Ok, need some legal assistance/advice, car got hit, fighting with insurance. Options

[mark_426]

I'm going to try to keep this brief, but it's hard to do with proper details.

Anyway

My brother had my car at his boss's house. The wife backed into it with an electric truck.. hit the passenger side front quarter.

Well, we get three estimates for how much it will cost to repair. Neat.

The people who hit us have State Farm Insurance, and when they saw the figures, they wanted to let state farm cover it. Ok.

Hmm, we call, and try to get in touch with a claims adjuster, blah blah blah... Finally have "Melanie" calling the wrong number, etc, and another week goes by. Finally get another claims lady to call us and get Melanie. Great.

Schedule an appointment for an insurance adjuster to come. They give us a four hour timeframe, and a date, and never confirm it. How convienient when two of us need to get off work.

Well, almost three weeks later, an insurance adjuster comes and checks the car out. My insurance quotes were on my seat, and he looked inside. He grabbed them, looked at them, and told us he had to take them to check the prices... well ok, even though they're there from three companies. Next, what a suprise, he says, "Hmm, I don't know how much this stuff is worth, so I'll have to make some calls, and then I'll report it, and the office will send you your check."

Ok, this was Monday (that he said this). Today, we call to find out what's up, as we hadn't received a call or anything. Ok, here's the price. $2349.

Well, sh*t. Estimates all said 5200, 5600, 5900, for parts and labor. Replacement equivalent parts alone are $2399. Then, I need install, and paint and prep.


What can I do to try to get enough to pay for it/ what would you do?

heres what it looks like:

[Galcobar]

Who is your insurance company? File a claim with them, have them recover the money for you. They won't care that it's a big claim, because they won't be filing it. And your premiums should not be affected, as it's the fault of an identified, insured party. The person at fault is the one who will face the premium increase.

Get more estimates -- and make sure one is from Toyota. Ask your insurance compnay to have State Farm provide written reasons why all three submitted estimates were rejected.

If your insurance is State Farm, then you lack an advocate for you in the process, which makes it more difficult. Make State Farm justify every line item, don't let them give you a lump sum and say "that's how much we're offering, take it or leave it."

One point: they'll try to discount everything they can based on the age of the car. If your paint job is newer or in excellent condition -- wash, polish and wax before any appraisal -- they'll have a harder time justifying it.

[jgreening]

Dealing with insurance companies is a pain. I am doing that right now and it is not fun. My only advice is to be persistent. If they don't give you what you want, take it to have completed and once you have the bill, there is always small claims court.

[ScoobyDooCruiser]

Also- don't cash that check. If you cash it, then you essentially agree to take that amount of money and be content (at least in CA, I assume its the same in other states)

Find out what agent the person who hit you has. Go by there office. Take the car (if its drivable) take the three estimates, and take the letter you recieved. Explain that the amount they gave you was not sufficient, and they need to have your car repaired. Tell them the shop you would like to get the work done at. Tell them the claim is not closed, and you need to get this resolved. What they offered did not resolve this.

Insurance companies are rated on how quickly they close claims. How long it takes from when an accident is reported to how long until the case is closed. So, drag your heels, take your time, be slow, methodical and systematic. They will hate it, and will be more willing to work with you.

Tell them you do not want to cash out. Tell them you will get it repaired, and they will pay for the reapir, not just the estimate.

Good luck!

[Andason]

oh trust me... talk with your insurance company... they'll sue the **** out of state farm to get the money

[bufferdan]

DO NOT ACCEPT THAT OFFER. TELL THEM NO! You should have the right in your state (i know ohio does) to get your own estimates wherever you want. You tell them those are the estimates and that they are going to pay that amount because thats what its going to cost you to get your car fixed the way it was. END OF STORY

[ILuvMyCelica95]

i agree with everyone else. You need to contact your insurance agency. and DO NOT cash the check.

[mark_426]

"Tell them you will get it repaired, and they will pay for the reapir, not just the estimate."

State farm said I need to either have it fixed at their approved places, or appraise it and check.

Since I don't like the places they gave me, I had to get an adjuster. But, I took it to a State Farm accepted place- they had the highest estimate.

[CheesyLobster]

i agree with everyone else. You need to contact your insurance agency. and DO NOT cash the check.
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But if you contact your insurance agency, won't that raise your premiums? I though that if you admit to your insurance company that you got in an accident, even if it's not your fault, your rates will go up because statistically you are more likely to get in an other accident in the future?

[gas65]

I fought with the insurance company on my first Celi and got around $2000 more than they first offered, but it may take some time and abit of work on your part.

First, do not cash any checks or sign any paper work State Farm has offered to you unless you feel you are getting what your car is worth.

Now do you have just laibility on your car or do you also have collision? Collision pays for damages to your car in an accident. If you have collision, you need to contact your insurance company and let them know what the other company is doing, and they will most likely get involved so they don't have to recoup the difference between the repair cost and the other companies offer. It saves them money to help you get it all from the other company, and it saves you from paying the deductible.

If you only have liability, you can contact your insurance company and get advice, but they wont help you get your money from them. But they do give you good advice and how to raise the amount to a reasonable offer.

Have your insurance company give you an appraisel of some kind from the book they use to figure out what your car was worth. Make sure they add in all options and make sure to tell them it's a GT not an ST.

