State Farm Refuses to Pay for Storage - Small Claims Court?

[VolAgent]

Define "dragging their feet".

The timeline SF has to handle the matter will be defined by law. Either they met it, or they did not. Do you think the claim reps sit around looking for poor people to inconvience and counting days in hopes to reclaim salvage value from the insured/claimant to avoid the auction? That's quite a stretch of the imagination.

You might want to check out, Amazon.com: From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves: The Dark Side of Insurance (9781934833018): David J. Berardinelli, --, n/a: Books. Allstate has been accused of exactly that, I also understand that State Farm hired the exact same consulting firm.

Also, taking the maximum amount of time legally allowed to process a claim? That is dragging your feet. Unless there are extenuating circumstances we aren't aware of that would cause it to take this long. There is always another side to this, but I'll give the OP the benefit of the doubt.

 

[djs]

They were no where close to the maximum amount of time. I'm not sure how fast you think they can do this if the other party doesn't respond instantly.

I've had clients out of the country when they had claims reported against them. How fast can they respond realistically?

Please don't get into a 'dragging their feet' style discussion unless you have enough details to support this. Insurance companies get accused of this all the time, but it does rarely happen. Every once in a while, but its very rare. When it does happen it is caused by a lot of potential fraud indicators being set off.

I have nothing to do with State Farm, but seriously, when you don't value your own vehicle enough to put collision coverage on it (and let the insurance company subrogate), letting the other parties insurance company do an investigation is reasonable. That is part of having liability only insurance.

Dan

 

[VolAgent]

Personally, I've been nothing but happy with State Farm. They have repaired my vehicle quickly both time.

But 40 days, that seems rather long to handle an auto claim.

 

[joshb]

It seems like a long time, but what the OP has not said (and may not know) is how long did it take for State Farm to get ahold of their client? How long did it take to get ahold of the witnesses? It could very easily take that long and I have seen it take that long several times in the past. usually do to communication issues. Never on the part of the insurer. To me whats unreasonable, is leaving MY property in a tow lot longer than a day. I would have had it removed immediately.

 

[djs]

Ahh, the trick is to never let the police tow your car if you have a choice.

VolAgent - 40 days is a bit on the long side from any norm, but probably within a normal range for disputed claims. I've seen them go much longer. Apparently, in this case, the police report was fairly conclusive. In cases like this, you have to wait for the police report, which frequently takes 2 weeks. It might go faster if one of the parties goes to the police station and requests the report. Turns out, officers don't necessarily write (and submit) the report the day of the accident.... Then, they have a lot of requests come in and one person working part time a few days a week to fulfill those requests from insurance companies.

Dan

 

[toddoxley]

Still, he chose to buy his insurance from a "1-800" agent and not have a local agent giving him advise on how to handle this.. 41 days is a long time but as others have said if he had comp coverage his insurance comapny would have remove the vehicle. Since he decided it was not worth paying for comprehensive coverage and to not use a local agent them he is totally on his own. Now he is on this forumn seeking advise as to how to get out of this mess..

 

[mvarshavsky]

Hey guys, sorry, I made myself pause for 48 hours from dealing with this, was taking up too much time. djs is totally right, "never let the police tow your car" is basically the conclusion I've arrived to - somehow they are the most ruthless party in all of this.
According to CA DoI 40 days is exactly the amount of time they are allowed, unless they notify you of extension. My settlement arrived on day 41 (or 40, depending on how you count).The police report in San Francisco is available within 7 days, I supplied it to my insurance as soon as I had it, they told me they've fwd'ed it to State Farm as well.
The whole "my property" thing has been beaten to death, but I'll say it again - the car was clearly totaled; I had no means of storing it in its condition. Take a look at out running water / shut-off valve discussion in previous posts.
A quick update, my claim rep's manager said to send them a statement of what the car actually sold for at the auction ($600). Now I'm running into a problem where the tow yard can't produce anything like that because they've "sent it to collections"; currently waiting on a callback from a lady at the collection agency. But at least it looks like State Farm might be willing to move on that...

