who pays the deductable?

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2010 09:45 pm Post Subject:

Well, the owner of your car is "legally" responsible for the other person's loss including the deductible.... but you have insurance that addresses this for you.

I understand why the other person sent the letter but it was no appropriate. It appears that, for whatever reason, their claim is being process under their policy and that the insurance company is not simply waiving their deductible. We had a thread kind of like this before and I think it comes down to adjusters/procedures not being done correctly to make this a smooth process.

There is a claim open under both of your policies. Those claims are assigned to two different adjusters and they act as if their work for two different companies. They should not be able to look at the other claim. This avoids any conflict of interests that may arise (which should not happen with clear liability). But which adjuster pays the claim? Your adjuster still needs to "investigate" the claim and accept liability before he/she could pay the claim under your policy. Even if you think you are at fault, your adjuster still needs to get all the facts and protect your interest. The other person wants their car fixed and "knows" you are at fault. They could just pay the claim under the other person's policy as no investigation is needed to pay it... the other person simply needs to have collision coverage. The problem is that this collision coverage has a $500 deductible. I can hear this person bitching to their adjuster already.... "Why should I have to pay my deductible when the other person is at fault!" I've heard that a _million_ times! Well, 'cause that is what your policy states. I'm guessing this person got pissed off so they sent you a letter telling you that you needed to pay them their deductible. Their adjuster probably explained the recovery process and the refunding of the deductible a million times but this person turned their ears off.

What some carriers will do when both parties are insured by the same carrier is waive the deductible for both people. It does not matter who was at fault. This way you don't have this problem and you also can't have one insured come back later and complain about the liability decision being bias. What most carriers will (should) do is explain tip tow around the deductible issue and see if they can get the at fault adjuster to accept liability quickly enough so that the deductible issue does not need to be raised. That is, try to handle that all internally. The problem is that adjusters are required by law to explain everything as its known (dam those Fair Claim Practice rules). So it's kind of a fine trick line to walk. Some adjuster simply don't have enough experience to know how to do this so they just tell the person that their claim is subject to their deductible. Again... probably why the person sent you that letter.

You do as you mentioned... just send the letter to your adjuster and perhaps even call that adjuster and tell them about the letter. Ask them if they can call this other person and explain how the deductible recovery works (it's collected internally and then sent to the other person... you have nothing to do with it).

$550???? I guess the $50 is processing and shipping fees? :lol: I can almost guarantee you that it's a $500 deductible and that they added on the $50 for their time (profit). What an ass.

Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2010 11:28 pm Post Subject: who pays the deductable?

Thank you for your time and your clear response i spoke to our claim adjuster only long enough to let her know i was contacted and solicited for cash. she asked me to fax the letter over. as much as i would like to say something to the girl i will keep my mouth shut and keep it between the insurance team. I just think it's really ballsy that the driver of the car is suing us and she has the gall to ask for the deductable

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 10:42 am Post Subject:

I just think it's really ballsy that the driver of the car is suing us and she has the gall to ask for the deductable

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 03:09 pm Post Subject:

a similar thing happen to me (only with 2 different companies) where the other person was at fault but if I made the claim under my ins. company I would pay my deductible and then be re-embersed after the fault was established. even though I think this is a extra step that needs to be removed from the process I at least understand why they do it this way. I think tcope is right let the ins. company handle all communications between both of you and if they contact you again send them a cease and deist letter with your adjuster as the new point of contact.

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 03:09 pm Post Subject:

a similar thing happen to me (only with 2 different companies) where the other person was at fault but if I made the claim under my ins. company I would pay my deductible and then be re-embersed after the fault was established. even though I think this is a extra step that needs to be removed from the process I at least understand why they do it this way. I think tcope is right let the ins. company handle all communications between both of you and if they contact you again send them a cease and deist letter with your adjuster as the new point of contact.