Hit n Run in parking lot?

We had this happen to a Taurus we had owned for all of 3 hours back in 96. We had just bought a 94 Taurus and the wife had taken her brother out to dinner in it. She calls me up and says I won't believe it but someone had backed into car and then drove off. They put a nice dent in it. Luckily there were some witnesses and they got a partial licence plate.

Our insurance company at the time was Allstate and they said with a hit and run, as long as we filed a police report that we would be covered and there was no deductible. We filed the report but never heard back from the police about it. The car was fixed quick and didn't cost us anything.

I don't know what the laws in your state are about this, but hopefully it works out for you.

i personally would not hassel with ins. just gives them a reason to jack you in the future. Bring the car in to an autobody shop I be you have 500-700 of work there.

Look at it this way it could be much much worse, if this is the worst thing to happen to you this year concider yourself lucy and move on with life

93STVCobra said:

So I should file a police report and then contact my insurence or contact them first to see if I need to file a report?

Click to expand...

I would file a report right away. Likely they won't be able to do anything about it

Unfortunately, merely calling your insurance company is reason enough for them to raise your rates. But if you have one of the major ones, I'll bet they won't.

totally disagree with some of the comments here. Call your insurance and tell them what happened. If they jack your rates or refuse to cover it with no deductible, then you need a different insurance company anyway. This is clearly a no-fault to you. On a hit and run, USAA will cover this sort of thing.

Chris

FastDriver said:

totally disagree with some of the comments here. Call your insurance and tell them what happened. If they jack your rates or refuse to cover it with no deductible, then you need a different insurance company anyway. This is clearly a no-fault to you. On a hit and run, USAA will cover this sort of thing.

Chris

Click to expand...

I totally agree that if they do you need a new insurance company. Allstate took care of us no problem.

I was just making a comment based on something I read in the paper recently that said just calling your insurance company was all they needed to raise your rates because it indicated you had some kind of issue, whether you make a claim or not. I don't think it's fair, but they were probably refering to some of the smaller or less reputable companies.

I would still call the insurance company and see what they will do.

it was probably some chick on her cell phone not looking where she was going , think her name was mayhem

each state has set its own insurance laws.

The first thing you do is look at your policy.

Do you have collision? does your insurance consider this collision? no one saw the accident it may be under comprehensive.

also check what your detuctable is. then go to a body shop and ask them how much to repair. By the looks of it nothing is a saftey issue and nothing looks off line. May just want pay it your self. looks to be around a $300 repair for a filler, respray and blend. or find a bumper with the same body color and r-n-r?

call your insurance agent and ask them how they handel this type of situation for your state. As I said your state sets guidelines the insurance agency has to follow in these. If there is no state guide line then they have company policy.

a great source of finding out how your policy works is from the insurance company site. Progressive and geico have explinations of what each coverage handles and covers.


I'd do this. call your insurance and talk to a claims agent. they may ask all kinds of questions to find out your policy number. just say you have a general question to see how they handle the situation. then tell em the situation. it will help if you can tell them what coverages you have.
the key question is. " how does a claim like this work?" "will my premium go up if i claim it with you?"

this will give you a vague idea what will happen. and go that route.

good luck and sorry for your kuliana

also...

for example. i live in hawaii. last week wife was in the back seat of the van with my 1 year olds. car was in park. the parking lot was very tight and a Tundra tried to squeez by. he caused damage simillar to ours.

the Driver being a honerable military guy stopped My wife wasn't even sure what happend it was that soft of a hit but she felt something. i get a call from in the store...

fast forward...

I call my insurance company and fill them in. I ask will this increase my premium. She tells me that hawaii guidelines say that this is considered a Not at fault on my part accident. My preimium will not go up.

Unforunately his insurance may or may not depending on that accident forgiveness thing if he has it. All though i felt bad I have learned that for me insurance is the way to go.

My neighbor told me a story of a hand shake deal going bad. Military guy parks next to him and hits his car. Says yes I'll take care of it. Next thing you know the guy is getting out of the miltary and left the island. Neighbor tries to file. The guy denys it. Neighbor's custom paint job is almost a grand for repair and thats if they can blend the paint since it had a pearl in it. and it was a small area of repair.

anyways do what is said above. good luck man.

oh and one more last thing. I was told by my old insurance comapany. AIG Hawaii that just cause you call your insurance it will not go up. What happens when you call is that They randomly pull driving records all the time and when you call it increases the chance that they will run your record. Insurance companies have a online datebase with your driving record and at any time they can pull it up and check if any new violations show up. With these new violation they have LEGIT reason to increase your rate.