I was in an accident last night. My passenger and myself are not injured. The rear door will not open because it is sticking on something.
I know after repairing the car, it will have an lower resale value due to the repair.
How do I calculate the loss and get the other insurance company to compensate me?
I am going through my insurance for the repair and obviously they will recover my deductible and what they paid for the repair from the other persons insurance.
You are likely out of luck regarding any loss in value due to the accident. Most insurance policies pay to repair the vehicle, but do not consider any market value loss, which is very difficult to determine/estimate. Just insist that your repair body shop uses genuine manufacturer parts and choose a shop that does quality work, and you’ll be OK.
In some states you may be able to sue the person who was responsible for the accident for the lost in market value of the car. How to determine such a loss can be complicated unless you have meticulous records concerning the service and condition of your car and can show what similar cars in your region have recently sold for.
In most cases you are pretty much screwed. You now have a CarFax showing that your vehicle has been in an accident. Just about every potential buyer is going to use that as leverage against you when it comes time to sell no matter how good the repair is.
Looks like New Jersey car insurance can be eitherno fault or tortdepending upon what policy you buy. With a tort policy I would assume that you can sue the other guy.