Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Question about an auto insurance claim,

A few things:

1) the at-fault driver doesn't need rental coverage to pay for YOUR rental. He only needs it to pay for his own. The other driver's Property Damage Liability coverage pay for your physical damage and your reasonable rental costs.

2) you insurance cannot pursue a claim on your behalf. They are not your legal representative. They can only pursue a claim against the other insurer for reimbursement of what they paid, and your deductrible. If your insurer did not pay for your rental, then you insurance cannot pursue that claim for you against the at-fault driver's insurer.

3) disregard the advice about getting a lawyer. Few lawyers would take that case. They tend to work on a contingency fee basis (they get a part of your recovery). They're not going to waste time on a little claim like that. And paying an attorney hourly to pruse it would cost more than you would recover. If the other insurer won't pay your rental, then file a lawsuit yourself in small claims court against the other driver. His insurer will pay you then. Because it will cost that insurer more to defned the at-fault driver than it would be to just pay your claim.

4) if you don't want to do #3, then write a complaint to your state's bureau of insurance about the at-fault insurer's refusal to pay the claim.

Thanks 10Glocks.

I will admit I don't have a ton of experience with this, but as far as I know the way it works is that your insurance company will pay your claims according to your policy, and if the other party is at fault they will pursue their insurance company to get reimbursed. So the easiest way to go is have your policy cover your rental expense rather than it come out of your pocket, which avoids you needing to seek reimbursement from the offending party's insurer.

As it stands, if you paid for the rental yourself you will likely need to seek reimbursement from the other insurer. Even if they are legally obligated to pay you back they will drag it out and make it as difficult for you as they can, that is their business model. Had you had rental coverage that burden would have fallen on your insurer.

Another strategy is to have more than 1 vehicle each and not need to rent if one goes down, but judging from the comments in pretty much every EV thread that is well beyond the means of most here.

Biz van got totaled a few yrs ago a complete schit show with Allstate

“”””””””Even if they are legally obligated to pay you back they will drag it out and make it as difficult for you as they can, that is their business model. ””””””””

We totally agree on the dragging feet part,

Are they legally ‘obligated’ is the basis of this thread.

I’d change insurance companies if they’ve been no help with this.

People in the know, here, are saying its not legally in their wheelhouse,

If the other insurance company knows this, that explains a lot.

I know someone who filed a claim in your situation with their own insurance company. I thought it was odd but they didn’t have any issue getting their car repaired and a rental. Maybe it’s time to add rental to your policy.

Not much detail here to go on for suggestions, but the State's Insurance commissioners office may be of some assistance

If the shop said it was a 10 day repair based on the repair hours then the other insurance carrier is only gonna offer 10 days of rental. They generally consider 1 rental day per four hours of repair time plus 3-4 days for the shop / insurance to inspect the damage and get parts. Plus weekends. Legally the responsible driver is gonna owe the reasonable repair time. If you have 25-30 hours on the estimate they are gonna offer no more than about 15-18 days.

All insurance carriers are understaffed and overworked in their claim departments. If they haven’t paid anything at all file a complaint with your state Dept of Insurance. Call every day and pester them till they call you back.

If they paid a portion of it and the delay is on the shop your best bet is to pursue the shop and ask then to cover some of the rental.

No lawyer is gonna take this. They have no money to make unless you have an injury claim and it would take them more work to settle your rental issue than to settle an injury claim.

Girl ran into the back of my step mother. The girl's insurance only covered the amount she was insured for. Step mother made claim with her own insurance and that covered the difference.


Clyde

Backasswards

My Wife had a new driver run into her and total her car back in 10/23. We have USAA and the other driver had All-State. The person at USAA who was handling the claim told us that All-State would pay for a rental if we needed it, but we have spare cars, so we didn't take advantage of their offer.

A rental reimbursement insurance rider only costs a couple dollars per month and I've never carried it because we've always had spare cars, but I have recommended that my kids carry rental reimbursement as they only have their daily driver and would have to pay out of pocket for a rental vehicle. The cost of rental reimbursement insurance over the course of several years would probably be about what the cost of renting a vehicle for a week or so out of pocket would cost.

Kenneth is pulling our leg. No way he’s been out this much money for a year because someone rear ended them. Hmm

This is exactly right. Follow this advice. The only addition I would make is that you need to reach the other drivers insurance company supervisor if you are not getting anywhere with them. Mention the words "bad faith" and "department of insurance complaint", Get some information on why it took so long to get the vehicle repaired and use the words "supply chain disruption" and "unavailability of parts" if the repair facility confirms that either played a part in the repair delays. .

Please everyone, re-read 10Glocks suggestion.

That is the correct answer.

TnBigBore is also correct with the suggestion of 'bad faith' and 'department of insurance complaint'.