Auto Insurance Claims: loss of use, property damage coverage, uninsured motorist property damage

Question
I was recently hit by an uninsured driver. I was forced to file a compressive claim.  My adjuster never once returned my calls which made it impossible to move forward with my claim.  My car sat at a body shop for 20 days waiting for an estimate to be done.  On top of this another car insured by the same company arrived 2 weeks later to the same body shop and the estimate was done with in a few days.  You would this while they were there someone would do the estimate on my car since it had been there for over two weeks.  Nope they refused and made me wait another week.  I would like to file for loss of use against MY insurance company for dragging there feet and leaving my without a car for over a month.  I'm not sure how I go about this PLEASE HELP!

Answer
Hi Joscelyn,

This is not a "Comprehensive" claim. This should be being handled either as a "Collision" claim or an "Uninsured Motorist" property damage claim. If you have uninsured motorist property damage coverage on your policy, then you will be entitled to be compensated for loss of use. If you do not, and this is being handled as a collision claim then you are not directly entitled to loss of use. If you had rental reimbursement coverage on your policy, you could have gotten a rental car and your insurance comapny would have paid for it. Assuming that you do not have rental reimbursement coverage, it will simply be up to you to attempt to get your insurance company to understand that the delay was due to their lack of follow-up on your claim. They will not pay you for loss of use during what would have been the normal repair time. You may only be able to receive $15.00 to $20.00 per day for each day that they delayed the process by not going to the shop to write an estimate. You should demand to deal with a supervisor or manager. The adjuster does not have the authority to provide payment where no coverage exists. Only a supervisor or manager can. Be prepared for them to deny your claim. You will have to make a lot of noise and always ask to be moved up to a higher level of management.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh