Expert: Richard Hixenbaugh - 11/2/2010

Question
I was recently in a accident. The insurance company told me to wash the car and take it in to the shop so they could see all the damage. I decided to claim hail damage as well due to when I washed the car I noticed a lot of dents so I told them about it and let the know the car has been in 3 hail storms in the past 2 years some I drove in and some park at home. I did not have the dates off the top of my head for the last one so i said a few months ago and I was unsure which I told them. I did not think anything about it. Now my company is saying none of its hail that its all man made and are making me feel like I am some bad guy here. They have had my car for like 2 weeks now what do you think I can expect?  

Answer
Hi Brian,

Anytime you make a claim for something like hail damage, the insurance company will want to try to verify the dates. You should never try to make 4 claims at the same time. This will raise suspision. You will now need to either withdraw the hail claims or find out the dates of each of the hailstorms and present that information to the insurance company. You should also be aware that even if you get them to accept all of the claims, they will apply a seperate deductible to each claim.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh