Expert: Charlie Barone - 6/10/2009

Question
My wife's car was hit on a rear left side.  The person who hit my wife's car is at fault.  As a result of an accident, the rear bumper has to be replaced.  Insurance adjuster noticed a small damage to a bumper on a right side that was there prior to accident.  The insurance company now wants us to pay 50% of the cost of replacing the bumper.  Does this sound valid?  Is there anything we can do to force insurance company to pay for the full cost of the bumper, after all - since the previous damage was small and did not interfere with the operation of the vehicle, we had no plans to fix it.  Thank you.

Answer
This is a typical reaction by an insurance company. Since a new bumper cover may yield you a car that is "better" in some respects, they are deducting what is known as "betterment." If you feel the damage done by the at fault party is greater than the pre-existing damage, then you have the right to refuse their offer of settlement. You have the option of filing a claim with your own company and see how they address the matter, but you will have to come up with your deductible amount.

The third party insurance carrier has no legal duty to you, but their policyholder does. You may want to send the at fault party a demand letter for the amount their insurance company deducted from your settlement, since you had no part of causing the damage they did. You can also inform their insurance company of your intention to seek the recovery of the cost of repair from their policyholder. In these days of a highly competitive market for auto insurance, the performance of a company is what matters to people and leaving someone hanging out there to dry (so to speak) will not endear their customer to their company. That might work.