I drive fairly cheap cars, too, (6 of them) but I always have full coverage with no deductible (if I’m not at fault, $100 if I am) and the collision part of the premium is very inexpensive! Also, I have uninsured and underinsured motorist protection, also very inexpensive.
Do you have a local brick & mortar office & agent or an e-gent?
There are all kinds of jokers driving around out there waiting to crash into you. You have got to be prepared or face the results! Prepare yourself. It can happen again.
Consider that you will possibly recover nothing. I think you’ve learned a valuable lesson, possibly worth the loss you suffered and luckily you weren’t hurt. You must be more responsible and take a bigger role in things like insurance! It’s too important to just leave to others or to chance.
In fact, I suspect what’s going on here is that you are really more upset with your own negligence than that of the jerk who hit you. I think you’d feel better to face that and move on with your life. CSA
Always get a police report, even if there’s no damage. It’s an unfortunate reality that a significant percentage of the public have a very low understanding of what constitutes personal responsibility. If it were me, I’d try to contact her, first via phone, second via certified letter, explain that her insurance company says she isn’t covered, and explain how much it’s going to cost to get you car fixed. If you have her address, you might want to see about swinging by and seeing if you can see her car from the street and determine whether or not it’s been repaired, if you’re in luck and you can get close to the car without venturing onto her property, take pictures of the damage and see there’s any paint scrapes that matches the color of your car and take photos of that. Then go to the police and fill out a report. Take her to court for the damages, if she no-shows see about getting a Writ of execution.
If the repair bill will exceed $10,000, you will want to keep it out of small claims, because you can’t get any more than that via that venue.
Beyond that, we are car guys, not attorneys. If you have questions as to how to navigate the legal system, you should seek people who can better advise you.
I can say that not having un/underinsured motorist coverage is a mistake that you should remedy, because this uninsured idiot is probably uninsured because she’s not rich, which means you will have difficulty collecting recompense from her even if you win. The term the lawyers use is “you can’t get blood from a turnip.”
So, if I understand this correctly- you are upset at another driver for not having proper insurance, but at the same time you didn’t make sure you had insurance to cover this kind of situation? Pot meet kettle?
as for procedure from here: @FoDaddy has some good advice.
Go get some estimates on repairs, and send them to the other driver certified mail (so you get a receipt,) and begin talks to see how they want to fix your car.
If need be, talk to an attorney for how to handle it in your area.
And then I’d make sure you understand your current insurance policy so you know what is and what isn’t covered.
Disagree on the pot meet kettle. If he had insurance to cover damages he caused, he’s doing his part. Although it isn’t a bad idea to have insurance to cover someone hitting you, I disagree that it’s his responsibility.
I have liability only on two of my cars. I’ve got enough money to replace them if I have to (they’re old), so that’s my uninsured motorist policy.
My wife of 42 years was reading this thread with me and suggested this reply. She is a plaintiffs attorney handling mostly auto accidents. She suggests calling an attorney who handles auto accidents on a contingency basis. Every community has at least one. That means you pay no fee up front. The attorney takes their fee as a percentage of what they collect for you. Even if you were to win in small claims court, you’d probably never collect. A good attorney can get blood from a stone, and it’s in their interest to do so, since it’s the only way they get paid.
I was pulling out of a parking lot in my 30 year old car and the woman that ran into my car screamed at me to get out of her way. She took off quickly and clipped a pickup truck on her way out. I did get the license number of the vehicle she was driving. I had been shopping at Big Lots and the manager of the Hobby Lobby that was next door came running out. He was chasing the woman as she had stolen a dozen candles. We called the police and I was asked to stick around. The policeman told me that I was to report the incident to my insurance company and he gave me the report number. I argued that it wouldn’t do any good as I carried neither collision or comprehensive , but just liability on my old car. The policeman was insistent, so I called my insurance when I got home and reported what had happened. A few days later, my insurance agent called and said that I had uninsured motorist coverage and I was to take my car and get estimates. I told her I was swamped at work, but would try to get to it the following week.
A couple of days later, I had ridden to work with my wife and received a call from an insurance adjuster. She was in my driveway examining my car and wanted to know what to do with the check for the damages. I said I would come right home. The adjuster said she could give me a check for $257. I thought she considered the car totaled, and Mrs. Triedaq had been after me to get rid of the car, so I said that I would go in the house and get the title. Her reply: “The last thing I want is that car. Fix the car or buy yourself some beer”. I bought the beer.
A year earlier, a young man in a pickup slid into the left door. He was really shook up and wanted to pay me directly for the damage. He was worried about an increase in his insurance rate. As I talked to him, it turned out he was a student at the university where I taught. He was also from a single parent home. I surmised that money was tight. At the time, we had to move Mrs. Triedaq’s parents to an assisted care facility. I was dreading clearing out the house and either renting a trailer or truck to haul things to our local mission. I got an idea: if this young man would give me a day’s labor, that would take care of the damage. I figured it would save my back. The deal worked out for both of us. He found things that he could use at his house in the things we were going to donate, I got the remaining items hauled to the mission, and I saved myself a back ache. More importantly, I made a friend.
I drove the old car several more years with the dents. The dents didn’t hurt the gas mileage.
If you carry uninsured motorist coverage with your company then make a claim with your insurance company as you now know she is uninsured based on her insurer info. They should take care of it.
I would not get mad but instead revisit your insurance and costs etc. I concur this stuff is so painful as you are finding so having better coverage is really helpful.
What you need is collision coverage not uninsured coverage-like I said. Collision coverage will pay for your vehicle damage regardless of how it happened. It’s just a question of whether you have to pay the deductible or not. There were no injuries so I don’t know why all we are talking about is uninsured coverage?
Where I’m confused is that it appears Texas requires drivers to have uninsured motorist coverage unless they specifically reject it in writing. OP, did you specifically decline uninsured motorist coverage?
You are right…There is no such thing as Uninsured motorist coverage for damage to your car. At least with liability insurance only. The uninsured part of liability insurance covers injuries you may ave sustained in an accident caused by a uninsured driver.
Some companies don’t offer it. It varies by company, and also by state as different states have different laws regarding what may and must be offered and purchased.
At any rate, what you really need is collision coverage and that will take care of most issues. Comprehensive is not a bad idea either for vandalism, floods etc. Just as an example, here are my rates for 6 months. Less than my water bill.
Liability $65, Personal Injury $26, Comprehensive $51, Collision $68, Uninsured $2, Underinsured $9, and 50 cents for theft surcharge.
So you decide where you want to save and takes your chances. For a hundred dollars you can guard against going into a rage when someone without insurance comes your way.
The cost of car insurance varies greatly with location and age, liability insurance for my son is $200 per month. I didn’t ask for the price for additional coverage.
