Auto Insurance - are my hands tied?

[Travis Munroe]

I really feel hopeless and at the mercy of my insurance company claiming they are trying to do something for me.

Nearly 2 months ago the garage door to my building came down on the hood of my car. This is not a regular garage door but a high-speed industrial steel one.

The sensor is about 2 feet inside the door and according to my insurance company is 100% black and white the buildings fault for A) not having a resistance sensor and B) not having the laser sensor at the door. No exaggeration, when the door was pushing down on my car my tires looked like they were completely flat there was so much pressure and not until someone else was coming through were they able to hit the manual button and open it.

Fast forward to today and all I have is countless emails to my insurance company asking what is going on with a response that they are not getting a response from the building insurance company.

Am I truly at the mercy of these 2 insurance companies and hoping there is some communication between them and hoping they can figure something out so I can get my car fixed or is there something else I can do?

[Northendzone]

Only two things I can think of to try and expedite this is

- get the name of the person at the building's insurer and try and deal directly with him
- get a lawyer and see if he can send something to sped up the process

I would have also expected your insurer to settle and fix your car and then duke it out with the other insurer

[GreatWhiteEbola]

I had a similar experience, with a faulty garage door coming down on my vehicle. I made a claim with my insurance, and they dealt with everything. My rates didn't increase when I renewed so I assume it went well...

[Jacks]

Get a copy of the surveillance tape right away. Buildings have a habit of "overwriting" footage that isn't good for them. If you give them the date and time they should be able to burn you a cd with the footage.

[RW99]

I assume you are waiting for your deductible to be waived before you start repairs? It can be a tricky situation to wait until liability is sorted out before starting repairs. If your insurance company says they are slow in responding, legally speaking there is not a lot of options to get them to respond immediately. And to be honest this is a completely normal thing to happen. Usually it's two auto insurers and they know the process well and things can be sorted out quicker. It's been a while for me, but I think legally they can take a year to accept liability?

[Travis Munroe]

I assume you are waiting for your deductible to be waived before you start repairs? It can be a tricky situation to wait until liability is sorted out before starting repairs. If your insurance company says they are slow in responding, legally speaking there is not a lot of options to get them to respond immediately. And to be honest this is a completely normal thing to happen. Usually it's two auto insurers and they know the process well and things can be sorted out quicker. It's been a while for me, but I think legally they can take a year to accept liability?

I am waiting as my insurance company told me to do so as it would be more of a battle if I paid the deductible and had it done. I don't know if this means more of a battle for them, me, etc.

Ill make sure my insurance has a copy of the tape, thx for the tip.

Good to know that this is the norm.... seems flawed that something so black and white can legally take this long!

[Slava]

I am waiting as my insurance company told me to do so as it would be more of a battle if I paid the deductible and had it done. I don't know if this means more of a battle for them, me, etc.

Ill make sure my insurance has a copy of the tape, thx for the tip.

Good to know that this is the norm.... seems flawed that something so black and white can legally take this long!

Well that's not really true. If you pay the deductible and have the vehicle repaired it shouldn't change the facts of the case. If you don't want to pay then yes, you have to wait for them to accept liability and that can take a while or frankly they can outright not accept it. It comes down to whether they think they're liable for the damages or not. So theoretically this could mean you get close to two years, and have to file a statement of claim against the parties you think are responsible.

I'm not saying that it will go this route or anything like that, but they don't have to accept liability. They will want to investigate, see what happened and why the door failed. They might deny liability and say its the fault of the installer/door company or whatever. It can be complex.

But if you have coverage, my thought would be to get the damages repaired, pay the deductible and wait for the insurer to jump through those hoops. Eventually (assuming someone else accepts liability or is found liable) you will get the deductible back.

[Travis Munroe]

Well that's not really true. If you pay the deductible and have the vehicle repaired it shouldn't change the facts of the case. If you don't want to pay then yes, you have to wait for them to accept liability and that can take a while or frankly they can outright not accept it. It comes down to whether they think they're liable for the damages or not. So theoretically this could mean you get close to two years, and have to file a statement of claim against the parties you think are responsible.

I'm not saying that it will go this route or anything like that, but they don't have to accept liability. They will want to investigate, see what happened and why the door failed. They might deny liability and say its the fault of the installer/door company or whatever. It can be complex.

But if you have coverage, my thought would be to get the damages repaired, pay the deductible and wait for the insurer to jump through those hoops. Eventually (assuming someone else accepts liability or is found liable) you will get the deductible back.


Thank you for this..... This is what I asked my insurance company about in the first place but the gal I spoke with said she wouldn't as the other side would be less likely to take on the fault knowing there is less of a chance I pursue further (or something along these lines as it was all really confusing).
Perhaps she felt at the time like it was going to be a quick resolution and figured waiting would be easier than having me pay and then go after the deductable.

I understand from what you are saying that this shouldn't make any difference what so ever anjd I should just go get the car fixed.

[Slava]

Thank you for this..... This is what I asked my insurance company about in the first place but the gal I spoke with said she wouldn't as the other side would be less likely to take on the fault knowing there is less of a chance I pursue further (or something along these lines as it was all really confusing).
Perhaps she felt at the time like it was going to be a quick resolution and figured waiting would be easier than having me pay and then go after the deductable.

I understand from what you are saying that this shouldn't make any difference what so ever anjd I should just go get the car fixed.

Well there is a line in your policy that states something close to you "appoint the insurer as your irrevocable attorney" when you go through them. This means that they will resolve the claim as they see fit. You will want to make sure (I don't work in this field and haven't for many years!), but no insurer is just going to drop subrogation rights against someone else because the damages are fixed.

Truth be told, part of your duty is to mitigate the damages. So if you have cracked paint or whatever and leave it unrepaired so it rusts and gets worse while you wait for the other side to accept liability, they're not going to cover that.