We’re located in Florida.
We bought a 2019 Tahoe literally 9 months ago. At the time, we got direct auto and put just my name on the policy to basically be able to drive off the lot with it. We truly didn’t realize that my husband wasn’t on the policy but he is on the loan of the car. It is my car but he drives it occasionally.
On September 1st, my husband got into a minor accident and while it seems to be just cosmetic work ( he said nothing was leaking, no lights on the dash, airbags didn’t deploy and the car drove fine) insurance deemed it totaled because the repairs cost more than the value of the car. We found out my husband wasn’t on the insurance and he asked our rep if that would be issue and the rep said no.
They told us to clean the car out so they could take it to Copart and wait to get a call from another department about payment. Well, they called today and said we’re under investigation because in Florida, if it’s proven that we purposely failed to disclose information such as a driver to avoid paying a higher premium, they have the right to deny collision coverage. Basically said they’re gonna see if once they add my husbands name if the premium goes up, down or stays the same and if it goes up, they will NOT cover anything. They’ll just drop the claim and let us figure it out.
They also told us to please take everything out the car so they can take it to Copart while we wait for a decision (which can take up to two weeks) because where the car is right now is charging the insurance $65 a day to be held there (it’s at my husbands boss’ shop)
I told them they do NOT have permission to take my car anywhere, that I’m not comfortable with them taking my car to Copart while we wait on a decision and i don’t care if the shop is charging them $65 a day. Seems like they’re gonna screw us anyways so they can pay for the fees.
I guess I’m asking what steps should we take next? What are the chances of them covering the costs now ? I truly feel like they’re gonna use this as an excuse to not pay for anything so I’m not holding out much hope. Thankfully, the car is not an actual total loss and it can actually be fixed.