SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Questions on how we spend our money and our time - consumer goods and services, home and vehicle, leisure and recreational activities
Post Reply
Topic Author
KESP
Posts: 443
Joined: Sat May 07, 2016 8:24 pm

SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by KESP »

My son-in-law was rear-ended on Thursday and the other party received a warning for following too close. For those of you wondering why I’m involving myself, it’s because he is borrowing my car to get around. His car had rear damage and would not start after the accident. It’s an old car, 2000, and he does not have collision on it. The responsible party is insured. The insurance company has been uncooperative, saying they haven’t been able to get in touch with their insured. People at work who I have already told him he shouldn’t be listening to, told him to get an attorney. I told him that was ridiculous, he is not claiming injury, and the only thing it would do is cost him money. My suggestion so far was to be more aggressive and perhaps speak to a supervisor, and then the next step to file a complaint with the insurance commissioner in our state. Finally, I suppose he could take either the driver of the car or the insurance company to small claims court. I did advise him to wait a little bit before using these options as customer service is not what it used to be. Any any other suggestions? Am I missing anything?
mjg
Posts: 371
Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2022 4:06 pm
Location: CA

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by mjg »

First thing you are missing is him contacting his insurance whether he only has liability or full coverage.
Dufus
Posts: 306
Joined: Mon Sep 25, 2023 8:35 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by Dufus »

Different states have different laws regarding insurance. Some states only require the insurer to pay ACV - Actual Cash Value, which is less than trade in value. I hope you aren't in one of those states.
bwalling
Posts: 642
Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2010 12:04 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by bwalling »

How are the laws in your state? Does it matter who was at fault or not?

Which insurance company is saying they can't get in touch? His or the offenders? When we dealt with a similar thing, we just went through our own, and they were the ones to negotiate fault with the other person's insurance and deal with all that.
sailaway
Posts: 9151
Joined: Fri May 12, 2017 1:11 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by sailaway »

If the other party received a warning, there must be a police report. Has that been submitted to the at fault insurance company?
sd55
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Mar 01, 2019 1:11 am

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by sd55 »

I'd suggest sending the other party a formal demand letter (Google it). This costs nothing and is required by many small claims courts anyway. It might encourage the other party and their insurance company to stop stalling.
User avatar
turtlebug
Posts: 285
Joined: Sun May 15, 2022 10:46 am

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by turtlebug »

The accident just happened Thursday. I understand your son-in-law doesn't have collision coverage on his vehicle; therefore, he will have to go through the at-fault person's insurance. The insurance company is telling you that they haven't yet been able to contact their insured. It has been less than a week. If it was me, I would suggest that my SIL see if the police report is ready; and if so, secure it and send a copy of it with a letter to the at-fault party's insurance company's adjuster along with at least one estimate of repair for the damage to his car and a demand that they handle his property damage claim in a timely manner (give a timeline), to include the daily cost of a replacement car/rental (in this case, your car), while his vehicle is undriveable.
Topic Author
KESP
Posts: 443
Joined: Sat May 07, 2016 8:24 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by KESP »

Thanks for the replies.
In our state, it seems like if you don’t have Collision coverage on your own vehicle, your insurance company is not going to get involved. They don’t care because you don’t have coverage for that. The car is 20 years old, so he dropped collision.
SIL has liability coverage, but that’s only going to help him if he’s the one that caused the accident and the other party files a claim against him.
There was a police report and he has requested it.
He does realize that he will not get much, but the Kelley blue book value is over $4000. I would guess he would get at least $2000 but I don’t know.
Topic Author
KESP
Posts: 443
Joined: Sat May 07, 2016 8:24 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by KESP »

turtlebug wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 12:11 pm The accident just happened Thursday. I understand your son-in-law doesn't have collision coverage on his vehicle; therefore, he will have to go through the at-fault person's insurance. The insurance company is telling you that they haven't yet been able to contact their insured. It has been less than a week. If it was me, I would suggest that my SIL see if the police report is ready; and if so, secure it and send a copy of it with a letter to the at-fault party's insurance company's adjuster along with at least one estimate of repair for the damage to his car and a demand that they handle his property damage claim in a timely manner (give a timeline), to include the daily cost of a replacement car/rental (in this case, your car), while his vehicle is undriveable.
Thank you, that’s good advice. I will pass that on to him
User avatar
lthenderson
Posts: 9188
Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2012 11:43 am
Location: Iowa

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by lthenderson »

KESP wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 11:38 am My son-in-law was rear-ended on Thursday

The insurance company has been uncooperative, saying they haven’t been able to get in touch with their insured.

