How Do Insurance Companies Decide to Total a Car in Texas
How dress insurance companies decide to total a car in Texas ? The inadequate answer is insurance companies can choose to repair your cable car up until the cost to repair exceeds the bazaar market value of your vehicle. however, policy companies will normally total a vehicle when repairs exceed 50 % – 75 % of the value .
It ’ mho important to know whether the policy company will be totaling your car after an accident. First, it gives you the opportunity to get an early jump begin on researching comparable vehicles to present to the indemnity company in order to increase your offer on the actual cash measure of the car. Second, it will give you more time to shop for a replacement vehicle while the policy company performs their probe and estimate of the damages. Third, it may help to avoid accruing extra costs such as storage fees that the indemnity company may refuse to pay if you failed to properly mitigate your damages by leaving your car at a storage facility for an unreasonable total of meter .

Texas Law on When a Car is Totaled

Texas law mandates how insurance companies determine when to total a fomite and provides a formula, as indicated in the Texas Transportation Code. According to Texas Transportation Code section 501.091 ( 15 ), a salvage or “ totaled ” fomite has damage to or is missing a major component part to the extent that the cost of repairs, including parts and labor other than the cost of materials and labor for repainting the centrifugal vehicle and excluding sales tax on the total cost of repairs, exceeds the actual cash rate of the motor fomite immediately before the wrong. In other words, the Texas sum loss formula to determine whether a damaged vehicle must be a full loss is :
Cost of Repair > Actual Cash Value

If the full cost of repairs is greater than the actual cash value ( ACV ) or market respect of car, then the insurance company will total the car. For model, if your 2008 Honda Accord has an actual cash value of $ 4,500 and the price to repair it is $ 5,000, then your car would be totaled .
$5,000 > $4,500
Please keep in mind that policy companies may decide to total a vehicle when the damages are less than the actual cash measure. The Texas Transportation Code precisely provides a damage doorsill in which a fomite will be considered totaled.

Texas courts have besides examined when a vehicle is totaled. In Canal Ins. Co. v. Hopkins Towing, No. 12-06-00411 ( Tex. App.-Tyler 2007 ), the court ruled that a fomite “ is a full loss if a sanely prudent uninsured owner, desiring to restore the property to its preincident condition, would not utilize that property for such restoration. Logic dictates that, absent other factors, a sanely prudent uninsured owner would not repair a vehicle where the animate costs exceeded the vehicle ’ s preincident bazaar market value. ” The motor hotel ’ sulfur rationale in this character reinforces the Texas Transportation Code ’ s definition that a vehicle is totaled when the price of repair exceeds the fairly market value .
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Anthony Milano

Anthony is an Arizona, Florida, and Texas personal injury lawyer, concentrating on motor vehicle accidents. In detail, Anthony handles lawsuits for victims of car accidents, hand truck accidents, motorbike accidents, pedestrian accidents, and bicycle accidents .

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