My father took my car to get some work done on it while I was at work and it was urgently needed to be done. It was raining outside and lost control and crashed but didn’t collide with any other cars. I filed a collision claim with my insurance (covercube) and they denied my claim. My father is 49 years old and has a clean driving record and drove my car one time and I gave him permission but the insurance has denied stating that he isn’t under the policy. But in the state of Arizona only the car has to be insured for full coverage to get the damages fixed. So I called the claims office back and they said it’s part of there policy and cannot accept it and we asked a lawyer to make sure and the lawyer told us that only the car needs to have liability and be insured not the driver. It wouldn’t had cost me a dime to put my father under the policy which is why I didn’t and I don’t know if policy overwrites the law but I’m not to sure and could use some help and opinions on this.
Insurance refusing collision claim. Please help
byu/GlitteringTarget7459 inInsurance
Posted by GlitteringTarget7459
22 Comments
Does your father live with you? Has the insurance sent you a denial with the policy language that outlines why it is not covered?
Do you live with your father? Household members are sometimes not covered under permissive use. What does your policy say about permissive use?
Does your father lives in the same house as you or not?
Side note: to add a secondary driver is never free.
Depends on where dad lives most likely he lives with you and that is the issue
Are you at the same address? If so, your father needed to be on the policy as an Additional Insured to have coverage.
That is legal and proper in most states. While “insurance follows the car” is the general law, insurance companies generally have the right to ensure that drivers at the same address who have access to the car are included in the rating so appropriate premium is charged. If denied the opportunity to rate a driver with regular access, the insurance company can deny coverage. My guess is that Arizona law allows this, as most states do. “Insurance follows the car” is for occasional “permissive” drivers who don’t have regular access to the car. Drivers residing at the same address are presumed to have regular access.
If you feel strongly you were wrongly denied coverage, there is probably an easy and free way to find out. File a complaint with the regulator, Arizona’s Department of Insurance (it may have a slightly different name) about denial of coverage. State insurance departments are usually zealous about ensuring carriers uphold their coverage obligations under state law and insurance carriers generally fear getting on the wrong side of their regulator. My strong guess is the insurance department would uphold the carrier’s decision under Arizona law. But it is worth a try and then you will know definitively.
>we asked a lawyer to make sure and the lawyer told us that only the car needs to have liability and be insured not the driver.
You are talking about two different things here. Yes, vehicles are legally required to have liability coverage. But this is a collision claim, not a liability claim. The issue at hand is that they could not provide coverage while your father was driving. But you didn’t state why this was a problem. They no doubt sent you a denial letter, so what did it say?
Is this because you live with your father and didn’t disclose him as a household member? Because if you didn’t live with him, this would be no reason to deny the claim, people are allowed to occasionally borrow your car. But failing to disclose household members is a violations of the terms of your policy and can result in a recission of coverage for misrepresentation.
If this lawyer is so confident, retain them to dispute the denial.
Alternatively, if your father has collision coverage on his own auto insurance, it may be able to cover your car, but don’t count on that if you do live together, because then it’s a vehicle of a household resident and likely not covered.
>But in the state of Arizona only the car has to be insured for full coverage to get the damages fixed
That is not entirely true. As you are finding out. If you live with your father, and he drives your vehicle, even 1 time, he needs to be on the policy.
Sometimes insurance policies are stated driver only policies. That means there is only coverage for the named drivers on that policy. Its always best practice to get an independent agent who can walk you through which carriers that this is true for and which is isnt.
If your father does not live with you, you might be able to file a claim with your father’s homeowner’s insurance.
It very likely WOULD have cost you money every month to add your dad to your policy. Your premium price is based on the assumed risk of every driver.
Edited to add – seems that covercube is non standard insurance and many non standard companies will not cover any unlisted driver
I’m guessing your father lives with you and you didn’t mention that when you applied for insurance even though you were specifically asked to list all adults in the household or all drivers in the household or both. And then you went ahead and signed the application for insurance that had wrong information, and by signing it you represented that it was true and complete to the best of your ability and knowledge. Knowledge. In fact, it was not true and complete to the best of your ability and knowledge, and you are finding out now why it matters. Terrible way to learn this lesson, but I doubt you will forget it.
Your father maybe be able to file a claim with his insurance. Its a very grey area
Sounds like Dad lives with you and wasn’t on the policy as a driver. That situation = no coverage.
Your father’s insurance should be covering this.
EDIT – Down voters are slow. That’s how collisions works, people. Collision coverage is with the driver, not with the car.
you first need to find out the exact reason it was denied. like, the lingo. get it in writing. ask them to email it to you. you could also pull up your full policy on a computer and ctrl+F search around the policy for where it talks about coverage for “household members” (if he is one. still dont necessarily need to be a HH member to file a claim on a car someone borrowed as long as they were given permission. at least not in my state, MA). insurance generally follows the car, not the driver. is his drivers license active? i would double check its not expired and maybe even have him log into the states website to just make sure all his stuff looks in order. i take it you didnt specifically exclude him on your policy at any time?
idk call again tbh. maybe even call in and speak witha regular rep. i worked in auto insurance for a little while as a rep and would have people call in with “hypothetical scenarios” like “how would my policy respond if i let someone borrow my car and they got into an accident?” i could see the open claim sitting there for this “hypothetical scanrio” lol. some companies are state specific but most are not. its possible the person working on your claim may have gotten their wires crossed with another states policy.
Permissive use doesn’t apply to household members. All licensed household members are required to be added to the policy. If you didn’t add him and pay premium for him, there is no coverage for him. No one gets free coverage.
You need a new lawyer. They have zero idea about AZ insurance laws.
Does your father have auto insurance? If so his policy might provide coverage for him on an excess basis (excess to any other coverage). If you submit the accident report and denial letter from your carrier to his carrier they should be able to cover the damages. If he has an agent this is something to discuss with them first.
You probably have insurance from a substandard company
Not sure why nobody is asking about the father’s vehicle and coverage history?? Lots of people saying that all household drivers with licenses MUST be listed on the policy, which is incorrect – An adult living in the same home who does NOT drive the insured’s vehicle ever, has their own car, and proof of constant insurance on that car, does not need to be listed on one’s insurance policy. They are NOT an undisclosed regular use household driver, if they can provide the declaration pages on their vehicle for the period in question. If your father has another car that is his primary car, and he can provide declaration pages for it, then you can submit this to claims to demonstrate that he is NOT an undisclosed household driver, and is not a regular user of your vehicle.
This presupposes that your policy includes permissive use.
Cheap insurance is expensive.
You signed an insurance application stating all drivers and household members were listed. They weren’t, which is insurance fraud and application misrepresentation. When you commit fraud, they deny coverage, cancel your policy and report you to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
My brother has had two collision claims on my truck. No other vehicles involved. Claim was paid without issue. They asked how often he uses the vehicle to determine if he needed to be on the policy.