First we need to figure up the basic amount your car was worth before any aftermarket stuff was added on. Here are a few sites I used to get those.

http://www.nada.com/

http://www.kbb.com/

http://www.edmunds.com/

Now get some pictures of your car prior to the wreck, and go around to different car lots in your town and ask what is the fair market value of your car. If they don't know for sure what you want, explain the situation and ask if you had this car on your lot, what would you sell it for? Ask them if they will give you a written statement on company letterhead stating what they just told you. Toyota dealerships will give you the best price so don't be afraid to drive out of town to a few of them.

Now you may be asking why am I telling you to get these things first? Well because if your estimates are 75% of the value of the car, they will say it is totaled.

Now that you have book values and statements from used car lots as to the fair market value, get some estimates from places that you would actually let do the work. And a few Toyota dealerships would'nt hurt here much either. If you would'nt let a certain body shop do the work, don't turn in that estimate. Get atleast 3 estimates.

Now call the claims adjuster for State Farm and tell him you have 3 estimates for him. He will give you some low ball figure first saying this is the price it can be fixed for. Say "not at the body shops I went to" and refuse his offers. Now he might go up abit, but you stand firm on the lowest estimate you got. He may start telling you with that price it might total your car. Ask him than what he estimates your car's worth at and what did he use, get it in writing if possible. If it's a lower figure than all your book values, hand him copies of the book values you got from all 3 places online. If he still says that it is'nt worth that much, hand him copies from the used car lots where they established market value of your car. More than likely at this point he will have gone up on his estimates and your car value.

You can also give him copies of any aftermarket equipment you have added to the car, or any mechanical work done, that ups the price.

Just make sure everything you hand him is a copy from your originals, because you may not get a used car lot to write another statement for you, in fact I had some that would'nt do it at all the first time, so it does take abit of time getting them done. And don't hand him everything at 1 time, give him the book values first, hopefully he will go up alittle, than give him the fair market statements from car lots, that should bring it up more. Than start giving him pictures of your car prior to the wreck and also any receipts you have of aftermarket products and parts and labor of work done. This shows him this car was well maintained and not some junker that you never took care of. This should bring the car up to a reasonable amount unless he is just a assclown or you are hoping to make bank on a car that you think is clearly worth more but is'nt.

Now just because you added $300 lowering springs to your car, it does'nt up the value that much, but he should go up more than his previous offer.

If he still refuses to do anything, tell him you'll be hearing from my lawyer soon and walk out with no care in the world. Don't get mad or upset, it's their job is to save their company money and this is how they do it. My insurance agent(which is State Farm ) explained it to me when I was having problems with Farm Bureau, he said that these estimators had to show proof of why they gave so much for a certain car, and all those copies you made of book values, statements, and receipts for parts and labor, help to show the company why he went up on the price and kept them from being in court getting sued.

Also, don't take an offer right off, ask him if you can think about it over a few days to decide. You can give him the book values one day, come back 2 days later and refuse the offer, and hand him the statements saying my car was worth alot more than that. It's a game to see who will breakdown first, so just borrow somebody's car to drive around for now, and stick to a reasonable amount for an estimate to fix it, or a reasonable amount if they say it's totaled.

If you have any more questions just post them and I will let you know what I would do.

I got $5200 and kept my car(I could have taken $6100 and they kept the car) on a 94 GT with 143,000 miles on it 2 years ago, and the high value at the time was $6300, but my car was in excellent condition inside and out, but the high mileage was what he said was bringing the value down. He started out at $4200 and they take my car. So I was happy to get some advice from my insurance agent, because he helped me get more money, even though I thought it should be worth more.

If they try to total out your car, let me know I can explain some more on how to up the fair market value.lol

[mark_426]

Well, I have some minor problems with my motor right now, should I go get that done, or shouldn't I let them touch the car until it gets fixed?

Great reply, thanks, I will be in touch when I find more out.

I had already found market values, with my mileage and options, stock, is 8065 KBB, 7750 hi 5650 lo on NADA, and 8590 retail 6678 privaet 5424 trade under Edmunds. Average is $7026.

$5270 is about 75% of that. Then, the aftermarket.

Cheesy, under my circumstances, I hardly think so. My car was parked, and they ran into me. If they can up my insurance because of this, I'm switching companies, and I'll tell them that straight up.

[Toad]

if they hit you, it shouldn't raise your insurance at all.

All i have to say to this is that state farm is horrible, when some chick w/ state farm totalled my car, they gave me a horrible price for my car, and also it took them literally months to get me the money....

Good luck man, hopefully everything works out for you.

[gas65]

if they hit you, it shouldn't raise your insurance at all.

All i have to say to this is that state farm is horrible, when some chick w/ state farm totalled my car, they gave me a horrible price for my car, and also it took them literally months to get me the money....

Good luck man, hopefully everything works out for you.
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They gave you? You mean you accepted a horrible price. All insurance adjusters will offer you some low figure to start out with, thats what their paid to do. If you did'nt like their price, you should have taken them to court and proved your car to be worth more.

[mark_426]

Well, now I'm working on conacting and working insurance out. I'll keep you guys updated, maybe someone else can use this.