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$600 Car Repairs
Lucky Cynic
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Quick issue guys. A while ago, like nearly a full year and a half ago I tapped someone in an intersection when I stopped at a red light. We pulled over and all the damage was done was a 3/4ths circle from one of the license plate bolts and a slight horizontal scratch below that. It did pierce through the clear coat. I talked to the guy, we exchanged numbers and it was actually a company car.
Now I got had to call up their insurance company and told them that I would just be paying for it myself, as opposed to getting something that could affect my insurance history. Here's the thing though, the guy never actually took it into the shop to get it repaired. I just kind of waited on it and eventually I thought that he just decided to go sans repairing a small ding like that.
I got a call today from that insurance company telling me that I still owe them the money for damages which was for $600 parts and labor. I asked about why this is coming up now from so long ago, you have 3 years to file claims like this in California. Now here is the thing that kind of irks me. The car was put up for auction recently and sold. It is gone. But the insurance company is insisting I still owe them $600, apparently because without the repairs, the car lost that much in value from the auction, which is highly unlikely because the car itself was driven for a whole year and a half before it was auctioned off. I doubt a circular scratch would take off that much of value, especially at such a vehicle. So what can I do? I really have no idea how to get this sorted out. :?
Tl;dr: I hit a guy a while ago and left a light circular scratch from my license plate cover's bolts. It pierced through the clear coating but the bumper wasn't cracked nor heavily damaged or anything like that. I called up the insurance company and they said to pay them $600 and to wait for the guy to make the repairs. He didn't, and instead the car recently went on auction and was sold and the insurance company still is asking for $600 for the repairs that never took place. Halp!
Now I got had to call up their insurance company and told them that I would just be paying for it myself, as opposed to getting something that could affect my insurance history. Here's the thing though, the guy never actually took it into the shop to get it repaired. I just kind of waited on it and eventually I thought that he just decided to go sans repairing a small ding like that.
I got a call today from that insurance company telling me that I still owe them the money for damages which was for $600 parts and labor. I asked about why this is coming up now from so long ago, you have 3 years to file claims like this in California. Now here is the thing that kind of irks me. The car was put up for auction recently and sold. It is gone. But the insurance company is insisting I still owe them $600, apparently because without the repairs, the car lost that much in value from the auction, which is highly unlikely because the car itself was driven for a whole year and a half before it was auctioned off. I doubt a circular scratch would take off that much of value, especially at such a vehicle. So what can I do? I really have no idea how to get this sorted out. :?
Tl;dr: I hit a guy a while ago and left a light circular scratch from my license plate cover's bolts. It pierced through the clear coating but the bumper wasn't cracked nor heavily damaged or anything like that. I called up the insurance company and they said to pay them $600 and to wait for the guy to make the repairs. He didn't, and instead the car recently went on auction and was sold and the insurance company still is asking for $600 for the repairs that never took place. Halp!
Lucky Cynic on
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If I understand you correctly, the other guy's insurance company found the value of the damage to be $600, and paid the guy that $600 to either repair the car or cover any lost value from his vehicle. At this point, getting an independent appraisal may be difficult, if not impossible, but if you want to challenge the claim you probably have the right. Now, if the insurance company only found the value of the damage to be $600, but never paid out to anyone (why this would happen, I do not know) you could argue you owe them nothing, and demand proof of your debt.
But again, in California everything might be all different.
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Yeah, this is how insurance works. If you had totaled his car, you wouldn't be off the hook for the damages had he decided to not repair it. If the damage was valued at 600 dollars, you are either paying for him to have 600 dollars worth of work done to his car, or paying for the fact that you caused his property to be worth 600 dollars less.
You need to pay this.
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Matthasaproblem is bringing up some pretty important stuff though.
He chose to pay out of pocket rather than through is insurance, so the deductible is not a factor.
Just because the car was never repaired does not mean that a claims adjusted never looked at the damage. It means no repair was done on the car. Insurance companies don't fix your car for you. They pay you money equal to the amount of damage done to the car. What you do with that money is up to you. In this case, the money was pocketed and the damage remained on the car. But the OP caused the damage, lowering the value of the car, and is therefore libel for compensating the owner since he chose to pay out of pocket and not let his own insurance company cover it for him (less his deductable).
