Auto Insurance Claims: Third party ins claim, natinwide insurance, insurance adjustor

Question
My car was hit while vacant in a parking lot. The lady who hit my car informed me and filed a claim with her insurance who called and accepted responsability for the damage my car(1995 BMW 525i). I got two estimates prior to seeing the adjustor both with $100 of each other(~$2500). The Natinwide Insurance adjustor's estimate was less than half($1100). He explained that they would negotiate any additional costs directly with the body shop, but assured me my car would be repaired to my satisfaction. Upon tearing away the damage the body shop discovered there was addition damage that would require substantial additional cost. The revised estimates from the body shops(two different shops) was $5000 to $5400. The adjustor is stating previous damage fatigued the metal on my car and made the repair cost excessive. He was authorized to pay for only half of the repairs based on his estimate and offered me $1900. He also instructed me to return the rental car immediately since I did not accept his offer. I do not want to pay a deductable and file a claim with my own insurance as the adjustor suggested nor do I feel I should be out of packet for anything when my car had no visible or functional issues prior to the accident. Per your recommendation to other subscibers, I researched to find the value of my car(kbb-5600 to 6200, nada-5500 to 6500 etc...). I searched a 100 mile radius on auto trader and found 5 vehicles ranging in price from $4000 to $9500 and average of ~$6575. I spoke to my insurance commisioners office and was instructed that they really only get involved when there is personal injury and if I was disatisfied with the adjustors offer I should sue them in small claims court. How would you recommend I proceed and what would you suggest as a fare settlement?

Answer
Hi Randy,

Insurance companies will always try to find any reason to reduce a claim. If there was prior damage that was not repaired properly, that could be a legitamate reason to pay less, but it will really depend if they can prove that there were faulty repairs.

If you decide to file a law suit, it would be against the at-fault person not the insurance company. You would sue them in the county in which they live. Their insurance company would provide her with a defense attorney. However, sometimes the mere fact of filing the law suit will make the insurance company raise their offer to get it settled before the case would ever come to court.

The other alternative would be to file the claim through your own insurance. You would pay your deductible but, your insurance company would then try to get back the money from the other insurance company and if successful you would get your deductible back.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh