Shady insurance company is trying to screw me

So, way back in May my daughter's rust free 5 speed 99 civic hatchback was smashed into while it was parked at her work.  The person who hit her did admit fault, and came inside to fess up.  There is video of it.  It still took months for them to "determine fault." Fast forward to today, they have finally decided to total the car. I am sure they are going to try and say it worth next to nothing, while I know this is not the case.  Anyone who has been through this please advise, I would rather drag this out, and end up in court than let them win for convenience sake. I am in IL for what it's worth.

Racebrick said:

So, way back in May my daughter's rust free 5 speed 99 civic hatchback was smashed into while it was parked at her work.  The person who hit her did admit fault, and came inside to fess up.  There is video of it.  It still took months for them to "determine fault." Fast forward to today, they have finally decided to total the car. I am sure they are going to try and say it worth next to nothing, while I know this is not the case.  Anyone who has been through this please advise, I would rather drag this out, and end up in court than let them win for convenience sake. I am in IL for what it's worth.

It may be too late for this now, but IME the best way to deal with this is to file a claim under your own collision policy (assuming you had full coverage on it).  They pay out on it immediately, less your deductible, and then go after the other company to get reimbursed.  When they do, they refund the deductible.

What codrus said.

Did you get a payout offer yet? I would start looking at comparables, that is not a common car nowadays and you are probably going to get lowballed.

Ouch - sorry to hear this. Is it just a hood and a headlight? Looks like it was in great shape, and almost still is. 

Good luck sorting out insurance - sadly no good advice. I'm half interested as a commuter car if you're interested in figuring out the buy back protocol (but sounds like probably not)

who did the estimate of damages? their insurance or yours?  letting the insurance do the process that is going to try and pay as little as possible wasn't ideal.

So they haven't made an offer, yet they are already trying to screw you? 

Do not cash the check they send unless it has a number you are happy with on it. Do not trust them to adjust the payment later with a second check.

Ask what comps they used, send them comps that you find.

You will have to go back and forth with them a lot. Be polite. 

Also, the pixels looks fixable from here. 

If you haven't already, you need to be involved with your insurance. That's what you pay them for. 

As others have said also, start looking for comparables. Find other minty 99 hatches, have em at the ready. Find KBB numbers, have em ready. 

Unfortunately involving my insurance is now impossible, since I have changed companies since this incident. I do plan to buy this car back, and will either sell, or fix and sell.

Racebrick said:

Unfortunately involving my insurance is now impossible, since I have changed companies since this incident. I do plan to buy this car back, and will either sell, or fix and sell.

Having changed companies should not make it impossible, assuming that the policy was valid when the accident happened.  That said, there may be clauses saying that you need to file a claim within a certain amount of time.

Racebrick said:

I do plan to buy this car back, and will either sell, or fix and sell.

I would not "buy" it back. I would insist it remain yours as part of the settlement.

z31maniac said:

So they haven't made an offer, yet they are already trying to screw you? 

Well, they've been sitting on it since MAY so I would say yes, they are going to try to screw him.

In reply to triumph7 :

Sounds to me like they owe 6 months of vehicle rental costs in addition to damages.

We just went through this: 

First, as with any negotiation, see what they offer.

In our case the insurance company asked my son to get some quotes which he did. They offered what the shop quoted plus a couple hundred bucks to compensate him for his time.

when my 5-speed 525iT was totalled, insurance wanted to give me a hair under $1000 for it. After a fair bit of pushing, it was moved to a more manually managed valuation after I convinced them that a rusty automatic trans 525iT is not the same as a very good condition manual transmission example. Definitely involve the company you were with when it happened, too late is still better than not trying at all. My valuation eventually went up to a number that I was satisfied with, just a matter of persistence while trying not to express too much frustration.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to triumph7 :

Sounds to me like they owe 6 months of vehicle rental costs in addition to damages.

Uh, no. Not how it works.

L5wolvesf said:

Racebrick said:

I do plan to buy this car back, and will either sell, or fix and sell.

I would not "buy" it back. I would insist it remain yours as part of the settlement.

Depends on state law. Some states they will allow you to keep it titled in your name, but others (like mine) require it to be declared a total and a salvage certificate issued, which you then have to turn into a reconstructed title once it is repaired. 

z31maniac said:

So they haven't made an offer, yet they are already trying to screw you? 

I love these threads. Most of you know why. 

ddavidv said:

z31maniac said:

So they haven't made an offer, yet they are already trying to screw you? 

I love these threads. Most of you know why. 

Same here. I was a claim rep in a past life, it's been a while, but I still know the basics. 

I always have the vehicle towed to my house and stored there until everything is sorted out. Do some insurance companies actually not let you do this?

Another previous claim rep jumping in.

You are for sure gonna get a low offer because the program they use to determine the value of the vehicle likely does not have many 99 civics in it.

My recommendation first is to be a nice person. These people get yelled at every day for things they can't control. If you are nice to them they will be more willing to work with you.

Second, do your own research with marketplace ads and anything else showing the current value of a similar vehicle. Have options, like one may be clean like yours but have more miles, and another may have less miles but not in good shape.

It taking months may not have been to determine fault, it could've been a different issue that they aren't legally allowed to discuss with you...it also could been that the other guy is trash and was trying his hardest to find a way out of being at fault, in which case because they are his insurance they have to tolerate.

Also, like someone said, if you had insurance at the time, you can call whatever company that is to file a claim. Looks like your deep enough with the other insurance that it would be a waste to open a new claim.

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

I always have the vehicle towed to my house and stored there until everything is sorted out. Do some insurance companies actually not let you do this?

I had my last wreck towed to a local body shop I deal with. I was not at fault and there was no doubt it was totaled. I stopped by and got all of my personal stuff out of it on my way home. Storage fees start soon after that. At $25/day, insurance companies are more interested in getting the ball rolling. They want the vehicle out of the body shop yard ASAP. IIRC, I had an offer inside of 72 hours. I mentioned the $900 in signage and the shelving and racks I would have to replace. They bumped their offer by $1200. All in the deal was done within a week. Very professional and fairly simple.

Do your homework. Know what you have and be realistic in its value. 

In reply to Hoppps :

DD#1 got rear ended while she was stopped.  There was no question of liability - it was the other driver's fault.

But he decided to ghost his own insurance company and pretend it never happened.  His insurer told us up front. they were accepting liability... but they still had a 90+ day legal process they had to go through trying to contact their driver multiple ways before they could legally move the claim forward without his participation.

Duke said:

DD#1 got rear ended while she was stopped.  There was no question of liability - it was the other driver's fault.

A decade ago, my wife's friend's 16-year-old daughter backed their minivan into the side of my parked, unoccupied Audi.  It doesn't get any more "her fault" than that, and both mom and daughter were fully accepting of it.

I went with the "file through collision" approach and it was fixed by my insurance company (State Farm) within a week.  For some reason the other company (USAA) decided to contest it and it took over 18 months for me to get my $500 deductible back.

They have offered me less than $3000 for a rust free 5 speed 1999 civic hatchback.  Even though the only two comparables the provided me were both automatic, and were also being listed at $4900, and $5500.  They are basing the value entirely off of the kbb value which the say is 1000-3200. They keep refering to the "actual cash value" of my car, which to me that should be a reflection of what this car would go for on the open open market, or the replacement cost. Rust free civic hatch with a manual trans are difficult to find anywhere, and not for $3000.