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Flood damage?

emilymoore

Boss
Feb 21, 2011
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Emily
With the passing of Hurricane Irene, I would imagine that there were a lot of vehicles on the East Coast that were flooded. I know when we appraise a vehicle, we ask if its ever been in an accident or had any paint work, if the odometer's accurate, etc. and then we make the customer sign off on the appraisal form. But, do you have a line on that form asking if its ever been in a flood? Ours doesn't currently, but I am in the process of updating our trade appraisal form and it will be added.
 
Our apppraisal form does have a question for the customer to sign off on stating that the car was not involved in a flood. Here is a great article published by the NADA with some tips of things to look for concerning flood damage:

Tips on How to Spot a Flood-Damaged Vehicle

Another good website is the National Insurance Crime Bureau that has a VIN check feature. You can run a report on the VIN number to see if the car has ever had salvage history that was actually reported by an insurance comppany. I know that we rely on CarFax and AutoCheck to provide us that information, but have seen varying degrees of different info on both reports. Here is the link to their website:

https://www.nicb.org//

Hope this helps.