<p>My family has been twice on the side of the person who hits another’s car and each time the damage was minimal (although minimal damage nowadays costs up to $1,000). In both cases, we got it taken care of immediately and paid up immediately. </p>
<p>But $5,000 damage? That has to go through an insurance company. No ifs, ands and buts about it.</p>
<p>Slightly related to your original question, but not totally. Rely on your own insurance. That’s why you have it. There are a lot of crazy, dishonest, and potentially dangerous people out there driving cars. My problem in a nutshell: A driver hit me (causing only minor and not very expensive damage) and drove away. The guy’s vanity license plate was memorable (and identified him as a lawyer!). I filed a police report and an insurance report immediately, because I was furious that someone would just drive away after hearing a such a large clunk. Months passed. Then, amazingly, we saw his car on the street and left a note on it with our phone number. To make a long story short, he berated me, accused me of lying, and threatened to sue me, while claiming to be both a former cop and a lawyer. The tone and content of the conversation convinced me this was not a nice man. I knew he could easily figure out where I live (we have an unusual name and live 4 blocks away). Soon after that, the insurance company located him, and I remembered that I should have left it up to them. In the end, mine paid because his said there were no witnesses and no damage to his car. I can only imagine what he said to his insurance adjuster.</p>
<p>Moral: Let your insurance company deal with it. It’s safer all around.</p>
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<p>I’ve never heard of a diminished value claim, but it makes sense. I’d like to know more. Has anyone here ever filed such a claim? Did you collect?</p>
<p>I believe that insurers in many states put language in policies excluding claims for diminished value- it may not be available, depending on state law. Most of the exclusions should only apply to first party claims. This would be a third party claim, assuming there is coverage so diminished value may be available. Another issue to investigate is whether the policy allows for new parts to be used.</p>
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<p>You are correct, I should have said “Uninsured Drivers” coverage. Which will kick in if she was not covered. But it sounds like she was. In any case, you do not need the other persons cooperation to make an insurance claim. Insurance companies investigate, then pay you if you are not at fault, and then recuperate any loss through a process called subrogation. Your deal is with your insurance company is not contingent on weather or not they collect funds from the other person or their insurance company. The “at fault” party’s refusal to cooperate is not the problem of the “harmed party”. </p>
<p>BTW, you should NOT be subject to paying any deductible.</p>
<p>It may vary from state to state but a couple years ago my D’s car was hit while parked. A nice person (not the one who hit the car) left a note with the license plate and make of the car. Because the insurance company could determine who hit the car, they did not charge the deductible. (I hate to say this but, but for the note, I wonder if I would have believe my D, then 16.)</p>
<p>The girl driving the other car may not have had insurance at all. I think that her father may have been trying to conceal that.</p>
<p>Remember, she just got her license that day. If her family’s insurance is anything like ours, it covered her automatically when she had her learner’s permit, but she would have had to be formally added to the policy before it could cover her as a licensed driver.</p>
<p>Our insurance agent told us that when each of our kids got a license, we must NOT let the kid drive the car home from the DMV or drive anywhere else on that day. Instead, one of the parents had to call the insurance agent as soon as we got back from the DMV and get the kid added to the policy. That took about 24 hours to accomplish in each instance. Only then could we let our kids drive our cars.</p>
<p>zoosermom, you’ve gotten some good advice. I hope it all works out.</p>
<p>BTW I once went along with someone and discoered that an independent estimate was over 2X the insurance estimate (same shop), so unless you really think someone is going to pony up, forget about being ‘nice’.</p>
<p>Marian, you may be correct where you live, but where I live, “casual drivers” are covered. I do pay the extra for my D to be on my policy, even though she rarely drives my car. I am only saying this to those who might have forgotten, etc. to put child on policy, to puruse claimes.</p>
<p>ZM - I agree with what you did. Call your insurer and let them handle it. You tried to be nice and the other party didn’t cooperate.</p>
