California allows claims for diminution or diminished value. That means the owner of a vehicle might be entitled to recover the diminished value of your vehicle after an auto accident that wasn’t your fault. (A repaired vehicle is usually worth less than a vehicle that was never in an accident.) The statute of limitation on most personal property damage and diminished value claims in California is 3 years (claims caused by public entities can have a shorter deadline), and if you have uninsured motorist coverage you can recover diminished value if the other driver was uninsured or underinsured.
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