Car accident in rental on business trip, not at fault--what happens? UPDATE post 30

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Hi--a few weeks ago, my husband was involved in an accident on a business trip. A driver (on his family vacation ) ran a read light--DH hit the breaks and began to turn his car to the right to "help" to not make it a bad wreck.

*No he didn't accept Avis' coverage.
*Yes he is covered under his employer's insurance policy for work.
*Yes the other guy was at fault and cited (and felt bad b/c he and his wife were lost.)

Avis required to have the police report and "Everything". (not sure what "everything" means, but my husband doesn't have anything.)

Got a paperwork packet today from Avis.

With the--"by contract, since you turned us down, it's on you bud"--letter. A page with how we wish to charge the $5000 claim they we are liable for.

Behind that was pages of photos of the car from all angles that were part of the crash.

Behind that was pages of several estimates on the cars value.

Then the last bit was the body shop/mechanic estimates for repair work. Which oddly add up to almost $7000.



Does anyone have a clue of what happens from here? DH is all miffed b/c it isn't his car (and yes I have explained the "contract" thing of assuming liabilty when you decline the insurance and he is less than enchanted with that response.)

The other driver has Progressive insurance and they have called several times and my husband returns those calls. But they never call him at work like he tells them to. It really has me concerned that they are "unreachable".

In the end, my DH's "true" liability will be zero--but for now, we have no idea what the process will be and have zero interest in having our finances mesed up over this. He almost feels it would have been easier if he was at fault.

So what happens from this point forward with the rental company as we wait for insurance to sort itself out? (and any clue of why their claim is $2K less than the repair estimate they provided?)

Thanks for reading this confusing saga!

 

[DebbieB]

Does he work for a large corporation or a small business? I would think a large corporation would have a process for employee rental cars. I work for a major insurance company and our contracts with the rental car companies automatically include insurance and we are told to decline the optional at the counter. I would say to contact his HR dept.

 

[AKL_Megs]

Doesn't YOUR PERSONAL car insurance company cover rental cars? I agree with DebbieB... you should always decline their coverage because YOUR insurance usually always covers car rentals.

Also, some credit card companies cover rental cars if you use them to pay for the rental.

 

[AKL_Megs]

And to answer your question, if your insurance company DOES cover rental cars, you will have to file a claim with them.

If not, you will treat is as though it is your own car and fix it!

But I am sure your personal insurance covers it!

 

[DebbieB]

The personal insurance might exclude it if it happened on a business trip. Business use is sometimes excluded on personal policies. His company's insurance should get involved and get the other driver's insurance to pay.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

First thing he should be doing is notify his employer.

Normally a large employer will self-insure for damages, so they may make the payment to Avis and then they will deal with the other driver's insurance company for reimbursement to them.

Find out what his employer will do before anything else is done.

If all else fails, pay the bill and sue the driver of the other car.

 

[auntie]

We have a body shop and do repair work for several Enterprise Rental car locations.Yes..your car insurance would cover (or in the case of the OP..the husbands employer's ins.) however..if you take the ins. offered by the rental..you are not responsible for your deductible portion should the accident be the renters fault. While everyone thinks an accident is the other guys fault..very often insurance companies will wind up assigning a percentage of the responsiblity on all parties involved. I'm not saying this is so in this particular case, but frequently this is what winds up happening. In any event...if say for instance you were in an accident and it was deemed your fault...while your own car insurance carrier would cover you,...you would also be responsible for the deductible amount to be paid. What ever that amount happens to be in your policy. Be it..$500, or $1,000.00. This is the reason that some people do take the insurance offered by the rental company. By doing so you are not responsible for any portion of the repair..not even the deductible. Could explain the discrepancy in the figures regarding the costs of the repairs.

 

[DebbieB]

Avis could also be adding a charge for "loss of use", which is the rental income they are losing while the vehicle is out of service.

 

[manning]

Hi--
**Yes he is covered under his employer's insurance policy for work.

The settlement should be handled by his company or their insurance company.

If he hasn't he should turn this over to the company. Turn the Avis packet over to them. Find out who the contact person is to inform Avis.

Inform Avis that his employer/insurance will be contacting them to resolve this matter, and that all contact should be with them.

He should be working with someone in his company.


I got rearended several years ago and I dealt with the other guys insurance company. My agent when he found out said why did I do that? I should have reported to him and my insurance would have been the middle man and settled everything. They would have settled and gone to the other company for payment. That is what should be happening here.

 

[Gary M]

The personal insurance might exclude it if it happened on a business trip. Business use is sometimes excluded on personal policies. His company's insurance should get involved and get the other driver's insurance to pay.

This was how my auto insurance was. It was good for personal driving, but not for driving while on business, when renting a car. Since I rented cars for longer business trips, I bought a rider for my policy, to insure the rental was insured on business trips. The extra cost is very minimal.