If his deductible is 500 dollars, that is the smart way to do it. He would be still be paying his 500 dollar deductible, his insurance company would only cover the further 100 dollars, and his insurance rates would probably go up, erasing that "savings" in a matter of months. Even at a 250 dollar deductible, he's probably better paying out of pocket.
If they prove they had an adjuster inspect the car and show the 600 dollar estimate at that time, he's on the hook for it. Since this is a company car, and most companies have rules about this sort of thing, I think it's pretty likely that's the case.
This right here is the telling part. Even if he didn't get it repaired, he did file it with the insurance company, right? Which means that, yeah, you're unfortunately on the hook for this one.
Thank you, Rubacava!
Yeah the crux of the matter is if a claim was filed with the insurance company. Since this was stated to be a company car, you can almost guarantee that it was.
Please explain what the auction has to do with this. I don't see how an auction has an affect on the value of the car as per your incident. Unless the person/company filed a claim that the damages lowered the resale of the car, but really it still doesn't make sense that they would file it that way instead of a normal incident claim.
In the end though you did damage that agreed to pay out. Protect yourself and ask for claim receipts to make sure they aren't screwing you over trying to make money on a damaged never filed on a car they no longer cover. But in the end you are responsible for the damage you did. Also if you can get in contact with the people who filed the claim to make sure they actually did.
That is just the thing. I asked if the car could be taken in and instead they tell me it is now gone and that my damage lowered the value of the car.
"By how much?"
"The same amount that was due for the damage."
"Which was never repaired and could be more or less."
"...Correct."
:?
I will try and get in touch with the guy tomorrow and see how much the car got sold for and if it is still logical to pay out this $600. I mean, for all I know, the car could have been totaled and they auctioned off the car for parts. I'll also compare it to blue book values to make sure they aren't screwing me either. If the car was auctioned off and sold for $5,000 and the blue book value is $4,000, I think I can address this with the insurance company. Somehow I find it really unlikely that this little ding can make someone bidding on the car go "$5,000! No wait, whats that, oh... Okay $4,400!"
It isn't that I don't feel like I am obligated for my accident, but it just is really suspicious that I should pay the full price for an estimate for repairs that never took place on a car that was auctioned off for X amount of dollars which is all coming from a guy I have not heard from in many, many months who insists that the car depreciated in value equal to the amount the initial estimate gave.
Maybe I am being a stupid noob or something, but to me it just seems like more questions need to be answered before I commit to paying anything.
Simply put, it doesn't matter what happened to the car in the long run. If you agreed to pay out of pocket, and the insurance company performed an adjustment on the car and valued the damage at 600 dollars, you owe 600 dollars.
Where the car is now, how it was sold, who bought it, or for how much is entirely irrelevant. If you ding my car for 600 dollars worth of damage, but I can still manage to sell it for twice what it's "worth", that doesn't mean your damage had no impact on my car's value and you're suddenly not liable. What was paid for the car in a business transaction isn't indicative of the car's value. That's just how much some guy paid for it.
And again, it doesn't matter if the repairs took place or not. If the insurance company shows records that state they paid out X dollars on a claim for damage caused by you, you are liable for X dollars. What the owner of the vehicle did with those X dollars is up to him, be it repair the car or pocket the payout.
Yes, it sucks. You have to remember that insurance is basically a legal rip off. You don't often come out ahead, dealing with insurance companies.
EDIT: Edited for clarity.
Lots of people I know who got in accidents and suffered minor dings or dents to their car just took the insurance money and didn't bother to have the repairs done. As far as I know this isn't a violation or anything.
Its perfectly legal. In fact, around here where there's lots of hail during tornado season, a lot of money is paid out for hail damage to cars, and people just pocket it and never fix the car. Like I said, the insurance company doesn't fix your car for you. They give you money equal to the damage done to the car. If you choose to fix the car with the money, they may facilitate things by simply cutting a check directly to whomever performs the work, on your behalf, but that's just a courtesy.
It would be much more clear cut if they said "to make the insured whole, we had to pay out $600. You agreed to pay out of pocket so now we're collecting."
It sounds fishy, but not sure if something's getting lost during relay.
At the court house, I even explained to the DA that I had sold my car without getting it repaired, because well, it was a piece of crap and I knew somebody that needed a car more than I did. He said it didn't matter, then proceeded to completely tear the guy who hit me a new one in court, and the judge awarded me my deductible of $500.
So basically, as it was pointed out, it doesn't matter if the guy got it repaired, you still damaged the car and the company should be compensated for such.
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