<p>I wouldn’t make him pay for it. You can’t prove his park job was so bad that somebody was bound to hit it…</p>
<p>In WI though, if you have a parked car on the road and are nowhere to be found and get hit, you are considered partly responsible for the accident! Any other states like this?-Might be a stupid question but I’m not very knowledgeable when it comes to anything dealing with cars and driving…</p>
<p>I am with MomOfWildChild and Hunt.
If I claim my kid as a dependent, and the car is not titled to the kid, then the deductible is part of our family overhead costs.
When our kids drove for our convenience, to school and work and occasional family errands, we gave them the money to cover the gas for those miles too!</p>
<p>If you are a high school student, you are pretty much by definition surrounded by horrible drivers whereever you go. The school parking lot is like a video game. If the high school student goes out, he is going out where other high school students go and drive and park. I’m actually pleasantly surprised that he was able to go an entire year without hitting, or being hit, by anyone.</p>
<p>Let me just add that a lot depends on what the understanding was about this car. You’ve indicated that you pay for gas and insurance. Obviously, this is not really your son’s car, although he has the use of it. Was he told that he would have to pay for repairs? For damages from accidents? If not, again, this is a family car.</p>
<p>If your son was careless and was involved in some sort of accident,I may hold him liable for covering the deductable…it sure doesn’t sound like this is the case here.
I would suck it up and grumble, but not take money from my kid.</p>
<p>We bought the car. We pay for gas and repairs and insurance. It is titled in our (parents’) names. As I said, with three kids, it’s a convenience for us for him to have a car.</p>
<p>I would pay the deductible. Though with some discussion about life lessons. Life is sometimes not fair. If your car was the one hit you would have to make a choice to fix the car and pay the deductible or drive it as is. (if even possible). Your Mom or Dad is not going to come pay the deductible for you even if the accident was not your fault.
And if you had to use the money you were saving for a vacation that is a bummer but that is life.
Though I do think your H needs to lighten up. My spouse has the automatic response of NO to every request that is going to cost him money. After thinking things through he often will change his answer but it has had the consepquence of my children often feeling guilty about some of their expenses.</p>
<p>My son’s parked car was hit last fall and we didn’t have to pay a deductable at all because of the way it was filed - which was suggested by our agent. They filed it as an uninsured motorist claim instead of a comprehensive. Have you looked into that?</p>
<p>If that isn’t a possiblity, I don’t think we would have had our son pay for something such as this. </p>
<p>In another incident, I did make my son pay for the broken window when he left his IPOD in clear view because we had repeatedly told him that he was asking for it by doing that. He also is IPODless now.</p>
<p>Agree w/ag54 that, if it can be proven that your ds did something to contribute to the accident, then, yeah, he should help pay. But your dh doesn’t have any proof that ds’ negligence contributed so I’d let it pass.</p>
<p>However, is your ds counting on taking it to college, or will y’all keep it for his younger sister to drive next year? If it’s going to be handed down to the sibling, I’d be less likely to make him pay.</p>
<p>Ds’s “new” car is still sitting in the driveway while we await title. What we’ve discussed so far is that if his grades drop so that he no longer qualifies for the good student discount then he picks up insurance cost. I guess we should talk about repairs. And he knows to never leave any bag or anything of value in plain sight. He would certainly have to pay for repairs caused by a break-in due in part to his negligence.</p>
<p>Agree with Hunt. This was not completely unforeseen-accidents like this happen. All costs including potential/unforeseen ones should be discussed upfront when the teenager first begins to use the car so that there is a clear understanding of who will be responsible for what. It does not seem fair to now expect S to pay after the fact without first having set out such terms (I might be wrong, missy, but I’m guessing this particular “contract term” would not stand up in a court of law? 
)</p>
<p>Been there done that twice. First time son’s parked car was hit. The person did not stop. Normally we make kids pay everything for their own cars but in this case we paid the deductible. He was definitely legally parked in a marked space…the police tried to find the culprits but did not.
Second was recently, a truck was parked by my business overnight. Young teenager hit it, totalled the truck. Luckily for us, he also damaged his own car so badly (one of the tires came completely off) that he couldn’t get away. His insurance was with Allstate and I have to say they were great.
Rented us a truck for a month while ours was fixed, etc. No out of pocket to us.
