Expert: webfoot - 11/1/2006

Question
I was hit 2 weeks ago by a 16yr old driving his aunts car.  There were no injuries just auto body damage.  I had reported to my insurance and the adjustor asked if the driver had reported, which I did not know.  I called the policy holders insurance company three days later only to find out that they had not and their claims rep asked if wanted to report it, which I did and received a claim number.  Now my problem is that I keep being told by their insurance adjustor that they have been able to get a hold of the policy holder.  How long am I supposed to wait to get resolution and get my vehicle repaired.  I do not want to pay the deductible if I do not have to and get reimbursed, if I ever get reimbursed.  If they cannot contact the policy holder, can their insurance company still proceed without her and go by the police report?

Answer
The other person's insurance company cannot proceed forward without cooperation from their policy holder.  In fact, they can deny coverage due to their insured's failure to report the accident and failure to cooperate in the investigation.  This will leave her personally responsible for the damage. They have likely sent this lady a letter stating the above.  Once people realize that they are going to be be personally responsible for the damages, they usually start cooperating.  

The other issue here is permissive use.  As it wasn't their insured driving the car, they cannot verify permissive use for the nephew without her cooperation.  Without permission to drive the car, the nephew would not be considered as a covered driver.  It would be the same thing if someone were to steal a car and run into another vehicle.  Stolen vehicles are not covered for liability purposes.  

Lastly, there may be a coverage issue based on the residences of this lady and her nephew.  If he's living with her and not listed on the policy, then he would not be covered with or without permissive use.  

With all of these issues at hand, you may want to file with your carrier and let them deal with it.  This is especially true if your car is not drivable and is sitting somewhere accumulating storage charges.  We all have a legal duty to do whatever is necessary to mitigate damages and a car is allowed to just sit for weeks accumulating charges because we don't file a claim, then the insurer may not be liable for those charges.

Good luck!