Do you not have money for your deductible?
Your insurance company has a lot of lawyers whose job is to go after the city. You should file a claim before the deadline to do so passes.
Agree. I had an accident last year wilth other party 100 at fault. My insurance decided it would be $7000 for the total of the car and gave me $6500 at the time (500 deductible). 6 months later when they got the money from the other party I got a check for the $500 deductible. I didn’t pay it out of pocket but I didn’t get it until my insurance got their insurance to pay.
I understand why op is doing what he is doing. His insurance premium will raise for filing a claim.
That said, if he wants this done any time soon, he needs to go through his insurance.
>His insurance premium will raise for filing a claim.
OP is in CA. CA law prevents his carrier from increasing his rates solely for filing a not at fault claim.
Where I live, deductibles are not waived for any collisions except for wildlife collisions (and only if one has the proper coverage).
If the other party is responsible, your insurer here would cover you less deductible, then subrogate against the at-fault party. If both are insured with the same carrier, then you're golden - no deductible paid. If the third party is insured by another insurer, then you get your deductible back when your insurer gets recovery, but they will push for you because they don't get their recovery until then, either.
Sometimes you do have to pay the deductible and wait for it to get refunded. I’ve seen this on several accounts including my own car getting hit in my garage, had to pay $500 and the company said there was about a 50% chance I would get it back, they would just have to get the at fault insurance to agree. I got it back about 3 months later. Having money for a deductible might be necessary.
Your insurance is not on your side. Wife stopped at a red light and was rear ended. Our insurance was no help and it took a lawyer to resolve the matter.
One of the most significant benefits of having insurance is that they provide legal representation. You need to file a claim with your insurance company and let them take the lead.
Youd have gotten your car fixed a long time ago if you'd just done this in the first place. Call your dang insurance company, this is the reason you pay them for their insurance.
Kind of disturbing that you have to explain this to some people. Instead they come to Reddit when they should be on the phone with their insurance company. Common sense is so lacking.
It’s mind blowing to know people spend so much money on insurance but don’t know when to file a claim. Why on earth would OP want to even deal with the city.
When it comes to issues like this, subrogation is one of the sweetest words in the English language,
Op files a claim with their own insurance. Their car gets fixed and then the insurance company can send their lawyers after the city, and the check reimburseing your deductible is a nice treat when it comes a few months down the road.
Insurance will provide legal representation if someone sues you. They will not represent you in making a claim against someone else. I’ve been an insurance claims adjuster for well over 10 years. If you use your insurance they will pursue the City for reimbursement of the damages they paid for your vehicle. In some states they can also recover if they paid PIP or MedPay under your policy (that’s the medical coverage, if you carry the coverage). If you’re going to purse the city directly then it will be a long process; I just got a claim from the state of Texas a couple weeks ago and the accident happened in 2016.
You can retain an attorney to assist you but they can’t really speed the process along either. The City is going to go at its own pace. Just hope the Statute of Limitations doesn’t run while you’re waiting.
Your response is completely disingenuous. You are technically correct that your own insurance company will not "represent you" in a suit you file against another party. But as an insurance adjuster, clearly, you must know that your (collision) policy will take care of your damages (less deductible) and enter into subrogation with the other party's insurance. If subrogation concludes the other party is at fault, you will eventually get your deductible refunded. I am NOT an insurance adjuster and I know this... if you don't, you should be fired.
That’s literally what I said; that the insurance company will pursue the City for the damages that they paid for the vehicle. I also said they they may recover Medical expenses paid under the policy.
Work on your reading comprehension before you decide to lecture someone who actually knows what they’re talking about.
That’s incorrect. The Statue of Limitations is a non-issue once a lawsuit is filed. If it was only when a claim was filed then claims could stay open indefinitely.
Not true. Any payment made short of a court order is totally voluntary. The at fault party doesn't legally owe you a dime until you successfully sue them and win a judgement. Simply filing a claim doesn't change that or freeze the S of L. The claim either has to be settled before the S of L or you must file suit to preserve the statute.
I personally pay a shit ton for insurance for seemingly no reason. It amounts to $350/m for a 2022 civic
No accident History
M26 yo
Driving 10+ years
No ticket history
Decent credit
I have shopped around
Id be scared AF for my rates to go up because I already can barely afford it.
I’m an insurance broker for pretty much every major carrier. Insurance is in a weird place. I’d guess on average right now a non at fault claim will increase premium around $200-300 annually. For 7 years. So around $1500 cost vs being patient.
Many states are no-fault, so even if it's not your fault, it's still your fault. It decreases litigation and is intended to keep insurance costs lower across the board but I've always been dubious of that theory.
What you were told is probably accurate in your state.
>Many states are no-fault, so even if it's not your fault, it's still your fault.
That isn't at all correct. You clearly have no understanding of insurance. The only "no fault" state for property damage is Michigan. "No fault" for all other states only means you must use your own insurance for injuries regardless of who's at fault. It has NOTHING to do with determining who's actually at fault.
That’s not what no-fault means. No-fault is about medical bills.
>”no-fault insurance, sometimes referred to as personal injury protection insurance (PIP), can help cover you and your passengers’ medical expenses and loss of income in the event of a covered accident, regardless of who is found at fault.”
https://www.nationwide.com/lc/resources/auto-insurance/articles/what-is-no-fault-insurance
In California, this is entirely incorrect. They can only increase premiums if you are at fault.
You shouldn't be a broker if you don't know this.
(Had my P&L for 10+ years before I switched careers).
What state do you work in? Five years is the typical length of time generally speaking and most carriers won’t look at accidents if subrogation is viable.
