GrandMarquis99
Junior Member
This story is long and cofusing, but I will do my best to be clear. In early October my roommate and I parked our cars on the street in front of our home as we normally do, and later in the evening a vehicle (van) crashed into both of our cars, one after the other. The driver of the vehicle was not the policy owner but was covered by the owners insurance, and a police report was filed. The driver of the van is of course at fault because my roommate and I weren't even in our cars at the time of the accident, but after the claims were filed to the insurance company we found out the policy the driver was under only covers $10,000 in damages. My car was deemed totalled (it's worth $6000 and the damages, the estimator claimed, were upwards of $4000), but my roommates car was not (he has a new car worth $12,000 and the damages they estimated would be $6000). The limitations in coverage was bad news for us both, but it was worse for me because I only have collision coverage and not comprehensive, while my roommate has both. The insurance company of the at fault owner said (in November) that I could not receive a settlement until after they had all of the charges for both cars (basically I was told I had to wait for my roommates car to have all repairs done, with took three months, and to have my roommates insurance company send the final bill to the vans company). It is now February, I finally know what I will be given after FOUR months of being carless. I will be given a little over $3000 plus I will receive salvage money for my car that will be $900. At this point, I'm willing to take that amount because I cannot go any longer without a car.However, my roommates insurance company needs to sign the settlement now. I called them last week to see how long the process will be for them to settle or decide they want to go to litigation, and I was told I would have an answer today. I called today and the representative I spoke with was completely uncooperative and unhelpful, and she said they will have to do an assett check on the owner of the policy and then they would decide, but they are in no hurry to make a decision. My question is, how long should I wait before I begin to consider legal action? I already tried to take the owner of the van to small claims court, but the address they provided on the police report came back to me as incorrect, and the insurance company refused to give it to me, so that's a dead end. If my roommates insurance company refuses to sign the settlement what legal rights do I have?