(a) Whenever any damaged motor vehicle covered under an automobile insurance policy has been declared to be a constructive total loss by the insurer, the insurer shall, in calculating the value of such vehicle for purposes of determining the settlement amount to be paid to the claimant, use at least the average of the retail values given such vehicle by (1) the National Automobile Dealers Association used car guide or any other publicly available automobile industry source that has been approved for such use by the Insurance Commissioner, and (2) one other automobile industry source that has been approved for such use by said commissioner. For the purposes of this section, “constructive total loss” means the cost to repair or salvage damaged property, or the cost to both repair and salvage such property, equals or exceeds the total value of the property at the time of loss.

(b) The insurer shall provide to the claimant, not later than the date the insurer pays the claimant the settlement amount for such vehicle, (1) a detailed copy of such insurer’s calculation of such vehicle’s constructive total loss value, (2) if applicable, a copy of any valuation report provided to the insurer by any automobile industry source that is not publicly available, and (3) a written notice disclosing that the claimant may dispute such settlement amount by contacting the Insurance Department. The written notice shall include the following statement, which shall appear in the final paragraph of the notice in not less than twelve-point type: “If you do not agree with this valuation, you may contact the Consumer Affairs Division within the Insurance Department”. The notice shall include the address and toll-free telephone number for the division and the Insurance Department’s Internet address.