Auto Insurance Claims: Stolen Car Claim Question, keys to the car, stolen cars

Question
Our car was stolen a few weeks back. It was found 200 miles away from our home, two days after being stolen.

I had to call the mechanic/towing company that had the car in order to give them permission to release my car to my insurance company.

While talking to the people at the towing place, they told me there was very little damage to the car. Just a broken window, and some damage to the steering column. Everything else looked fine. Told it shouldn't take much to fix the car.

Our insurance company had the car towed to their savage lot, where they do the appraisals on stolen cars. They then sent us 17 pages of paperwork to fill out and have notorized. One of their requirements was that we had to send them the title and keys to the car.

I thought that odd, and told my husband not to send the title. He sent it anyway because the adjuster told him they would not process our claim without the title.

Today, the adjuster called us at the end of his workday, at a time of day he knows we are not at home.

He left a message on our answering machine telling us that he is putting our car in as a total loss because it would cost $1500 to fix our car. In his opinion that is more than our car is worth. He said something about salvaging our car.

Our car is a 1989 Buick. It only has 80,000 miles on it, and has been well taken care of. It also runs great.

We called our mechanic after we got the message. We described the damage and he told us he could fix it for between $300 and $600 depending on the amount of damage to the steering column.

I feel like the adjustor had every intention of writing the car off from the beginning because he had my husband send him the title.

What are our rights here? What can we do to get our car back? We are really in no position to buy a new car right now.

Answer
Hi Jen,

About the only thing you can do is to call the insurance adjuster and tell them that you want to withdraw you claim and get the car back. Tell them you did not understand why you were sending the title. You will then have to pay for the repairs yourself.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh