Total-Loss Vehicle Claim After a Rollover Crash

Attorney Answer

Nobody has to give you permission to open this claim, and with no injuries the vehicle is the whole case. Texas gives you two years, so the deadline is not your problem today. The two things that actually cost people money in a total loss are the storage yard, which charges every day the car sits there, and the first valuation number the insurer offers.

The clock first. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) provides: "Except as provided by Sections 16.010, 16.0031, and 16.0045, a person must bring suit for trespass for injury to the estate or to the property of another, conversion of personal property, taking or detaining the personal property of another, personal injury, forcible entry and detainer, and forcible detainer not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues." Damage to your car and injury to your body sit under the same two-year period in Texas.

Where the money comes from is a separate question. Tex. Transp. Code § 601.051 requires every driver to establish financial responsibility for the vehicle, normally through a liability policy. Section 601.072(a-1) sets the minimum amounts at $30,000 for bodily injury to or death of one person, $60,000 for two or more persons, and $25,000 for damage to or destruction of the property of others. If the other driver carries only the minimum and your car was worth more than $25,000, that policy will not cover the loss, and the balance has to come from your own collision coverage or from the driver personally.

Be realistic about leverage with the other driver's insurer. You are a third-party claimant, not its customer. The prompt-payment rules in chapter 542 of the Insurance Code are written for first-party claims, and the settlement-practice duties in chapter 541 run to insureds and beneficiaries. A claimant pursuing the other driver's carrier does not get a private action under them. If you carry collision coverage, using your own policy is usually faster, and your insurer then pursues the other carrier for the deductible.

One piece of value people leave behind on a total loss is the time without a vehicle. In J & D Towing, LLC v. American Alternative Insurance Corp., the Supreme Court of Texas held that loss-of-use damages are recoverable even when the vehicle is totally destroyed, not only when it is repairable, so long as the loss is foreseeable, traceable to the crash, not speculative, and limited to a reasonable replacement period. Rental receipts, rideshare charges and documented missed work are what prove it.

What you can do

1. Tell your own auto insurer about the crash today, even if you do not intend to use your collision coverage. Most policies require prompt notice.

2. Find out today where the car is being stored and ask the yard, in writing, for the daily storage rate and the running total. Storage is the fee that quietly grows.

3. Before the car is released or sold, photograph it from every side and photograph the odometer and interior. Once it is gone, the condition evidence is gone.

4. When a valuation arrives, ask the insurer in writing for the comparable vehicles and adjustments it used. You are entitled to see how a number was built before you decide about it.

5. Keep every receipt for a rental, rideshare or other transportation, and keep a note of the days you were without a car.

6. If symptoms show up in the next days or weeks, see a doctor and say the crash happened. Rollovers commonly produce delayed neck and back complaints, and an unexamined "I am okay" is hard to undo later.

7. Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003(a) allows two years from the day the cause of action accrues for both property damage and personal injury. When that period started, and whether anything in your situation changes it, depends on your facts, and no page can date it for you. Have a Texas attorney look at your dates rather than counting from the crash yourself.