Overview:
A total loss dispute occurs when a car owner disagrees with Allstate Insurance Company’s valuation of their total loss vehicle.
Receiving fair compensation for your total loss vehicle from Allstate Insurance Company should be a stress-free experience. In addition to the many auto valuation guidebooks available, other vehicles equivalent to yours are easily found for sale through online research. Your appraiser’s knowledge of how restorations and modifications affect car values is also important. There is a saying: “Prepare for a trial to avoid a trial.” The independent appraiser that you choose has to produce legitimate, probative evidence and act as your advocate throughout claim proceedings.
Before making your payment, please email the insurance company CCC or other work sheet to contact@stlucieappraisal.net
Allstate uses outside vendors to determine your car’s value which allows them to input your automobile’s information such as year, make, model, mileage, engine, options, etc. There is also a section that enables them to make additions or subtractions for mileage, optional equipment, old damage and conditioning issues. Then their vendor will endeavor to locate comparable vehicle asking prices to determine how much your car is worth.
In every total loss dispute in which our office has assisted Allstate’s insureds, we have discovered that the values generated by their vendors are consistently on the low end of the value spectrum. If you suspect that Allstate has undervalued your vehicle, car owners have the option to invoke the Appraisal Clause.
The Appraisal Clause can be utilized when there is a dispute over the value of a motor vehicle. This typically allows either the insurance company or the vehicle owner to demand an independent review from their respective auto appraisers.
The independent appraisal company that Allstate chooses to represent them in Appraisal Clause negotiations is crucial to what happens next. Your claim will either be assigned to a fair-minded appraisal company or you may get stuck with a lemon.
Car owners should be aware of their state’s protections against Unfair Claims Practices by insurance companies. Attempting to settle a claim for less than the amount to which you are entitled by reference to written or printed advertising material accompanying or made part of an application, failing to settle claims promptly, failing to provide promptly a reasonable explanation of the basis relied on in the insurance policy, in relation to the facts or applicable law, for the denial of a claim or for the offer of a compromise settlement would amount to Unfair Claims Practices on the part of Allstate . No insurer shall persist in seeking information not reasonably required for or material to the resolution of a claim dispute. No insurer shall attempt to settle a claim by making a settlement offer that is unreasonably low. The State Insurance Department shall consider any admissible evidence offered in determining whether or not a settlement offer is unreasonably low.
First Step is to wait for Allstate to make a settlement offer. If you feel that it is fair and equitable, accept it and move on.
Second step, if Allstate’s settlement offer falls short of your expectations, hire an independent appraisal company.
Third step, Allstate will either accept your appraiser’s figure or, more likely, invoke the Appraisal Clause and hire an independent appraiser of their own.
Fourth step, your appraiser and the firm hired by Allstate will attempt to agree on a fair compromised settlement. If Allstate has hired a fair-minded independent appraisal firm, it will result in a more favorable resolution. If not, and the two appraisers reach an impasse, the last phase of Appraisal Clause ensues.
Fifth step, the appraisers will attempt to agree on an umpire to adjudicate the total loss dispute. If the appraisers can not concur, a local magistrate will appoint the umpire. A settlement figure will follow upon agreement by any of the two parties.
The business model of all insurance companies is to charge as much as they can in premiums and to pay out as little as possible in claims. Keep this in mind when you receive the settlement offer for your total loss vehicle.
Additional fees you may incur are $125.00 for our representation in Appraisal Clause negotiations, and half of an umpire’s fee (Umpires typically charge from $300 – $700) if either are necessary. On average, approximately 10% of Appraisal Clause cases go to an umpire.
Before making your payment, please email the insurance company CCC or other work sheet to contact@stlucieappraisal.net
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