Daughter was a passenger in a neighbors car- opened and dinged the once next to it

by Cindy
(Golden, CO)

Truck/Car were in the parking lot. Car belongs to neighbor. State = CO My daughter raced another child for shotgun, neighbor's truck door was flung open and scraped and dented the car next door.

The neighbor left her number. How would this be categorized? The damaged car owner (from WY) wants to take it to a dealer for an estimate. Can I ask for more than 1 estimate, this will probably come out of pocket.

Not really sure what, insurance wise can be done. My daughter (13yrs) owned up to the goofing around, the other child did not. My neighbor doesn't want to user her insurance as they have recently had a claim. I have asked that a picture be emailed to me as I was not there. Am waiting for the picture.
Thanks


Answer:

Hello Cindy,

I am sorry to hear about your situation. Well, the question here is whether insurance would pay this, and which insurance would actually pay. Most insurance policies provide coverage for damages cause while loading or unloading. This means that since your daughter was trying to get in the car, the car was being loaded with passengers (triggering coverage).

However, if you daughter and her friend were simply playing around and not going anywhere, then they might not have been using the vehicle. This means that there could not coverage.

If there is coverage (most likely there is), the insurance company of the person who owns the car will have to pay. This is really not optional as the vehicle (the truck) is insured and this is the primary policy.

You could ask for other estimates. Insurance companies would write their own and they would not pay for dealer repairs.

To learn more about vehicle damages, please see:
http://www.auto-insurance-claim-advice.com/property-damage.html

Good Luck,
http://www.auto-insurance-claim-advice.com