The best place to start is to read your lease contract and see what it says, if anything, regarding overages on a total loss.
And, if you’re really invested in this, get a lawyer to read the language and see if it contradicts state law. In which case the contract wouldn’t hold up in court.
Had this exact thing happen to me with State Farm and BMW. Short answer…forget it. I fought with BMW for 6 months and never got the extra back. BMW flat out said “it’s not in our contract right now but we are working on getting it in there so you will have to sue us”.
Give up or hire a lawyer and attempt to fight it but I’m sure BMW has deeper lawyer pockets than just about anyone.
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Get a loan and finance the buyout if you want the overage.
Your underlying assumption is that BMW is legally in the wrong.
They probably get so much grief from people constantly trying to assert rights they don’t have, that they’re adding language to the agreement to help with expectations.
If you commit a murder that’s clearly captured on video, you are neither going to be acquitted because there wasn’t a “No Murdering” sign posted at the scene, nor will you be convicted because the prosecutor’s office has more money than you do.
Maybe. But I’ve actually heard Audi and BMW employees say exactly this (buy it out before insurance cuts check)
It doesn’t have to be an auto loan. It could be a personal loan or take it out of a HELOC.
I was under the impression that the bank couldn’t knowingly sell a totalled vehicle without a branded title, which isn’t going to happen until they’re made whole.
I could see if one bought out the lease prior to making a claim, but once the gears are in motion, it’s a different story
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Never rely on someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
To get the insurance payout, you’re going to have to insure the car first. And at some point you’ll lie to them and then get caught lying to them.
It would be laughably easy for an investigator to prove when the car was totaled and when third parties such as BMWFS, State Farm, local LEO, etc knew about it.
This is not a bank’s civil lawsuit. Insurance fraud is a criminal offense. Which means jail time.
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And usually if it’s a claim that will involve a car getting totaled insurance will know before you can even think about calling up the bank to get that loan.
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We are in a similar situation right now. Totaled our i3 and insurance company just gave us a quote for the actual cash value. It’s 3k above payoff. I kept asking them to call BMWFS as BMW told me to do but nobody has called so far. After reading thru all the posts here I’m wondering if I should ask the insurance company to pay BMWFS the payoff amount and cut us a check for the overage? I feel like BMW is not gonna just take the payoff amount without talking to insurance. Anybody else had similar experiences?
Spoke to bmw financial and they told me they will be refunding me $700-$799 forgot the exact number. I don’t think that’s a fair number Statefarm payed out $100,598.32 -$1000( deductible ) = $99,598.32 is what Statefarm is paying bmw financial. As of November 10, my payoff of the car was $77,854.27 and on November 14 my payoff was $ 73,763.28 this time the didn’t add the tax and small fees don’t know why? To me it seems like there is $20k+ of extra. Bmw told me all I’m getting back is $700-$799 forgot exact number. What can I do to get some of that overage or if I can do anything to get some of that overage?
Buy the car.
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I am doing just that, overnighted payoff to BMW FS. Should know something sometime next week. I’ll post an update whenever I hear back from them.
“27. Purchase Option. I have an option to purchase the Vehicle AS-IS, WHERE-IS.”
Here is my justification, all per contract!
Hopefully it works out for you and when you try to process the claim with your insurance, they don’t say “well, we’re paying the party that was insured at the time of the incident” or “it’s great that you own it now, but you’re trying to file a claim on a vehicle that was damaged when you purchased it”
While I hope it works out for you…in the meantime you may want to get a referral & have a conversation with an attorney in this one.
I see your point, objectively looking at it, however your looking at from a perspective of confirmation bias which is known to happen in these situations.
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That contract is between you and BMWFS. The pitfall is getting money from your insurer, which is a completely different entity.
In addition, when signing the policy you may have made declaration(s) to the effect of (1) informing them of incidents right away, (2) not trying to claim a totaled car as an undamaged car, (3) not omitting material information, etc etc etc.
If the insurer finds out you are looking at allegations of insurance fraud. Penalties vary by state.
Under the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice 2C:21-4.6, an insurance fraud offense occurs when someone knowingly omits a material fact or makes a false or misleading statement to an insurance company. In this state, insurance fraud is a crime and is considered a third-degree felony. Multiple instances of insurance fraud can be a second-degree offense with even stricter penalties.
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I am not withholding anything from anyone, being upfront with BMW and insurer. At very least I get to speak from experience in the future… good or bad
Obviously, don’t encourage anyone to follow my foot steps. Wish me luck!
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Worst case scenario (other than the whole insurance fraud side of things), you end up paying your buy out amount for the x7 and get stuck with a totaled vehicle and no insurance payout.
Asked insurer to postpone settlement due to sending payoff to the BMW directly. They promised to check back with BMW FS in a few days and request updated letter of guarantee to see if there is still balance owed to them. Insurance also confirmed that any overages will be sent to me directly.
The question remains… Will BMW accept my check