 

[b61mack]

looks like the tow company should be nominated for slime ball of the month. they have to notify you about a auction sale. sounds like you should bring the tow company to small claims court, but they probably have a lot of experience in small claims court.. when you don't have full coverage, you asume the response ability to handle your own claim...

 

[Norwayguy]

Not a P&C agent just a consumer on that side of business and can understand how the OP feels. I was involved in an accident, the other person clearly at fault admitted at time of accident with police report and then dealing with the carrier. The other party changed their story to not being at fault and said I was doing 70 miles per hor in a residential area....

Timeline according to the claims rep was something like this

2 weeks to reach their insured ( I would think an insured that does not respond in a timely manner would be a red flag) I had to provide the Libery Mutual with her work contact info (Which I got from her during our conversation while waiting for the police)

Insured stated they were not at fault since I was clearly speeding 70 miles per hour in a 2 mph zone, I wasn't and this was not addressed in the accident report.

Luckily for me there was a school bus coming from the other direction and witnessed the accident, I provided the info to Libery Mutual and they interviewed her.

Everything worked out but yeah it was a drag and to top it off I was 19 at the time and they said they would pay for a rental car had enterprise pick me up drive me to the next town and then berate e for not telling them I wasn't 20 (Shouldn't they ask its there business how would I know you couldn't rent a car under 25 or age 21 after an accident) and wouldn't drive me back to my town had to call for a ride.

On a side note I wasn't too happy with the offer as I felt they should have paid for my missing the ability to go away during my weeks vacation because I couldn't rent a car....Once I had their offer (check) in hand I made sure to call them right up and explain the car which was now theirs was parked on the street without plates and it was now their problem if it got impounded

 

[bluesky]

GreenSky, djs - this is very helpful, you're providing great insight into what I might need in court. I could not have removed the car on day one. The police got to the scene within minutes (as my car was still smoking and I was tending to my hurt wife), separated us with the guilty party, took down the report and towed the car. I did not even know where the car was and had to wait for the police report to become available (10 calendar days). I live in an apartment building downtown San Francisco, there's no possible way I could have stored the car anywhere else. As soon as the information became available I made my insurance company aware of it (towing + 10 days of storage). As soon as my insurance company found the other party liable and said they're done with the claim but can call State Farm as a courtesy - I had them do that and made State Farm aware of the situation (towing + 21 days of storage). After that I had to call several times a week (and every day during the week the car was scheduled for auction) to push processing of my claim along, until I received a settlement letter.

I've made every attempt to mitigate damages. They didn't bother to request a police report (3 weeks in GEICO had to supply it); they chose to take 2 weeks for investigation and another to come up with a settlement - all while fully aware of charges piling up. Not to mention the phone conversation where they said I would not be liable. It's definitely not "your car - your responsibility" situation, as they are required by law to pay "reasonable storage fees". It's the gray area the meaning of "reasonable" leaves.

It's a pretty interesting predicament we are in. The law allows towers to collect extortionate, predatory fees - frankly not rooted in any sort of reality. At the same time it allows an insurance company to call those very same fees unreasonable and refuse to pay them.

I AM IN THE SAME boat as YOU! It took forever to get the appraiser here, then they sent a FLUNKIE too. DID not check the low miles on my car , so the first offer was absurd! They sent another appraiser w/in 2 weeks and that was low balled , but they LACKED the RECEIPTS, as they got SENT to the correct office but by then SF had changed me to a new claims person, I have only had like 9 or 12 by now and out of 4 offices, Macon, Marietta, Atlanta, and somehere else! So REGISTERED mail gets EXPENSIVE-another ploy of theirs! A real shame is all I can say for you and ME!Small claims court, just make sure you supena EVERYONE, even those who signed the REG. mail too!