I am being given a business

Sorry man. It's a really bad time to have to buy a vehicle. I had planned to buy a new pickup for the ranch this fall but had to put it off because of the drought and spending $80,000 on hay for this winter but in a way it might be a good thing since it seems like not the time to be car shopping.

Brad2770 said:

Frame is buckled on the left side at the leaf spring. The truck wobbles when you drive now. There is damage to the front too. Guy hit me so hard, I hit the lady in front of me. She then hit the lady in front of her. The computer shows that the airbags deployed, but they didn’t. The back was hit so hard, the bed hit the cab of the truck. Mechanic friend said it will most likely be totaled. I hope I’m reimbursed what it’s worth and not what I paid. In the area, used 2 year old Colorado’s with 50k+ miles are going for 24-28k and new ones going for 33k or more (I searched more Chevy dealers. That’s if they even have them). Mine had 1800 miles on it. And since I’m a big guy, the seat broke from the rear impact.

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Man I'm very sorry to hear that.

Same thing happened to me back in 2008. Had a 2001 f150 that was my work truck what about 200,000 miles. Was driving home from a project one evening and got rear-ended by a bitch on her cell phone in some small car. Was in heavy bumper to bumper traffic, ended up hitting the lady in front of me because she hit me so hard. It actually blew the back windshield out on my cab. The exterior damage wasn't horrible, it obliterated her vehicle, but it bent my frame and the truck was totaled.

Problem was insurance valued it at next to nothing because of the age and the mileage, and was suddenly hunting around for another used vehicle. I understand it's a royal pain in the ass to suddenly be out looking for a replacement car that you need immediately, and I can't imagine it's easy right now with the used market.

If her insurance company comes back with an estimate fight them on it, and try to get more. Make certain things like your wrap cost and everything else is included in that estimate. Go ahead and provide invoices for that stuff, but any value you can associate with the truck you need to get them to pay for. Don't just immediately agree to whatever they offer, and if you feel like you're getting shafted threaten them with a public adjuster. A PA may also be able to get you lost wages. I'm not 100% on that, but they'll at least be able to nitpick the claim and get you everything you should be owed if you can get a good one.

Wish you the best of luck with it though.

Sludig said:

Last time my agent talked to me, assuming comprehensive coverage, they should pay to get you into a comparable truck, ie they should be eating the crazy jacked up market right now.

Otherwise, might have to get it looking decent and put up with a shitty ride if it's otherwise repairable to be safe "enough".

But I'm sure there are better insurance people in there, make sure to try and go after loss of income etc.

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Exactly. Right now with construction, materials cost are so volatile, if we're doing an insurance-based project typically by the time insurance approves a submitted estimate, which normally takes anywhere from a month to 3 months, we're having to go back and supplement for cost increases. Metal shot through the roof by about 25% just within the last couple of weeks, so all of our original estimates for current projects were shot. We can't eat that cost and neither should the insured.

Can't imagine you shouldn't be able to do that with purchasing a replacement vehicle. Just need to show proof of what the market value currently is for what you're looking at or whatever is comparable. I'm sure they're using Xactimate for their pricing, and it's pretty slow for keeping up with market averages for whatever area the claim is filed in.

Just get tons of documentation and show them this is what shit cost currently, and stick to your guns. If that doesn't work that's when you bring in a PA. Pretty rare that the insured has enough leverage to get the insurance company to do the right thing but at least a PA could help you out with that.

Brad2770 said:

I purchased workmans computer for my business as well. Would that be something that would help me in this situation since I was “on the clock”?

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Depends on whether or not it was covered under your business policy or personal. Internal contents that are damaged during an accident are typically covered under a homeowner policy. Example being that if your cell phone and CDs or something were stolen out of your car during a robbery. If you had the computer assigned to your business it might fall under that policy but, I could be mistaken.

I'm not an adjuster but I just deal with insurance companies quite a bit, and I've looked over a ton of property policies for buildings. Take it all with a grain of salt because every carrier is different and every policy is written differently with various verbage. It'll be as boilerplate and difficult to understand as possible, that way you get confused and have no motivation to file against the carrier.

But if it was a business computer it should be covered under your business insurance policy. Same thing with the equipment that you had damaged.

I'd honestly consider contacting a public adjuster and at least going over the accident with them and explaining everything that you feel you've had lost a property on. They should at least be able to give you an idea of what you can expect in regards to getting replaced, or what should be covered by the carrier. They shouldn't charge you a consultation fee because typically they're paid whether or not a claim is approved. Only pas I deal with her for commercial properties, but I'm sure there are guys out there that do work for these types of situations.

I've got a conference call with a guy I do a lot of stuff with on Monday. He does property stuff but he's very knowledgeable, and I'll run your situation by him just to see if there's anything wonky to pay attention to.

Just don't agree to whatever the first offer is. That's the most important thing, because nine times out of 10 they're going to cut their losses as much as possible and if you don't know what you should be paid for, they're going to rake you over the coals.

What's the carrier of the asshole who rear-ended you?

Brad2770 said:

I meant workmans comp*. Phone auto corrected to computer.

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I'm not an adjuster, but that's all contingent upon the policy you currently have, but also the auto coverage on the perpetrators carrier.

Maybe somebody else has some input on it, but it sounds like you probably need to at least talk with a public adjuster. They essentially become your representative with the insurance carrier, just like being a lawyer.

If you sit down and explain your current predicament and share with them any documentation received by the person at faults insurance carrier, they can assess the situation and let you know what you should be pursuing for coverage on the loss.

Think of them almost as a defense attorney. Obviously you're not the perpetrator, that's easiest way to describe what those guys do. They'll defend your position against the insurance company, and make certain you get paid what you need, as long as they're good at what they do.

Just make certain you've got PDFs of your policies that you can send to them so they can review everything and you might also need to get a copy of the person who hit you's policy.

Just beware the moment you get a public adjuster involved it's going to slow the whole process down significantly, or at least it does with construction related property projects. That doesn't always happen but I want to say eight or nine times out of 10, the more cooks in the kitchen, the longer till dinner.