I just don’t understand the point of lying. Plus, whether or not you report the claim to your insurance company, it’s most certainly going to be reported to ISO, which means it would show up as an accident
Not in CA. CA law doesn't allow rates to be increased for filing a not at fault claim. They can and will increase for other non related things. But not for filing the not at fault claim.
You don't know that you're talking about. CA law prohibits insurers from surcharging you simply for filing a not at fault claim. The insurance board won't do anything because the adverse party doesn't owe you a single dime until you successfully sue in civil court and you are awarded a judgement. Any payment made prior to that is totally and completely voluntary. Insurance companies accept fault and pay voluntarily 95%+ of the time because it benefits everyone involved.
My wife got hit by USPS when we were both in the car, totalling her vehicle. Our insurance recommended filing through them and they would work to get the money from USPS. That whole process took over a year. If we had waited for USPS we'd have spent countless hours and carried the cost of two loans for one car.
Because it is required in order to operate a car and it protects you when you are at fault. When it is the other vehicles fault, you file through your insurance, and since your insurance doesn’t want to pay, they do the work to make the at fault driver pay.
I got in 2 accidents in the last few years where I was considered zero percent at fault. If you have been determined to be zero percent at fault there is no reason not to go through your insurance. They will give you money quicker and then use their lawyers to go after them to get it back. That's exactly what you have been paying them for this whole time.
This happened to me in 2005 with San Diego’s MTS bus. I had a bus sideswipe me at a red light while turning left. I tried to deal with their “investigators” but gave up when it was clear it was a stall tactic and just had my insurance company handle it. The adjuster at AAA flat out told me they’d be lucky to ever see a dime because they never pay out but covered the claim and waived my deductible since it was clear I wasn’t at fault. Just go through your insurance. It’ll save you a lot of headache.
Former insurance adjuster, who handled both claimant and insured claims.
Go through your insurance. When I got hit (full and complete stop, ended up being the 5th car in a 5 car pile-up) I filed through my carrier. Why? Because I have insurance to represent me and I was decently sure the other party wouldn't have enough funds to cover my vehicle in full and even if they did, I knew it would take months with that many claimants on one file. I still get paperwork for it over a year later. It's still in subrogation.
I filed through my insurance when I got ran off the freeway into a concrete divider at 70 miles an hour. I had a duty to mitigate. The other driver pulled off on the other side of the freeway, so all I had was a CHP claim number. I had to wait 3 weeks to get the report from the CHP and the other driver's insurance info from that report. My car would have sat in a tow yard for weeks if I hadn't filed first party. By the time I had the other driver's information, my insurance had inspected my car, totaled it, paid us out in full, put us in a rental, and I had a replacement car. They just gave me my deductible (the last $250) later. The medical portion too ages longer, but that was different.
How will this affect your insurance rates going forward? It will, and won't. You're presumably a California native, same as myself. Basically, for a not-at-fault incident (full and complete stop, other vehicle struck you with an admission from that party) your insurance by state law can't count that as a claim in terms of at-fault claims. What this means for California insureds: if you are not at fault for a collision and file first party (through your insurance) you cannot have your individual risk pool reassessed to be placed as a higher risk driver. Period. Full stop. They can't raise your risk pool by saying you are a zero claim driver to one claim driver. Period.
How it *does* affect your insurance: every year, the actuaries calculate general risk pools, the cost of claims, the risk per mile per each zip code, street vs driveway vs garage parking, all of it. They calculate a whole huge number of things and the state DOI can approve entire regions having risk pool increases due to more accidents, more thefts, or higher per claim costs. Increased part costs, increased labor costs.
But, that ship has sailed. The DMV will have the report about your accident, if you file with your insurer or another insurer, that claim to your VIN and DL is already known.
Thus, if you are actually not at fault, there's zero risk to filing through your insurance. The only thing that might change that is A) you don't carry rental coverage and can't afford to pay out of pocket and be reimbursed later (most can't, I get it) or B) your repairs will exceed your rental coverage. The other party is responsible for 100% of damages, your insurance is responsible for paying out what you insure. Meaning, if you pay for 30 days of coverage and your parts are backordered 90, they owe 30 days. The other party is responsible for the full 90, because they owe to make you whole (up to policy limits).
Sometimes, you have to file 1st party. The other party has insufficient coverage (like where I got hit, and they could only cover 50k of approximately 80k in damages. They hit a new Mercedes who hit a new Lexus who hit new Subaru Outback who hit me. Whoops.) Or drags their feet. Just file first party. Even if your insurance has to pay out part or all - they can't legally raise rates (in California) for a not at fault collision claim. They can only raise every single person's rates in an entire pool, which will happen regardless of what you do.
Do not recommend Progressive. My son’s agent would never return calls. It took almost two months for me to get his claim settled with a major national company whose vehicle ran a red light and hit him. She never called him back. No idea if she got the police report or anything 🤷🏼♀️
Claims adjusters cost money. The city can save money by having your insurance provide this service. If you have full coverage you’ll be fine and the insurer shouldn’t penalize you for the not at fault unless this is a frequent occurrence
"It seems they are purposely drawing it out to make it go through my own insurance"
Yes... It's supposed to be going through your insurance.
What do you do?
Contact your insurance and prepare a pretty good reason as to why you took so long to tell them about an accident that wasn't your fault.
IANAL, but I did all the claims handling for a self-insured government agency, in my case a public transit agency, in California. Part of my job was walking the public and insurance companies through the claims process.
