My son was involved in a car accident where the other driver admitted fault, which is confirmed in a police report. There were no injuries to either party. There is significant frontend damage to our car but is still drivable. The other driver is a county employee and has listed the county as their insurance. We contacted the county and were told that they are self-insured and that we have two options in this case.
1. We can submit a claim through our own insurance collision coverage and once the car is repaired, our insurance can submit the claim to the county for reimbursement, including deductible.
2. We can submit a claim directly to the county with an estimate of damages and they will review the estimate and pay us directly.
We did not have collision coverage on the car so option 1 is out. With option 2, we were told by the county that once the claim is submitted, no supplemental payment can be made if the repair place finds additional damages after disassembly. We have taken the car to several repair places and they all say they can only give us a preliminary estimate and can't give a full estimate until the car is disassembled, which they won't do until we commit to them to do the repair.
So, either we have to pay for the full repair ourselves and submit a claim for the total and hope the county approves it, or we have to submit a claim based on the preliminary estimate and hope there are no supplemental costs or we will get stuck paying for them. Either way we could lose money, which doesn't seem right considering the other driver was at fault. Do we have any legal rights to help us in this case?
1. We can submit a claim through our own insurance collision coverage and once the car is repaired, our insurance can submit the claim to the county for reimbursement, including deductible.
2. We can submit a claim directly to the county with an estimate of damages and they will review the estimate and pay us directly.
We did not have collision coverage on the car so option 1 is out. With option 2, we were told by the county that once the claim is submitted, no supplemental payment can be made if the repair place finds additional damages after disassembly. We have taken the car to several repair places and they all say they can only give us a preliminary estimate and can't give a full estimate until the car is disassembled, which they won't do until we commit to them to do the repair.
So, either we have to pay for the full repair ourselves and submit a claim for the total and hope the county approves it, or we have to submit a claim based on the preliminary estimate and hope there are no supplemental costs or we will get stuck paying for them. Either way we could lose money, which doesn't seem right considering the other driver was at fault. Do we have any legal rights to help us in this case?