A bit of a interesting story here. Mom got a new car couple of weeks ago, and was driving early morning on a one lane double line, two way street ,on her right hand side was a parking lot which was empty at the time but is used as a park and ride on a daily basis, although there is a little rusty sign there which hasn’t been replaced in years saying it’s a bus stop, no buses have actually stopped there in years. She wanted to pull in to one of those spots on the right side of the road when a pickup truck decided to pass her on the right and swiped her even before she could turn. Bumper came off wheel got chipped and scratched and and some other stuff and warning lights. Cop shows up and tells her that none of them will receive a ticket (how special) and it’s a 50/50 (even though he passed her on the right on a single lane road!) since she tried to park in a illegal spot which I honestly have no clue how it would change the fact that the other guy sideswiped her. She had no clue what to do, took only one zoomed out photo of her damage and nothing of the pickup trucks or any detailed photos. By the time I got to her she had gone to the mechanic where he dismissed the warning lights, cleaned and screwed on the bumper together with the plasticy thing above the wheels.
Now what is her best option
A- open a claim with the other guys insurance
B- open a claim with her insurance, but will it raise her premium? Will they get the other guys insurance to pay? If yes does she still need to pay a deductible?
Also mechanic told her it’ll be a $1400 job but still waiting on a itemized Bill, rims where brand new and now might have gotten a little bent and definitely scratched up, can she get it repaired so that at lease return it’s good to go or just get a new rim?
If she just wants to drop her car off to the body shop & get it back & don’t want to deal with insurance company haggling, then g
File a claim with the her insurance & it will cost her the deductible.
Once you file a claim with your insurance company, you don’t worry about who will pay, them or the other insurance company. They’ll figure it out between themselves.
This most likely won’t raise her premium as it wasn’t her fault.
If she wants to save the deductible & go thru the negotiating & all, go thru the other guy’s insurance directly.
At this point, you’ll probably want to get together as much documentation as possible. Your mom will want to document the events and a diagram helps too.
If no one was hurt, no tickets… the insurance companies will figure it out. Whether you file a claim with your own company or the other person’s, you’ll just need to pick a path and go with it. Other’s may disagree, but everyone’s situation, including their insurance history, is unique.
What if the other party denies your claim? What if your company forgives your claim? And the insurance company may disagree with the police report (you’ll need this too).
She has a clean history for past 5 years if that makes a difference. It just hurts when someone is a a** and causes an accident but you still need to pay for the deductible (although some mechanics will work with you on that).
Either open a claim with her insurance company and let them fight it out with the other driver’s insurance to determine fault. Or, just pay the $1400 to have it fixed, and take it as a $1400 life lesson.
If it’s $1,400 to get the car fixed you should just pay it out of pocket and forget the insurance.
Realistically she probably has a $500 deductible so we’re talking about a $900 difference.
Since the cop didn’t issue a citation and said 50/50 fault then their insurance won’t pay anything. If you file a claim under your own insurance then they’ll pay but your insurance rates would likely go up regardless of what others have said on this forum. Some states prohibit raising insurance rates because of a certain accident but most policies offer a discount for not having any claims so they’ll just take away the discount without raising the actual policy premium. That’s how they get around the “you can’t raise premiums” rules.
And the insurance company may disagree with the police report (you’ll need this too).