Having Issues with Insurance after Wreck

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

SwampSurvivor

Joined
Apr 9, 2008
Messages
16,507
Location
Central NY
Well this is frustrating!

Fiance got rear ended getting off the highway Weds (7.3). At least the other person (travelers insurance) admitted fault to the police officer and it was noted in the police/accident report.

The car is not driveable. Exhaust leaks into the cabin. There is a fuel leak. No tail lights. Trunk doesn't shut and the frame is crumpled in the back.

Called our insurance company (progressive) and was told "We can't do anything for you since you aren't at fault". Called travelers and we were given a case number and told to call back Monday 7/8 to get it sorted out.

Travelers insurance still won't do anything or give us any direction on how to get it appraised or get a rental. They "can't get ahold" of their driver so they won't do anything. We *did* get progressive to offer to start the repair process if we pay the deductible, but they noted we will be on the hook for the full repair if they can't get the other insurance company to pay for it. Same with the rental reimbursement - we have that on the policy but if the other insurance company determines the car is in a driveable state , we will be on the hook for the $130/day rental.

All of my vehicles are manual, except the Cherokee. Which is not a road going vehicle. Puts us in a bad spot.

This is very frustrating! Is this normal? At this point, I'm thinking the old Leaseon is going to be a lawn ornament for the remainder of the lease.

Picture of wrecked Leaseon:
[Linked Image]
 
Originally Posted by Miller88
Called our insurance company (progressive) and was told "We can't do anything for you since you aren't at fault".


That's total BS. You pay a fat premium so they can do the leg work on a claim, not you. Contact a supervisor and let them know you will be in touch with the state insurance administration if they don't do something now.
 
I have never heard of such a problem. Your insurance should cover you and go after the other company. Something doesn't click here. Be sure you get a copy of the police report in hand and if all else fail call an attorney. Ed
 
Originally Posted by Eddie
I have never heard of such a problem. Your insurance should cover you and go after the other company. Something doesn't click here. Be sure you get a copy of the police report in hand and if all else fail call an attorney. Ed


Unfortunately, NYS won't issue a full copy of the accident report to us until 14 days after.
 
Does she have collision insurance? If so I thought that your insurance should cover all your expenses (less deductible) as if you were at fault and then go after the other guy's insurance for the full amount of reimbursement. If no collision policy, then I'm not sure your insurance has a dog in this hunt.

I've been in an accident that my insurance company determined that the other guy was at fault, but damages where a few hundred over my deductible, so they didn't feel like spending a lot of money to go after his insurance. Not the same circumstance as here, but the point it is an economic decision on the part of your insurance to go after the other guy.

How's she feeling? No sore neck?
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by Miller88
Called our insurance company (progressive) and was told "We can't do anything for you since you aren't at fault".


That's total BS. You pay a fat premium so they can do the leg work on a claim, not you. Contact a supervisor and let them know you will be in touch with the state insurance administration if they don't do something now.

His information is correct.

You have two options in this situation:

1) Go thru your carrier and have repairs handled by them. If they are able to recoup the damages from the other party, you will receive your deductible back.
2) If you go thru the other party's carrier, they will not proceed with repairs until they get a statement from their insured.

This is standard operating practice for all insurance companies.
 
That don't sound right. What if you had a hit and run?
There is no report even so they don't know who is at fault.

If you have collision it is supposed to be covered by your company.
It is their problem after to subrogate money from the other party or deem it an at fault accident. Either way they have to pay.
 
Unfortunately it sounds like you're going to have to get the ball rolling to fix your vehicle and get a rental through you insurance (and hope to heck they can go after the other party). Sounds like your insurance company is waiting for the other party to start a claim? Something funky going on. We had similar damage to the Camry a little over a year ago and had to go though our insurance because even though the other party had an up to date card they let it lapse.

Personally I recommend after all this is over is to drop your current insurance provider...
 
If that's truly Progressive's policy, they suck. About two years ago, a driver hit my wife and totaled our Odyssey. Our insurance handled everything and when it was all done involving us, then they subrogated with State Farm. In our case, SF paid up to our insurance company but even if they denied all fault and refused, our insurance said it wouldn't impact us.
 
Ultimately-it is your insurance company's responsibility to make your whole. PERIOD!

I hear stories like this-and I'm not calling the OP a lair, I just can't comprehend a situation like this. And I have had infrequent accidents as well......
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by Burt
Does she have collision insurance?