Am I missing anything?
I've never been at fault in an accident in a state that determines fault for insurance purposes. In my experience, dealing with the insurance company is likely to take weeks to months. I wouldn't expect anything to be done in less than a week after the accident occurred.

Like already mentioned, get a copy of the police report so you have it ready to submit when they get to that part of their investigation.
User avatar
White Coat Investor
Posts: 18320
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2007 8:11 pm
Location: Greatest Snow On Earth

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by White Coat Investor »

mjg wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 11:47 am First thing you are missing is him contacting his insurance whether he only has liability or full coverage.
Yup. I would also give it a little more time before doing anything too drastic. Insurance companies are fairly large bureaucracies. It hasn't even been a week yet. If he needs a new car and you don't want him using yours give him some of your money to use to buy the new one and he can pay you back when he gets the cash from the insurance company. Or get him a rental car or whatever.
1) Invest you must 2) Time is your friend 3) Impulse is your enemy | 4) Basic arithmetic works 5) Stick to simplicity 6) Stay the course
Surfcaster
Posts: 132
Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2018 1:57 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by Surfcaster »

If the car won't start after a collision, the fuel pump shutoff might have been thrown. Look in the owners manual. It is usually just a button you have to press to reset it.
Topic Author
KESP
Posts: 443
Joined: Sat May 07, 2016 8:24 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by KESP »

White Coat Investor wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 12:31 pm
mjg wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 11:47 am First thing you are missing is him contacting his insurance whether he only has liability or full coverage.
Yup. I would also give it a little more time before doing anything too drastic. Insurance companies are fairly large bureaucracies. It hasn't even been a week yet. If he needs a new car and you don't want him using yours give him some of your money to use to buy the new one and he can pay you back when he gets the cash from the insurance company. Or get him a rental car or whatever.
Coincidentally, he has a new car on order that is supposed to come in end of November, early December. I worked in insurance for 20 years, handling primary workers compensation claims. Back in the day, it was not acceptable to have a delay in contact etc. I know things have changed for the worse. The impact was enough to spin his car around so he is fortunate there was not an injury. It’s not shocking our insurance rates are so high, he has people in his ear telling him to file a bodily injury claim and get an attorney. No, he is not listening to them.
gips
Posts: 1964
Joined: Mon May 13, 2013 5:42 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by gips »

We were hit by an insured driver, our car was insured, so our insurance company handled the legwork. Our company nor her insurance company could get the other driver to return their calls, took over six months to settle the claim.

I’d counsel patience and make sure he contacts the other driver’s insurance company periodically, at least once a week, because my sense was that my claims handler did absolutely nothing on my case until I called her, and this was amica, a company known for service. I also had the other drivers cell phone number, she refused to call me back but I sent a number of pointed texts her way.

Good luck!
User avatar
White Coat Investor
Posts: 18320
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2007 8:11 pm
Location: Greatest Snow On Earth

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by White Coat Investor »

KESP wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 12:46 pm
White Coat Investor wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 12:31 pm

Yup. I would also give it a little more time before doing anything too drastic. Insurance companies are fairly large bureaucracies. It hasn't even been a week yet. If he needs a new car and you don't want him using yours give him some of your money to use to buy the new one and he can pay you back when he gets the cash from the insurance company. Or get him a rental car or whatever.
Coincidentally, he has a new car on order that is supposed to come in end of November, early December. I worked in insurance for 20 years, handling primary workers compensation claims. Back in the day, it was not acceptable to have a delay in contact etc. I know things have changed for the worse. The impact was enough to spin his car around so he is fortunate there was not an injury. It’s not shocking our insurance rates are so high, he has people in his ear telling him to file a bodily injury claim and get an attorney. No, he is not listening to them.
Bummer! No point in buying one now then. The right move is probably a rental for the next month (unless you can loan the car). The only question is who is paying for it!
1) Invest you must 2) Time is your friend 3) Impulse is your enemy | 4) Basic arithmetic works 5) Stick to simplicity 6) Stay the course
MathWizard
Posts: 7058
Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:35 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by MathWizard »

Who owns the car and who is insuring it?

