I was rear-ended, in my '91 Explorer, in a fast food drive through. The lady that hit me was obviously 100% at fault, and admitted it. But her insurance was dragging their feet, saying they needed to send an inspector, were going to total the car, etc., and I was getting sick of waiting on them, so I called our state insurance commissioner's office to ask how long they had before they had to cough up. Turns out they have 90 days, so I told them it had only been a month or so, so no problem.
But the lady at the commissioner's office still asked me which insurance outfit it was. I told her (Farm Bureau), and didn't think much of it.
Then I called MY insurance guy (State Farm), and he told me that they could NOT total my daily driver for less than some minimum "basic transportation" value, which is NOT the car's actual market value if it is, indeed, your daily driver. He said that value was something like $7500, but wasn't sure.
Further, he said they cannot just "total" your car and leave you without the equivalent vehicle. He stated that they must "make you whole", which means finding and delivering an equivalent vehicle, which you must agree is equivalent, or paying you what the estimated repair cost is.
In effect, the law here is: "Put up or shut up", meaning that if they're going to total your car, they effectively have to prove that it was only worth the value they're offering you by finding and delivering to you a replacement vehicle that you agree is a suitable replacement. You don't have to do the leg work. After all, you aren't getting paid to shop around for the car.
He also said that he (my insurance company) could, and would pay me, and then recoup the money back from the other insurance company if I wanted them to do so. He had some rather nasty-sounding term for this procedure, but I don't remember it.
Anyhow, he (my agent) wanted to make a conference call with me to the other insurance company's agent, so I stayed on the line. It turned out that nobody was at that office at that moment, so he left a message.
This was at about 4pm on a Friday.
About 8am the next day, the doorbell rang and it was Fed Ex with a check for the full super-high estimate that I'd gotten from the local Ford Dealer (about $1800).
They wanted to replace and repaint the rear lift gate and do some straightening.
Of course, I did nothing, because the seals were all intact, and everything still works fine. $1800 in my pocket.
So don't let the guilty driver's insurance company buffalo you! They always want to get off cheap, of course. And if you agree, they get away with it.
To this day, I don't know if the state insurance commissioner's office also called them, but somehow, they got the fear of God put into them that day, and stopped dragging their feet! Don't let 'em rip you off!
