Total loss in this case, now what?

by Rebecca

my husband had recently put liability insurance on our car! His aunt does insurance through farm bureau and done his insurance for him! 2 days after putting insurance on this car he wrecked it and we arent sure if it would be considered totalled or not!

Anyhow we are still making payments on this vehicle through a buy here pay here car lot! My husband was only driving about 30 mph and when he went to stop it had been raining and his breaks locked up and his seat belt did not work, and the airbags didn't deploy!

Could we file a claim against the manufacturer if there was any default in the safety of the vehicle! In the case of his insurance as long as we are making payments on it we are suppose to carry full coverage insurance on the vehicle!

Can the insurance be at fault for not making sure of this before putting liability on the vehicle! I need to know what my options are so I know what step I need to take first! thank you for your time!


Answer:

Hi Rebecca,

I am sorry to hear about your husband accident. It is your duty to put insurance on the vehicle, usually this duty does not fall on the insurance company. You must make sure that the car is fully insured, but if you do not, then it is your responsability to the bank or the car lot. It will be very difficult to show that the insurance company knew about the car loan, but even if that is the case, you are the customer and not the bank. This would be a hard press claim.

Regarding the manufactured. It really depends on the facts of the accident. The roads were wet, and sometimes the duty is to slow down. You would have to show that the accident happened but for the defective vehicle. The fact the the air bags did not deploy will be relevant if your husband was injured. The air bag did not caused the accident.

You could try to make these arguments but usually, you would have to continue making payments in the vehicle eventhough it is no longer a good vehicle. I am sorry about the bad news.

I hope this helps,