Expert: Bennie719 - 1/14/2009

Question
My parked car was hit and because I do not have collision coverage (because my car is 12 years old) I was told by my Insurance company that I have to deal with the other car insurance co. Should I ask for a list of questions from my insurance company that I should ask the other insurance company?  Should I not have some kind of format to give me some formal ability to deal with the other insurance company? The opinion of the police is that the car is totaled and is in their holding lot.

Answer
Hi Zet,

First of all, you need to get your car out of storage immediately.  Many storage facilities charge in excess of $100 per day while your car is there.  That amount could quickly eat up the full value of your vehicle.
There aren't any questions that you need to ask the other company,
you just need to immediately file a claim against them for the damages to your car or for it's full market value if it's a total loss.  I'm sure that there was a police report made or an exchange of information that gave you the name and address of the driver and his insurance information.  That report should be filed TODAY and at the same time, ask the adverse insurance company exactly how many days of storage that they are willing to pay.

They will have an estimate of the damages to your car done and make a decision if it's repairable or a total.  If repairable, they will make a payment based on the estimates.  If it's a total, it will take them 4-5 days to make you an offer for it's fair market value.

Their first offer is going to be extremely low because they want to settle this claim as cheaply as possible.  You need to research newspaper ads, dealer ads and visit several used car lots and get written quotes for a car like yours in the same condition, equipment and mileage in order to negotiate a fair settlement.

I hope that you find this information to be of help.

Your feedback by rating my reply will be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area