Insurance claim and payout . Negotiating a near total lost.

[HUYTURBO]

So the weirdest thing happened.

. our 2003 honda crv gets hit while parked
. at fault vehicle has Nationwide insurance, I open a claim with them, adjuster comes by and tells me its totaled but its not settled yet.
. months later vehicle was considered stolen and Nationwide denies my claim.

. I call progressive, my insurer, and I'm going to be covered under uninsured motorist policy.
. They tow it to the IAAI thinking its totaled but they said no its not totaled because damage is $2700.
. They make me pick a body shop and it gets towed there from IAAI.
. They call me say its repairable damage is $3900 and car is valued at $7300.
. I say no I don't want to repair the vehicle I rather take a check for the damage and donate the vehicle or sell it.
. They say ok , you have to tow the vehicle out of the body shop, I come get it and take it home.
. The next day I get a check for $7300 from progressive.

Now I'm afraid to call them. Can I assume the $7300 is mine and so is the damaged 2003 honda crv?
The car has to be worth at least $2500 the way it sits.

 

[nsxtasy]

You cannot assume the car is yours. However, you can still buy the car as is. They probably will ask a lot less than it's worth, even in the condition it's in. If you think it's worth $2500, don't be surprised if they let you buy it for maybe half that amount.

Call them and ask them how much they want for it as is.

 

[Hard Five]

I used to work for Progressive handling claims.

Unless you signed sales paperwork the car is yours. I wouldn't give you a check without getting the paperwork completed - that's basic 101 claims handling. If they overpaid you that is on them. On total loss payments I was trained to make out the check to "first Last, full and final collision payment for total loss 2003 Honda CRV". How was your check payment line written? 100% bet it wasn't anything like this as it was a mistake.

If you call them they will see the overpayment and issue a check for 3900. They deemed the vehicle fixable which means its cheaper to fix it then to pay you its full value (make it a total loss), so the fact you got a 7300 check is a complete error on their behalf. No one will pay you 7300 for a car if they think they can fix it for 3900. If you want to be honest call them and advise them of their error.

If you want to look the other way I'd wait 2-3 months and see what happens. You can always call in down the line to "make sure the claim is closed" and talk to any random rep who can tell you the status. Unless the file gets pulled for an internal audit (10% chance) once it's "closed" no one will ever look at the file again. I wouldn't call the handling rep as their familiarity with the claim might help them "catch" the mistake.

The take away here is I don't believe they ever intended to issue a total loss check. As such, they won't start the salvage process and nobody will ever think they need to take ownership of the vehicle. They paid you for the damage done to your car - whether you fix it or not is up to you. From the reps point of view, it would be perfectly normal for someone to "cash out" on damage done to a 11 year old car and I wouldn't give it a second thought if I never heard from you again.

 

[HUYTURBO]

Thank you for the information. I did call progressive this morning and they told me the claim is already closed and that I had to do nothing.

 

[Hard Five]

I dont know if you are returning the check or sitting on the funds and hoping they don't notice (I don't care to know either way), but I wouldn't spend the extra portion for 3-6 months. Since they willingly gave it to you, you might legally be entitled to keep it, but I'm not sure. If I was hoping to keep it I'd cash the check (so they cant cancel it) and park the extra $$$ until I was sure they weren't gonna come back and ask for it to be returned.

In either event the car is clearly yours to do with as you feel so I'd throw it on Craigslist as is, and call local wrecking yards to see what you can get for it.

 

[nsxtasy]

In either event the car is clearly yours to do with as you feel so I'd throw it on Craigslist as is, and call local wrecking yards to see what you can get for it.

You may want to also try selling it on a Honda-specific and/or CRV-specific forum website. That's how I found numerous motivated buyers for a totaled car that I bought back.

 

[Vega$ NSX]

With the $7,300 buy another car, park it in a lot and have another car smash into it causing roughly $2,700. Keep repeating this process until you become a millionaire.

 

[Aluminsx]

I'm a bit confused on why Nationwide considered your CRV stolen after several months and why did it take so long for them to settle the claim that their client caused? Here in New York a car will generate "storage charges" while it sits in a yard sometimes to the tune of 50-75 dollars a day. In your case that would be a minimum of 4500 bucks in storage. Ridiculous I know. I really hate insurance companies. I guess in this case it worked out for you but your insurance company never even should have gotten involved.

 

[docjohn]

With the $7,300 buy another car, park it in a lot and have another car smash into it causing roughly $2,700. Keep repeating this process until you become a millionaire.

genius!

 

[Hard Five]

I'm a bit confused on why Nationwide considered your CRV stolen after several months and why did it take so long for them to settle the claim that their client caused? Here in New York a car will generate "storage charges" while it sits in a yard sometimes to the tune of 50-75 dollars a day. In your case that would be a minimum of 4500 bucks in storage. Ridiculous I know. I really hate insurance companies. I guess in this case it worked out for you but your insurance company never even should have gotten involved.

He didn't state Nationwide ever took possession of the vehicle, he said that a Nationwide adjuster "came by". The owner probably had possession of the CRV the entire time until Progressive got involved. Second, Nationwide didn't consider the CRV stolen, they likely found the other car to be stolen, so the Nationwide policy that covered the other vehicle involved denied as no insurance company is going to pay out when someone steals a vehicle.

I would respectfully disagree about getting your own insurance (Progressive in this case) involved. You pay them for insurance for a reason. I'm not going to expect someone who hits my car to be able to actually cover my damages; in a perfect world this would be the case but they're are so many ass hats with minimum or no coverage that its criminal. I'll cover myself, make sure it gets handled quickly, and if Progressive is able to bill Nationwide for their costs - then good for them. If not, well... I don't really care about Progressives bottom line. The honest truth is the CRV owner has no contract with Nationwide, which means Nationwide can drags its feet all it wants to and their really isn't much you can do about it (which is exactly what happened here). Insurance companies do suck no doubt, but not using your own when possible is just asking to be given the shaft.