No matter how serious the accident, accident victims are often unhappy because they find that an insurance company is unwilling to pay a fair amount for the damage to their vehicle. Many accident victims also find themselves upset at how they have been treated by the insurance company in the post-accident process.

If you find yourself in this situation, we strongly recommend that you contact experienced car wreck lawyers.

So what are your rights in this situation? Unfortunately, while Texas law allows an injured person to seek fair compensation for their personal injuries in a car wreck, their rights regarding their property damage are severely limited.

When someone’s car has been totaled in a collision, the things they want/need most are:

• A rental vehicle, and
• Their car replaced

Unfortunately, neither of these things are required by Texas law.

For you to understand the law of property damage in Texas, you need to understand what it means to have your vehicle totaled. Generally speaking, a car, truck, or motorcycle is totaled if it costs more to fix it than the vehicle is worth. Many insurance companies have a looser standard though. They will often declare a vehicle totaled if the cost of repairs is approximately 70% of the vehicle’s fair market value.

Can an injured consumer dispute the insurance company’s determination? Yes, but many times the only option is to file a lawsuit. Filing a lawsuit over the value of a car is generally not economical. The consumers often have no choice but to accept the insurance company’s decisions.

If your car is declared a total loss, are you entitled to a rental vehicle? The answer in Texas is generally no. The law’s goal is to put you in the same place you were immediately before the wreck.

If your car is damaged but repairable, then the insurance company should put you in a rental car while your car is being fixed. You have transportation and have sustained no loss.

How long should I expect to wait before the insurance company helps me?

If your car is a total loss, the law assumes that the auto insurance company will quickly come to your door with a check for the fair market value of your vehicle plus tax, title, and license allowing you to go out and purchase another car.

Under this rosy scenario, if your car is a total loss, there’s absolutely no reason for you to need a rental car since the auto insurance company is going to act promptly to fairly settle your claim.

Anyone who has actually been in a car wreck and negotiated their property damage with an insurance company knows that this is simply not the case. Many times, insurance companies will refuse to accept responsibility until they review the police report, which may take days or even weeks to be completed. They may also want to investigate and interview witnesses that may not be readily available.

It may be several days or several weeks before the insurance company decides that they will accept responsibility and will send someone to look at your car to determine if it is a total loss. During this time, you are not entitled to a rental car, because your car is a total loss.

One Texas appellate court has held that where the insurance company unreasonably delayed inspecting and declaring the consumer’s car a total loss, they did owe a rental vehicle. However, this decision has not been followed by any other appellate courts, and it is doubtful the Texas Supreme Court would adopt such a consumer-friendly rule.

How much does the insurance company owe me for my vehicle?

Now that your car is a total loss, what are you entitled to receive? You are entitled to the fair market value of your car as determined by the insurance company.

The Texas Department of Insurance used to require that all insurance companies use Blue Book or some other objective standard to measure the value of a car. As the influence of consumers has been declining, and the influence of auto insurance companies increasing, the rules have changed. Now, the auto insurance company will only give what they determine to be the fair market value of your car.

If the consumer owns an older car that has been well maintained, the age itself can determine the value of the car regardless of the condition the car is in. Nothing is more frustrating than to have a good, reliable car that was paid for suddenly taken away from you at the fault of someone else and be given only enough money to go out and buy an old used car. With the old used car, you will have all of the problems you previously paid to have fixed in your car or truck that was just totaled.

Other consumers that are reluctant to go out and buy an old car for the money they are given go out and buy newer cars. This means they now have a car payment that they did not previously have.

Unfortunately, no matter how frustrating these events are, under the current State of Texas law, this is allowed to happen. Insurance companies are not required to find a car for you of the same or similar quality as the car they wrecked. They only have to determine what your car worth was and offer you the fair market value, leaving it up to you to find another reliable car.

We have 40 years of experience helping accident victims in these circumstances.

For nearly 40 years, the personal injury attorneys of Roberts and Roberts have fought to protect Texas consumers against the negligence of other drivers and their auto insurance companies.

If you, or someone you know, have been seriously injured in a car crash, motorcycle accident, or a truck accident, call the personal injury lawyers of Roberts & Roberts. Whether that crash happened in Longview, Tyler, Palestine, or anywhere in East Texas, we know how to help.