the number currently offered. So you need to negotiate until they no.

[Deegee]

Originally Posted by Since1984

Keep the cash, keep the car. Insure it with PL/PD.

Put the money back into the maintenance of the vehicle and depending on the extent of the hail damage, enjoy the fuel savings of a more aerodynamic vehicle!

We did this with a used car and it was awesome having no payments. We got 5 more years out of it until our neighbor smashed into it while it was parked and wrote it off.

It was charcoal colored and you couldn't notice the hail damage unless you were closer. Totally fine vehicle otherwise.

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by GGG

Understand what the arbitration process like within your insurance, what your rights are and there obligations. Then you know your options.

Your insurance company is incentivized to settle the claim for the lowest possible value quickly without spending resources on appraisals, arbitration, or even just call center time. So they have a nice person who is just trying to help get you money so you can move on.

They have a number internally that they will settle for that is greater than the number currently offered. So you need to negotiate until they no.

Exactly this.
I’ve had one vehicle where I ultimately got 50% more than initial offer (crappy first car). And 2nd vehicle (mid size nice sedan) also got nearly 50% more than initial. Had records of work done on both, I did a LOT of work finding comparison vehicles within 500-750km and plus/minis 1 year. And I dragged things along for a few weeks. So was happy with both of those.

And most definitely be nice as possible to your insurance rep as they don’t need stress and may actually help you towards a resolution closer to your ask.

[speede5]

Not much to add but I’ve bought a couple hail damage cars from insurance and you would be surprised how many dents disappear after a seasonal cycle. The vehicle doesn’t sound like it’s worth worrying about some cosmetic damage. What kind of car are we talking about here?

[Dion]

Originally Posted by bagofpucks

Lots of great advice so far and the only thing I’ll add is if you add done any recent repairs or maintenance and have the receipts you can include that to get reimbursed in the cash value of the vehicle. I had write off years back and I think it was brakes and tires I had replaced in the past year and once I provided the adjuster the receipts they added it into the payout.

It was the same with me when they wrote off my 2005 Escape, I showed them the receipts for new tires, tune-up, break job and tranny flush, which was added to my payout in the end.

[lazypucker]

Originally Posted by Dion

I showed them the receipts for new tires, tune-up, break job and tranny flush

Tranny flush ??

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by Jiggy

My insurance company told me today that my car is a total loss after the hailstorm last month. Even though no one from the insurance company or an adjuster looked at the vehicle. At first, they said they used comparables to come up with the cash value of the car, when I asked if I could see which comparables they used they said the value was actually through JD software. They seem to want to close the deal quick. Anyone been in the same situation that can offer some tips on how to get the best deal from an insurance company?

I wrote off a vehicle due to hail damage. The damage was barely noticeable except for certain angles.

I don't know whether they're all the same, but IIRC the payout is basically based on their expectation of what they'd get at auction less deductible. That's where the autotrader/Kijiji ads etc. come in as they're kinda an estimate of what that care might get at auction. I recommend to pull listings from dealerships/companies vs private sale for the comparables; don't forget to ask about GST. In my situation, they actually had a guy drive by to see if they could see the car on the street and they did a quick verification and I was told after the fact they had already done a quick look at the vehicle.

The thing is, be patient with the agent. They're probably trying to wrap up literally thousands of claims right now and making it easier for them (without rolling over and accepting a low claim) will work best. The guy I dealt with straight up gave me almost the highest comparable. He did tell me I could try and ask for higher but he'd need approval. He was pretty good, so it didn't seem like it was worth delaying things further for an extra $250-500.


If taking a full pay out, make sure the car is clean. Around $20 bucks and 45 minutes ie: inside with a leaf blower/turbo fan and some armor all wipes, and a basic car wash/wax will go a long way in helping you request higher on the estimate. Definitely ask about adding GST for the comparable business listings you look up.

If taking a payout and you keep the car (ie: 13H clause?) then you still want to spend $20 and 45 mins in case they have someone go by to take a quick look. I believe it'll be based on auction value (comparables), less deductible less salvage value. This is what I took. I already had a buyer for the vehicle when it was noticed, so I dropped the price slightly for the barely noticeable cosmetic damage (they were happy), I collected two cheques and ended up with more than the original agreed sales value.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Jiggy

My insurance company told me today that my car is a total loss after the hailstorm last month. Even though no one from the insurance company or an adjuster looked at the vehicle. At first, they said they used comparables to come up with the cash value of the car, when I asked if I could see which comparables they used they said the value was actually through JD software. They seem to want to close the deal quick. Anyone been in the same situation that can offer some tips on how to get the best deal from an insurance company?

How is this going?

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Locke

Wow. Take anything I say with a gigantic grain of salt because I'm just speculating, but will they let you keep it? Whats the payout on it?

I have heard of people taking the pay-out, keeping the car and repairing it because, at the end of the day the hail damage is largely cosmetic.

But body-shop rates are insane.

My neighbors did this for both of their vehicles. They took the payout, kept the vehicle and were able to insure it but for less coverage (probably also less expensive too). They didn't even fix it because you had to be up close to notice the hail damage. They drove it for about 9 years afterwards.

[Buff]

I went through a write-off 18 months ago. It was in an accident and not considered safe to drive anymore because the frame was bent.... maybe it could have been fixed and re-enforced but... I didn't know how the process worked since it was my first time ever dealing with a claim. They made me an offer and I jumped all over it because I was getting about $2K more than what I bought the car for 8 or 9 years prior. The problem is that I didn't know the car market or that I could have tried to get them to give me more. I had a nice enough down payment to buy a newer vehicle but it would have been nice to get more so I could make the monthly payments less!

[dissentowner]

I am going through this right now. We settled on a fair price and the car was in a tow compound and I had to release it to them. They asked me to take a picture of the ownership with my signature on it and they would release my claim. A week goes by and they sent me an envelope and a letter asking for the ownership of the car, I guess the pictures were not enough. Its been a week and a half since then and I still have not received my claim. I tried calling them today, got my adjusters voicemail that said he was out of the office this week. Talked to another adjuster who put me on hold to look into it and was told the adjuster that is handling it was on the phone and would call me back which doesn't make sense as his voicemail says he is not there, then she hung up on me. Nobody called me back. What a nightmare this is.

[Jiggy]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

How is this going?

Everyone's tips have been helping! I sent the insurance company comparables on my end, receipts of recent work done to the car, and photo's of the vehicle. I'm waiting to hear back from my insurance on a few counter offers. I was also away on vacation for a bit which pushed things back. But everyone's advice has helped a lot. Thanks all around.

[Huntingwhale]

I also went through this about 18 months ago. My 2008 Mazda 6 that I loved so much got in 2 separate collisions in the span of 2 months. One was a small fender bender at the front end due to black ice which was minimal damage (only to the grill). The 2nd was me getting rear ended at the Mckenzie towne traffic circle and resulted in a write off. Hit from both ends and that was the end of it. It was an '08 and only had 160k km on it.

I was with Aviva at the time and was worried I would have to fight for fair value. I can honestly say that it worked out pretty well though. I checked various market comparables and I was seeing results around $4k. I was expecting to get lowballed with an offer that started under that. I would have been happy with $4k - $4.5k. Was going to push for more.

I was delighted when I got offered $6.4k. Nowhere in any results did I see any kind of comparable like that. Perhaps it was due to relatively lows kms compared to what other cars would have. Either way, I was super happy with it and took that offer and ran.