Someone hit my parked car

[compnovice]

My car was parked on the street and someone hit it. I came out of the house to find that there was major damage to the car. The driver was there, and the police came in and took a report.

How do I proceed with it. Do, I contact my insurance or should I wait for the police report and contact the other driver's insurance carrier. The police said that at minimum the report would include that the other driver hit my car that was parked legally.

Will my insurance premium go up? hopefully not..fingers crossed.

 

[fstime]

Insurance companies can be funny when determining your premium. You should be okay since you are not at fault.

If you want to be safe, wait for the police report and then put a claim through the other parties insurance company. The situation sounds cut and dry and assuming the other party has a reputable insurance carrier, there should be no issue.

Now, if their insurance becomes difficult with paying out, contact your insurance carrier and they will represent the case on your behalf and you will get paid.

Usually the process goes something like this: You call the their insurance company> tell them your side of the story> fax them the police report> they send an adjuster to look at the car which will presumably be at an autobody> they write you or the autobody a check.

Going through your own insurance is likely to be less of a hassle.

Also, make sure you request OEM parts and a rental car for the meantime.

 

[dbk]

Which insurance uses OEM parts on repairs? My brother is with Geico and they didnt - apparently all allowable by the "fine print"

 

[Jimzz]

Yea they don't have to use OEM parts, just parts that meet the same specs as OEM.

But you also want to ask for depreciated value if its more than $500 da,age or a major body part had to be replaced.

 

[compnovice]

Insurance companies can be funny when determining your premium. You should be okay since you are not at fault.

If you want to be safe, wait for the police report and then put a claim through the other parties insurance company. The situation sounds cut and dry and assuming the other party has a reputable insurance carrier, there should be no issue.

Now, if their insurance becomes difficult with paying out, contact your insurance carrier and they will represent the case on your behalf and you will get paid.

Usually the process goes something like this: You call the their insurance company> tell them your side of the story> fax them the police report> they send an adjuster to look at the car which will presumably be at an autobody> they write you or the autobody a check.

Going through your own insurance is likely to be less of a hassle.

Also, make sure you request OEM parts and a rental car for the meantime.

Thanks.... Will the other drivers insurance company be more inclined to total my car? KBB shows a value of $4,000 and I think the repair estimates may be more than that.

I don't want them to write it off as a totaled car, as I currently don't have the time nor do I want to spend extra money in buying another car. I am not sure if going through my insurance would result in las chance of a totaled car.

 

[unokitty]

My car was parked on the street and someone hit it. I came out of the house to find that there was major damage to the car. The driver was there, and the police came in and took a report.

How do I proceed with it. Do, I contact my insurance or should I wait for the police report and contact the other driver's insurance carrier. The police said that at minimum the report would include that the other driver hit my car that was parked legally.

Will my insurance premium go up? hopefully not..fingers crossed.

No matter what happens, you should be prepared to be inconvenienced. Though, I wouldn't necessarily expect my insurance rates to increase.

Contact your insurance company immediately. Get their advice as to what you need to do. For example, I would expect that you would need a copy of the police report as well as the other party's insurance information.

If it were me, I would let my insurance company deal with the other insurance company.

Exactly what will happen and how it will happen likely depends on your state's laws and the insurance companies involved...

Best of luck,
Uno

 

[kitatech]

I agree with Kitty...and to add...you will likely have "coverage" for a rental...

 

[jaedaliu]

do you have a discount for not filing claims with your insurance? If not, there shouldn't be any additional costs for filing a claim through your insurance. Assuming you have full coverage, your insurance will make you whole as they chance down the other driver.

 

[Eureka]

Depends on your insurance company, really. When we had allstate, our agent advised us to just directly deal with the other company, which took care of everything for us. For us, the accident never existed in our insurance company's records...

 

[zylander]

If the other persons insurance accepts liability it doesnt matter which insurance company you go through. Call your insurance, let them know what happened and they will go after the other guy for you, dont deal with it yourself.

 

[jlee]

Call your insurance company. You pay them to deal with stuff like this - let them deal with the headache.

 

[Thegonagle]

If you have full coverage, you're golden. Just let your own insurance company take care of everything. While they're helping you out, putting you in the rental, and getting your car to a body shop, they'll be going after the other guy's insurance so you don't have to.

Claims like this generally don't increase your premium because you aren't at fault.

If you don't have full coverage, you have to work with the other guy's insurance, and that's usually no fun.

 

[compnovice]

Thanks for the replies guys.. Here is the update:

I went through my insurance (I have full coverage), however they have declared it as a total loss, and have given me a low offer. Is it better that I cancel the claim and go after the other insurance company (I am not sure if my insurance will agree at this stage with the approach)?

I have taken a rental car already against my insurance (only 1 day at this time).

 

[jlee]

Thanks for the replies guys.. Here is the update:

I went through my insurance (I have full coverage), however they have declared it as a total loss, and have given me a low offer. Is it better that I cancel the claim and go after the other insurance company (I am not sure if my insurance will agree at this stage with the approach)?

I have taken a rental car already against my insurance (only 1 day at this time).

The other insurance company should be paying you, and your insurance company should be negotiating that - what was the offer, and what is the car?

 

[compnovice]

The other insurance company should be paying you, and your insurance company should be negotiating that - what was the offer, and what is the car?

It was an 2006 elantra. And they are offering $4000 including salvage, title and taxes.

edit: what my insurance company had said was that they will pay me and then go after the other insurance.

 

[jlee]

KBB is higher. I'd hit them with that, and price comparable cars - they should give you more.

 

[kitatech]

OP...
If you've done any expensive repairs in the past year in excess of $1000, receipts should be sent to the insurance co. to support your contention that the car is worth more than "average retail"

 

[Black2na]

How many miles on the car retail (auto trader.com) ones with 60-90k are going for 6-7k while 140-160k examples are fetching 4500-5k need more info on your car

 

[compnovice]

How many miles on the car retail (auto trader.com) ones with 60-90k are going for 6-7k while 140-160k examples are fetching 4500-5k need more info on your car

Its 110k miles. Also, does the insurance usually gives an estimated value plus the salvage value?

 

[kitatech]

When I got rearendtotaled I got 75% of average retail plus 50% ($1000) of the previous year's major repairs (clutch and axles...).....it was a 14 year old car with 195k miles on it so I didn't get much...but perhaps more than I would have if I hadn't sent repair invoices to the adjuster .

 

[EagleKeeper]

Insurance will automatically low ball the value of the vehicle.

However, you do not get sentimental value.

IF you feel the numbers are to low; counter offer and/or ask them to provide justification for their numbers.

SF tried that on me ('03)
They used a third party service that collect comparable sales from within the state.
Those comparable are from ads (newspapers/auto trader, etc).
There were a total of 5 within NV.
I called three and only one was "legit". One was not compatible in terms of equipment, the other was never sold; the third ended up in the junk yard.

So I pushed back.
They had already put in $4500 worth of work into the vehicle over a 3 month period; which was not being accounted for in terms of the value.