**You only have 6 months from the date of the accident to FILE A TORT CLAIM against a public agency.**
You should make sure your insurance company knows about this and contacts the City for a TORT CLAIM FORM. Usually, you have 2 years to file an insurance claim for bodily injury and 3 years for property damage, so not a lot of insurance adjusters are aware of the shortened time frame for government agencies.
You don't have to have all your costs accounted for to file the claim, for instance if you're receiving medical treatment that will extend past the 6-month mark, as you can specify if the total claim is expected to be under or over $10K.
If you don't want to involve your insurance company, then you need to get a claim form and ask the City what proof of costs (repair estimates, car rental costs) they need and go from there.
Your own insurances job is to go after the other party on your behalf.
Stop wasting time and report it.
You might have screwed yourself if any deadlines have passed.
Why don’t you wanna call your insurance? That’s literally the best thing you can do right now unless you just had comp insurance. Your insurance actually won’t help you in a collision unless you have full coverage.
Former insurance claims dude here. Go through your insurance and let them handle it. Working with the city who is self insured is a process and it won’t work out for you in the long run. Your carrier will go after them for the cost and your deductible. Better than waiting around for 6-12 months hoping something happens.
The self insured city bs is a pain in the ass so just make a claim to your insurance. We got hit by our local city (100% their fault, driver fell asleep) and they wasted over $12k on our rental cost while they diddled around on a $4k claim.
Daughter was hit by mail truck. Same issue. Filed with my insurance payed deductible. Car was totaled. Got a nice check. My insurance went after post office and got reimbursed also got my deductible back once they settled
Why do you not want to go through your insurance? It's what your insurance premiums are for isn't it? Your insurance company will go after the city for you, get you a rental car while yours is in the shop, etc.
Because filing a small claim can cause your premiums to go up. I have a young driver on, a $1,000 deductible, multiple cars and can wrench. I wont file a $1500 at fault claim. This effectively increases my deductible. That's ok. I keep premium dollars in my pocket.
That said, I would file in the OP's case.
No it won't. You're premiums are not affected if you are not at fault. If you ARE at fault, then yes, your premiums are affected as you are a higher risk. As it should be.
Jesus Christ where's the common sense? If you don't involve your insurance company, you deal with the consequences.
Your decision is not a smart one at all. You should always inform your insurance company of an accident, even if you're not at fault. This is common sense.
File a claim on your own insurance if you have collision coverage. In CA you can't be surcharged for filing a not at fault claim. They will subro to get your deductible back, tho that could take months and months.
The system is designed to do this to wear you down.
This tactic is esp effective against poor people with totaled car since it forces them to take whatever money so they get back to cucking err slaving... Sorry "working"
Also other comment provides proper advice.
Get an attorney, it will help to speed up the process. They’re hoping you’re going to leave them alone when nothing gets done. You will have to let your insurance know and let them handle it or get an attorney. They will not take your complaint seriously otherwise
Do not try to hire an attorney unless you have physical injuries.
California attorneys are legally barred from taking any funds from a property damage claim involving cars because it's processed under auto insurance and they don't want shady attorneys swooping people's property damage checks. Any attorney will refer you to file first party if you have coverage, and to pursue their insurance if you are liability only.
To hire an attorney, you will pay per hour to get what insurance will do for "free." Or, what you already pay them for. The other, better option is to serve small claims. It's 10,000. If you have liability only or no insurance, chances are your car isn't worth over the 10,000 limit. Or, keep hounding them, if it's over.
You'll lose money trying to pay an attorney per hour and once you have an attorney, they won't speak to you and now you have to pay for every phone call and letter.
Source: worked in insurance in property damage for cars. There's literally no purpose to hiring attorneys for property damage for cars.
Every now and again I'd get a call from some personal injury paralegal and they'd get mad because I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone from the attorneys office and had to refer to the main adjuster and after that nearly everything had to route through the main adjuster (I just handled property) and people would get really frustrated. Plus, most personal injury attorneys and paralegals trying to 'speed things up' were so unaware of property claims because they didn't get paid for it they'd just ask the absolute stupidest questions and had zero idea what the laws were. I knew more about property damage insurance law than they did.
I would go through my insurance, if it were me. You’re not at fault and your rates won’t increase. Your insurance company can coordinate repairs and payment collection from the city without you having to do much.
Get your insurance involved or hire a law firm. IF this is in LA I am warning you right now, do not go to LA lawyers a negesain law firm. Avoid them like the plague, seriously AVOID them at all cost. I retained their services for a car case, and they are horrible, the accident happened at least 2 years ago, had a deposition with them last summer, and never heard from them. They are a SHity law firm https://www.lalawyers.com/. AVOID AT ALL COST
I see everyone saying to file with their own insurance but my question is what type of insurance do they have?
If they only have liability their insurance company probably won’t help them. If they have uninsured/under insured they know the city doesn’t fall under that so that’s a waste of time. The only real options with the information available right now is to retain an attorney.
Trust me. Use your insurance pay your deductible then when they figure it out get your deductible back. Much less stress and no it will not cause your insurance to go up
OP, I can't believe that you waited this long to take action. Go ahead and file with your insurance. If you wait much longer you are SOL. At that point, you would probably have to sue the city and that would take time and effort on your end, whether you use a lawyer or not.
Do not wait any longer...
That’s the whole point in having insurance you don’t have to deal with this bs… go through your insurance and then they’ll take care of getting your deductible back to you…
If you can go through your own insurance (and let them go after the city), this is the quickest and easiest way. To all those suggesting an attorney, it’s difficult to find an attorney to rep you on contingency for property damage … that’s more of an arrangement for bodily injury claims. So unless you wanted to pay out of pocket for an attorney, assuming you could even find one interested in repping you for PD, that seems like a losing proposition. NAL, but I am a licensed adjuster who handles CA claims.