 

[Miz Diz]

Report it to your insurance company. Your policy may have an exclusion for coverage on a rental vehicle. They will be able to tell you.

I've always heard that Progressive is really good with handling claims. I had a claim with them once (neighbor ran over my mailbox) and they were quick with the payment. Tell your dh to keep trying to get in touch with them.

 

[Liz]

Avis could also be adding a charge for "loss of use", which is the rental income they are losing while the vehicle is out of service.

Is there coverage offered by the rental car companies that just covers "loss of use" and not all the other stuff? My insurance company said they cover everything except a "loss of use" charge in the event of an accident.

 

[IDoDis]

The rental car company can only charge you for loss of use if they didn't have any other cars in that size/class to rent out. If they have unused inventory, which most do since summer is pretty much over, they cannot charge you for loss of use.

Hopefully your deductible isn't high. Most people carry a $250 deductible on collision. You might have to pay that. The rental car company needs to hash it out with progressive. Give a statement to your insurance company. If you are found to not be at fault, they won't hold the accident against you, but they need to know what's going on so they can help you, which they will. They don't want to pay the claim if the other driver was at faoult, so they will go to bat for you. Give them all the info and let them work it out with the other insurance company and with the rental car company.

 

[EdiePA]

Also, if the rental car was paid for by credit card, they may pay the deductible. I was side-swiped while on a trip to Utah (personal trip) and my insurance covered all but the $500 deductible. My Discover card, which the car was charged to, picked up that fee. BUT, I believe there was a certain time limit to let them know about the accident.

Edie

 

[golfgal]

Do NOT report it to your personal insurance company-first since the car was for "business use" they won't cover it and second-the liable insurance company should be the company insurance anyway.

DO report it to the work insurance company and let THEM deal with it. You don't need to do anything but answer questions. It would be helpful if you could call the responding police department and get a copy of the police report for the work insurance company. Don't respond to Avis, let the insurance company handle this.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We went to Disney yesterday and I completely forgot I posted this thread.

Doesn't YOUR PERSONAL car insurance company cover rental cars? I agree with DebbieB... you should always decline their coverage because YOUR insurance usually always covers car rentals.

Also, some credit card companies cover rental cars if you use them to pay for the rental.

Yes it does--the stink is...you still sign a contract with the rental car company. So I'm just wondering how long they will give us and what they may try to pull as my husband isn't happy with them right now.

My husband isn't filing a claim with his insurance as it wasn't his fault.

He works with a small business and they would file under business insurance much as if he worked for a large business.

He had a former boss who worked for a larger business and they always took the insurane and it was still a headache.

 

[golfgal]

We went to Disney yesterday and I completely forgot I posted this thread.



Yes it does--the stink is...you still sign a contract with the rental car company. So I'm just wondering how long they will give us and what they may try to pull as my husband isn't happy with them right now.

My husband isn't filing a claim with his insurance as it wasn't his fault.

He works with a small business and they would file under business insurance much as if he worked for a large business.

He had a former boss who worked for a larger business and they always took the insurane and it was still a headache.

Filing it with the company insurance (or personal insurance if it wasn't a business trip) has nothing to do with fault and everything to do with getting your insurance company to do the work on the claim and not you. They will deal with getting everything straightened out and you won't have to spend the time on the phone, etc.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Avis could also be adding a charge for "loss of use", which is the rental income they are losing while the vehicle is out of service.

They aren't.

They are "claiming" $5000 in their letter. BUT--the actual estimate for the damage is nearly $7000. The language does not indicate that the $5K is in addition to the $7K, but that they are settling the claim at $5K. Seems pretty fishy to me.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Filing it with the company insurance (or personal insurance if it wasn't a business trip) has nothing to do with fault and everything to do with getting your insurance company to do the work on the claim and not you. They will deal with getting everything straightened out and you won't have to spend the time on the phone, etc.

I just passed this info onto DH.

I think Progressive still wants his personal statement, no getting out of that. I think that is standard of any insurance and since my husband has no injuries--not a big deal (I don't think.)

He will be forwarding the paperwork to his boss. (we did just get it, so we physically had nothing to provide.)

Letting him know that it would be a good idea to get a copy of the police report.

What I meant about personal insurance is that they are pretty much out of the equation since he is covered under his boss' policy for this purpose.

 

[golfgal]

I just passed this info onto DH.

I think Progressive still wants his personal statement, no getting out of that. I think that is standard of any insurance and since my husband has no injuries--not a big deal (I don't think.)

He will be forwarding the paperwork to his boss. (we did just get it, so we physically had nothing to provide.)

Letting him know that it would be a good idea to get a copy of the police report.

What I meant about personal insurance is that they are pretty much out of the equation since he is covered under his boss' policy for this purpose.

Yes, he still needs to give his personal statement, which you want to do otherwise they can construe the accident and assign him some fault. Progressive is NOT the easiest company to work with if you are trying to get them to pay a claim.