Diminished value claims in Pennsylvania

Claims against the at-fault driver

Pennsylvania follows the Restatement measure for damage to a vehicle that is not a total loss. Under Holt v. Pariser (1947), the owner may recover the difference between the car's value before and after the harm, or, at the owner's election, the reasonable cost of repair with due allowance for any difference between the original value and the value after repairs. Loss of use is recoverable as well.

That allowance is how lost value after repair enters a Pennsylvania claim. The owner has to prove it.

Claims under your own policy

The survey we rely on found no Pennsylvania appellate decision requiring an insurer to pay lost value under a standard auto policy, and a trial court declined to find that coverage in Munoz v. Allstate (1999).

Policies differ. The wording of your own policy controls.

Filing deadline

Pennsylvania gives two years for an action to recover damages for injury to person or property founded on negligent, intentional, or otherwise tortious conduct (42 Pa.C.S. 5524(7)).

That is the deadline for filing suit. A Pennsylvania attorney can confirm how it applies to your dates.

How diminished value claims tend to go in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania's claim regulations require an insurer to complete its investigation within 30 days after notice of a claim, or give the claimant a written explanation of the delay, repeated every 45 days, with an expected decision date (31 Pa. Code 146.6). A first-party claimant must be told within 15 working days of proof of loss whether the claim is accepted or denied (31 Pa. Code 146.7).

Many insurers answer a diminished value request with a formula rather than a market study. The best known is the 17c formula, which came out of the Georgia class actions over first-party claims that followed State Farm v. Mabry; its name comes from paragraph 17(c) of an injunction in one of them. It starts from a capped share of the car's value before the crash, then reduces it with damage and mileage modifiers. A law-firm survey notes it was built for that class action and has not been formally adopted for general use.

Adjusters commonly ask for proof that the repaired car is worth less, not only proof that it was damaged. Records that tend to matter: the final repair invoice and photos, the estimate showing any structural or frame work, the vehicle history report entry, and written market evidence such as dealer quotes or listings for the same car with and without an accident history.

Lost value is easiest to show once repairs are finished, because the value after repair is what gets compared with the value before the crash.

If you have a complaint about claim handling

The Pennsylvania Insurance Department's Bureau of Consumer Services takes complaints about how an insurer handled a claim. File with the Pennsylvania Insurance Department.

Next steps

• How Reclaim's diminished-value check works
• Estimate a figure with the diminished value calculator
• How to file a diminished value claim
• Diminished value claims in New York
• Diminished value claims in Ohio
• Diminished value rules in every state