Insurance payout for TYM T 474 am I being ripped off?

[LDWallace]

Here is the prologue to my post here:

Tractor Insurance: am I being ripped off

I have tractor insurance on a 2022 48 HP tractor with 350 hours through EII Equipment Insurance International. I did not know anything about the company.. my dealer made all of the arrangements with the financing and the insurance. Recently I destroyed the engine.. It was stupid operator...

www.tractorbynet.com

Since my dealer listed my tractor and FEL as two line items on the Bill of Sale, my insurance company (Equipment Insurance International EII) is adamant that they are only responsible for the value of the tractor. I have pretty much given up on challenging that but perhaps I should send an email to my state insurance commissioner and their state commissioner in North Carolina. I wonder if that is worth the effort?

I did get them to agree that all of the parts of the FEL system. (Loader mounts, loader frame, hydraulic connections, and joystick) belong to me and I have a right to take them off the tractor. Now the salvage company wants to resubmit their bid. (That doesn’t matter to me EII will have to adjust the amount they pay me.) Plus more time till I get my payoff. As a separate deal I offered to sale the salvage company the FEL. No response yet.

Now to my point and the area where I need help from the community.

The adjuster (Gulf Atlantic Claims Service) did three comparables on tractors with 350 hours and got what I think is a fair valuation of $22.8k. But..,

He valued the FEL at $6.4K reducing the valuation of the tractor to $16.4. So the FEL is 28% of the value of the tractor.

I called the adjuster to ask how he got such a high valuation for the FEL.

To paraphrase he told me to “pack sand” and call the insurance company if I have a problem with his valuation.

I have tried to find the price of stand alone FELs on the internet. Tym does not seem to price FELs. I did find a link for John Deere. I plan to visit some local dealers tomorrow and see if I can get pricing.

So my question for the community:

1. Do you agree that is a grossly over value for the FEL?

2. How can I convince the insurance company that the FEL is grossly over priced?

3. Does anyone have web links that separately price FELs

4. Are there any dealers willing to “chime in” with their opinion?

Thanks for any help you can provide..

I hope some of you are like me… you don’t like being bullied and will fight back as best you can.

 

[ning]

I understand that you're upset, but I think this is at least the third thread you've started about this. Likely you're not going to get much more help by opening more threads.

It seems to me that your best bet may be to talk to a lawyer if you really think you're not getting a fair shake, or if there is such a thing in your jurisdiction, an insurance commission or department of insurance; I can't recall if you've talked to the insurance company itself as to getting a different adjuster, etc.

As far as values, the best I can do it suggest you price new tractors with and without the FEL, and see what you can find on the used market for tractors with and without FEL. You'll likely not be able to find your exact tractor, but if you find a particular model that's similar, offered with and without FEL, you may be able to get an idea of what the FEL is actually worth.

It does sound however that that adjuster isn't going to be someone you can work with and you need to talk to someone else.

 

[jyoutz]

I would make them buy out the tractor and loader. What good is the loader unless you buy the exact same model replacement? And would the current model have any changes to the loader subframe so you would have an issue installing it? Can you call the company factory representative to escalate your claim.

 

[4570Man]

I for one think the insurance company has done you pretty fair. Maybe not the deal you wanted but their terms would reasonable. I’d start with finding a better mechanic to rebuild the engine. You should be able to order parts and repair the engine for far less than $20,000.