Maybe you’ve been in a relatively minor accident, but your car insurance company considered your car to be totaled, meaning too expensive to repair. If you really liked that car, this can be very depressing to you. Now you have to go out and purchase another car and get car insurance quotes for it because you need transportation, but this may be not even possible at this point in your life. While the car insurance company will give you a certain dollar amount for your car, it may not be enough to purchase another car or at least not the car that you wish to have. There are things that you can do for yourself when this happens.
Repurchase From Your Car Insurance Company
Some car insurance companies consider a car totaled if the repair costs is more than 50% of what they consider the value of the car is at the time of the accident. You can choose to repurchase your car from the insurance company. You need to let the car insurance adjuster or claims department know that you want to keep the car. While they still have to pay you for what they consider to be the value of the car at the time of the accident, they of course will subtract any deductible that you would have had to pay should your car have been repaired plus the value they estimate they would have gotten when they sold the car at auction or to a salvage yard. This value is usually determined by the car insurance company obtaining bids on the car as is from salvage yards and utilizing the highest dollar amount.
Repair Your Car
The car is then yours to keep and you may do what you wish with it. Many people choose to have it repaired on their own or some even do the repairs on their own. With the insurance claim check, they purchase the parts to repair the vehicle on their own or they have the repairs done professionally, depending on the damage that was done as well as their mechanical ability.
Ownership
That being said, there may be a problem with retaining ownership of the car once the car insurance company has decided that it is totaled. Since the newer vehicle parts have a higher value, the car insurance company may wish to keep it and auction it off because it’s more beneficial to them financially to do so. In some states, anyone can attend the auctions and purchase whatever they want. However, in other states you must hold a special license to do so. Keep in mind that you will still need car insurance for your car.
Source: Jersey Car Cash