The car is what is insured, not the driver, though a primary
driver is named for determining accident probability.

Whoever has the insurance policy is the one who should be calling the insurance agency.

I've never had to interact with the other driver when my car has been hit. That is part of what you pay an insurance agency for. They will work with the other party's insurance agency.

The other agency will work with their client, not you or your insurance company. The other agency may have told their client
not to talk to you directly, but only through them.

If the other insurance company's client is not cooperative with them,
the only evidence they have is the police report and your son in law's
description of the accident. They would likely drop a non-cooperative client as it only hurts their case
Topic Author
KESP
Posts: 443
Joined: Sat May 07, 2016 8:24 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by KESP »

Surfcaster wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 12:37 pm If the car won't start after a collision, the fuel pump shutoff might have been thrown. Look in the owners manual. It is usually just a button you have to press to reset it.
Thank you, I will tell him.
User avatar
Watty
Posts: 30138
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:55 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by Watty »

KESP wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 11:38 am saying they haven’t been able to get in touch with their insured.
I had something like this happen but the car was still drivable. I had insurance that would cover it but I did not want to make a claim on my policy. There was only about $500 in damage so I suspect that they were hoping that I would give up if they did not respond to the claim.

The person who hit me was refusing to answer the phone when their insurance company called them so I kept calling their insurance company about twice a week to get them to call the person again. The insurance company was fine with me but they were getting frustrated with the non response too.

Their insurance company even sent letters to them to inform them of the claim and get them to respond but their insurance company did not share a lot of information with me and I picked that up from just chit chatting with the person on the phone. I vaguely recall the person I was talking to saying that they would send another letter.

Insurance policies have a clause in them where you have to cooperate with an investigation and my impression was that at some point since the claim was small they would have just paid it and cancelled their insurance policy.

I think it took about six weeks but I finally got paid by their insurance.

In fairness though do not expect the claim to be quickly settled because;

1) Most people do not answer calls from unknown numbers so they not be answering their phone when their insurance company calls. They may not know that you filed a claim until they get a letter from their insurance company. You could try calling or texting them directly to try to get them to call their insurance company. Also ask their insurance company to send them a letter if they have not already done that.

2) Without them responding to their insurance company it may take some sort of lawsuit to get the insurance company to pay since it is not a small amount. That may be reasonable since a scammer could find out that someone was going to be out of the country for two months and file fake insurance claims which they hoped to get settled before they returned. Your police report may help with that.

This seems clear cut and they have insurance but expecting it to be done in less than a week may not be reasonable.
KESP wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2024 12:16 pm He does realize that he will not get much, but the Kelley blue book value is over $4000. I would guess he would get at least $2000 but I don’t know.
Do not tell them that and if they lowball you push for a higher amount than $2,000.
Topic Author
KESP
Posts: 443
Joined: Sat May 07, 2016 8:24 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by KESP »

Thank you Watty.
creme_gold
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2023 1:47 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by creme_gold »

In a lot of states the opposing insurance company is responsible for a rental while the vehicle is not drivable or until an offer is made for the total. Check and see if you are entitled in your state. If so send a certified letter to the adjuster demanding a rental and advising that if it is not provided you expect to be reimbursed for it. This should get them moving because they can get a rental for a much lower cost than you.
TheEleven
Posts: 147
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:04 pm

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by TheEleven »

It seems to me like everyone I've ever known who got hit by someone else, where it was obviously the fault of the other driver, the at-fault driver either was completely uncooperative or actively lied, saying it was the fault of the person they hit. I think I've heard this at least half a dozen times with friends I've known who got hit. I don't think there is such a thing as a responsible party who cooperates.
Doctor Rhythm
Posts: 3697
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 2:55 am

Re: SIL rear ended, responsible party not cooperating

Post by Doctor Rhythm »

TheEleven wrote: Thu Oct 31, 2024 11:31 pm It seems to me like everyone I've ever known who got hit by someone else, where it was obviously the fault of the other driver, the at-fault driver either was completely uncooperative or actively lied, saying it was the fault of the person they hit. I think I've heard this at least half a dozen times with friends I've known who got hit. I don't think there is such a thing as a responsible party who cooperates.
The at fault driver was completely cooperative when they backed into my car. Even made a recorded statement on site.
Post Reply