Transcript: Getting property damage compensation for damage done to your vehicle during a collision. First, if you have an insurance carrier that is your own carrier that covers a vehicle...
Read MoreTranscript: Getting property damage compensation for damage done to your vehicle during a collision. First, if you have an insurance carrier that is your own carrier that covers a vehicle and you have what’s called collision coverage, you should be able to go to your insurance carrier and have them pay, without any consideration of fault, the loss on the vehicle. You will have to pay, or lose, your deductible. In other words, if you had $5,000 damage and a $500 deductible, your insurance would give you $4500. Now, if you don’t have insurance that covers your own vehicle for collision coverage, you could look to the insurance of the other driver. You’re not going to get anywhere, though, unless it’s absolutely clear that the other driver is at fault. Now, if the other driver is at fault and that driver’s insurance company agrees that that driver is at fault, you may be able to get the other driver’s insurance company to pay the claim and if they do pay the claim, there will be no deductible. A deductible is something you have under your own contract. Now, keep in mind that under either scenario the insurance company, whichever you’re dealing with, will want to investigate the value of the vehicle. They’ll want to know who has title of the vehicle, and that kind of information, so make sure you have all your documents. I would suggest you would at least have to get two estimates before you even begin to talk value of your vehicle to any adjuster from either party. Now, if you are also injured in a vehicle collision, you have to be very cautious about communicating with the insurance adjuster for the other side, the driver that caused the collision. Though that insurance adjuster they’re just dealing with property damage, anything you say about your injury, how you’re feeling that day in general, that gets put into a record and can be used to deal with your injury claim, even with that adjuster who’s claiming solely to deal with property damage. And it is our advice that if you do have an injury claim you should see an attorney before you even start to negotiate or discuss property damage because there are so many issues that it’s important to have advice on before you start communicating with an insurance adjuster from the other driver’s insurance company. The other thing to keep in mind if you do have to have your vehicle repaired and it’s in the garage for two weeks or something, you may be entitled to get a rental car. That’s if you have that rental car coverage under your own policy. You may under some circumstances if it’s clear fault of the other driver get the other driver’s insurance company to pay for a rental for the time period that the vehicle is getting repaired, but that’s not always possible or likely. Lastly, again be careful discussing anything about an injury with the adjuster for the other driver. It could come back to haunt you.
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