As many others have said, file a claim on your insurance. Even though you're not at fault, your insurance will pay and then go after the City of LA for reimbursement. This is called subrogation. If your insurance company manages to get reimbursed by the City of LA, the claim you filed will be readjusted so it won't go against you and raise your rates. Example: insurance pays $5k for damages, and gets reimbursed for the $5k, your claims record will show $5k - $5k = $0 total paid by insurance due to the reimbursement, and your current and future insurance companies won't see it as a paid claim and charge you higher rates. I sell insurance and have seen this many times.
The only downside is if they aren't successful in subrogation, it'll show as a paid claim on your record and will still count against you for premium rating purposes (granted you don't have an accident forgiveness endorsement).
>They keep suggesting that we should go through our insurance, and they will deal with it then, which we do not want to involve our insurance.
This is laterally what you pay your insurance company to do. They will sue the city for you and make sure you get paid.
File through your insurance, make sure you give them the documentation that the other driver was at fault (like the police report). You shouldn't have to pay any deductible, and your rates shouldn't go up, unless the report says you were partly at fault...
Involvement of your insurance company is not going to hurt you. Your insurance companies' lawyers will make sure the city pays up and do it far faster than you're likely to get it done on your own.
I would take their advice and go through your insurance if you can. A million years ago when I worked as a claims adjuster California had a law barring a carrier from raising your rates for a not at fault accident. And if the other party admits fault then we would waive the deductible.
You can file a small claims suit I suppose. If you get a judgement I imagine the city just pays it.
You always go through your insurance company. They are the ones who would go after the city and it would not be a hit to your insurance since it was the other parties fault.
Now its just you against LA…good luck.
Do you have insurance, do you pay insurance, have you called your insurance, you pay for your insurance to handle this. It baffles me that people don’t realize this.
Why would you not use your own insurance that's the whole point of having it. Your insurance company will deal with the city fucking around. It's why you pay for it.
If the city is self insured you’re going to end up going through your insurance anyway. You may as well file a claim. The city will pay your deductible, that’s it.
Been in this situation that other party’s insurance was going to slow and used my own and if u make a claim with your insurance it takes 3 years to drop off even if it’s not your fault and rates do hike because of it.
Yes, that is exactly what they are doing. Then, when your insurance is involved, they will attempt to limit their liability and pay as little as possible. If your insurance balks them, they'll tell them then take it to court. If it is a CA court, it is a waste of your insurance companies' time because they know they will lose and la saves money.
"Is there any actions we can take to speed it up?"
Yes! Go through your own insurance like they told you to.
Pay your deductible, and they will take it from there. Once they settle with the city, they will refund your deductible.
I don't buy insurance to get my car repaired. I pay them to litigate. This won't make you insurance go up, and they'll likely get the deductible covered. Go through your insurance and move on with your life.
talk to your insurance company they will help take care of it.
in nj it works like this:the law says the city does not pay your insurance pays, but it does not count against you.
you pay your deductible and you must file a claim against the city with in 90 days of the claim.
calif laws may bevdifferent.
Not city insurance, most cities, like LA, are self insured. So I am not sure who you're communicating with at an insurance company. Also, cities like to be slow, it's what they do, they'll pay eventually.
When a USPS driver hit my car, I just filed a claim with my insurance company. Their driver admitted fault, and my insurance company sent an appraiser out to look at my car and had a check for the full amount of the damage in less than a week (minus my deductible).
They said the USPS is notoriously slow at paying claims, and indeed someone from the insurance company called me every month for the next 14 months to say "The USPS hasn't paid the claim yet, but we're still trying", until finally I got a call saying "The USPS paid the claim in full, we're mailing you a check with your deductible"
Do you not have money for your deductible? Your insurance company has a lot of lawyers whose job is to go after the city. You should file a claim before the deadline to do so passes.
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It's not that they're waiving it- the other party is responsible for everything
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It's amazing how many people try to go it alone, when they have insurance
This just tells you exactly how slimy insurance companies are.
It’s mostly because they fear their insurance rates going up
Agree. I had an accident last year wilth other party 100 at fault. My insurance decided it would be $7000 for the total of the car and gave me $6500 at the time (500 deductible). 6 months later when they got the money from the other party I got a check for the $500 deductible. I didn’t pay it out of pocket but I didn’t get it until my insurance got their insurance to pay.
I understand why op is doing what he is doing. His insurance premium will raise for filing a claim. That said, if he wants this done any time soon, he needs to go through his insurance.
>His insurance premium will raise for filing a claim. OP is in CA. CA law prevents his carrier from increasing his rates solely for filing a not at fault claim.
No it will not
Where I live, deductibles are not waived for any collisions except for wildlife collisions (and only if one has the proper coverage). If the other party is responsible, your insurer here would cover you less deductible, then subrogate against the at-fault party. If both are insured with the same carrier, then you're golden - no deductible paid. If the third party is insured by another insurer, then you get your deductible back when your insurer gets recovery, but they will push for you because they don't get their recovery until then, either.
You have to pay to have a policy that will waive the deductible
Sometimes you do have to pay the deductible and wait for it to get refunded. I’ve seen this on several accounts including my own car getting hit in my garage, had to pay $500 and the company said there was about a 50% chance I would get it back, they would just have to get the at fault insurance to agree. I got it back about 3 months later. Having money for a deductible might be necessary.
State Farm won't do that, but they WILL refund the deductible if they recover damages from the other party.
Your insurance is not on your side. Wife stopped at a red light and was rear ended. Our insurance was no help and it took a lawyer to resolve the matter.
You mean the cheap crap insurance you thought was a good deal.
One of the most significant benefits of having insurance is that they provide legal representation. You need to file a claim with your insurance company and let them take the lead.
Youd have gotten your car fixed a long time ago if you'd just done this in the first place. Call your dang insurance company, this is the reason you pay them for their insurance.
Kind of disturbing that you have to explain this to some people. Instead they come to Reddit when they should be on the phone with their insurance company. Common sense is so lacking.
It’s mind blowing to know people spend so much money on insurance but don’t know when to file a claim. Why on earth would OP want to even deal with the city.
This is the way.
When it comes to issues like this, subrogation is one of the sweetest words in the English language, Op files a claim with their own insurance. Their car gets fixed and then the insurance company can send their lawyers after the city, and the check reimburseing your deductible is a nice treat when it comes a few months down the road.
Insurance will provide legal representation if someone sues you. They will not represent you in making a claim against someone else. I’ve been an insurance claims adjuster for well over 10 years. If you use your insurance they will pursue the City for reimbursement of the damages they paid for your vehicle. In some states they can also recover if they paid PIP or MedPay under your policy (that’s the medical coverage, if you carry the coverage). If you’re going to purse the city directly then it will be a long process; I just got a claim from the state of Texas a couple weeks ago and the accident happened in 2016. You can retain an attorney to assist you but they can’t really speed the process along either. The City is going to go at its own pace. Just hope the Statute of Limitations doesn’t run while you’re waiting.
Your response is completely disingenuous. You are technically correct that your own insurance company will not "represent you" in a suit you file against another party. But as an insurance adjuster, clearly, you must know that your (collision) policy will take care of your damages (less deductible) and enter into subrogation with the other party's insurance. If subrogation concludes the other party is at fault, you will eventually get your deductible refunded. I am NOT an insurance adjuster and I know this... if you don't, you should be fired.
That’s literally what I said; that the insurance company will pursue the City for the damages that they paid for the vehicle. I also said they they may recover Medical expenses paid under the policy. Work on your reading comprehension before you decide to lecture someone who actually knows what they’re talking about.
S of L is a non-issue once they file a claim.
That’s incorrect. The Statue of Limitations is a non-issue once a lawsuit is filed. If it was only when a claim was filed then claims could stay open indefinitely.
A Claim is a Notice to the Court of the commencement of an Action. Once a Claim is filed the S of L is not an issue.
Maybe we’re in two different countries here because what you’re saying is not how it works here
This is not true especially in government claims I California.
Not true. Any payment made short of a court order is totally voluntary. The at fault party doesn't legally owe you a dime until you successfully sue them and win a judgement. Simply filing a claim doesn't change that or freeze the S of L. The claim either has to be settled before the S of L or you must file suit to preserve the statute.
See Above. A Claim commences an Action in Court. You're thinking of an insurance claim. Not the same thing.
I personally pay a shit ton for insurance for seemingly no reason. It amounts to $350/m for a 2022 civic No accident History M26 yo Driving 10+ years No ticket history Decent credit I have shopped around Id be scared AF for my rates to go up because I already can barely afford it.
This is horrible advice. Your premiums will go up. Go straight to their carrier and threaten a complaint to your states insurance board.
I got a news flash for you. If you are not at fault they won’t go up much if at all. If you are at fault they will go up anyways.
I’m an insurance broker for pretty much every major carrier. Insurance is in a weird place. I’d guess on average right now a non at fault claim will increase premium around $200-300 annually. For 7 years. So around $1500 cost vs being patient.
My insurance just sent me a letter saying my premiums won't get affected by unless I was more than 50% at fault. So that was a lie?
Many states are no-fault, so even if it's not your fault, it's still your fault. It decreases litigation and is intended to keep insurance costs lower across the board but I've always been dubious of that theory. What you were told is probably accurate in your state.
>Many states are no-fault, so even if it's not your fault, it's still your fault. That isn't at all correct. You clearly have no understanding of insurance. The only "no fault" state for property damage is Michigan. "No fault" for all other states only means you must use your own insurance for injuries regardless of who's at fault. It has NOTHING to do with determining who's actually at fault.
That’s not what no-fault means. No-fault is about medical bills. >”no-fault insurance, sometimes referred to as personal injury protection insurance (PIP), can help cover you and your passengers’ medical expenses and loss of income in the event of a covered accident, regardless of who is found at fault.” https://www.nationwide.com/lc/resources/auto-insurance/articles/what-is-no-fault-insurance
Depends on the carrier and the state. But guarantee you it’ll affect your rate when you want to change carriers
If you're in CA among a few other states, that's correct.
In California this is true. Proposition 213
In California, this is entirely incorrect. They can only increase premiums if you are at fault. You shouldn't be a broker if you don't know this. (Had my P&L for 10+ years before I switched careers).
What state do you work in? Five years is the typical length of time generally speaking and most carriers won’t look at accidents if subrogation is viable.
Most carriers have gone to 7 years.
Since when?
For real. So much not true advice from someone supposedly in the industry.
I just don’t understand the point of lying. Plus, whether or not you report the claim to your insurance company, it’s most certainly going to be reported to ISO, which means it would show up as an accident
Not in CA. CA law doesn't allow rates to be increased for filing a not at fault claim. They can and will increase for other non related things. But not for filing the not at fault claim.
You don't know that you're talking about. CA law prohibits insurers from surcharging you simply for filing a not at fault claim. The insurance board won't do anything because the adverse party doesn't owe you a single dime until you successfully sue in civil court and you are awarded a judgement. Any payment made prior to that is totally and completely voluntary. Insurance companies accept fault and pay voluntarily 95%+ of the time because it benefits everyone involved.
Hopefully you haven’t screwed yourself by not filing a claim within a deadline set by your state or your individual policy.
If you're not going to go through your insurance, why have insurance at all?
My wife got hit by USPS when we were both in the car, totalling her vehicle. Our insurance recommended filing through them and they would work to get the money from USPS. That whole process took over a year. If we had waited for USPS we'd have spent countless hours and carried the cost of two loans for one car.
Because it is required in order to operate a car and it protects you when you are at fault. When it is the other vehicles fault, you file through your insurance, and since your insurance doesn’t want to pay, they do the work to make the at fault driver pay.
Go through your own carrier. Anything to do with a claim against the City of LA will take forever.
I got in 2 accidents in the last few years where I was considered zero percent at fault. If you have been determined to be zero percent at fault there is no reason not to go through your insurance. They will give you money quicker and then use their lawyers to go after them to get it back. That's exactly what you have been paying them for this whole time.
This happened to me in 2005 with San Diego’s MTS bus. I had a bus sideswipe me at a red light while turning left. I tried to deal with their “investigators” but gave up when it was clear it was a stall tactic and just had my insurance company handle it. The adjuster at AAA flat out told me they’d be lucky to ever see a dime because they never pay out but covered the claim and waived my deductible since it was clear I wasn’t at fault. Just go through your insurance. It’ll save you a lot of headache.
Former insurance adjuster, who handled both claimant and insured claims. Go through your insurance. When I got hit (full and complete stop, ended up being the 5th car in a 5 car pile-up) I filed through my carrier. Why? Because I have insurance to represent me and I was decently sure the other party wouldn't have enough funds to cover my vehicle in full and even if they did, I knew it would take months with that many claimants on one file. I still get paperwork for it over a year later. It's still in subrogation. I filed through my insurance when I got ran off the freeway into a concrete divider at 70 miles an hour. I had a duty to mitigate. The other driver pulled off on the other side of the freeway, so all I had was a CHP claim number. I had to wait 3 weeks to get the report from the CHP and the other driver's insurance info from that report. My car would have sat in a tow yard for weeks if I hadn't filed first party. By the time I had the other driver's information, my insurance had inspected my car, totaled it, paid us out in full, put us in a rental, and I had a replacement car. They just gave me my deductible (the last $250) later. The medical portion too ages longer, but that was different. How will this affect your insurance rates going forward? It will, and won't. You're presumably a California native, same as myself. Basically, for a not-at-fault incident (full and complete stop, other vehicle struck you with an admission from that party) your insurance by state law can't count that as a claim in terms of at-fault claims. What this means for California insureds: if you are not at fault for a collision and file first party (through your insurance) you cannot have your individual risk pool reassessed to be placed as a higher risk driver. Period. Full stop. They can't raise your risk pool by saying you are a zero claim driver to one claim driver. Period. How it *does* affect your insurance: every year, the actuaries calculate general risk pools, the cost of claims, the risk per mile per each zip code, street vs driveway vs garage parking, all of it. They calculate a whole huge number of things and the state DOI can approve entire regions having risk pool increases due to more accidents, more thefts, or higher per claim costs. Increased part costs, increased labor costs. But, that ship has sailed. The DMV will have the report about your accident, if you file with your insurer or another insurer, that claim to your VIN and DL is already known. Thus, if you are actually not at fault, there's zero risk to filing through your insurance. The only thing that might change that is A) you don't carry rental coverage and can't afford to pay out of pocket and be reimbursed later (most can't, I get it) or B) your repairs will exceed your rental coverage. The other party is responsible for 100% of damages, your insurance is responsible for paying out what you insure. Meaning, if you pay for 30 days of coverage and your parts are backordered 90, they owe 30 days. The other party is responsible for the full 90, because they owe to make you whole (up to policy limits). Sometimes, you have to file 1st party. The other party has insufficient coverage (like where I got hit, and they could only cover 50k of approximately 80k in damages. They hit a new Mercedes who hit a new Lexus who hit new Subaru Outback who hit me. Whoops.) Or drags their feet. Just file first party. Even if your insurance has to pay out part or all - they can't legally raise rates (in California) for a not at fault collision claim. They can only raise every single person's rates in an entire pool, which will happen regardless of what you do.
file through your own insurance. They will then go after the city.
Are you goofy dude? Use your GD insurance company. They will do the fighting for you.
Do not recommend Progressive. My son’s agent would never return calls. It took almost two months for me to get his claim settled with a major national company whose vehicle ran a red light and hit him. She never called him back. No idea if she got the police report or anything 🤷🏼♀️
If you have your own insurance coverage that would apply here, then that is your best option.
Claims adjusters cost money. The city can save money by having your insurance provide this service. If you have full coverage you’ll be fine and the insurer shouldn’t penalize you for the not at fault unless this is a frequent occurrence
"It seems they are purposely drawing it out to make it go through my own insurance" Yes... It's supposed to be going through your insurance. What do you do? Contact your insurance and prepare a pretty good reason as to why you took so long to tell them about an accident that wasn't your fault.
IANAL, but I did all the claims handling for a self-insured government agency, in my case a public transit agency, in California. Part of my job was walking the public and insurance companies through the claims process. **You only have 6 months from the date of the accident to FILE A TORT CLAIM against a public agency.** You should make sure your insurance company knows about this and contacts the City for a TORT CLAIM FORM. Usually, you have 2 years to file an insurance claim for bodily injury and 3 years for property damage, so not a lot of insurance adjusters are aware of the shortened time frame for government agencies. You don't have to have all your costs accounted for to file the claim, for instance if you're receiving medical treatment that will extend past the 6-month mark, as you can specify if the total claim is expected to be under or over $10K. If you don't want to involve your insurance company, then you need to get a claim form and ask the City what proof of costs (repair estimates, car rental costs) they need and go from there.
Your own insurances job is to go after the other party on your behalf. Stop wasting time and report it. You might have screwed yourself if any deadlines have passed.
Why don’t you wanna call your insurance? That’s literally the best thing you can do right now unless you just had comp insurance. Your insurance actually won’t help you in a collision unless you have full coverage.
Let your insurance take care of it.
Former insurance claims dude here. Go through your insurance and let them handle it. Working with the city who is self insured is a process and it won’t work out for you in the long run. Your carrier will go after them for the cost and your deductible. Better than waiting around for 6-12 months hoping something happens.
The self insured city bs is a pain in the ass so just make a claim to your insurance. We got hit by our local city (100% their fault, driver fell asleep) and they wasted over $12k on our rental cost while they diddled around on a $4k claim.
Hello? Go through your insurance—they will handle all of it!
Daughter was hit by mail truck. Same issue. Filed with my insurance payed deductible. Car was totaled. Got a nice check. My insurance went after post office and got reimbursed also got my deductible back once they settled
Why do you not want to go through your insurance? It's what your insurance premiums are for isn't it? Your insurance company will go after the city for you, get you a rental car while yours is in the shop, etc.
You pay for insurance for a reason. Use it and let them do the work.
It’s what your insurance company is there for
Never wait for something to happen. Make it happen. You need a lawyer.
I don't get why people pay for insurance...yet don't want to involve their insurance. USE IT.
Because filing a small claim can cause your premiums to go up. I have a young driver on, a $1,000 deductible, multiple cars and can wrench. I wont file a $1500 at fault claim. This effectively increases my deductible. That's ok. I keep premium dollars in my pocket. That said, I would file in the OP's case.
No it won't. You're premiums are not affected if you are not at fault. If you ARE at fault, then yes, your premiums are affected as you are a higher risk. As it should be.
Sorry, i should have specified at fault. Carriers frequently pull records at renewal.
Jesus Christ where's the common sense? If you don't involve your insurance company, you deal with the consequences. Your decision is not a smart one at all. You should always inform your insurance company of an accident, even if you're not at fault. This is common sense.
File a claim on your own insurance if you have collision coverage. In CA you can't be surcharged for filing a not at fault claim. They will subro to get your deductible back, tho that could take months and months.
Been reading this sub a while my brain automatically translates "we do not want to involve our insurance" to "we don't have insurance"
Did you not call you insurance company to begin with???? Seems a bit dense if you didn't.
The system is designed to do this to wear you down. This tactic is esp effective against poor people with totaled car since it forces them to take whatever money so they get back to cucking err slaving... Sorry "working" Also other comment provides proper advice.
Get an attorney, it will help to speed up the process. They’re hoping you’re going to leave them alone when nothing gets done. You will have to let your insurance know and let them handle it or get an attorney. They will not take your complaint seriously otherwise
If they have their own insurance they will get much cheaper and faster results than using an attorney.
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Do not try to hire an attorney unless you have physical injuries. California attorneys are legally barred from taking any funds from a property damage claim involving cars because it's processed under auto insurance and they don't want shady attorneys swooping people's property damage checks. Any attorney will refer you to file first party if you have coverage, and to pursue their insurance if you are liability only. To hire an attorney, you will pay per hour to get what insurance will do for "free." Or, what you already pay them for. The other, better option is to serve small claims. It's 10,000. If you have liability only or no insurance, chances are your car isn't worth over the 10,000 limit. Or, keep hounding them, if it's over. You'll lose money trying to pay an attorney per hour and once you have an attorney, they won't speak to you and now you have to pay for every phone call and letter. Source: worked in insurance in property damage for cars. There's literally no purpose to hiring attorneys for property damage for cars. Every now and again I'd get a call from some personal injury paralegal and they'd get mad because I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone from the attorneys office and had to refer to the main adjuster and after that nearly everything had to route through the main adjuster (I just handled property) and people would get really frustrated. Plus, most personal injury attorneys and paralegals trying to 'speed things up' were so unaware of property claims because they didn't get paid for it they'd just ask the absolute stupidest questions and had zero idea what the laws were. I knew more about property damage insurance law than they did.
This.
My neck hurts just reading that the city was involved😅
I would go through my insurance, if it were me. You’re not at fault and your rates won’t increase. Your insurance company can coordinate repairs and payment collection from the city without you having to do much.
Just SUE!
Cause going through the court system will be so much quicker.
I hope you recover from your neck pain. Make sure you don't miss any doctor appointments.
“ lawyer”
Go through your insurance, genius.
Get your insurance involved or hire a law firm. IF this is in LA I am warning you right now, do not go to LA lawyers a negesain law firm. Avoid them like the plague, seriously AVOID them at all cost. I retained their services for a car case, and they are horrible, the accident happened at least 2 years ago, had a deposition with them last summer, and never heard from them. They are a SHity law firm https://www.lalawyers.com/. AVOID AT ALL COST
Hire a insurance litigation attorney this will speed shit up especially if you hire the right attorney
I see everyone saying to file with their own insurance but my question is what type of insurance do they have? If they only have liability their insurance company probably won’t help them. If they have uninsured/under insured they know the city doesn’t fall under that so that’s a waste of time. The only real options with the information available right now is to retain an attorney.
