Anyone out there in the Auto Insurance business??

[LJC1861]

Last Monday morning my roommate and I were awakened by the police informing us that our car had been in an accident. It was parked on the corner of a farily busy street here in NYC and some guy doing over 100 mph lost control of his car and plowed into ours. Our car then hit the one in front of it and so on. There are 5 cars involved. He only has $25,000 worth of liability insurance and we found out today that is in on disability and welfare. Needless to say this means he has no assets.

Our car is a 1993 Jeep that has had some work done on it so it was in pretty good shape. It was definitely worth more before the accident than it is now. The car in front of us was a 2000 Mercedes. We only had liability insurance on our Jeep ( at the advice of GEICO--we would have paid more in premiums then the car was worth according to them.....) The blue book value on our car is only $1500. Is this all we can expect from his insurance company? We inquired about hiring an attorney and the woman at the legal referral agency that I called laughed at me.

Needless to say we are extremely upset at all of this and are a bit at a loss as to what to do next. Do we just sit, wait and take what we are given or is there any way to effectively fight to regain what was taken from us? Lisa and I would really appreciate any advice that any of you could give.

Thanks in advance,

Linda

 

[Peter Pan Fan]

I only know California (not NY) law, but if that happened here, here's what should go on:

The guy's insurance carrier should inspect your car and a) write an estimate if the car is deemed repairable or b) decide on the actual cash value (ACV) of the car if the car is deemed a total (the way it is decided is if the repairs + salvage value meet or exceed the ACV, then the car is a total. If not, the car is repairable.)

You will have to wait until ALL of the figures are in from all parties and then if all of the damages EXCEED his limits (the $25k), his insurance carrier would establish a "pro-rata" settlement for each party. The party w/the highest $$ damage gets the most $$ obviously.

$25k is actually quite a bit of coverage considering the mimimum coverage in California is $5k. There is a good possibility (depending of course on the extent of the damages to each car) that you may get 100% of the value of you car. But yes, I highly doubt it would exceed Blue Book Value. In California they are not allowed to base a settlement on Blue Book, they can only use it as one of many factors in determing the ACV. It may seem unfair, but an insurance company doesn't have to "put you back where you belong" ie, get you another 1993 Jeep, it only has to compensate you for your ACTUAL loss which in this case appears to be no more than $1500. Even if you can't go out and find another car for $1500, it doesn't matter.

Again, this is all California law and NY may be quite different. In any case, I think hiring an atty when this guy has nothing would be a waste of $$ and time for you. Geico ( and I don't work for them ) gave you good advice when they told you not to carry collision coverage given the value of your car, but I always recommend people carry some kind of under-insured motorist coverage to protect in this type of case AND comp coverage which covers for a stolen car, vandalized car, etc.

In any event, good luck to you!

 

[jel0511]

I just wanted to reiterate what Peter Pan Fan said is also true here in NJ. Since your car is only worth $1500, if the damages to your car are more than $1500, you will only receive $1500, the insurance company WILL NOT fix your car, even if it can be fixed. They only pay the lesser of the value of the car, or the amount of the damages. I also agree that hiring an attorney is a moot point. They really can't help you, since the insurance company or any judge will give you fair value for your car or proper repairs whichever is less, that's all you are really entitled to unforunately.

 

[Tiggeroo]

Just some info. I have an '88 Jeep Wrangler that has been re-done. I had a new paint job, am re-doing the inside and will be upgrading the suspension, etc....What the insurance company and some fellow jeepers have told me is that every time you do an upgrade on your jeep that brings it above book value you need to get a written appraisal by a certified appraiser. This needs to be submitted to your insurance company.
Are you sure about that value. It sounds low. It is lower then my '88 wrangler and '89 cherokee.

 

[LJC1861]

We do have under- insured coverage. Unfortunately it is only good when there was personal injury involved. The only personal injury here was the car and not us.

As for the value....we are not totally sure, but plugging in all the info about our Jeep on the Kelley blue Book website, $1500 is what it came out to.

So, basically we are out of luck here and it stinks. We are both so angry about all of this and the fact that it is taking so long to get some closure on it. It has been over a week and they haven't even looked at the car to asses the damages. One thing we do know based on the police report. Of all the cars involved ours was the one listed as " demolished" All the others have lesser degrees of damage listed. Of course that doesn't take away from the fact that the Mercedes is pretty much totalled as well as our Jeep.

I'll keep you posted......

Linda

 

[sap1227]

If you would have bought Collision coverage, it also would have only paid the ACV of your vehicle, so do not kick yourself there. The insurance company I used to work for, uses a company that figures the value of your vehicle based on the mileage, condition, etc. It is "generally" pretty close to the Private Sale amount on Kelly Blue Book.

Good luck, there was nothing I hated more than telling people what their vehicle was "worth"

Christy

 

[LJC1861]

Christy,

Would it help to send the insurance company a letter and copies of the receipts for all the work we have had done on it recently? Yes it has high mileage. It also has a new engine and many other things.

Linda