Regardless of the severity of your involvement in a car accident, if you have been injured, you will automatically be obligated to report to your car insurer. This is because, in Ontario as well as other provinces, your car insurer owes you benefits as stated in your insurance policy. And they can also hold you accountable if they find out you have been involved in an accident and didn’t report to them.
What Happens When You Report Your Accident
Your call will go to an employee of the insurance company. They will ask you for some basic details in regards to your person, the accident, and other information surrounding your claim. Following this, they will assign your claim to a so called “adjuster”, who is either another employee of the insurance company, or a third-party contractor. If they are the latter, they will most likely be working for a big car insurer company which is actually responsible for your case.
Once the adjuster has been assigned to your case, they will contact you via phone or email, and take charge of sending you checks and paying service providers, as well as some other business matters. However, there isn’t just one type of adjuster. There are different ones for different tasks. Having a good Personal Injury Lawyer in Lindsay can help you deal with the adjuster better. The insurance adjuster might try to wheedle you into accepting the low offer that they provide initially, but your lawyer will help you get a better deal.
Property Damage Adjuster
Regardless of what type of damage has been done to your car, as soon as you report it to your insurer, a property damage adjuster will be popping up in your life soon after. Their job is to estimate the monetary value of the damage done to your vehicle, together with potential storage or towing costs. Once their assessment has been complete, you will be paid for the damages. While this may sound pretty straightforward, that isn’t always the case.
Generally, the adjuster will reach out the police in order to acquire information about the towing company who may be storing your vehicle, if that is the case. Otherwise, they will only assess the damage and write you a check.However, that is oftentimes the point at which claimants are faced with a monetary amount that is far less than what they expected to receive. No matter how many repair costs have gone into a vehicle in the past, in the end, you will still only be paid the book value of your car.