Need advice, having trouble with insurance company

Hello everyone and happy new year! I'm more of a lurker as you can see by my post count. When I have questions though the guys on the HAMB have always come thru. Here is my dilemma. I have a '68 Riviera that was parked on the street. Unfortunately a lady driving down the street at night hit it and wiped out the drivers side quarter panel. I filed a police report and got her insurance info. The adjuster came out and looked at the damage and said they would get back with me. Well they got back to me and the results suck! The estimate I got from a local body man came out to about $4000.00. The options they gave to me are they total the car and take it and give me a check for $4000.00, or I keep it and they give me 1900.00 to help fix it. What I'm wondering is if I have to accept their offer or is there anyway to get them to increase it. I want to keep the car and would like a fair settlement to help me fix it. I'm sure some of you guys have had to deal with insurance on a classic car so any advice would be great! Once again happy new year!!!!

sled

 

Never take their first offer,,if you can wait it out.

The adjusters job is to settle the claim as fast as possible and as cheap as possible.

Good luck,,and find a better company to insure your classic cars. HRP

 

That happened to me with a hit & run driver. The way it was explained to me was, my insurance company totaled my car and they would give me $1000 or if I wanted to keep it, I would get $400 and the car. I complained that I had new tires, new carb, etc.......The adjuster said to send him the receipts for work done and they would make adjustments. After sending copies of my receipts, they came up to $1000 and I keep the car. I accepted because the estimate to fix it was $1000. The adjuster told me they would have to replace the car if I wasn't happy ("72 Chevelle). It would have the same equipment with the same mileage and they didn't want to do that. BTW, I had full coverage as it was my daily driver in '81.

Now, with my classic cars, I have agreed upon value.

 

Was the adjuster from your insurance company or the other driver's?

 

Her insurance company's adjuster or yours came out? Do you have collector's insurance coverage on your Rivi?

 

It must be the Insurance adjuster from her insurance. They want to pay you as little as possible.

I had the same problem once. Lowballed me. A call from a lawyer friend to the adjuster and I had a check for the full ammount I wanted in three days.

 

Get the bodyshop to give you a written estimate and show it to them.

 

sled, contact your insurance carrier, let them know what's going on, and ask them to handle the claim.

 

A few years back my 34 got rear-ended at a stop light. The company that covered the ticketed driver gave an est of $1780. I got an est of $8500. Didnt even argue with Fred Loya Ins. My co paid & then went after them. You dont have to accept their bid, you dont have to give up your car either. Dig in & get ready to do battle.

 

my response is far to long for me to type with a bad hand. But yes you are getting screwed. One of these days I will write a tech on not getting screwed by insurance.

 

It was her adjuster and I just have regular liability insurance thru Titan.
Can they make me accept their offer?

 

only if it goes to arbitration.....and they don't want that anyways....to costly in lawyers.

 

Hire an attorney or let them decide who they would like to fix it.

 

Nobody has said it yet ... I will ... SEE A LAWYER! ... not necessarily to sue but to see what your options are. ... and then when you finally settle make sure your legal fees are covered. Advice is cheap, either here or in a lawyer's office, but mistakes are expensive..... who do you think is going to give the best advice?


EDIT.... Great minds Benno!

 

If your insurance rep. won't help you go talk to a lawyer,plenty out there with free consultations. If there is money in your claim at all a lawyer will jump on it as long as he gets a piece of the bone. And no you can't be forced to take their offer.

 

You are semi screwed by having only Liability Insurance and not Collision. I realize people do that on an older car to save money but on a car you really care about collector car insurance that covers it all is the only safe way to go. With Liability only your own insurance company probably will not do a thing for you.

Don

 

Get a lawyer. After a city of Houston cop car hit my T, The city tried to screw me. A lawyer took a while, but it did get them to pay up. Don't even ask how my then insurance company screwed me. It would take a very long post and not be helpful to your situation.

Secondly, get a collector car insurance company. It amazes me how people think a company that deals with newer cars is going to care about a collector car. The average insurance just considers your car as old. NOT special interest.

 

While I have met my share of boneheaded attornies over the years I am still sure that the very best place to get legal advice is from an attorney.

my last big misadventure with an insurance company cost me all of 125.00 for an attorney to write the insurance company to inform them that he was representing me and that he didn't feel like their offer was anywhere close to right.

Insurance companies, the police, law suites, the bank, there is one word that makes everyone want to comply, Attorney.

 

Another thing one has to consider is that if it is only body damage and not structual to where the basic car can never be driven again, Fight like hell to make sure they dont put a salvage title on it as that can cause major problems down the road.

 

Well I am definitely learning a lesson about things. I have told her company that the offer is not acceptable. And I did submit the estimate to them. The rep for her company has informed me that the claim has been placed on inactive status, whatever that means? I just keep telling her the offer is not enough.

 

The insurance company offer of $1900.00 to repair or $4000.00 for totaling it doesn't make sense.

If the car is worth 4K, they can spend way more than 1900.00 to repair. Salvage might be 20% or $800.00 based on the 4k value. So, I would think you should be able to get about $3200.00 without a problem. Stu

 

I would have thought so also, but no dice so far. I guess I'll seek legal council. And look into a good collector car insurance for m cars.

 

Didn't you ask what "inactive status" means? It sounds like you need to get off the internet, write down what you want answered and call them back.

I've learned that getting all the info you can is important. You've gotten some good advise here, but our cases don't mean squat. You actually need to be more proactive on your end. Who, what, why, where and when should be the opening words to that ladies insurance company. If you're sitting and wondering, you will get screwed.

 

I think most collector car ins companies will require that your car is locked in a garage at night, not parked on the street. That's what Grundy requires with mine.

 

Tell them you need a loaner while your car is in inactive mode

 

1. It's the other drivers insurance company. He can park where ever he wants to.

2. He only has liability insurance. Again, he can park where ever he wants to.

 

Tell the woman who hit you to fork over 4k and you won't go thru insurance so hers won't increase

 

Hey I worked in a body shop years ago, Bottom line is take your car to the shop you want to fix it. The body shop will deal with the adjusters. Last go around with insurance co. was with my 32 tudor damaged during transport. Picked a shop and they did all the hagling.

 

A lot will depend on how nice your Riv was before the accident. Was it a pretty nice car or a work in progress ? I looked up the book value on those and the book only went back to 69 but even those had a low of $7K and a high of $ 17K.

Don

 

It is work in progress. It is in primer, the body was straight and good enough for paint. Interior is pretty good, and mechanically sound. Also it is the Gran Sport model. It just seems they should restore the car to where it was before getting hit.