A hit and run driver damaged my car. “What can I do?” will be the first thought. There are several different ways to handle this depending on the amount of damage done and whether or not you have full coverage. Although all the insurance companies say accidents don’t raise your car insurance rates, you will get an increase the next time the bill comes due and the increase in the amount owed will be because the company has had excess spending on claims. The claims the insurance company speak of isn’t your hit and run claim personally it’s just a combination of all the claims filed throughout the insurance company.
If you don’t have insurance and no one saw anything, which is usually the case in a hit and run, call the police and file a report. Without the full coverage insurance your insurance company probably won’t help you unless this happened while the vehicle was sitting on your property. If the vehicle was sitting on your property your homeowner’s insurance may cover the damage. If the vehicle was parked in the street you just have to hope that the vehicle is drivable and that you don’t have to fix it out of your own finances.
If you have insurance call the insurance company and find out how much the deductible is. Then call the police, report the hit and run. When the police file the accident or criminal report they will actually put a dollar figure on the report. If you think that figure is accurate and it is more than your deductible and more than you are willing to take out of your pocket call the insurance company and file a claim.
Once you file a claim either an insurance adjuster will come out and look at the vehicle and then either give you a check or they will tell you where to take the vehicle. If an insurance adjuster doesn’t come to look at the vehicle, the insurance company will tell you which companies you can use to fix your vehicle and then you choose a repair shop from their list and take the vehicle to a shop.
The repair shops the insurance companies use are good repair shops. If you question the quality of the work you can look at the other vehicles that are waiting to be picked up. If you want a specific repair shop to fix your vehicle be prepared that the insurance company might not pay the whole bill. The reason the insurance companies use certain shops are because of the prices that the shops will quote to the insurance companies.
You may want to ask the paint and body shop if they will be using new parts or junk yard parts or if they are fabricating their own parts. This may be important if something mechanical was damaged on your car. As with any repair shop you can ask the paint and body shop for the old parts off your car if you really want them.
Once the vehicle is in the shop you may get a loaner car for free depending on your insurance, so ask before you sign anything. Then all you have to do is wait for your vehicle to be fixed. A paint and body job shouldn’t take longer than a week if they have all the parts or can order the parts relatively quickly. This is something you will definitely want to ask when you drop the vehicle off.
If the police do actually stumble upon the culprit that hit your vehicle they will have to pay for the damage to your car instead of your insurance company if they willingly pay but most likely your insurance company will have to sue them. If they are found after the work has been done and completed it will still be up to the insurance company to sue them.
