Massachusetts Diminished Value Claim

Can you claim diminished value in Massachusetts?

Yes. Massachusetts treats diminished value as an element of the property damage caused by the at-fault driver. When someone else damages your car, the law entitles you to be put back in the position you were in before, and paying only for the repair does not do that if the car is worth less afterwards because the accident now sits on its permanent record.

The authority: McGilloway v. Safety Ins. Co., 488 Mass. 610 (2021) (inherent diminished value recoverable under Part 4 of the 2008 Standard Massachusetts Auto Policy), superseded for current policies by Cubberley v. Commerce Ins. Co., 495 Mass. 289 (Jan. 30, 2025), holding the 2016 standard policy form expressly excludes 'any decreased value or intangible loss.'

This is a claim against the other driver's liability insurer, made under their property damage liability coverage. It is separate from, and additional to, whatever that insurer already paid to repair your vehicle. Filing it does not touch your own policy and cannot raise your premium.

Your filing deadline in Massachusetts

Massachusetts gives you 3 years from the date of the accident to bring a claim for damage to personal property, under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 260, § 2A. Note that this is the property damage limit, which in many states is different from the deadline for an injury claim. Do not assume the two are the same.

Massachusetts uses one 3-year tort limitations period for both personal injury and property damage: 'actions of tort... shall be commenced only within three years next after the cause of action accrues.' Verified against the official malegislature.gov text. There is no longer property-damage period in Massachusetts.

In practice you should move much faster than the deadline allows. The limitation period applies to filing a lawsuit, not to sending a demand letter, and negotiating with an adjuster routinely takes four to eight weeks. A claim presented promptly after repairs are finished is also simply more credible than one that surfaces eighteen months later.

Can you claim from your own insurer in Massachusetts?

You cannot recover diminished value from your own collision carrier in Massachusetts. Settled no. Under the Standard Massachusetts Auto Policy the collision carrier's obligation is limited to restoring pre-collision physical condition, nothing payable beyond repair. Given v. Commerce Ins. Co., 440 Mass. 207 (2003); Roth v. Amica Mut. Ins. Co., 440 Mass. 355 (2003). The Division of Insurance's May 2002 advisory opinion agrees. This is the ordinary position in most states: your own policy pays to repair the car, not to compensate the resulting loss in resale value. The claim has to be made against the at-fault driver's insurer.

If you were partly at fault

Massachusetts applies modified comparative negligence (51% bar). Your recovery is reduced by your share of fault, and you recover nothing once you are found more than 50% at fault.

What is distinctive about claiming in Massachusetts

Massachusetts flipped twice. McGilloway (2021) allowed third-party IDV under the 2008 policy form, but Cubberley v. Commerce (SJC, Jan. 30, 2025) held the 2016 form, governing essentially all current accidents, excludes 'any decreased value or intangible loss,' so the at-fault carrier owes nothing. The tort claim survives: the at-fault DRIVER is still personally liable, and Cubberley requires a final judgment against the insured before suing the carrier. Practically that means a small claims suit against the other driver, not a demand letter to their adjuster. The motor-vehicle exception to the $7,000 cap helps. Individualized expert proof is mandatory.