Rental and Subrogation

Let me start of by saying that if you have an auto policy and you depend on your vehicle for daily commute or transporting someone to school or anywhere else, rental coverage is a must unless you have a car you can use while your primary vehicle is down. Secondly, if you have rental coverage on your policy, please make sure the coverage is enough to replace the vehicle you drive during your rental. For example, if you drive a Large SUV like a Yukon EL; please understand that $30/day might not get the job done. See your agent soon!

Again, I am reaching out to provide you with some additional claim info. Please do not use this info for guidance for a personal claim that you may have in the future, or you currently have or had in the past. I do not represent a particular insurance carrier and cannot act as a Public Adjuster on your behalf.

Most insurance carriers are very strict when comes to providing a loaner during the time of repairs. Most carriers will not provide a rental unless they have control over the repair process. Meaning they have a written estimate on the vehicle and paying for repairs of the vehicle. If you cannot drive your vehicle due to a operation function caused by the accident, the carrier will provide a rental up to the point of completion of repairs or a total loss offer is extended to pay of the cost of your vehicle. Unfortunately, there are some carriers who will not provide the cost to purchase or provide down payment for another vehicle. The carrier will only pay off the balance of the value of the vehicle involved in the loss. This is where so many law firms drop the ball and too concerned with injury and cheating you out of that expense and not worrying about the true definition of insurance. Which is to bring you back to the current state you were in prior to the accident. So if you are driving a 2016 Honda Civic, the insurance duty is to put you back in a 2016 Honda Civic. Paying your vehicle off is one thing, but giving you the down payment and expense to put you back into another 2016 Honda Civic is a separate responsibility that the at fault insurance company should provide.

I don't want to get sidetrack, so let me stay on rentals and focus on rental dates and types of vehicles that carriers allow. Most carriers will only provide transportation unless you mentioned that you need a specific rental for a certain need. Such as, I need an SUV like a drive to take my kids to school, or whatever the need may call for. It is very important to know that if you do not have rental coverage on your policy, and the at fault insurance carrier provides a vehicle for you and you decide to rent a vehicle on your own terms for any reason, your insurance carrier cannot recover those out of pocket expense you have in a rental.

For example, if the at fault insurance company provides a large size vehicle for you and you dispute that you need an SUV and you have to pay $30/day more than what the at fault insurance company is providing for you, then if you do not have rental coverage on your personal policy; your company cannot recover that out of pocket expense for you during a subrogation process.

The Subrogation process is used when your personal coverage is applied to repair your vehicle and rental expense provided to you from your carrier at the time of loss. Medical is not subject to Subrogation when medical expenses can provide coverage on both the personal policy and the at fault party coverage. Please check your state specifics for more details.

The subrogation process could take months to complete and the deductible that you pay out may not be recovered for months and even a year down the line. It all depends on the response from the at fault carrier. This is one of the reasons I mentioned that you should never file a claim if you know the other party is a fault. However, if you can wait to have the $500 to come back to you, then this might not be a problem. I don't know if I could ever be comfortable with giving money away knowing I may not ever see it back until months or even a year later in that situation.

That is the surface on a related insurance topic that often go hand and hand with each other and can get deep than what was discussed. Again, please consult your adjuster for details and stop listen to these law firms. Especially the ones in Texas.