Car Insurance Question

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Last week a tree fell on my car in the work parking lot. It crunched the roof pretty badly. The doors still open, and I was able to drive it.</p>

<p>The car is a 12 year old Accord. Runs great, only 145K miles on it. The insurance adjuster came out and says its a total loss, as repair costs would be well over 5K.</p>

<p>I hate the thought of having to get a new car, financially it would be one more strain on a strained budget.</p>

<p>My question is, would I have any recourse through the property owner’s insurance or my employer’s? My employer leases the property, but I’m not sure who is responsible for property maintenance.</p>

<p>I was not parked under a tree, there are trees at the edge of the lot and a tall one came down on mine and two others.</p>

2

<p>It may depend on the lease. Was it a conifer? ( they can have shallow roots)
Do you know if the employer had arborists out to check on the health of the trees? Ever?
Any falling limbs or other indications of problems?
I would think the property owner would be liable in case of negligence ( known problems), but otherwise it may be judged an " act of god" & no one liable.
Are there any signs posted in lot, of liability?
Would comprehensive auto insurance pay the claim?</p>

<p>My legal experience consists of watching L.A. Law & the Paper Chase.
;)</p>

3

<p>Their liability would likely be limited to the replacement cost of the car, which would be the same as what your car insurance company would use as the basis of a settlement.</p>

<p>In theory, you should be able to buy a 12 year old, 145,000 mile Honda Accord with that money. However, in practice, older high mileage cars in good mechanical condition are rarely for sale (since their owners like them enough to take good care of them), compared to all of the junk out there for sale in the used car market.</p>

<p>The cheapest new cars have MSRP around $12,000 (base model Nissan Versa with no options). You may want to start looking in the friday newspaper ads for discount loss leaders (and get there immediately if you want to buy the “one at this price” loss leader).</p>

4

<p>Yeah, I know I’m grasping at straws here. It’s just so random. I suppose I’d be more accepting if it had been a collision.</p>

<p>But a tree out of nowhere… at least no one was hurt.</p>

5

<p>Take the check from your insurance company and cash it. Then simply turn your car into a convertible by sawing off the dented roof. You’ll be ahead of the game with extra cash in your pocket and a new convertible car to tool around in this spring.</p>

6

<p>That happened to me once (insurance company said the car wasn’t worth fixing, gave me a check for the book value of the car) and I found a mechanic who fixed it for much less than the check.</p>

7

<p>So the insurance company would not expect to take title to the car when they pay out to total it?</p>

<p>I thought they would want it to sell for salvage in exchange for giving the pay out.</p>

<p>That would be great if I could keep the car. There’s nothing wrong with it mechanically and it’s still drivable . I could bring it down to the vocational high school and let them patch it up.</p>

8

<p>And if they do let you keep a car that’s been totaled … How does it work to get that car insured, if they pay out the value of it?</p>

9

<p>

</p>

<p>You would take a slightly lesser settlement in exchange for keeping the car. The deduction would be the estimated salvage auction value (typically a few hundred dollars). Just ask the insurance company to find out about this option. You may also want to ask for documentation on how they arrived at the valuation (typically based on cars recently sold and for sale at nearby dealers).</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>It depends on your state’s laws on what you need to do to register a salvage or rebuilt title car. Insurance companies may have their own policies. You should expect a salvage or rebuilt title car to have very little value if you sell it later.</p>

10

<p>Martina, I didn’t have to give them the title to the car. They just sent me a check. I only had liability insurance. I had just parked on a NYC street and another car slammed into me. His insurance company sent me the check and my mechanic fixed the car for less than half of the check. This was several years ago–maybe 15?</p>

<p>A few months ago, my landlord hit a deer on the highway and his insurance company assessed the repairs as higher than the book value of the car. He also was permitted to keep the car, got a check for the book value, and fixed it for less. Obviously he had collision and comprehensive coverage, otherwise he would have been out of luck.</p>

11

<p>The bigger question is who owns the tree? If the tree came out of nowhere, was it a street tree? Owned by the City/County? They wouldn’t pay any more than the value of the car but they might be easier, or harder as the case may be, to deal with than the owner of the parking lot. Also, don’t forget rental car reimbursement.</p>

12

<p>My mom had a Volvo that was totaled, but she got a new vin # & had it repaired. I think my niece still drives it.</p>

13

<p>I wouldn’t be looking to resell it, my plan had been to drive it till it drops.</p>

<p>I feel better knowing that I can keep it and get it fixed up on my own. I am not concerned that it be cosmetically perfect, just structurally sound.</p>

14

<p>A huge buck tried to jump over my moving vehicle 1 1/2 years ago. The roof and windshield needed to be replaced. The left sideview mirror, a scratched left front window and a non-structural dent were also in the estimate because insurance needed to make me whole. The insurance company totaled the car, sent me a check less salvage. Got the roof and windshield replaced for less than the check. Did the mirror myself, didn’t replace the window and didn’t get the dent fixed, though they did repaint it.</p>

