Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage

by Guest » Tue Dec 26, 2006 04:21 am

Say your car got hit by another driver and when you pursue repayment charges with the third party, you find out that the third party does not have any insurance. So will you be covered? Yes, you can be with underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage. Underinsure/uninsured motorist coverage will provide protection for your car if it needs repair from an accident that involves an uninsured/underinsured motorist.

What is uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage?

This is a coverage that will take care of the cost of treating injuries caused to you and your passengers in case you were involved with an accident with a driver who does not have insurance. In some states, UM or UIM also covers property. You must know that an uninsured/underinsured motorist is one who fulfills the following conditions:

Does not have insurance
Has insurance but that which does not suffice the state minimum liability requirements. You can find out about auto insurance state laws from here.
The insurance company has denied claim for insurance or the individual has not been able to pay his premiums regularly.
Is a hit-and-run driver.

On the other hand an underinsured driver is one who has insurance that meets the state minimum requirements but have payment limits not high enough to pay for the damage incurred. Although these policies can be purchased together and are usually sold together also, these are available separately too.

Do you need UM and UIM coverage?

Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is not mandatory in most states. Only a handful of states require you to have it and for the rest, it is optional. So if you do purchase uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, the payment limits must meet the state minimum requirement and cannot exceed the liability limit.

You will need this insurance in case you get in to an accident with a driver who is not insured or who has insurance, but cannot afford to pay the full cost of repairing the damage. Car repairing can be expensive and if you have to do it without proper coverage, it will be very taxing on your pocket. Considering the number of benefits it offers, you may purchase this insurance. It offers additional benefits like:

Paying for your medical bills.
Compensating lost wages.
Compensating financially for pain and suffering.

In a struggling economy, you could benefit from UM and UIM coverage when the other party cannot provide full compensation for your damages. UM/UIM is also not an expensive thing to add to your policy, so you might as well consider it.

UIM pays only up to the limit of your policy minus the amount paid by the other driver at fault. This coverage is meant both for you and the passengers in your car as well as to the other members listed in your policy when using someone else's car. Many of you may think that if you have collision coverage, you don't need UM or UIM coverage. But the fact is, this is a good choice for careful drivers who have not purchased collision coverage. This as an alternative is cheaper and hence attractive too.

How are UM and UIM categorized?

Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is divided in to 3 broad parts:

Uninsured motorist property damage insurance: This is normally meant for those individuals who have not purchased collision coverage. Since this is not expensive you do not even have to pay a huge premium for this. However, this uninsured motorist property damage does not provide coverage in a hit-and-run case.
Underinsured motorist protection: This coverage pays for damages beyond the amount of coverage owned by the driver at-fault. You will receive an amount minus what the at-fault driver pays and not the full amount of the difference.
Uninsured motorist bodily injury protection: provides protection for you (insured) and any passenger in your car if they too have sustained bodily injury/injuries. As an insured, you can get coverage for bodily injury even if you get hit as a pedestrian crossing the street. Lost wages, medical bills, hospital bills are also paid. It also provides protection for your family members if they are injured while traveling in another vehicle.

Related Discussions:

hi all!
Is there any way that I may protect myself from uninsured drivers ? Is there any UM coverage for any damages done to my vehicle? Stella McCartney.

Total Comments: 19

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 04:32 am Post Subject: uninsured motorist,

You stated "However, this uninsured motorist property damage does not provide coverage in a hit-and-run case." Are you referring to property damage as in what they did to say my vehicle when they hit me? or other property damage as in belonging to someone else not involved in the accident? For example, a woman was approaching a stop sign at the bottom of the hill. This other vehicle that had been parked at the curb, didnt even look when they gunned their car and swung into traffic hitting her on the passenger side of her car and causing her wheel to collapse turned inward at the bottom underneath the car. They didnt even stop but took off. She was unable to get the license number, but a passerby screamed out the number from their car.
Her vehicle was towed. The insurance company tried to tell her she was not covered under the underinsured or uninsured clause she paid to have on her policy. Being a hit and run, I went with her several days later to find out where her car had been taken. we went to the yard where it was supposed to be and found out her insurance agent had her car removed from the tow yard, and they SOLD it to a place called coparts. We called the insurance company who insisted she didnt have uninsured motorist coverage, and then told her she signed a paper to allow them to take her car out of tow and move or transfer it. They paid her nothing on her car, denied her coverage and then sold her car without even notifying her. With that they got rid of the evidence she needed to prove what car had hit her, because she found the car that did hit her, but now didnt even have access to her own car to compare the injuries to each vehicle.

DOES, the laws of the state of California Insurance laws, show that hit and run damages to your vehicle, is covered with the uninsured insurance clause?
AND, how would the insurance company have the right to take her vehicle and SELL it without notification or payment to her?

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 04:32 am Post Subject: uninsured motorist,

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:26 am Post Subject:

You stated "However, this uninsured motorist property damage does not provide coverage in a hit-and-run case."

States vary in their discussion of hit and run and uninsured motorist, but in California a "hit and run" driver is always considered to be uninsured. However, uninsured motorist will not cover hit and run if the insured vehicle is used as a "residence" (such as an RV currently parked for that purpose, not simply because it's an RV).

There are several other problems in your post that need to be cleared up.

found out her insurance agent had her car removed from the tow yard

Highly unlikely that an agent is involved in a claim. And even more unlikely is that the "agent" had her car removed from the tow yard.

