by barrydelaney » Thu Feb 05, 2009 07:45 pm
Crashed into someone ter a about a month ago.....it was his fault and i made a claim against his insurance for damages...they send out an assesor to inspect my car and he declared the car as a right off!....So they valued the car at 3000.....About a week later i get a letter from them stating that they will pay 3000 to me onced i they recieve the log book i.e. vehicle registration ownership.....I send out the log book and get no reply!!...I ring them saying whats the problem and they say "we cant pay the money until we find out who was driving car that caused the accident"....They say there still investigating to whom was driving the car..............I then get a letter in the post stating that they have concluded investigations and unfortunitely they could not establish who was driving the car...in other words we are not paying you the 3000 because we are not sure that it was our insured driver who who was driving the car (but that the CAR was definetly insured)!!!......Now they actually are the legal owners of the car without paying me anything as i have signed over ownership to them thinking that i was getting the 3000 they had informed me of!!!!
Were do i stand and how do i go about getting the 3000 when by law it is the CAR that was insured and not the person driving the car.... therefore it should not matter who was driving the car.... i thought that once the car was insured... and it is proven that it was that car that caused the accident they should have to pay out?? thats my view on things
Please tell me what to do and whether or not i have a strong case if i was to make this a legal matter?
Oh and i have a witness who seen the crash and has already been in contact with his insurance to prove i was not liable for the accident and that he was!!!
Thank you
Were do i stand and how do i go about getting the 3000 when by law it is the CAR that was insured and not the person driving the car.... therefore it should not matter who was driving the car.... i thought that once the car was insured... and it is proven that it was that car that caused the accident they should have to pay out?? thats my view on things
Please tell me what to do and whether or not i have a strong case if i was to make this a legal matter?
Oh and i have a witness who seen the crash and has already been in contact with his insurance to prove i was not liable for the accident and that he was!!!
Thank you
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 09:56 pm Post Subject:
To me it sounds like you may be outside of the US? If so, things may change slightly and I don't know the laws outside of the US. But I will comment on how things are done here.
While an insurance _does_ need to know who was driving the vehicle, it's not easy (boarder line impossible) to deny a liability claim for this reason. What they would be doing to reserving their right under the policy not to provide coverage to their _insured_ for the claim due to lack of cooperation. While this is perfectly fine under the language of the policy, it just does not stand up in court as it's against public policy. That is, a judge is going to see a insurance company that is collecting premiums to provide coverage to third parties and the judge is not going to give a rats butt that the insurance companies insured is not bothering to speak to them. He's going to tell the insurance company to pay the innocent third party and feel free to cut their insured loose for being a bonehead. This is really what you are mentioning in your post.
Keep in mind that a claim is not denied until it's in writing. Has the other person's carrier sent you a denial in writing yet? if not, they are still investigating the claim. Have you tried calling the other person to see why they won't talk to their carrier? I'm guessing a police report was not file? I have to wonder how someone hit you and you did not get the person's name. If you did, is it that the other carrier knows _who_ was driving but needs to find out _why_ this person was using the vehicle? Has the carrier sent someone out to knock on their insured's door? If not, I'd pressure them to do this. if they still won't, have you considered doing it? I'm not recommending it but it's an option. You can let the person know that you intend to file suit against them if your loss is not paid, that their insurance company won't be helping them with the suit, and all the need to do to avoid this is pick up the phone and call their carrier. Ask them how they would feel if you hit them and did not think enough of it to return a phone call.
If the other carrier has not denied the claim in writing, I think they will continue their efforts to speak to their insured but how aggressive they will get is unknown. You might want to light a fire under their butts. If nothing else, this is going to seriously delay the handling of the claim and that is unfortunate.
Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 04:14 am Post Subject:
Could this involve an area where insurance does not follow the car, excluded driver(s).
Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 07:16 am Post Subject:
Well, under any circumstances I don't think that the insurers are allowed to take the possession of the vehcile and afterward deny the claim. if they are not paying out to the OP they are atleast required to transfer the title back to him. IMO they are a bunch of crooks.
Barry, i think you have a bad faith claim against this insurer and yes, you may consult an atty. At the same time also report this insurer to the Department of Insurance. Rudolph
Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 07:35 am Post Subject:
Hi Rudolph,
At the same time also report this insurer to the Department of Insurance.
Don't you feel such a thing could be done even after he receives a claim denial in writing. By following what tcope has mentioned I'd rather wait to see if the investigations are still on...sometimes it stretches a bit I guess!
ArindamSenIndies
Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 12:54 pm Post Subject: re:
I finally got the money after 2 months!!!
Even though liability was no established the insurance company said they were satisfied that there car was liable for the accident after telling me they would not pay me any money until liability was established!!
Getting money from an insurance company is like getting blood from a stone!!!
Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 04:32 pm Post Subject:
Glad to hear you got your money Barry. Not all insurance companmies work like this one did. This may just be the way they do business...finding out who was liable first. I can not understand why they would have had you send in the title and such if they were not planning on paying your immediatley but at least it is worked out.
Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 01:22 am Post Subject:
My guess is that they thought that it was going to be an easy claim and moved ahead with towing the vehicle and getting the title before they had all of the facts. Then there was a question of who was driving the car (excluded driver) and they were stuck.
Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 08:38 am Post Subject:
Hi Barry, welcome back :) and thanks for the updates. Often times the posters don't follow-up with their cases which frustrates the community members. You have set a very good example before us all about what should be done :) However, just remember to login while posting.
When we are offering suggestions we also want to know whether those were helpful to the member or not. Thanks again for the updates. And, hope that things improve with you soon.
~Jeremy
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