I am not sure if this is the right platform to ask this question, but I am unable to understand what to do and hence posting this question here to see if someone else has also experienced the same and may provide any inputs.
Recently, our car (2015 Honda Crv) was involved in an rear ended accident (everyone is safe) and our car hit the car ahead of us and that car hit another. So, totally four cars were involved. Our car took the majority of the damage as the first impact was on ours. The insurance companies identified the car who hit us was the contributor and also determined that our car was totaled. They are offering a decent amount for our car. But, the issue is the person who hit our car, has a basic liability insurance coverage (i.e. 25k/50k/25k) and since there were three other cars involved, the insurance company think the bodily damage may exceed 25k. Therefore, the insurance company is trying to convince us that some portion of the totaled cost has to come from our coverage. They are not exactly telling me how much or what percentage of it would be charged on our coverage. If I agree to this, they are willing to get me a check in a day or two. But, if I want for the exact numbers or percentages, then they are saying I need to wait for two to three months as they need to work with other parties and determine. So, I am not sure what to do here, as to wait or accept the offer. If I accept their offer, I am afraid they would charge more than I expected on our coverage and also increase our insurance premium for something that is not our fault. As of now, we are not in a rush for money and we can wait if needed. But, would waiting for few months do any good in this situation?
Can someone please share your thoughts or your experience on this matter?
Ask them for the Declaration page, this will show you how much coverage the other party has. if the other party only have 25k worth of property damage coverage then thats the max you will get.No matter how you will spin it. Now if they have more than 25k coverage you are entitled to the whole thing, again the declaration page will tell you. Also if you go through your insurance, your insurance rate wont go up, if the other party is at fault of 51 and more. but i think your insurance will go up regardless, because you will have to pay for the damages to the car you hit (the car in front of you)
No. Let’s say 3 cars are stopped at a light. Cars A, B, C in that order and car D plows into the back of Car C pushing it into Car B and pushing Car B into Car A. Car D is responsible for the damage to Cars A, B and C.
in that scenario, yes. But if the car D only has 25k property damage limit, that gets divided across A,B,C. From the look of it, it looks like Car Ds insurance straight up offered the policy limit to op (car C).so i think it might not be the scenario you are describing
No they offered an ‘undisclosed amount’ that they can issue a check right away.
That sounds like insurance speak for ‘low ball the payouts and get the people to make mistakes’.
Right now it sounds like OP should get $25/3 = $8.3k but I bet they were going to offer something
less than 8.3 because once they find out what OP’s insurance is, they are going to tell him to get it from his insurance instead (which they did ask).
The situation of the accident is exactly what @pinkpink9232 described. All three (A,B,C) were at stopped at the signal and Car D hit Car C from the back.
The insurance company has offered us 22k as a total cost for our car. The other cars (A and B) that were involved didn’t have much damage and my insurance company said their repairs could be around 5k (this is just an estimate). But, my concern is if I accept to go through my coverage without knowing the actual percentage, I am not sure if what @YeahItsMe is saying could be true. Because, they may plough through my coverage to cover any damages for Car A and Car B which they conclude more than 5k for their damages.
A multicar crash where all cars are moving is where the other cars are partially at fault.
If you are stopped at a light and the 4th car hits you, the 4th car is 100% at fault.
I suspect they want to low ball you for your portion, make you pay the rest of YOUR damages via your insurance, and low ball the others as well to end up less than $25k. Get as much as you can then file with your company for the differrence, but do not let them low ball you and then get away with less than max payout.
Edit : Do you have underinsured Coverage? If not then you get nothing from your company.
The irony is my insurance company and the car D’s insurance company are both same.
What they are explaining to us is to accept the settlement and they will pay out the 22k immediately. The payout would compleyely come out of our coverage now. After they evaluate all the other car damages they would retro the amount into Car D’s coverage based on the percentage of damage on each vehicle. Based on the cuurent evaluation , they think we get a major chunk of that 25k.
I did ask, they said my policy was just renewed and there would be no change now. But, when it renews next time (i.e. after 6 months) she didn’t confirm if that would effect our premium. But, she said she has put a note or indicated that we were not responsible for this incident.
That is not necessary true. You can use your collision coverage to cover the difference for damage to your vehicle in at least a few states I can think of off the top of my head
No, the difference is that if you have UM/UIM coverage that covers damage to you car AND personal injury. If UM/UIM is optional in your state and you chose to not take it then you can use your collision coverage but ONLY for property damage, no personal injury.
I had gotten into an accident just over a year ago where the other party had 10k liability. My payout was around $25k+ since the vehicle was deemed a total loss. I filed for a collision claim and got my payout minus my $500 deductible. The other party was 100% at fault.
The claim went into subrogation and my insurance company went after the party at fault for the difference. The other driver actually paid $100 towards it and my insurance forwarded that payment over to me. The other $400 should be coming any day now since the other party’s carrier finally paid out the 10k.
My rates did not go up due to this. Not sure what exactly your insurance is offering, but filing a claim against your own policy when it’s documented that its not your fault is not a bad option. That’s why you pay for the coverage. These things can string out for months, if not years. Good luck!
Thank you for sharing your experience. That is exactly, what I wanted to know.
My insurance company said they are paying me the vehicle total costs (22k) from my coverage and I have $1000 deductible but they said since the other party is at 100% fault and they are also with the same insurance company as ours, they said they waived the $1000 deductible immediately. Then, from your case and thinking through it that’s what they are doing filing a collision claim from my coverage.
Then, they said after all the expenses are calculated they will reimburse the costs into our coverage and they are saying this will not increase the premium, because they are going to indicate that the other person was at fault.
So, I wasnt sure if my premium was going to increase and wasn’t sure what else are they going to do with coverage. It’s good to know from your experience that aleast premium wouldn’t change.