<p>In my state salvage titles are only applicable to cars 6 or 7 years old or newer, I forget which. Mine was older so no salvage title and still insured by the same company. I had to have the insurance company look at the car and they noted the dent that hadn’t been fixed. The car was 10 years old at the time but only had 65,000 miles so I really wanted to keep it.</p>

<p>So check on salvage title rules in your state and ask the insurance company about future insurability.</p>

15

<p>I’m not sure it’s going to matter much at the end of the day which insurance company reimburses you. None of them will pay for a new car. Have you sorted out the deductible though? You shouldn’t have to pay any deductible - the owner of the tree should. Also make sure your car insurance rate won’t go up because of the claim. I it will, see if you can get it taken care of by one of the other possible insurance coverages (i.e. for the tree). You need to discuss all this with your insurance company.</p>

<p>If you find that you can keep the car plus have some money, and don’t care that much about cosmetics, you’ll need to discuss with a competent body shop what it would cost to make the car structurally sound even if it’s not put back to a good cosmetic condition. A car’s roof is part of its structure and plays into crash worthiness, handling, even gas mileage due to the wind resistance factor. You want to make sure the car won’t have the handling or crash-worthiness affected. I’m not trying to scare you since it’s entirely possible the roof could look bad but be fine in this area but make sure you check. You want a ‘good’ body shop to evaluate this - not someone’s random brother in law.</p>

<p>The other option is to do what ucbalumnus indicated - buy another similar car for the amount of money you end up with. You s/b able to buy one in similar condition to yours. There are actually people selling perfectly good cars at all mileage levels, even 145K. </p>

<p>You could also do a compromise between the old cheap car and brand new car and start looking for something in between like a 3 y/o car still under warranty or even an older car.</p>

<p>You can check a place like Carmax, cars.com, autotrader.com, craigslist online to get a rough idea of what you can get for a certain amount of money - whatever you decide the budget would be.</p>

16

<p>Unless the property owner did something to cause the limb to fall or they were notified of a potentially hazardous situation(documented in writing) the property owners liability insurance policy will not pay. As was previously mentioned there was no negligence on their part.
You can keep the vehicle by eliminating the salvage value from your settlement. This scenario is a comprehensive or other than collision loss and would be subject to that deductible on your policy.</p>

17

<p>I recently bought a used car via Enterprise, the car rental company. It was a really, really good deal. They only sell the top 10 percent of their rental inventory; the rest go to auction. Their inventory is online:
[Used</a> Cars - Enterprise Car Sales - Used Cars for Sale - Car Dealerships](<a href=“http://www.enterprisecarsales.com/]Used”>http://www.enterprisecarsales.com/)</p>

<p>Just in case you need to buy another car!</p>

18

<ul>
<li>Interesting note - I just used the word ‘Carmax’ in the post above a minute ago and immediately ended up with a Carmax banner ad on CC!</li>
</ul>

19

<p>Thanks for all the great suggestions. I’m going to look into what it will cost to make it structurally sound- a couple more dents doesn’t matter to me.</p>

<p>If it looks like it’ll be too much, I’ll start thinking about what to replace it with.</p>

<p>I’d like to keep this car as we’ve taken good care of it. I’ve never bought used, I’ve always worried that I’d be buying someone else’s problem, especially a car that old.</p>

20

<p>There are many reasons people sell cars, especially older ones, that aren’t related to the reliability of the car. </p>

<p>Sometimes people want or need a larger, smaller, or different type (ex: SUV vs. sedan vs. sporty convertible) of car, perhaps because they now have kids, or no longer have kids, or need to drive the grandparents around suddenly, or hit their mid-life crisis (usually guys), etc. and switch for that reason.</p>

<p>Sometimes the cars are coming off of lease (usually 2-4 y/o cars) and the person will pick up another new car lease so this one gets sold as used. Some people simply go from lease to lease and get a new car every couple of years even if their old car is perfectly fine.</p>

<p>Sometimes, many times, the person just WANTS a new car and so when they feel like they can afford what they want they buy it even though the older car is perfectly fine.</p>

<p>Sometimes they just needed to do an expensive repair, for example the transmission, and are fearful of another expensive repair but in reality just because the transmission needs repaired it doesn’t mean there’s a problem with the engine, differential, or suspension. The car may be fine now that the one bad thing was fixed.</p>

<p>I think far and away most people get a new car just because they want something new and different and there’s not necessarily anything seriously wrong with their present car. One person’s discards are another person’s treasures. </p>

<p>I’ve purchased both new and used and haven’t really had any more issues with the used cars than the new ones. In fact, when it’s a bit older it probably has some of the early life failures already fixed, like pesky Check Engine lights. The big advantage to new, but can be had for some used as well, is the warranty so if it does break it’ll be fixed without you having to worry about big additional costs. But you’re not getting anything for free - that’s one reason why new cars cost more.</p>

<p>Good luck with whatever way you go.</p>