Insurance cancel Car rental?

Maintenance/Repairs
1

I have a rental vehicle, due to my car being in the shop since it was involved in a accident. I was not at fault.

My insurance company initially gave me the okay to get a rental, marked my car a unsafe and also told me my rental would be covered until my max amount, of which I’m not there yet.
I received a phone call from the rental company indicating that my rental was no longer being covered by my insurance. Mind you my car which was involved in accident 2wks ago still isn’t fixed.

I found this to be very unethical of the insurance company to do such a thing, without notifying me what their intentions are. I have a voicemail from a insurance rep telling me my rental would be covered until I hit my max. Unfortunately trying to get in contact with my adjuster is a joke…

2

Talk to someone else at your insurer and complain. You can talk to the adjuster’s supervisor, or a supervisor at customer service.

3

If you were not at fault, why is your insurance company paying for the rental? That is usually the responsibility of the insurance company of the at fault driver. Unless your state has some unusual insurance laws.
I would talk to my agent, they should be able to help you with the adjuster.
You are really asking a legal question. You might get some information from your state department of insurance regulation—I don’t know.
You may consider consulting a lawyer, from what little I know you would probably have to pay a retainer up front which may or may not be recouped from the insurance company.

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4

This is a classic example of why you need to be represented by a lawyer in any accident.

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5

In accident cases, there is usually no retainer involved. The attorney takes the case on a contingency basis, which means their fee out of any recovery they get for you. The percentage varies by state, but it is usually 1/3.

6

Not for something like this. Contingency lawyers go after big buck injury claims, not for a $500 rental car charge. Note the $500 just used as a for example fee.

7

Actually my wife is an accident attorney. She won’t take a case where she can’t recover at least $1,000, but she can usually get a settlement of at least that because it’s worth it for the insurance companies to have her go away.

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8

I understand that. That is why I doubt a contingency lawyer would get involved in something like this.
Still the question, is there any state where the at fault drivers’ insurance is not responsible for the rental fee?

9

Because your insurance pays up to your limits, and then goes after their insurance to get reimbursed.

Now that OP has reached his rental limit, he will have to pay out of pocket and then get reimbursed by the at-fault driver’s insurance.

Personally, I think the way insurance works in these situations is a joke. We got T-boned by a stupid teenager last May. She happened to be insured by the same insurance company that we had, so everything was covered 100%. Otherwise, our insurance would only cover 80% until the other company paid up and then we’d get reimbursed, who knows how many months later.

People often think that having insurance means they’re fully covered when something bad happens, but even for us, we had to pay out of pocket for a hotel and meals while we waited for a rental car agency to be open the next day, and we had to pay a deposit on the car as well. We later got reimbursed, and it was not a financial hardship because we’re very lucky.

But a lot of people would have seen that sudden $500 outlay that we had no choice but to pay and they would have been in real, deep trouble from it. They’d have missed a rent payment or a car payment, because even with both drivers covered by the same insurance company, it took a couple of months to get paid back for that stuff.

There has to be a better way that doesn’t screw poor people over for getting in a wreck that isn’t their fault.

10

There was a time when being honest and negotiating in good faith with the other driver’s insurance would get you fair compensation for your losses, but that time is over. Nowadays, they try to call you up, get you to say stuff that is damaging to your case, and pay you peanuts for your losses. If you want to get fair compensation for your damaged car, it is necessary to keep the specter of a possible injury claim over the insurer’s head–whether or not you really are injured.

For example, many years ago, I was in an accident in a 1991 Toyota Tercel. The other driver was driving a Ford Windstar van, and ran a stop sign right into my path. Amazingly, I was not injured at all, and because I had admitted that fact to the other insurer, they only paid a paltry $2000 or so for the car–even though I had paid a Toyota dealer about $5800 to replace the engine about a year and a half earlier.

The last time I was in an accident was about 4-5 years ago. I was driving my 1995 Dodge Caravan (not the same 1995 Caravan I have now) and it had almost 209,000 miles on it. However, it was in excellent condition and ran like new. I had just put a new timing belt on it, and done a lot of other maintenance to it–which I had receipts for.
A lady driving a Mazda sedan left-turned into my path on a green light, and I hit her hard. I understood that if I said I was fine, I’d get peanuts and lose a bunch of money trying to buy another car that runs.

This time, I went to an urgent care and said my back was bothering me, and got X-rayed. When I dealt with the other insurer, I reminded them that I had some discomfort from the crash that I hoped would go away soon. They initially wanted to pay a paltry $650 for the destroyed van, even though comparables on Craigslist were selling for about $2000 at the time. However, once I made it clear that I wanted to settle amicably for enough to replace the van, but if that didn’t happen soon I’d be seeing an attorney, suddenly they “found” $2000 to pay for the van, and another $1000 to pay for the discomfort I experienced.

The bottom line is that insurance is out to rip you off, and it’s up to you to make sure you get fairly compensated for your losses. If you need a rental car due to the accident which another party is liable for, that is an additional economic loss which you need to recoup.

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11

Fortunately I have not had that experience, just dropped the car off at the body shop and rental car company picked me up all on the at fault insurance company dime.
The other time, hit by a driver that had the green lizard insurance, they had an all in one facility, insurance representative, body shop, and rental car agency.

12

I would lay even odds that this may be the rental company as opposed to your insurance company. I had a similar problem where the other party was at fault and was driving a rental car. The other party’s insurance provided the rental van while mine was being repaired.
The rental company then called me and wanted me to pay for the damage to their rental. I referred them to my insurance company and the police report and advised them not to call me again.
Another time, I had rented a car from the same company and in inspecting the car, I noticed a deep scratch in the wheel cover. I asked the agent to note that but she said it was no big problem. However, when I returned the car, the company tried to charge me for a new wheel cover. Also, I had the car delivered to the hotel where we were staying and we were given permission to drop it off at the airport for no additional charge. The company then tried to charge a dropoff fee as the car had come from the city location. Fortunately, I had purchased the insurance from the rental company and told them to fix their own car. I also made them remove the dropoff charge.
I won’t identify the company, but its name begins with a vowel and is not the first letter of the alphabet.
I did have a good experience with the rental company whose name begins with A. We rented a car while on vacation and above 50 mph there was such an annoying buzz around the windshield we couldn’t stand it. I took the car back. The rental agent said that the car had had the windshield replaced and the job hadn’t been done right. He apologized for the inconvenience and gave us a free upgrade.

13

My car insurance company will cover a rental vehicle except under certain conditions. I believe they cover it for up to 50 miles in Canada, zero miles in Mexico, and up to 2 weeks in the U.S.

Mind you that this in my insurance policy and doesn’t have anything to do with having been involved in a collision.

Forget trying to call an adjuster. Go directly to your agent and have a face-to-face.
CSA
:palm_tree::sunglasses::palm_tree:

14

After our car got rear ended the body shop provided a rental car for free. It was a shop recommended by our insurance company.