Old Trails Fire · Vehicle total loss
Your car burned too. Don't take the first number.
A fire-destroyed vehicle is a total loss claim — and total loss offers are routinely thousands below what your car was actually worth. Here's how to document your loss and push back, whether or not you ever hire us.
Step one
Document your vehicle before you settle
The carrier values what it can see. A burned VIN and a guess is not your car — build the record that proves what it was.
Prove what the car was
Pull your maintenance records, dealer invoices, and receipts for tires, brakes, and upgrades. Scroll your phone for pre-fire photos — the driveway shot from last summer is evidence.
Photograph the vehicle where it sits
VIN plate if readable, plates, and wide shots of the scene before it's towed. Don't authorize disposal until the claim is settled.
Write down the options and condition
Trim level, package, mileage at last service, new tires in March — every option changes the value, and the carrier's report will default to “base, average.”
Inventory what was inside
Car seats, tools, electronics, sports gear — contents of the vehicle are usually a homeowners or renters claim. List them before you forget.
Keep your displacement receipts
Rental car, rideshares, replacement car seat — loss-of-use and incidental costs may be covered. Save everything.
Request the valuation report in writing
When the offer comes, ask for the full valuation report behind it — every comparable, every adjustment. You're entitled to see how they got the number.
When the offer comes in low
You can dispute a total loss offer. Most people don't know that.
The first offer is built from a valuation report the carrier bought — comparable listings you never see, “condition adjustments” applied sight-unseen, and fees left off. After a disaster, when hundreds of vehicles total at once, those shortcuts get worse. You are allowed to challenge every line of it.
Releasing the vehicle and signing settlement paperwork can end your dispute before it starts. Get your questions answered first — nothing legitimate expires today.
Fastest first step: upload the insurer's offer to our free valuation review — an honest answer on whether it's worth challenging, in about a minute.
Free consultation
Bring us the offer. We'll tell you if it's fair.
Send the valuation report and thirty minutes later you'll know whether to take it or fight it — free, no obligation. Home and vehicle claims, one team.
info@claims.coach