Brand new leased car (1 week old) got totaled (likely, accident happened yesterday, no final words), I already made a claim to my own insurance company. Do I also need to report to my leasing company? I am at CA. I was trying to find what was written in the leasing document, but the docs should be in my car and the car was towed away.
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Hopefully everyone is ok. You are living the textbook example of GAP insurance.
If your car is truly totaled, your insurance should declare that within a week especially if you have rental reimbursement coverage. They will let the leasing company know and cut them a payoff check. You could call them and give them a heads up as a courtesy but it’s not required. You will need to continue to make your payments until it’s declared a total loss and the insurance company sends them a check.
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I did not do the zero drive off. I paid $1400 for the first month+ all docs fee. Will I lose this money? I forgot to mention this was the other party’s fault, he ran a red light. I am hoping that the insurance will appraise my car as a brand new car to cover all cost, including my initial payment. Is that possible?
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The $1400 is gone. But you won’t have to make any future payments.
Now, in the unlikely event the insurance payout is higher than the buy out owed to Audi, you do get a check for that, whatever the amount is.
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You can request your out of pocket costs from the at fault party. Not sure how that will work out but depending compensation can’t hurt.
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You learned something: don’t put any money into the lease because even in a no fault accident, you may assume some risk.
You didn’t say if you filed your claim with your insurance or the other person’s insurance. If you filed with yours, and the other party is at fault (sure sounds like it), then they will pay it out and recover from their insurance through subrogation. Unlikely in that example but you’ll get your upfronts back but you can ask.
If you made the claim through their insurance, I would speak to the adjuster and make a request and see what they say. There’s no such thing as insurance “rating it has a new car”, once it’s titled and on the road it’s paid off at fair market value. The gap insurance will cover any difference between what is owed and what is paid out. This is why we don’t pay upfront on a lease.
Try the route with the insurance company first but if that doesn’t work your only recourse may be to go to small claims court thank you try the route with the insurance company first but if that doesn’t work your only recourse may be to go to small claims court.
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Sounds like you woke up with a stiff neck this morning 
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Update. I made a claim to my own insurance. The car was damaged significantly, you would think the car will sure be totaled at the first glance. But since the car was hit at the side, the engine is ok and right side is intact. My insurance is trying to repair it instead of total (I guess because it is too new to total?!). The car got transferred two times until finding an Audi certified repair shop. My question is if they can finally repair it, I will have to drive 3 years this repaired car. I am supposed to drive a new car and I pay for it! can I refuse to accept a repaired car? any recommendations?
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This is wrong. I just went through the same thing OP did with AudiFS and they told me that since they are the owner of the car and I am only leasing - they are entitled to any money remaining after pay-off. Additionally, if the payoff is lower than you’re also protected with “back end gap coverage”
I was told to go after the party at fault for losses incurred. I paid 2 payments after it was marked total loss till they paid off Audi (since Audi rejected first 2 offers) and so I am claiming those are losses incurred in the final settlement.
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No, it’s it not wrong. You pay the insurance, not Audi. You, as the insurance policy holder, are entitled to any and all surplus. Audi includes GAP as part of their lease payment (everybody does except Toyota), so, yes, you aren’t responsible if under, but you are paying for that benefit.
But two months into an Audi lease? There’s no surplus.
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Actually there was. My insurance payoff was $60,500 and after making 2 payments of $984 - my Audi payoff was $59k. Maybe you’re right and the AFS lied to me but she seemed to know what she was talking about…she said they don’t even pull a 10 day payoff for total loss…
How would this be any different if you owned the car VS leased it? In both cases you can sell the car if you don’t want to drive it but you will be way underwater.
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Oh my friend: you don’t own the car, you rent it. AudiFS owns it.
The lease I’m returning this month was 10 months old when I was rear-ended (driver didn’t stop) and the damage was 78.8% of the car’s value: total is 80%. I called Ford and begged them to get involved and push to total it, they refused. I got auction reports and paid an independent appraiser to build a case for it not because I cared it had been hit, but because I knew (and was right) it would never be right again.
It was in the shop 3 months, the paint doesn’t match, and I had to drive it for 2 more years. When it’s disposed, it will go to auction, and FMC/CAB West will probably take an $8k loss on it. They had a chance to speak up and didn’t.
If your Audi is fixed, you have to drive it another 154 weeks or trade out of it and absorb the negative equity. Be glad you didn’t buy it though: diminished value isn’t your problem.
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Hope they find hidden damage when they start taking the car apart to bring you over the total threshold. Other than that, be happy you leased and didn’t buy it. Otherwise, you’d be driving it till the wheels fell off once you saw the depreciation hit. At least you get to give it back in 3 years and make it Audi’s problem.
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Wrong…and I know this as I totaled a Q5 after 9 months! I got a check from Progressive for 2.5K (which included the 1K deductible), and a check for 8xx.xx from Audi for Audicare. I did owe Audi about 3 weeks worth of lease payments between the accident and claim being completed. I’m in CA, fwiw.
Ended up leasing a Ford Edge for nearly $200/month less…which I liked about the same…all in all, the accident ended up making/saving me over 10K…making lemons out of lemonade!
PS. I was my fault, so my insurance cost me about 4K more total over three years.
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Ouch. That’s a steep hike.
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Not to be pedantic…
really neither without mixing metaphors.
When life gave you a total loss, you made total loss-ade. 
Or when life gave you an accident, you cashed out and Flexxed. 
This idiom needs its own workshop. Glad it all worked out for you. These things are always stressful.
On that case, feels like HUCA (hang up, call again). You are absolutely owed the surplus. That’s just how insurance works. It’s not even a question. You pay the policy, you get the benefit of surplus.
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Doh! Yogi Berra and Ralph Kiner would be proud of me 
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About $1300 a year (2300 to 3600)…funny thing is when accident went off this January, Progressive only went down a few hundred. Ended up switching companies and cut my premium nearly in half!
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