Hit by an Uninsured Motorist (Need Diminished Value & Loss of Use)

I was hit by a 20 year old without insurance. I have State Farm and they covered the actual damage, around $26K, but not the diminished value which is estimated to be around $15K, also I'm out the loss of use or 2 months of not having the vehicle, another $10K estimated.

I cannot get a hold of the other party, the 20 year old kid. He no longer answers his phone and all I have is his driver's license. I'm pretty sure there is no way to go after him since he doesn't have any assets. Not sure what attorney is going to spend the time going after this kid under an assumed $25K in recouping the damage.

HELP?????

 

I would not let him get away with it. I'd ruin whatever is left of his miserable life. Or make things uncomfortable for a while. It would be worth a few thousand to do it.

 

What State did this occur in?
What kind of car did you have?
Were there any injuries?

As a basic rule he either paid the Uninsured Motorist Fee or he was operating without insurance.

The first part limits your claims to actual damages in most States. I have never heard a State paying a Diminished Value or for car rental expenses both of which you claim (are quite high).

The second part means your insurance company is paying the bill so any argument you have is with them. The second part also means the other driver could be criminally charged for operating a vehicle without insurance. If that is the case, you have the opportunity to provide the prosecution with the repair, Diminished Value and Rental costs. It is up to the Judge in most States to make the decision if he will make the accused pony up restitution. Even then....most likely your insurance company would get its money first.

https://consumerfed.org/pdfs/140310_penaltiesfordrivingwithoutautoinsurance_cfa.pdf

 

I think you should have a police report at the very least. As was stated you must have some kind of insurance to operate a vehicle. Best Kirk

 

Police report and insurance will probably do the rest

 

You have a private party which specializes in Diminished Value appraise the car and determine the actual diminished value, and then present that to your insurance company. They are covering your car, and in turn will go after the uninsured motorist for whatever the costs you have incurred. You will not likely get loss of use but you WILL get diminished value, you just have to find someone who can determine that loss of value and not a SWAG by yourself.

 

I have a close friend that does diminished value reports. He is very thorough and reasonable cost. His name is Rick at inlinesixx.com. Tell him Bdel referred you to him

 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news here but this is a waste of time and money.

First with respect to State Farm that is YOUR insurance and you only get coverage for whatever you paid for. It sounds like you didn’t buy diminished value insurance. So they only insure the actual repairs. Also I have State Farm and the rental car is capped at something like $20 per day. So with your insurance you only get what you pay for. They certainly are not going to give you $10K for 2 months of loss of use.

That leaves going after the 20 year old kid, good luck with that. You claim you are out $25K. Ok that is a state court claim. So you are going to fork out probably at least that much to get an attorney and an expert witness on diminished value to take it to trial (this is not charity—they have to feed their families too). Assuming the judge awards you all of your actual costs including diminished value and loss of use (look this up in the dictionary under “pipe dream”) then you get a judgement for $50K against the kid. Ok, what happens next? I don’t know many 20 year olds that can simply stroke a check for that. There is a reason here that he was driving without insurance.

Yes, moral indignation and all the rest. If it was me I would be pi—ed. But why send good money after bad? Time to move on.

Sorry, I wish it was otherwise but sometimes you need to smell the roses and just let things go.

 

I looked up the company a friend used, try ferraridiminishedvalue dot com, he was very satisfied with the outcome and they work in all 50 states.

 

You'll never get a check out of the other driver. Accept your loss and move on.

 

As an insurance agent this is, IMO what your options are.
1-Diminished value: Have a diminished value report done by an expert who does this and submit to State Farm. If the amount is significant as you assume it is then perhaps hiring a collection attorney willing to work on a % might be an option. Never heard of diminished value endorsement available for purchase.
2-Loss of use: Unlike homeowners insurance, this is not available on vehicle insurance. Your # is purely speculative anyway.
3-See previous post by "thorn"

 

You can't wring water from a stone. You're not going to be able to get any money from the kid. It all depends how vindictive you want to be IMHO.
Forget the loss of use. That's an insurance game. I doubt any jury or judge would award a $10k award because you couldn't drive your second car for a month. Might work with insurance but I doubt you'd get someone to levy judgement on a 20 year old kid for that. The diminished value is understandable. You could go to small claims or draft a demand letter.. I suspect only thing you can do is hit their credit with a claim.

 

Here is a real life story of someone who got State Farm to pay diminished value (slightly different facts of course):

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/i-got-diminished-value-on-f430.586345/#post-146247264

Use the forum search function and you will find a few stories of DV claims in various sub-forums here...including referrals to several DV experts to assist with your claim.

 

Pm "Chairman" on Ferrarichat. He is a damage evaluation specialist and helped in the resolution to the total loss of my Diablo VT Roadster. I was hit by an 80 year old man and while his coverage was 100k, my car was totaled out for the value of the car...more than double....but you need all the paperwork and it's a process.

Shamile

Freeze....Miami Vice!

 

You may still make a diminished value claim even if you did not get diminished value insurance. Talk to Inlinesixx and he can give you proper info.

Bdel

 

What does it mean when the OP never posts again?

 

In that case the insurance company represented the other party. If you go after the other party (or their insurer) you get whatever the law allows. If you go after YOUR insurer on the uninsured motorist part of your policy you get whatever coverage you have paid for. Apples and oranges.

 

I know that a lot of times many people don’t know what coverage they actually have. I find myself constantly scanning my policy every year at renewal to ensure I have the coverage I want/need. A lot of times insurance companies tend to sell policies that cover only what is required by state law or required by a financial company that holds the note for a particular vehicle. Sure I pay more for declared value, uninsured motorist, replacement cost, ect but (and my situation being a business owner is certainly different then just individual auto coverage) I know that my assets are covered in the event of a loss. I scour my personal auto policies as well but should probably be as diligent with those as I am the business policy.

 

That is good advice but I suspect we’re all at least a little guilty of not doing paying attention to the details. I know I am.

There’s a lot of discussion here about getting coverage for diminished value and loss of use. It is certainly worthwhile to try to make sure your insurance covers such things. However, if we’re going to look at insurance coverage, I think we should also think about a high limit umbrella liability policy. Let’s face it. We all drive these shiny toys and this makes us targets for people who want to make outrageous claims against us. You can afford to not be fully compensated for the diminished value or loss of use if your shiny toy is damaged but you don’t want some scumbag coming after all of what you own.

 

You’re one of the few that noticed.

Most people just chime in with their opinion.

Matt

 

Yeah your right, I just upped my limits on my personal vehicle when I discovered it hadn’t depreshiated as much as I suspected when my dealer called me after a service visit and offered a substantially higher amount then I ever suspected it would be worth. While I generally don’t use my personal vehicle much, just over 32k in 6 years since new, I knew if something bad did happen while I was driving it I wouldn’t be covered enough to recover the value.

 

I suspect no attorney would do this on a contingency basis, but you might readily find one willing to do it on an hourly basis. Simple negligence complaint-serve him-when ge doesn't anwer, move for default and eventually final judgment. The satisfaction might be well worth the few grand it's gonna costs. Personal decision.

 

Alien abduction?

 

I took a moon flight with Elon in his Tesla.

Thanks for all the advice. I sent an email to inlinesixx and hoping to get a statement. Yes I’m out $25K and it’s even ****tier that this 19 year old kid stopped answering his phone and not taking the responsibility of rear ending my Ferrari.

I wonder if I call the police department and make them have an arrest warrant on him for driving uninsured.

 

You did get a police report right? I would assume the kid was fined and or arrested too?