The insurance company tried to tell her she was not covered under the underinsured or uninsured clause she paid to have on her policy

The policy declaration page will clear up any confusion over that issue. She either has UM coverage or she does not. But there are two types of Uninsured Motorist coverage -- Physical Damage and Bodily Injury. It's very possible that she has UMBI and not UMPD -- not a common situation, but not unheard of. If a person does not have collision coverage, UMPD is limited to $3500, and if a person does have collision coverage, UMPD coverage functions as a "waiver of deductible" instead. You cannot have both the $3500 AND the waiver of deductible. UMBI, obviously, does not pay for physical damage to the vehicle, only for medical/monetary damage claims of injured persons.

So without knowing what her declarations tell us, I would suspect that she misunderstands her coverage, and if the insurance company is not paying for physical damage to her vehicle, it probably means she doesn't have that kind of UM on her policy and she doesn't have collision either.

the insurance company . . . then told her she signed a paper to allow them to take her car out of tow and move or transfer it. They paid her nothing on her car, denied her coverage and then sold her car without even notifying her

I find that completely unbelievable. If she did not have either collision or UMPD, what does the insurance company care about her car? There's nothing for them to pay, so there's nothing they're going to do.

Did she sign any papers at all? If she did, what do they say (she'll have a copy)? Usually, when an insurance company asks a person to "sign papers", there is an exchange of a check for the signature.

Here's the heart of the matter. Either the car is covered for collision or it is not. If the car is covered for collision and is repairable, the insurance company will get it out of the tow yard ASAP and to the body shop for repairs, because it costs money every day it sits in the tow yard. If it's not repairable, they'll get it out and get it to the salvage yard for the same reason (or they'll give the title to the tow yard and let them dispose of it).

But selling a person's car? Insurance companies have no authority to do that unless they have paid a total loss claim and take possession of, and title to, the vehicle. What you state here is impossible. Or it is some kind of huge mistake that could not have happened (only the titled owner can sell the vehicle) and the insurance company owes her some money. But I'm voting in favor of the impossible.

Denying a claim because there is no coverage happens all the time. Many people "think" they're covered when they are not. They fail to read their policy declarations, or they read them and don't understand them, and never call their agent or insurer to inquire. Then they have a claim, only to find out that what coverages they "thought" they had and what they actually have are two different things. (It is especially true of persons who act as their own agent and purchase insurance online, then they have no one to blame but themselves.)

Perhaps something else entirely has happened here. Could it be that the damaged vehicle was repossessed by the lender for non-payment on the loan? If that were the case, unless the vehicle was "sold" for more than the balance of the loan, there is nothing that would be due to the former owner. In a repossession, there is no paperwork that the "owner" signs, there is no notice to the "owner", and the lender can dispose of the vehicle in any manner it chooses, including destruction of the vehicle -- it's their property. And the lender is going to get it out of the tow yard as quickly as it can, too. This is beyond the scope of an insurance policy.

Perhaps your friend is too embarrassed to admit that her wrecked car was also repossessed, and is trying to blame an insurance company for her troubles. That wouldn't be unheard of either.

Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 02:09 pm Post Subject: not at fault

If the driver of the vehicle is not at fault will the insurance pay for the damages if the person who was driving wasn't listed on the policy with UM?

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 11:25 am Post Subject:

If the driver of the vehicle is not at fault will the insurance pay for the damages if the person who was driving wasn't listed on the policy with UM?

If the driver of the vehicle was properly licensed and operating the vehicle with the permission of the owner, then, generally, the answer is yes -- but some policies revert coverage (BI/PD, possibly UM) to state minimums when the vehicle is operated by an unlisted driver. If the driver of the vehicle has his or her own personal auto policy with UM coverage, that policy will provide a benefit in the event the policy covering the vehicle does not (or provide additional secondary coverage beyond the limits of the primary policy).

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 01:56 am Post Subject: I was hit by an under insured driver

I was in an accident in Wisconsin last November. I was rear-ended by an inattentive driver and it totaled out my 4runner. The other driver has a policy of 50,000/100,000. They already gave me a check for the totaled suv. I have had an MRI and have bulging disc. I have gone thru 4 months of PT and gone thru one epidural with no success. Can my attorney sue my insurance co for underinsured coverage --my policy covers up to 250,000 underinsured. What do you think one is entitled to.

Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 06:33 pm Post Subject: UIM/UM coverage in NC pre-2009

Sil -
I'm doing research on how the different major carriers addressed the enforcement of signed selection/rejection forms in NC for policies sold over the phone or online before the 01/01/09 change in the statutory law. Ideally I'd like to see the forms and/or cover letters that were sent out to new/renewing policyholders. Can you point me in the right direction?

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 11:18 pm Post Subject: uninsured

I'm had a fender bender with a another car, no damage was done, and no one was hurt. However I'm uninsured and the other party wants to purse. A claim. What do I do. What is the worst that could happen to me?

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:13 am Post Subject:

no damage was done, and no one was hurt. However I'm uninsured and the other party wants to purse. A claim.

Now think about what you've said here. "I had a fender bender" but "no damage was done" and now "the other party wants to sue." You can't sue for "no damage", so obviously there was damage.

What can happen to you for driving without insurance? You could lose your license, and you could lose a small claims lawsuit. What's the worst thing that could happen? Both of those combined.