Why would an auto insurance company delay a ruling in an issue of coverage for their policy holder who was liable for a car accident? It has been several weeks since the "supposed" policy holder hit my car and the insurance company says it is still doing an investigation regarding an issue of coverage. The police report already ruled that their policy holder was liable for the accident 100%; there were injuries involved. I have uninsured motorist coverage, but I cannot move forward in terms of closing this until the other party’s insurance company verifies whether or not this person was covered at the time of the accident. I thought having computers was supposed to speed up the process. What benefit would an insurance company have in delaying the ruling?
They don’t make rulings, they have "findings". If they aren’t making the ‘finding’, that means they’re missing some information, or something is unclear.
Their policyholder isn’t liable, until a judge says they are, or until they accept liability. Police do NOT determine fault – they only offer an opinion.
If they say there’s an issue of coverage, there are several reasons why they still wouldn’t pay out, even if that car was at fault. Some of them are: The driver is an uninsured driver on the policy; the vehicle is an unlisted vehicle on the policy; the vehicle isn’t owned by the person who holds the policy.
The other person’s insurance company has NO duty of good faith towards you. If you’re in a rush to get this covered, put the claim through on your own policy.
Since you know there’s a problem (you just don’t know what it is), I’d strongly suggest, in the end, this is NOT going to end up being a covered claim, and you’re going to have to sue the owner of the car, and the driver of the car, in order to see any money.
For collision, file the claim under your policy. For uninsured motorist, you’re going to have to wait a while – meanwhile, file it under your pip or medical payments.
If it makes you feel better, injury claims are NEVER settled within two weeks – or even four or eight weeks. So you’re WAY early on looking to close. They won’t close ANYTHING until after all the medical and therapy bills are in, and the healing has gone as far as it can.
There’s no benefit to the insurance company, delaying anything – but two weeks isn’t really a delay here.