suphomes8 asked:
My car was hit by an elderly women. My car and a cheap motorcycle were totaled. A trailors skirting was ruined as well. the elderly womens policy coverage is 10,000. i dont believe the damage exeeds that at all but even if it didnt does the 10,000 get split all 3 ways between us? or do they only give book value on everything?
All of your answers were so helpfull!! thank you so much for your time!
The trailer owner should get repair costs, while you and the cycle owner should get that or actual cash value, whichever is lower. If the total of all three exceeds the $10K, the three claims will get their proportion of the limit. A good commercial for increased limits!
If your loss exceeds your proportion, you should be able to claim under your own underinsured motorist coverage, if you carry it. Another good commercial for proper coverage!
Long winded answer here but it’s from a ex-senior insurance adjuster that handled this for years, multiple times a day.
They’ll give either the amount of the damage (estimate) or if it’s totalled the amount of the book value, usually NADA retail value.
Let’s say the car is worth $10,000 and the bike is worth $4,000 and there’s $2,000 of damage to the trailer, but it’s not totalled.
Her policy limits will max out at $10,000. Everyone will split whatever percent of the $10,000 their damages represent. This process takes a long time because you have to wait for everyone to know how much damage there is before the insurance company can cut anyone a check. If they cut one person a check before everyone knows how much damage there is and it is over the amount of the policy limits and that makes it so that first person got more than their fair % of the limits, it’s bad faith, which is extremely bad for an insurance company.
So, $10,000 + $4,000 + $2,000 = $16,000.
The car is 62.5% of $16,000 so it would get 62.5% of the $10,000. That would be $6,250. It would work the same way for the rest of the parties’ damages.
What about the rest of your money?
You’ve got a few options. Your best option is to go through your own insurance, you’ll have to have collision coverage to do this but it will be much faster and easier for you to do this. You will also not get the money for your deductible up front or maybe not ever going this route so that’s something to think about. Your insurance company will pay you the value of your vehicle less your deductible and pursue the at fault party for the entire amount. That means they’ll go after her insurance company and then go after her directly for the rest of it. Depending on how your company works they’ll either give you your deductible back in full when the other insurance company pays part of it or they’ll give you whatever percent they got of what they paid out, in my example, you’d get 62.5% of your deductible back.
Your other option and maybe only other option if you don’t have collision on your vehicle is to take the money from her insurance company and sue her for the amount of money she still owes you. Don’t sign any release that includes the other driver, you have the right to collect from her too. They’ll try to have you sign a release that includes their driver, don’t fall for it. As for the court case, it’s an easy court case that you can surely do on your own. It only costs about $20 to file a suit. The problem is that she’ll probably never pay you. People that carry $10,000 liability are usually poor and don’t care about their responsibilities to others.
Lousy situation to be in. I’m sorry you were hit by such an irresponsible person.
David mentions Under Insured Motorist coverage (UM/UIM) as a possible means of getting the rest of your money. UM is very often misconstrued to mean what David has indicated it does. UM/UIM are exclusively for your medical bills if you are injured in an accident and the at fault party doesn’t have enough Bodily Injury (BI) coverage to cover your injury. You can’t use it to get the rest of the money for your car. There is a very rare coverage that does work that way called UM collision, the only state I know that allows it is Georgia. It’s an extra coverage that is elective, meaning, unless you asked for it when you bought the policy and have been paying for it, you don’t have it. Odds are you don’t have that coverage.
The insurance limits reflect what the insurance company will pay. They do not limit the amount that you can collect the person who caused the damage.
Usually the $10,000 limit is per person, not per accident. The best thing to do is to file with against her quickly, and if the insurance only pays part of your damages, file suit against her for the rest. Do not sign any release unless you have the full amount of damages in hand.
You may also have coverage under the uninsured motorist portion of your insurance, but you would have to pay the deductible first.