QuestionMy vehicle had an accident on Sep 17.2010. It was not my fault. The vehicle was towed to the facility of the insurance company choice. I got email from the repair company that the vehicle is ready for repair and require my authorization on Sep 22, 2010. My adjuster called me on Friday and told me that I need to make a decision immediately and repair the vehicle. My car is a Toyota Prius 2009. I suspected the repair shop was not doing a good job and wanted a 2nd opinion.
I was searching for post inspector and came across a wonderful person who is helping me the process. By the time he got back to me, it was Thursday Sep, 30. Almost 2 weeks after the accident.
The adjuster without my knowledge gave permission to the repair shop to charge storage fee which was about 17 days and came to $600.
He told me to take some pictures of the car, sent it to him and we decided to move the vehicle to a different repair shop since the 1st repair shop did not do a proper review of the vehicle. This new repair shop paid the tear down fee and the storage fee.
I contacted the other insurance company to perform an estimate of the vehicle damage. There is some sort of legal issues going on between the new repair shop and the insurance company and they wanted my permission to allow them to tow the vehicle out of the repair shop premise to do the assessment.
The repair shop wants them to pay their towing bill. But insurance company has hired an attorney and wrote me an email that they will not send an estimator if I do not release the vehicle and they are not going to pay for storage and the 2nd towing. This whole process tool another 15-20 days and now the insurance company has stopped my rental.
Now I went back to my insurance company and asked the repair shop to start the repair.
I am totally confused. I don't have a vehicle to compute to work. What are my options. Do I need to pay the 2nd towing bill, the storage ? Can I get a car for rental or I am out of it. I am only given 30 days in my policy but since the repair guys gave an estimate of 18 days, they gave me only a total of 32 days for rental.
But no one is willing to consider the time I have taken to correspond between their insurance attorney, seeking for a post inspector and his response.
AnswerHi Ramesh,
The insurance company owes for a rental car or loss of use for the reasonable period of time needed to repair the vehicle. They will not pay fo the time that you chose to delay the process. You selected a post repair inspector. You decided to have the vehicle moved to another shop. As a result the repair process has been delayed, not as a result of something in the repair process, but because you decided to do these things.
Now you could argure that you had to do these things because the insurance companies selected shop was not doing the correct thing. But the insurance comapy will likely not consider paying these extra days as well as the storage charges unless they are ordered to do so by a Judge. So you would have to file a law suit agains the at fault person and argue that his representitives cause the delay by selecting a substandard body shop. However, you will have top be able to prove all of this. Of course the insurance company will have a lawyer that will be trying to make you look like a nut who is just trying to get extra money.
I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh
