by taratgarza » Mon Nov 26, 2012 02:24 am
I was recently in a car wreck. The other party was at fault. He had no insurance or license. My car is financed through a rinky dink buy here pay here place. They don't report to credit agencies. We owe double than what the car is worth. The car was totaled out, but is still drivable. Both doors on the passenger side are smashed in. I have full coverage insurance but do not have uninsured or underinsured coverage. What happens next?
What will my insurance cover?
Who will get the check?
Any info will help. Thanks for your time
.
What will my insurance cover?
Who will get the check?
Any info will help. Thanks for your time
.
Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 11:50 am Post Subject:
I have full coverage insurance but do not have uninsured or underinsured coverage.
Well, then, you obviously don't have "full coverage", do you?
What will your insurance cover? You can file a claim under your collision coverage and you will be paid the Actual Cash Value of your vehicle the moment prior to the collision. ACV = replacement cost minus depreciation (and your insurance company pays that minus your deductible).
Who will get the check? Properly, if the vehicle is a total loss, the check should be payable only to the finance company and the named insured, or to the finance company alone.
We owe double than what the car is worth.
That's 100% immaterial to all of this. That's a contractual issue between you and your creditworthiness and the finance company. Obviously, you had such horrible credit that no conventional lender would give you the credit you needed to buy a vehicle, and because you were so desperate to own a vehicle at any cost, you chose to do business with a legal loan shark. Swim with the sharks and you're bound to be eaten alive..
What happens next? If you don't pay off what you owe to the finance company, they will surely sue you and win a judgment against you. Then you'll owe their legal fees on top of everything else.
You can sue the at-fault party for your damages -- the ACV of the vehicle and any other loss, such as medical expenses, lost wages, etc. But since that party was so irresponsible as to drive uninsured, you can bet they don't have the money to pay your damages before or after a trial.
However, even if you collected something from that party, you would owe every penny to your auto insurance company and/or your medical insurance company up to the amount(s) they paid for your loss(es) -- since they paid for something that was the responsibility of a third party.
That's called subrogation, and when you agree to have your insurance company pay the claim for a third-party loss, the only thing you are really entitled to is the deductible or other expense that came out of your pocket, and any "general damages" such as "pain and suffering". You assign all rights of recovery from the other party for your "special" or "specific" damages (the ones with objective $$) to your insurance company, and it's up to them to sue the at-fault party for recovery, which they will probably do. (Your medical insurance company will wait patiently on the sidelines and allow you to expend your own money to sue the at-fault party, and then come in with its claim against you -- attorneys fail to tell this to folks all the time, because their fees come off the top, so they are unaffected by what your medical insurance company will collect, even if that leaves you with $0 after all is said and done.)
The car was totaled out, but is still drivable. Both doors on the passenger side are smashed in.
Now, here's the good news. When you drive around town in your "totaled, but still drivable" vehicle, all other drivers will give you a wide berth . . . believing that you don't have insurance. Otherwise, why would you be driving a wrecked vehicle?
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