GF's car got hit, now insurance hassles

it was started by badnewsmini iirc

Didnt read the thread other than the first post. The old ladies insurance is correct. If someone else hit her and caused her to strike your girlfriend then they are right to not offer payment as there is no liability on the old woman. As far as the thief, if they find him, which is less than likely, there is probably a reason he/she ran. Most likely no insurance. And if the owner of the car reported it stolen, there would be no coverage as a thief is not a permissive user and therefore there would be no coverage for the loss. If it is no registration that = no insurance because insurance doesnt cover a non-registered car.

It really sucks, but sounds like your girlfriends insurance/collision coverage is going to have to cover this one and she will be out a deductible. Depends on the insurance company, but they may wave the deductible for the hit and run.

Wish I had better news for your. I work claims for a living. Shoot me a PM if you have any questions.

Edit: You could sue the owner of the hit and run vehicle directly, but you are more than likely not to get any money out of them. Again, for the same reason they ran. Even if you win in small claims.

fuck, just read that there is no collision on the vehicle. You need to go after the owner of the hit and run car directly in small claims. I doubt you will get anywhere, but it is worth the try. If there is no collision on the car, her insurance company isnt going to do squat. There wont even be an open claim.

Yep that was me… wow my names comming up alot…lol never good seems like im always fighting…

Anyways KEEP CLIMBING. when you get to some one who said the offer is risanable ask to speak to there boss. I was talking with people halfway accross the country. but went from a 3k offer to 6k with no buy back. if you have the time to be down a car. and the cash KEEP FIGHTING!

there where a few good sites i found info on fighting. and the insurance company’s use a RED book. but there is no free version. you can ask to see the full detail on how they came up with your value no joke call on the cars they claim are “equal” and find out if there available. and what there lacking and use those to fight (JUST KNOW NEW PARTS (IE BATTERY TIRES) DONT ADD VALUE, options like leather, alloys, heated seats all the little stuff do so compare that against the cars they offered.)

No they wont. Even if it was true. there is a threshold in NY for injuries to make a claim against another carrier. It is death, dismemberment, loss of sight, loss of limb or other serious injury.
Otherwise if you are injured and under the threshold, your own PIP (read: No fault) insurance covers your medical bills. Unless you are willing to break a bone or cut off your arm, you are SOL.

---------- Post added at 12:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:16 AM ----------

Correct. Keep climbing the ladder, but do it politely as you are more likely to get things done. Eventually you will get to a higher up in the company that will just say “give this guy what he wants to make him go away.” (depending again on the insurance company)

For vehicle values, the company I work for uses an average of Red book and NADA. Used to be just NADA. All insurance companies do not use the same means of putting values to vehicles just as we do not use the same software for estimating damages.

Progressive.was who i was fighting with. it took almost 2 months to get what i wanted. they A: dont want a case open that long and B: just want you to go away. so be nice and be patient. and relize you may not get NADA. my car NADA for just under 9k. they offered 3k, I got 6K and that was alot of fighting.

There is no thief. Talked to the officer who investigated the case, the police report doesn’t mention the car being stolen and the officer will not be amending it to change that.

Based on this, the two ‘opposing’ insurance companies are sending out people to appraise the car and are talking about the comparative liability of their respective policy holders.

Thanks for chiming in. Great to know that this sort of thing can work out properly.

Any chance you could tell me the Red Book value of a 130k mile '97 Volvo 850 GLT with leather, touring, and winter packages? Even the adjuster that came out yesterday acknowledged that she couldn’t find a spec of rust on it; was a very clean car with no mechanical issues.

I can do patience… Thanks much for the advice.

PMed you back Stan. Hope that helps.

good luch man. hope it all works out for you… what car will she be getting next?

I’m pretty sure if they use a value on a similar car, it has to be within X distance (I think it was 100mi) and within x amount of miles with the same options as the totaled car.

Interesting developments.

As of a few weeks ago, the insurer of the supposedly stolen car had gone back to asserting that because it was stolen they weren’t liable. Didn’t post because I was too disgusted to dwell on it.

Two weeks ago, Carey was cc’d on a letter to the owner of the supposedly stolen car wherein the owner was told the insurance company may not cover her car because of two problems (one was her failure to cooperate with their investigation iirc, the other was related but I don’t remember what exactly). Carey was bummed when that letter arrived but I was pretty sure that it meant that the tide had turned in our favor.

I guess that letter was sufficient to make the car’s owner cooperate in whatever way she previously hadn’t been, and in cooperating must have volunteered an explanation for how the supposedly stolen car showed no signs of having been broken into or hotwired.

This morning Carey got a call from that insurance company informing her that they have accepted full responsibility and that a check for NADA value + towing and storage costs would be forthcoming. Close enough to fair replacement value that it’s not even worth bickering about.

Hopefully I’m not jinxing things by stating the outcome before the check’s been received and deposited, but it looks like it worked out well enough in the end.

In the future we will be putting collision on all cars, even inexpensive ones, because the potential hassle just isn’t worth the few hundred dollars a year we’d save by not having it.

Thanks to all for the support and info along the way.

I haven’t read the rest of the thread, because I’m not sure how the insurance stuff would work. But THIS^ x394759347593745. Trust me. I know. My neck is FUCKED from my accident. I was rear ended and pushed into a car head on. Fucked I tell you. It sucks. Please make sure your girlfriend and her kids have proper care, even if they don’t hurt now. Please. Tell them to go to the doctors, get checked out. If they recommend physical therapy, DO IT!

:tup:
good to see things worked out for you

They sent her a reservation of rights letter. Basically the letter says if you dont cooperate, we are going to do deny the claim and you will have to deal with “OP” on your own without our help, defense or money. Good luck!

They do that as a tactic to light a fire under an uncooperative insured to get the claim settled.

Glad it worked out for you and no problem. Glad I could help