You may recall my having the front of my pristine 2017 Corvette Stingray ripped off by a hit-and-run driver in the McLean Giant shopping center parking lot. And the saga involving its repair.
However, even though it again looked like new, now that details of its repair were available to any Carfax inquirer, its market value had diminished in their eyes. That difference should also be reimbursed by the insurer of the party at fault. However, how to determine how much the value had been diminished?
Fortunately, a member of the Northern Virginia Corvette Club notified me that his wife was a personal injury attorney who had offered to assist club members with questions regarding this type of claim. She suggested I take my car to a company that specializes in calculating diminished value and recommended one in nearby Maryland. I contacted them and arranged to have it examined there.
The facility had special lighting, under which the inspector minutely examined the car's exterior, pointing out his observations to me. In fact, he detected an earlier repair. The cause was a similar, although less serious, crunching of the right rear corner. Unfortunately, that time I wasn't on hand to witness the hit-and-run. Not wanting the repair to appear in the public record, I paid for it myself and had never noticed the subtle evidence he identified.
He later sent a detailed 33-page report providing an analysis with supporting details of the retail value of my vehicle – which he judged as being in Very Good condition – both pre-loss $51,079.20, and post-repair, $47,482.80; a difference of $3,596.40.
When I forwarded the report to the claim representative, she replied with a six-page report from a company they use that claimed the diminished value was only $2,100, but she offered to split the difference. I had read that this was often the way an agreement was reached, but I forwarded their report to the inspector.
He pointed out in detail how their evaluation did not meet industry standards for a certified appraisal. He also detailed other deficiencies in their analysis that served to reduce their valuation. I forwarded his comments to the claim representative and requested she accept his appraisal of the diminished value.
I received no response, including after I resent it December 21 and 29, when I suggested it might have been overlooked in the holiday rush. January 25 I sent a certified letter with a return receipt request, which was received by an employee of the insurance company on January 29, but resulting in a similar lack of response.
I was considering a suit in Small Claims Court – in Virginia for damages up to $5,000 and with a five-year statute of limitations for property damage matters – when my insurance agent suggested I file a complaint with the Virginia Insurance Commission. A great idea, which I hadn't thought of!
March 12 I emailed the claim representative saying I was prepared to do so. I also said that I would include a detailed chronology with full documentation to support the claim, and asked her to let me know if she would reconsider her stance. The subject line was The Next Step, but also elicited no reply. A week later, I resent it with the subject line Last Chance.
Two days later she replied that she had issued a check for $3,596.40 per my appraiser's report. It didn't include reimbursement of my $350 independent appraisal fee, but that was more than compensated for by the additional nearly $1,500 that I would not otherwise have received. I indeed did receive the check, and it cleared.
Persistence paid off!