Auto Insurance Claims: Auto Accident, gmac insurance, straight answer


Question
I was rear-ended while at the red light the car that hit me was at fault and caused damage to my car and received a ticket from the police. We exchanged information and I also have a police report and I took pictures of my car after the accident. I called his insurance company which is GMAC. And come to find out he is not on the insured policy holders insurance. And the insured owner of the car and the person that hit me reside at the same address and lets the person that hot me drive there car. Which in the state of Florida I thought that you must put anyone that stays with you and that's going to be driving your car on your insurance. Right now GMAC insurance is putting me through all kinds of hoops and keeps telling me it's not looking good and they don't look like they will be providing coverage to get my car fixed and if I have comprehensive with my insurance company that will be the best thing use my insurance. They also keep telling me that the insured owner of the car hasn't returned any of there phone calls or replied to any of the letter they have sent out. And if they can't get in contact with the insured, they will not provide coverage to fix my car. So I asked them if the insured doesn't respond when can they just go on. And the never give me a straight answer, no matter how many times I ask them. GMAC tells me we have to wait on the insured and we are still investigating this matter. This has been going on for a month and a week now. Could you give me some advice on a couple things that I could do concerning this matter.

Answer
Based on what you are telling me, I doubt that any coverage will be provided.  It states in just about every insurance policy that the insured has a duty to report all drivers living in the household and if they drive the car, pay a premium for them.  If the insured fails to do this, then there is no coverage.  This is only fair.  You only get get coverage that you pay for.  If this were not a requirement, then the insurance companies would be forced to cover an unlimited amount of drivers of every age living in the same household, but for the premium of only one driver.  They are not putting you through "hoops", they are trying to get in touch with the other party to find out if there is maybe another policy that could apply here.  You are free to file a claim with your own carrier at any time.

Speaking of paying for coverage, hopefully you have paid for uninsured motorist coverage because it will step into the shoes of the uninsured driver.  You will have a deductable but if your insurance company is able to collect the money back from the responsible party, your deductable will be refunded to you.  With UM, it is rare that they are able to get anything back though.  
If you don't have UM, then you can file a claim under your collision coverage.  I'm not sure why they would have told you to file under your comp as comp would not apply here.  Comprehensive is for fire, theft, wind damage, etc.

Good luck and I'd appreciate your feedback.