<p>D and I were on the opposite side of this, but it all worked out fine. After having her license for 4 months, D backed out of the driveway into the side of our neighbor’s mini-van which was parked in the street directly across from our driveway. I couldn’t be mad at D - I was in the car with her and was shocked when I heard/felt the thump. Parking in the street is rare in our neighborhood. But the neighbor had a repair guy with his van in her driveway, so she had parked her dark green mini-van directly across from the entrance to our driveway, and it was after dark and the street light wasn’t working. Honestly, if I’d been driving I might have backed into the minivan too! Anyway, D and I went to the door and told the neighbor what happened, and she couldn’t have been nicer. I asked her to get an estimate and if it wasn’t too high we’d just pay it out of pocket, otherwise she could file with insurance. I suggested a body shop nearby that had done good work on our car, and the neighbor said she’d call another neighbor to find out who had worked on her car. Turned out the other neighbor had used the same body shop. The body shop told her it could be fixed for $900, and I said that was fine. We gave the neighbor the CASH, and loaned her one of our cars for the 2 days hers was in the shop. She returned our car with a full tank of gas. I love my neighborhood.</p>
<p>Marian - rules must vary between states, because our insurer told us we had something like 48 hours after the kids got their licenses to notify them and get them added to the insurance. I’ve never heard anyone here not allow their kid to drive home from their license test for insurance reasons. And we didn’t even have to notify the insurer that the kids had their permits - as long as we were in the front passenger seat and following the permit rules, the kids were automatically covered under our insurance.</p>
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<p>A brilliant exposition of this type of thinking can be found in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, in which the older half-brother and wife convince themselves to do considerably less for the half-sisters than their father had obviously intended.</p>
<p>I’d be very surprised if an insurer would cover someone living in the home of the named insured as a casual or permissive driver. Those living in the household must be named as a primary driver on one vehicle on the policy. If a child lives elsewhere and is borrowing a parent’s car, then the permissive driver rules would apply.</p>
<p>Two stories. The first was a parking lot incident many years ago where an elderly lady dinged my car while I was in the grocery store. She wanted to keep it out of her insurer’s hands as she had never needed to use it but was afraid her rates would go up- I filed through insurance companies- she may have never been bad at parking in the past, but she was only going to get older and less competent in the future, I didn’t want her talking her way out of more icidents and then causing a person harm.</p>
<p>Second incident- when I stopped for a school bus across the street during a light April snow while I was taking son home from kindergarten (yes, this was a long time ago) the teen driver behind me didn’t stop in time and rear ended me. The bus driver called it in, the driver’s family turned out to have the same insurance company as I did. I had had some minor claims in past years (dinged car, never other cars or injuries) and this counted against my insurance even though it was listed as a zero cost. The damage to the bumper looked like nothing at first but turned out to be over $900 (whatever happened to the concept of a car bumper being there to protect the car?- they now put all sorts of stuff in it).</p>
<p>I would always let the insurance company handle things for me if there is damage to my car from anyone else. My checks on our car insurance when son was getting his learner’s permit and then license showed coverage began immediately. After all, you hope they pass the tests, but who wants to start the added expenses until you know for sure?</p>
<p>My oldest recently purchased her own car and applied for car insurance on her own. Our insurance would not cover her in another state. When my husband was going over the coverage and rate with the company they told him it would be $200 over the first quote due to an accident my D had been in the previous year. In that accident my D was stopped at a red light. The car behind my D did not stop and rear ended her. My D was not at fault but the new insurance company was holding it against her. (they were still the least expensive option so she went with them but we felt that was crazy)
Another pain is that you are out the car when it is in the body shop. When my son was hit in my old mini van the other insurance provided a rental car. The only problem was my son was 17 at the time and the car rental company did not allow him to drive the rental. I was stuck with the cheap rental while my son drove my car.</p>
