I live in Florida. My car was totaled by a woman running the red light. we were not seriously hurt.her insurance company refuses to cover my rental beyond 15 days. we have not received compensation for the car yet and they only want to pay what is below bluebook value. what should i do??

I live in Florida. My car was totaled by a woman running the red light. we were not seriously hurt.her insurance company refuses to cover my rental beyond 15 days. we have not received compensation for the car yet and they only want to pay what is below bluebook value. what should i do??

I would suggest getting YOUR insurance company involved to the extent that they can help with the negotiations on the rental car as well as the compensation for the car. You may also check with them to see what is standard practice with reimbursement on a totaled vehicle. Do they normally pay below or at bluebook value?

Before accepting any settlement, you may want to consult with an attorney if you feel that you are getting less than what you deserve.

Good luck to you!

This site has answers to a variety of insurance questions.

http://law.freeadvice.com/insurance_law/auto_insurance/

If you scroll down to the part about government regulation, you'll read that insurance is regulated by the state government rather than the federal government. Thus, you may be able to get some guidance for your particular situation in Florida from this site: http://www.fldfs.com/ which is Florida's Department of Financial Services (the site offers numerous guides and contacts for questions regarding all types of insurance).

Best of luck to you!

Aqua

I am assuming that you were not driving a rental at the time of the accident (you were in fact driving your own vehicle).

Your insurance company should be able to take care of this, but you have to tell them (it should not count against you since she ran the red light, and you more than likely have a police report).

Hi Ted,

I agree with Karen's posting. If you have collision coverage, Call your own carrier. they can handle the total loss. Almost every policy has a built in Arbitration Clause in it. In the event that you are not satisfied with value that your company presents to you, you have the option of hiring your own independant appraiser.(or you can do it yourself) Your company would also have the employee appraiser that inspected the car acting on their behalf. The parties agree on a fair arbitrator and split the cost of his service. (Its in your contract) You or your appraiser would work up a value with substantiation of it and present it the to the arbitrator and so would your company. The arbitrator reviews all of the information, does his own research if applicable, and his decision is binding. It's a relatively fair way to resolve any dispute and it costs much less than any litigation.

The standard for determining retail value in my state is using NADA. www.nada.com. Everything starts at NADA Retail value. Any non-related damage is deducted from that point. It's what The National Auto Dealers Association uses to determine trade-in, wholesale, and retail value. It's much more accepted in the industry vs. kelly blue book because of the large variance of subjectivity around auto condition with Kelley.

In regards to rental, again, I'm not familiar with your state, but I have friends who have won cases on rental stating that reasonable rental is owed once a vehicle is totalled and "reasonable" is considered 30 days.

I hope it all works out for you.

There an anonymous site you might want to try...LawGuru (http://www.lawguru.com/) ;)

Contact an attorney or ask your insurance company to provide coverage for you and then subrograte in your place to pursue the other party's insurer