Your Car Was Totaled in Indiana: What Next?

What “total loss” means for you

Your insurer decides whether a car is a total loss, not you and not the body shop. Once they do, the claim turns into a payout for the car’s value instead of a repair.

Whether you’re covered at all depends on the policy. The Indiana Department of Insurance explains that collision coverage pays for damage from a collision or upset, while comprehensive covers other losses like theft, fire, windstorm and glass breakage. A deductible may apply to either. If you’re unsure what your policy covers, ask the insurer before you decide anything else.

Two paths after the insurer totals it

Take the payout and let the car go. The insurer pays the car’s value, takes ownership, and moves the car. You sign over the title, take your belongings out, and you’re done with it.

Keep the car. You take a smaller payout and keep the car. This is where Indiana’s salvage rules start to apply.

Neither is wrong. The question is what you’d do with the car afterward.

What happens if you keep a totaled car in Indiana?

If you keep a totaled car in Indiana, the BMV says you must apply for a certificate of salvage title no later than 45 days after the settlement of loss with the insurance company, and include proof of the settlement date from the insurer. If the insurer takes the car instead, that application isn’t yours to make. A salvage car you own can still be sold as it is.

Salvage title basics from the BMV

The BMV’s salvage title checklist lays out the rest. A few points worth knowing before you start:

• Which cars need one. The BMV requires a salvage title for motor vehicles manufactured within the last seven model years that have been wrecked or damaged. It may issue one for an older vehicle on request.
• The forms. The checklist lists the Application for Certificate of Title (State Form 205), the Salvage Title Affidavit (State Form 49891), the current certificate of title, and the insurer’s proof of the settlement date when you’re keeping the car.
• The deadline. Not later than 45 days after the settlement. Put the date on your calendar the day the insurer settles.

Fees and processing details are on the checklist itself, linked in the sources below. Read it there rather than relying on anyone’s summary, ours included.

Before anyone takes the car

Whichever path you pick, the car will leave on a truck eventually. Before it does:

1. Take out everything personal: papers in the glove box, garage remotes, child seats, the spare key.
2. Remove the license plate. Indiana’s BMV says the seller should remove it at the time of the transaction.
3. Keep copies of the settlement letter and anything the insurer sent you.

Selling a totaled car you kept

A totaled car can still be worth something to a buyer who takes cars as they are. If the car can’t be driven, the buyer has to come to it.

Junk Cars Gary buys wrecked and totaled cars in Gary and picks them up where they sit. Wrecked car removal explains how the pickup works; the tow costs nothing and payment happens at pickup. If you haven’t decided whether to keep the car yet, how to sell a wrecked car compares all four routes.

Questions we won’t answer for you

Some questions after a total loss are about your policy or your credit, not about the car. Whether the payout is fair, whether to accept the first offer, how a loan balance is handled: take those to your insurer, your lender, or the Indiana Department of Insurance. We stick to what we know, which is getting the car picked up.