Expert: Bennie719 - 4/22/2008

Question
My son was sitting at a stop sign in my older car waiting to turn right.  A girl tried to turn unto the road too fast and hit the front driver corner panel and wheel of my car.  It broke the ty rod, axel, damaged to the hood, etc...  We know them.  Her dad said he would pay out of pocket to fix the car. Now he says because the car is old he is only offering 1000, then decided to turn it into insurance.  They are saying they will pay book value.  My book value comes up at 1,200-1,900.  He is saying 620.  Is there a way to go after their property loss insurance for the loss I just incurred as a result of their careless and reckless daughter? I just put 2500 into the car.

Answer
Hi Beth,
It looks like you have a tough chore ahead.  Your first step is to have the adverse insurance give you in writing how they determined the value of your car to be $620.
Then, depending on the age of the car, you can visit sites such as
kbb.com
nada.com
autotrader.com
to find the listed value of your car.  If it's to old to still be listed, you will have to start visiting used car and getting dealer quotes for cars like yours.
The $2,500 that you recently put into the car did not increase the value of the car on a dollar for dollar basis because a lot or the work would have been considered routine maintenance.  Take all your receipts with you when visiting used car lots and have them reviewed by the dealer.  He can help you establish how much the work increased the value.

If you can't reach a fair settlement amount with the insurance company, then your next step would be to file small claims court action against the owner and driver.  Attorneys are allowed in small claims court in Pennsylvania and his insurance company would provide him one for free.  You would need to hire an attorney and include his fee as part of your demand.

I hope this information has been of help.
Your feedback by rating my answer will be appreciated.
Sincerely
Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area