I would pay for this one if I were the parent. Though generally my rules are we pay nothing for kid cars: oil changes, insurance, registration, gas, etc. are on them.</p>
<p>In some states, uninsured motorist coverage only covers if there is no collision coverage. In others, if you have both, the collision coverage will pay the deductible for the uninsured motorist coverage. </p>
<p>As an aside and not directed to missypie’s situation, it is important that people talk to their insurance companies to make sure they understand what coverage they have. I am always surprised to learn how many people are under insured - only carrying the minimum amount of liability and uninsured motorist coverage for example. Also, look into getting an umbrella policy from the same company. Then you can often carry the minimums - saving money on the auto policy - and the umbrella policy kicks in after that. You can usually save money that way - until you have a teenage driver on the policy. Then everything - including the umbrella policy- goes up. I have zero deductible on my uninsured motorist coverage because of the umbrella policy.</p>
<p>I think Hunt’s point about the deductible amount being chosen by the parents is valid. If you picked a high deductible to save on the premiums, your son is the one to suffer. If you had picked a low deductible, he would pay less and you pay more. Needless to say, if (g-d forbid) a second car is damaged in the same policy year, then no deductible if already used up, and a boon to that driver. Not necessarily the best lesson to teach.</p>
<p>What is this about a claim under uninsured motorist coverage? I never heard of this in NY or NJ for a parked car claim. I thought uninsured motorist covered you if you loan your car to someone without insurance and that person has an accident, or if you are hit by a person without insurance (but not by an undiscovered person).</p>
<p>I’m thinking our agent probably filed it the way Cartera45 said. She worked out a way, somehow using the uninsured motorist coverage, where we paid no deductable (which we have set at $1000.00). </p>
<p>In my son’s case, he was legally parked in a parking lot and somebody plowed into his front quarterpanel to the point that his car was undriveable. Of course they left no note!!!</p>
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This is what I see as the real problem. That, and the fact that H doesn’t believe in “accidents”. It’s not just that he doesn’t believe in accidents, he believes that things must be your fault. It clearly wasn’t just “an accident” that your S’s car got hit. The other driver was clearly at fault. So why does H decide to place the blame on S, rather than where it belongs - the other driver? Is it only because he can’t get to the other driver? If the other driver had left a note, would he still believe that S was at fault?</p>
<p>What S is learning is not just “Dad is mean” but “Dad is unreasonable, and he has no faith in me since everything bad that happens is my fault.” This is a much bigger lesson than paying the deductible, and a much bigger problem.</p>
<p>As far as the deductible itself is concerned, I certainly would not make S pay the entire thing. I might make him contribute for the “life lesson”, but he was not at fault. Treating him as if he were benefits no one.</p>
<p>I like scansmom’s point that the terms of who pays for what should be made upfront, and the driver gets a freebie this time.</p>
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<p>missypie, I’m guessing that it is never, ever your husband’s fault that something breaks. ;)</p>
<p>I will join in the chorus - I don’t think DH is being reasonable in saying this was your son’s fault. Sometimes things just happen.</p>
<p>If he had parked under a tree and a pine cone fell off the tree, cracking the windshield, would that be his fault? How about if a sinkhole had opened up in the parking lot and swallowed the car?</p>
<p>Having said this, I’d have the son pay for a portion of the deductible as part of a life lesson - but certainly not all of it. As parents we set the deductible - and therefore determine the potential loss. We have greater economic ability to absorb a loss - therefore are likely to set the number higher than our kids would. Since we benefit from the lower payments, we should also bear the loss caused by that savings.</p>
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<p>From personal experience (and with H a twin to missypie’s), I can tell you that this is a significant issue. That said, in our house S2 does contribute to the cost of insurance and car maintenance, so if the damage was not his fault, I hope we would not require him to empty his bank accounts.</p>
<p>Deductibles reset after each accident - it is not like health insurance. Uninsured motorist coverage varies from state to state. In some states, uninsured motorist coverage only applies to bodily injury, but it is my understanding that it always applies to “phantom” drivers - as is the case with missypie’s son. In some states, you can purchase uninsured motorist coverage that specifically covers property damage - it may or not be a duplication with collision insurance, however. This stuff gets really complicated - hence my recommendation that everyone find out what they have and what they can get. Do not wait until there is a claim. </p>
<p>anothermom2 - uninsured motorist insurance does not come into play if you lend your car to someone without insurance. Insurance follows the car, not the driver, so your insurance would apply. However, that does not apply to someone living in your household - that is why you can’t go without insuring your teenage driver and just claim he/she was borrowing the car. They have to be listed on your policy.</p>
<p>Hopefully, S can learn a lesson more profound than “Dad is mean” or that “he has no faith in me.” Maybe, it will be that sometimes Dad vents in these types of situations and that what he says should not always be taken too much to heart. H probably knows he is being unreasonable (and if he can be persuaded to read this thread, perhaps he’ll admit it more quickly).</p>