Late model lease? Must have.


Yep - our insurance company is saying we can do that to get started on the appraisal and repair/rental. To be honest, given the damage, I think the car is going to be a total. In which case the insurance company would pay the remainder of the lease and we'd get a different lease.

Unrelated, I'm going to be pushing for the cash used car option. I can pick up a good used Forester with bad head gaskets and just fix it myself.

Originally Posted by Delta
Unfortunately it sounds like you're going to have to get the ball rolling to fix your vehicle and get a rental through you insurance (and hope to heck they can go after the other party). Sounds like your insurance company is waiting for the other party to start a claim? Something funky going on. We had similar damage to the Camry a little over a year ago and had to go though our insurance because even though the other party had an up to date card they let it lapse.

Personally I recommend after all this is over is to drop your current insurance provider...


Our insurance carrier (progressive) on the Leaseon is trying to help now, but they're running into a roadblock. If we pay the collission deductible they will get the ball rolling. I think that's our best option.

However, I have homeowners insurance through Travelers. We had a hail storm two years ago. All of my neighbors got new roofs out of it. They wouldn't even send an adjuster and told me it was "all fine" because the house has a roof less than ten years old on it and that a newer roof wouldn't be damaged by hail. I will be switching homeowners insurance very soon.
 
Last time I checked New York State was a no-fault state just like Michigan where I live no matter if you're at fault or not your insurance is on the hook. The only difference is if you're at fault your insurance premiums go up if you're not at fault your insurance premiums do not. So at the end of the day it looks like your insurance needs and should be paying for repairs . In Michigan I have an additional add-on on my insurance that is called mini tort. That add-on waives the deductible if I'm not at fault. It's completely BS but I learned the hard way as I moved from Georgia to Michigan and got in a car accident that was not my fault. Thank goodness I had mini tort as my deductible would've been $1000.

It's up to your insurance if they want to proceed to sue the other drivers insurance but that involves not you.
 
Last edited:
NY has some sorta strange insurance law and procedures, so I would advise you to not pay a lot of attention to non-NYS residents here.

Get on you states insurance commissioner website and find the unfair claims practices. They almost certainly have to take some action in some number of days....

Disadvantage of going through your carrier is that it will almost certainly count as claim for frequency even if they recover completely from the other carrier... not that big of a deal if you don't have many claims, but if you do it could be a factor.

Given a choice between travelers and progressive writing my estimate, I would pick Travlers every time.
 
Your best move is understand you may lose deductible but let your insurance take care of it.

Your insurance company is going to pursue the other one hard to not only get your deductible but really paid for the claim they are on the hook for.

Hopefully lease required GAP insurance in case this gets totaled.
 
Originally Posted by ford46guy
That don't sound right. What if you had a hit and run?
There is no report even so they don't know who is at fault.
Irrelevant to this situation. The OP's insurance knows there was someone else involved and presumably at fault so they want to do as little as possible or even nothing.

Originally Posted by ford46guy
If you have collision it is supposed to be covered by your company.
It is their problem after to subrogate money from the other party or deem it an at fault accident. Either way they have to pay.
A good insurance company will get the ball rolling for their customer's sake. We ran into exactly this ~2 years ago when another driver hit our car. Our insurance company handled everything.
 
Originally Posted by Miller88
Our insurance carrier (progressive)...

However, I have homeowners insurance through Travelers. We had a hail storm two years ago. All of my neighbors got new roofs out of it. They wouldn't even send an adjuster and told me it was "all fine" because the house has a roof less than ten years old on it and that a newer roof wouldn't be damaged by hail. I will be switching homeowners insurance very soon.
Switch auto insurance as well and consider going with the same company for both. You should get a multi-policy discount too.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

GON
(marketing material) Collision Safety Consultants vs Progressive Insurance total loss
2
Replies
28
Views
1K
Doc8404
Zee09
Manhattan Health Insurance
2
Replies
21
Views
804
99Saturn
G
It's time for the motorcycle insurance shuffle
2 3
Replies
43
Views
2K
02SE
Zee09
  • Locked
Health Insurance Home Visit
2 3 4
Replies
61
Views
3K
meadows
dogememe
California Car Insurance - OMG!
2 3
Replies
59
Views
4K
alarmguy
Back
Top