<p>The bumper is not there to protect the car. It’s there to absorb shock so that the people in the car are not injured. If the bumper doesn’t absorb the shock… that’s when you get whiplash. [Crumple</a> zone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumple_zone]Crumple”>Crumple zone - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Interesting range of experiences. I’ve had them on both sides of this scenario. First was probably 8-9-10 yrs ago, some teenage girl hit my car in a parking lot. Both of my kids were in the car at the time, which was my bigger concern, but we were all fine. We called the police to make a report, and they did come out, even though it was on private property. She (the other driver) called her daddy who wanted to pay privately and not involve insurance. I took all the insurance info from the girl, but chose to be nice and accomodating to them. Not the right choice, though it ultimately worked out ok-- after serious hassles. Not only did we offer to let them not use insurance (turns out the girl hit some old lady within that past year, and the old lady complained of neck/back problems- which this dad thought was bogus) but we offered to get the car repaired while my H was out of town so I could use DHs car and they wouldnt have to pay to provide me with a car. You’d think these people would have been appreciative. Nope. My car (actually minivan) was pretty new at the time, so I told him I’d agree to let them pay privately if we used the dealership for repairs. He agreed, as he used the same dealership (they knew him there- said he was a real jerk). First he wanted to just write me a ck for the initial eyeball estimate to fix the bumper, but I told him I wanted him to pay the dealership directly upon completion of the work, especially as we didnt know if there was further damage underneath, behind the bumper (which it turns out there was). This is when he got nasty. He all of a sudden claimed he didnt have a credit card to give the dealership (this guy was a high level manager at the phone comapany) and I had to get my attorney (who is a high powered atty in town and a personal friend so she didnt charge me a dime) to write a nasty letter and call his attorney. I realize in retrospect I should have turned it over to the insurance co as soon as he went into jerk mode. Live and learn. I had actually informed my insu co of the situation when it happened, so they were prepared to take over if I ran into trouble. They were actually really good (USAA).</p>
<p>Anyway, he was incensed when the dealership told him there was more damage behind the bumper, and he showed up with a camera! He did finally pay the repair and I got my car back, but what a hassle. Never again. The guy was rude and verbally abusive on the phone to me and the people at the dealership. And we are only talking about about $1,200 in damages, not $5,000. (original estimate was about $700 before they took the bumper off). He did know I had the police report and his insurance info, so he knew he had to take care of it. I didnt know about the 10 day rule though.</p>
<p>OK- fast forward to last summer. I was backing out slowly from a parking spot in a busy lot and some car comes zipping behind me (another young kid). My bumper <em>touched</em> the rear door of his 10 yr old car. But no matter, if there was a mark (which I couldnt see, but I took his word of some miniscule scrape on his white car. There was nothing on my car). Anyway, I told him I wanted to take care of it and to get an estimate and I’d pay him for it directly. I gave him my and my H’s business cards. He did take my insurance info as well, but was willing to get an estimate. I asked him for his name and contact info, and when he wrote his name, I said “XXX XXX” – didn’t you used to live in “My neighborhood!!” and arent your parents “XXX” and isnt your uncle “XXX” (my former office-mate)? Yup! That was them! Small world. I then went to the supermarket and ran right into his aunt (the wife of my former officemate) and told her the story. When I got home I called his dad and told him I would take care of whatever they wanted. He said he’d look at the car when his s (who was in college and lived in an apt elsewhere) came by, and that his s would take it for an estimate. He did note that the car was 10 yrs old and had several dings on it, but his s was thinking of selling it. Anyway, I never heard another word about it. The kids name/phone # is still on my bulletin board at home. I am still willing to cover for whatever damage they think I caused, but I am guessing when the kid showed it to his parents, they probably laughed. I certainly didnt see anything, but was willing to defer to a body shop if there was any scratch. He could have been difficult and insist on calling my insurance co (especially before we knew that we knew each other) but he didnt. So in my first story, being nice was a mistake-- in the second it was beneficial.</p>