b2884987

My lousy neighbor cut off his tree and a large branch fell and made a sizeable dent on my car. If I get it repaired, will my car lose value? If I reported it to my insurance and made a claim, will the car record make me lose value on my car?

shadow1118

Why has he not called his insurance company yet? C'mon man, the longer he waits to call his insurance the worse its gonna be for you. He needs to call his insurance, immediately and make a claim. This is your car and property man that you need to protect. It was not your fault your car is dented. Let us know how it goes.

UDel

It shouldn't if it is fixed properly. It will definitely lose value if you don't get it taken care of and there is damage to it when you sell it. Just take pictures of what happened and document it in case it shows up on a carfax, if anyone tries to lower their offer based on that just say you are not going to take any money off for that, it was properly fixed and there are no issues. If they walk, they walk, someone will buy it at the price you want. Most buyers don't care about minor damage/fender benders as long as they were properly fixed nor does Kelly's take value off for minor damage that was fixed.

b2884987

He's not willing to admit it's his fault that he made the damage, he blames it on the damage already being there, despite the fact that it's clear that there's tree skin left on my car's paint and there's no way another car could cause that damage.

Fizzboy7

Leaving it unfixed would be the worst move. You have to get it fixed, period. Research a good auto repair place and let insurance cover it. You don't have options here.

703

Depends. If your car is a beat up, won’t make a difference. If it just rolled off the dealer lot with plastic seat wrappings intact - yes

Chocolate

The answer to your question is yes. If you make a report and it shows up on the Carfax, your vehicle will be worth less. You can pursue a diminished value claim with your own insurance.

https://www.thebalance.com/diminishe...cident-2645571

Not sure how much you would get, but it might be worth looking into. You will have to fight to get them to give you the most possible.

Subscribing, let us know how it goes. Good luck.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

wow, your neighbor sounds terrible. maybe one can hope the whole tree might accidentally fall on his car?

tex2670

Think about what you are asking:

Well, if you don't get if repaired, your car will certainly lose value. So I think you want it repaired.

If you don't report the damage, and you pay out of pocket, you are going to lose money because with an insurance claim, you are only paying the deductible. So would you rather pay the full claim, and be out that cash now rather than file the claim, have insurance pay, and maybe have a car with a lower value in the future (not knowing now what else could happen to the car in the future)?

And--if you ever plan to trade the car in, rather than sell it privately, the dealer appraiser is going to know immediately if the car has been repainted, regardless of whether a repair shows up in the CarFax report.

tex2670

Not if OP's policy doesn't cover diminished value. This is where going after the neighbor's home owner's policy could be worthwhile--OP won't be out his deductible, and OP isn't bound by certain limitations of the neighbor's policy.

geko29

If your neighbor is being this difficult, I would just file a claim with your insurance and ask them to subrogate against your neighbor. They may ask you to file a police report for property damage in order to get his insurance information, or they may just go after him directly.