Indiana total-loss rules

The 70 percent figure is in this section, but it does not decide an insured claim: subsection (a)(2) applies it only to a business that insures its own vehicles or to someone who acquired the vehicle already damaged. For an insured loss the trigger is the insurer's own determination plus an agreed settlement. 'Fair market value' for this chapter means the NADA average trade-in value or CCC valuations (IC 9-22-3-2), which governs titling rather than what an insurer must pay.

Recorded as an absence after reading IC 27-4-1-4.5 and chapter 1.5 in full and searching the rest of Title 27 and every rule in 760 IAC 1 for a total-loss valuation provision. The Department of Insurance's rules contain no auto claims regulation at all; 760 IAC 1-64 is the rule on valuing life insurance policies. An Indiana argument rests on the policy's actual cash value promise and on the duty in IC 27-4-1-4.5(6) to attempt a fair and equitable settlement.

Confirmed absent from the insurance title and from the Department of Insurance's rules. With no comparables standard to cite, challenge a valuation on its facts, meaning the distance, age, mileage and condition of the vehicles it used, and on the duty in IC 27-4-1-4.5(6) to attempt a fair and equitable settlement.

The duty is to explain, not to disclose: nothing in Title 27 or 760 IAC 1 requires the valuation itself to be delivered. Ask in writing for the explanation of the basis for the offer, cite subdivision (14), and date the request.

Title 27 mentions sales tax once, in IC 27-1-43.2-3, where it is one of the costs a service contract for a vehicle protection product may reimburse; that is not an insurer's settlement duty. 760 IAC 1 has no tax provision. Because no state rule requires it, the audit argues the tax on the policy's actual cash value promise, the way it does for Michigan, and labels it that way.

No insurer duty exists in Title 27 or 760 IAC 1. The owner's own recoveries sit in the vehicle and tax titles: IC 9-18.1-11-6 lets a person who disposes of a vehicle, including a wrecked or destroyed one, transfer its registration and plates to another vehicle for a $9.50 fee plus any additional excise tax the other vehicle owes, and IC 6-6-5-7.2(e) credits the unused part of the vehicle excise tax on proof of the vehicle's destruction, refunding what is still unused after 90 days less a $3 fee. Both go through the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, not the insurer.

The auto policy requirements in IC 27-1-13-7 and the Department's only auto policy-form rule, 760 IAC 1-1, were read and contain no appraisal provision, and no other section of Title 27 provides one for an auto claim. Read your policy's own appraisal clause, if it has one, for how each side names an appraiser.

Indiana puts numbers only on the complaint process. Where the commissioner believes an unfair practice occurred, the Department sends the complaint to the insurer within ten business days, and the insurer must then report to the Department and to you within twenty business days, giving its specific reasons for what it has and has not done and, for an unsettled claim, a good faith estimate of the time settlement will take.

The section attaches no frequency requirement to its list. The commissioner's annual complaint report separately names companies that commit a listed practice flagrantly and in conscious disregard of the section, or often enough to indicate a general business practice (IC 27-4-1-19). An insurer that commits one is subject to action under IC 27-4-1-6 (IC 27-4-1-5.6(e)), which after a hearing allows a cease and desist order and a civil penalty of up to $25,000 for each act or violation. Subdivision (16) brings in chapter 1.5, which governs the body parts used in a repair rather than a total loss.

Two statutory periods could apply and the statutes do not choose between them: six years for written contracts for the payment of money (IC 34-11-2-9) and ten years for other written contracts (IC 34-11-2-11). Check your policy for a clause setting a shorter deadline to sue; whether Indiana enforces such a clause in a personal auto policy is not established here.

The Department asks you to contact the insurer first. File through the online complaint portal or on the printed form, with supporting documents such as the declarations page and the claim correspondence. A copy goes to the insurer, which by Indiana law has 20 business days to respond in writing, and the complaint becomes a public record. Consumer Services Division: 1-800-622-4461.

The Department of Insurance is Indiana's insurance regulator, and its Consumer Services Division handles complaints about insurers and agents.