Car Insurance Claim Q

One of the neighborhood children just broke the windshield on our van. From all accounts it sounds like it was an accident and the boy's mom came over to apologize and take resposibility for his actions. Apparently he is very upset and still crying so he didn't come to apologize himself. Poor guy. She said she'd send him over when he calms down.

Anyhow, she is making a claim on her insurance and said that her insurance company will probably be calling me to work out the details, etc. Very cool! I'm not sure if I need to involve my insurer if the other insurer is covering it. Should I still let my insurer know and have them deal with the other insurance company? Normally that is what I would do so that I don't have to deal with the other insurance people just in case there are issues that arise as I have confidence in my insurer. Should I wait 'til my neighbor's insurer contacts me and see what they say first?

The other insurer should normally just arrange to have a glass guy come and fix it. Normally you won't need to contact your own insurer unless the first company declines coverage.

Thank-you, SouthernBelle. If this were a costly repair I would have contacted my insurer, but since it's a relatively simple repair I didn't want to involve them if I didn't have to.

Just from my experience, I wouldn't involve your insurer unless you had to.

I've been know to cover small repairs on my own because they were under the deductible and it would potentially raise my rates by making claims. If she says hers will cover it, go with it. If there are problems, then evaluate it. Usually those repairs are fairly inexpensive, right??

A new windshield should only be a few hundred bucks. I'm surprised that she would want to involve her insurance company instead of just forking over the cash. It might even be less than her deductible.

She'll be filing this claim under her homeowners. Sometimes, auto insurers will waive the deductible on windshield repair. For example, if you catch a road rock. That is not normally a chargable incident and shouldn't affect your rates.

I went to wash our truck one morning, it was a cool morning seemed a good time to wash it. I sprayed the truck off. As I was doing this I heard a POP! I looked at the hood cause that is what it sounded like to me. Didn't see anything kept on my merry way. Then as I was just glancing at the wind shield I saw the crack running through it. I couldn't believe it! And we were leaving on a big project in our truck the next day for a month!
Well we called a mobil service and they were able to come out that day and fix it for I believe it was 245.00. My deductble is 250.00 0f coarse.
The guy told us it was caused by the water but not started by it. You know the black glass that runs around it? There had been a chip in it from a road rock we are sure. He said it was a matter of time and it would have happend. The water hit the really hot black glass and just helped it along.I guess we were lucky it happend at home and not while we were working and couldn't deal with it. Sorry to high jack the thread, my bad!

She would not pay a deductable when a 3rd party is making a claim. However, if you were to make a claim against your policy, you would have to pay your deductable (probably more than the cost of the repair), and then wait for her carrrier to reimburse the deductable. Probably better to have her deal with her carrier and get an agreed-upon cost of the repair, i.e., you can get an estimate from a shop of your choice and then submit it to her carrier. Assuming she wants to go through her carrier, they will set up a claim and assign a claims adjuster and claim number to the claim - normally, recovery is not a big deal with this type of claim because there is no issue of liability (i.e., clearly her son's fault).

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Originally Posted by teigyr

Just from my experience, I wouldn't involve your insurer unless you had to.

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I agree...FWIW, Silver's Siena van windshield was just replaced and it was about $285...and our deductible is $500...:(

SouthernBelle is right, this will fall under homeowner's insurance which usually has a higher deductible...so they'll likely be paying out of pocket.