Car insurance question
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive January 2007:
Car insurance question
Okay, my hubby was in a fender bender this evening. It was the other guys fault, he rear ended my hubby at a stop light.
The guy has begged my husband not to file with his insurance company and just to let him pay out of pocket. This is a younger man, 25 or so with a wife and young baby in his truck.
We would like to be nice, but we don't want to get screwed. We will go get a quote tomorrow and call him. But in the off chance that his intentions are not to pay, how long do we have to call his insurance company? We have all the information, we have 2 phone numbers and his business card, but no police report (that is another long story).
So the question is, how long do you have to report an accident without having issues with the insurance company.
Typically I am a pretty good judge of character, I really felt for the guy and his family. But there is always that little seed of doubt.
I don't know what the time limit is.
I was at fault a few weeks ago- I bumped into a lady's car in a parking lot. Ginny said I should have gone home right away and called my insurance company to file a claim, so that everything was on the up and up. But I waited until the other lady called her insurance company first.
Best to get these things taken care of ASAP. Too bad there wasn't a police report.
I just happened to think that now if the other guy doesn't pay up you have no legal recourse without a police report. It may be quite difficult to get him to pay, even if you take him to small claims court. Ginny would be the one to verify that. We'll probably see her in the morning. 
My DH hit a deer the other day on his way home from work. The officer said that a police report has to be filed within 30 days of the accident in order for the insurance to accept it.
We ended up just paying for the damage out of pocket, rather than reporting it to our insurance company. Had we reported it, we would have had to pay our deductible, as well as have our premiums increase because of the accident.
But, we did file the report, just in case we opted to go with using the insurance once our heads cleared and we were able to think it over.
What I would do (and did, in a similar situation) is report it to my own insurance company. If you check your policy, you are required to report accidents to your own insurance company as soon as possible. That way you are covered if the question of why you didn't report it comes up. And, as Breann says, if you do wind up having to use your own insurance, you are covered. In my case, the other driver was worried about their insurance rates going up. I got an estimate from my body shop and from theirs, and they paid me in cash. I insisted on cash because I thought they were sort of flaky and I didn't want to worry about whether a check would clear or not.
I can understand why you might not have a police report - sometimes it takes a really long time for the police to come. Mine was a supermarket parking lot accident with no injury, and it would have taken forever for the police to come. But I was able to go to the local police station and report the accident later that day, and they wrote it up so I'd have a police report in case I needed it. Can your dh do that? It would certainly be better if he reports it so a police report is on record. And, take several pictures of the damage from different angles, which should clearly demonstrate it was a rear-ender.
As for calling his insurance company, if you have 30 days, that's OK, especially if you have reported it to your insurance company. Get the quote, as you are doing, give the kid the bad news, and see what he says. If he doesn't immediately offer to have the money in your hands in a few days, I would tell him he has two weeks to get you the money, in cash, or you will report it to your insurance company - and tell him you've already reported it to your insurance company because you are required by the terms of your policy to do so. That way he'll know it is already a matter of record. In my situation it worked out fine - all I had was one day without my car, and my son was able to chauffer me to and from work. If your dh is going to have to rent a car while his car is in the shop, you should add the cost of the rental car to the amount you have to get from the other driver, because if you did report it to his insurance company they would pay for a rental car.
Thanks everybody. I will have my hubby call the police today and see about getting a report filed.
My hubby is a pretty good driver, but this is the second time he has been hit in about a year, so what a pain. He did see this guy barrelling through and was able to get his foot off the break, he got pushed into the intersection. I did say red light right...my hubby was so scared that he was about to get tboned also. But thankfully he was not. However my hubby is a big guy, he sure tensed up, if he wakes up in any pain this am, all bets are off because I will make him go to the doc.
Here's the police story...there was a police at the other side of the intersection, he saw my hubby "go through" the red light. He popped his lights on, my hubby was already pulling off, as was the guy who hit him. The officer pulled up, rolled down his window, and said "oh you were hit, I thought you ran the red light". My husband nodded (he was pretty out of sorts actually). So the officer said, "well okay then" and drove off. So much for our police report.
Anyway, so it took probably close to 45 minutes to exchange info and actually leave the scene, my hubby's car wouldn't start back up, we think one of the battery cables got knocked loose or something. Anyway, we had to jump the car off to drive it off. An off duty officer stoped to help control traffic, since I had to drive the wrong way on a one way street to get to jump him. They guy who hit him couldn't open his hood to jump him. So all in all, it was a long crazy night!
Sorry you are going through this.. Poor DH.. I would call and talk to my insurance, explain the story to them and see what they say.
rolling my eyes at the police officer....sheesh.
The first cop just drove off? Good grief.
Well a little update. We decided to claim the insurance. Long story, but he did call me yesterday again admitted fault, but when he heard how much the repairs were he kind of freaked. I took it in for a quote and it was 600 just for the bumper. Well tonight my car broke (transmission), gee great, so while we are cleaning out my hubby's car for me to use today, we notice the trunk is damaged also and that wasn't even looked at in the quote. He won't be able to afford to fix it, we can't afford to front him the money, this is the best choice. I wanted to work with him, but that is why you have insurance.
What a week we have had!
{{{HUGS}}}
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