It is quite possible for a persona to go through two-car accident negotiations with an insurance company in about four months and all of these cases had to do with the case of totaled cars. It is very important that, as a car owner, you have a perfect understanding of how to negotiate with an insurance adjuster’s total loss. Today, there are lots of claimants that would settle for the initial offer that an insurance company has to offer. They go ahead and accept with properly reviewing what this offers involves.
Take, for example, while speaking with the insurance company adjuster, you must have told him that your car before the accident that led to it being totaled had a DVD player. Now the problem is you did not go ahead to state whether the DVD player is a split-screen DVD player. Even though you do not see the importance of these things, specifically pointing out all of these things can also lead to you getting paid an increased sum as a settlement.
If you do not have an attorney or an agent, or if the agent you have isn’t helpful, you must protect yourself using the best negotiation tactics that would help you get a very good settlement offer. Below are some useful tips that you can follow on how to negotiate with insurance adjuster total loss.
How To Negotiate With Insurance Adjuster Total Loss
Know What Information You Are Giving The Insurance Company
If your insurance company has decided that your car should be totaled, then based on certain policies, your insurance company is going to buy that totaled car from you at a very reasonable price. The price is actually the car’s market value before when it got involved in a car accident. Once your car has been labeled a totaled car, providing an insurance adjuster with sticker details about when you purchased your car is what you must do.
However, if you are finding it difficult to find this sticker, you can go online and search the model, make, and year the vehicle was manufactured, as it would help determine the exact features of your car when you bought it.
Prepare A Counter Offer
The next thing you should do after providing the insurance adjuster with sticker details is to prepare a counteroffer. You do not have to waste any time before doing this, and one thing you should know is that the retail value is more important than the trade-in value. If there are receipts for major work done on the vehicle in the past seven months, you should also bring them forward.
Compare With Other Prices In Your Area
The next thing you should do is visit car selling websites and check for cars that have similar features and mileage as your totaled car. This would help in comparing prices.
Get A Written Settlement Offer From An Auto Insurance Company
If the insurance adjuster with an offer has contacted you, ensure that they have it emailed to you, and the certified collateral corporation report or valuation report should be emailed to you as well. These reports are what most insurance companies rely on to get a market evaluation of the value of the totaled car and what to offer a car accident victim as a settlement. Ensure that every feature of your vehicle is considered in this report and that the report has listed the correct vehicle mileage.
Present Your Counter Offer For Your Totaled Car
Compare the offer you have with what you must have gotten from the car websites you visited. Do you think they match? If you are not pleased with the offer presented to you by the insurance adjuster, then send an email to the insurance adjuster bearing your counteroffer as well as key documents to back up your counter offer. These documents could be recent repair receipts, used car reports, and more. If you do not have these documents, then your counteroffer would not be given an audience.
Having the right documentation, doing proper research, and setting reasonable expectations should help you get a fair settlement. If, after several negotiations attempt, you still are not getting a reasonable settlement offer, then go ahead and contact your attorney to help you with some advice.
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