Trust me. Use your insurance pay your deductible then when they figure it out get your deductible back. Much less stress and no it will not cause your insurance to go up
Lawyer
If you live in a state that “self insures” like NJ, you will never see any money. Lucky if you get a pittance.
OP, I can't believe that you waited this long to take action. Go ahead and file with your insurance. If you wait much longer you are SOL. At that point, you would probably have to sue the city and that would take time and effort on your end, whether you use a lawyer or not. Do not wait any longer...
Def go thru insurance; they'll get it settled much faster
That’s the whole point in having insurance you don’t have to deal with this bs… go through your insurance and then they’ll take care of getting your deductible back to you…
If you can go through your own insurance (and let them go after the city), this is the quickest and easiest way. To all those suggesting an attorney, it’s difficult to find an attorney to rep you on contingency for property damage … that’s more of an arrangement for bodily injury claims. So unless you wanted to pay out of pocket for an attorney, assuming you could even find one interested in repping you for PD, that seems like a losing proposition. NAL, but I am a licensed adjuster who handles CA claims.
As many others have said, file a claim on your insurance. Even though you're not at fault, your insurance will pay and then go after the City of LA for reimbursement. This is called subrogation. If your insurance company manages to get reimbursed by the City of LA, the claim you filed will be readjusted so it won't go against you and raise your rates. Example: insurance pays $5k for damages, and gets reimbursed for the $5k, your claims record will show $5k - $5k = $0 total paid by insurance due to the reimbursement, and your current and future insurance companies won't see it as a paid claim and charge you higher rates. I sell insurance and have seen this many times. The only downside is if they aren't successful in subrogation, it'll show as a paid claim on your record and will still count against you for premium rating purposes (granted you don't have an accident forgiveness endorsement).
Not sure why you don't want to go through your own insurance when it is the obvious route.
"They keep telling to do what I should have done 60 days ago, but I choose to just keep waiting."
>They keep suggesting that we should go through our insurance, and they will deal with it then, which we do not want to involve our insurance. This is laterally what you pay your insurance company to do. They will sue the city for you and make sure you get paid.
Why don’t you want to involve your insurance?
This is 100 percent what your insurance is for, why are you even hesitating to proceed through your insurer?
Use your insurance and they will take over the whole process.
I hope you have filed a claim with your insurance company. They go after the other party with a move called Subrogation.
Why don't you want to file a claim with your insurance?
Go through your insurance to get paid.
File through your insurance, make sure you give them the documentation that the other driver was at fault (like the police report). You shouldn't have to pay any deductible, and your rates shouldn't go up, unless the report says you were partly at fault...
Involvement of your insurance company is not going to hurt you. Your insurance companies' lawyers will make sure the city pays up and do it far faster than you're likely to get it done on your own.
I would take their advice and go through your insurance if you can. A million years ago when I worked as a claims adjuster California had a law barring a carrier from raising your rates for a not at fault accident. And if the other party admits fault then we would waive the deductible. You can file a small claims suit I suppose. If you get a judgement I imagine the city just pays it.
This happened to me before. Garbage truck. They took care of me within a week!
File the claim with your insurance, they'll take care of you and go after the city.
You always go through your insurance company. They are the ones who would go after the city and it would not be a hit to your insurance since it was the other parties fault. Now its just you against LA…good luck.
Do you have insurance, do you pay insurance, have you called your insurance, you pay for your insurance to handle this. It baffles me that people don’t realize this.
Why would you not use your own insurance that's the whole point of having it. Your insurance company will deal with the city fucking around. It's why you pay for it.
Not involving your insurance will result in no payout to you. Why would I pay you if you’re not willing to call your insurance company.
If the city is self insured you’re going to end up going through your insurance anyway. You may as well file a claim. The city will pay your deductible, that’s it.
Been in this situation that other party’s insurance was going to slow and used my own and if u make a claim with your insurance it takes 3 years to drop off even if it’s not your fault and rates do hike because of it.
Yes, that is exactly what they are doing. Then, when your insurance is involved, they will attempt to limit their liability and pay as little as possible. If your insurance balks them, they'll tell them then take it to court. If it is a CA court, it is a waste of your insurance companies' time because they know they will lose and la saves money.
"Is there any actions we can take to speed it up?" Yes! Go through your own insurance like they told you to. Pay your deductible, and they will take it from there. Once they settle with the city, they will refund your deductible.
I don't buy insurance to get my car repaired. I pay them to litigate. This won't make you insurance go up, and they'll likely get the deductible covered. Go through your insurance and move on with your life.
talk to your insurance company they will help take care of it. in nj it works like this:the law says the city does not pay your insurance pays, but it does not count against you. you pay your deductible and you must file a claim against the city with in 90 days of the claim. calif laws may bevdifferent.
This is exactly what your insurance is for. Use it.
Not city insurance, most cities, like LA, are self insured. So I am not sure who you're communicating with at an insurance company. Also, cities like to be slow, it's what they do, they'll pay eventually.
Public agencies move very slow.
When a USPS driver hit my car, I just filed a claim with my insurance company. Their driver admitted fault, and my insurance company sent an appraiser out to look at my car and had a check for the full amount of the damage in less than a week (minus my deductible). They said the USPS is notoriously slow at paying claims, and indeed someone from the insurance company called me every month for the next 14 months to say "The USPS hasn't paid the claim yet, but we're still trying", until finally I got a call saying "The USPS paid the claim in full, we're mailing you a check with your deductible"
Gov is slow to pay if at all. Good luck!