If your car was damaged in a car crash, you have certain rights under Utah law. Generally, the insurance company for the person who caused the damage to your car will be responsible for making things right. Your own car insurance is also available as a backup (assuming you have full coverage) if the at-fault insurance company is denying or delaying your property damage claim.

From the date of the crash to the time you resolve your property damage claim, you will want to keep track of where your damaged car is and the mounting storage fees. Some tow yards, for example, will charge $20-$30 a day to keep your car there. This could easily amount to well over $500 a month, possibly more than your monthly car payment! While the insurance company is required to pay for “reasonable” storage fees, they will cut you off at some point if you don’t “mitigate” or reduce your damages or costs by moving the car to a place that doesn’t charge so much. High storage fees by these wrecking yards are a racket as they prey upon innocent consumers who are simply waiting around for the insurance company to make a fair offer on their totaled vehicle. The problem is most prevalent when there is no attorney involved. The insurance company will usually give you notice that they intend to stop paying for storage fees. Make sure they have your correct address or you can miss this letter. They may also tell you over the phone or in a voice mail. Once they give you notice, you will have just a short period of time to move your car.

If you have “full coverage” car insurance, where your company will cover your property damage whether you or someone else caused the crash, then this is certainly an option for you. There are pros and cons to doing this.

One of the plusses is that going through your own insurance might be a little quicker as your insurance has an obligation to take care of it customers. You potentially could save a few days or even weeks if you do this. They will be quicker to “accept liability,” even when it could be said that you may have contributed to the crash happening. And they won’t pay just a percentage, if this is the case. In terms of values for your totaled car, their offers might be a little fairer as they generally have an obligation to act in good faith and deal fairly with their customers. This might lead to less haggling when it comes time to negotiate.

On the negative, there is the pesky issue of the deductible, which will need to come out of a totaled vehicle claim. Again, if there is any issue of your contribution to the crash, you will probably need to grin and bear it when it comes to the deductible. In the end, though, if you are free of fault in causing the crash, you will be reimbursed for the amount of your deductible. Some insurance companies will even waive the deductible with the expectation that they will later collect it themselves from the at-fault carrier. Another potential downside is not timely getting a rental car or “loss of use” coverage. This can be a big issue if you are out a car and you need to get to your doctor’s appointments, get the kids to school or even get to work. The reality is that most people do not purchase rental car coverage. If this is you, not having prompt access to a rental car could be a real downer. Keep in mind, though, that if you paid for a rental car out-of-pocket, the at-fault insurance will still generally be responsible to pay for this. It just requires you to make and pursue the claim with the insurance company.

Occasionally, the insurance may go right up to the end of the 30-day investigation period. This is usually not a good sign and suggests they may be looking to deny the claim or whittle down liability. If this is happening, you may wish to open your property damage claim with your own insurance company. (See above.) Assuming, however, that the at-fault insurance accepts liability, this will open the door to them either paying the body repair shop to fix your car or them making an offer on the value of your totaled car. Regardless of whether you get your car fixed or receive money for a totaled car settlement, your personal injury claim (if you made one) will continue.

Many insurance companies will send a traveling appraiser to look at your car and give you a preliminary estimate of what the repair will cost. This estimate is invariably lower than what the actual cost of the repair will end up being.

Take your garden variety rear ender, for example. While it may seem obvious that the rear bumper needs to be repaired, what about possible frame damage? What about support and bracket compromise? There are some things you won’t find need repairing until the repair begins and they can start the break down process that will allow a technician to thoroughly inspect the damaged area. Given that a certain percentage of claimants will just pocket the insurance estimate amount and never repair their car, the insurance industry saves a bundle with these low-ball estimates. I recommend getting 2-3 estimates from legitimate shops. If you do get an estimate from the insurance-recommended shop, make sure you get 2 additional estimates for comparison. As I am fond of saying, you will actually maximize the value of the repair job by actually getting the repair done. This way, when additional issues are spotted after tear-down, the shop will work out the additional cost with the insurance company so that all items are covered.

The short answer is probably not. For example, if you just spent $7,000 on a new engine for your car, you will likely not get that money back. The fact that you spent that money did increase the value of the car, but usually not by the amount of the repair bill. At the same time, you will always want to submit repair bills, invoices for new tires, etc., to the insurance when negotiating a total loss claim as this will help prove that you have recently put money into the car and that has increased its value. A car on the open market, for example, that has a new engine, will generally be worth more money that one that has high miles on it. This all adds to the fair market value of the car, the amount the insurance company is required to pay you.

This happens more often than you would think. It happens most often with new car purchases and less frequently with used car purchases. As they say with new cars, the minute you drive it off the lot, it depreciates by 10-20%. This is why they came out with “gap” insurance. This type of insurance protects you when you can’t or don’t want to make a large down payment. It protects you when you owe more money than your car is worth. If you don’t have gap insurance, though, you are still obligated to satisfy the terms of the loan. So even if you reach a settlement with the insurance for the fair market value of your car, you may still need to continue making payments until the loan is completely paid off.

If you are upside down on your loan and have no gap insurance, you still might be able to work out an arrangement so you don’t have to continue making payments on a car you no longer own or drive. Simply put, you do this by buying a replacement car – new or used. This replacement car is “collateral” for the new car loan as well as the old loan that they roll into the new purchase. This process is referred to as “substitution of collateral.”

The process starts when the lender gets their check from the insurance company and applies the proceeds to your auto loan. Once this happens, there will be a deficit that needs to be satisfied. The following two steps then occur: (1) the lender releases its interest in the car by sending the title of the totaled car to the insurance company; and (2) the deficit amount on the old loan is rolled into a new loan for a replacement car. That’s it. You now have a new car loan with part of your old auto loan attached. While it’s not desirable to be upside down, you should use your predicament with the auto dealer to leverage the best possible discount on your replacement car so you can reduce – or even eliminate – the deficit as much as possible. And if you purchase a car from the same dealership as the one that sold you the totaled car, you may be able to get them to waive any additional down payment.