Legal question on a hit-and-run

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Another update - got the car fixed, paid the $500 deductible on a $6,000 repair and all is back to normal.

Got a notice from our insurance claims department, with a document for us to sign to approve them going after the hit-and-run driver. Has his name in it. He's uninsured and I looked on Casenet - he has a couple of pages worth of traffic infractions, including serving a 10-day "shock time" jail sentence for repeatedly driving while suspended or revoked.

Looked him up on Facebook (he has an unusual name), and he appears to be about 40 years old, and he is listed as being employed as a General Maintenance Technician at the apartment complex where they both live. This makes me want to drive up there and raise holy hell, but also it nags at me that he probably has keys to my daughter's apartment, while not being much of an upstanding citizen.

Probably just let the insurance company pursue it, but darn. Seems like a lot of twists and turns here.

This is what your tort coverage is for. Let them handle it. I will say your chances of recovering that $500 are the same whether you go after him with a bat or an insurance company lawyer.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Yeah, definitely where we are at, and what our insurance agent has told us, to let them handle it and wash our hands of it.

One thing that gets me is, part of the lease there mandates that all tenants' vehicles must be fully licensed and insured to be on the property, and they must have renter's insurance to live there. Their employee who lives there at least doesn't have the first part of that requirement satisfied, and I'd bet doesn't have renter's insurance, either. If I did anything, it would be contacting the apartment management and bringing up this entire episode and how one of their employees was witnessed committing a hit-and-run, causing significant damage to a tenant's car.

Glad she'll be moving out in a few months.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

That I would definitely do. If they enforce it, they will force him to produce dec pages for renters and auto as proof of coverage.

 

[TigerVols]

Yeah, definitely where we are at, and what our insurance agent has told us, to let them handle it and wash our hands of it.

One thing that gets me is, part of the lease there mandates that all tenants' vehicles must be fully licensed and insured to be on the property, and they must have renter's insurance to live there. Their employee who lives there at least doesn't have the first part of that requirement satisfied, and I'd bet doesn't have renter's insurance, either. If I did anything, it would be contacting the apartment management and bringing up this entire episode and how one of their employees was witnessed committing a hit-and-run, causing significant damage to a tenant's car.

Glad she'll be moving out in a few months.

Sounds like the apartment owner is a sitting duck for a lawsuit from your daughter.

 

[Dog8Cats]

This would disquiet me to no end. Not that anyone should be judged by one driving mishap, but he doesn't seem terribly upstanding.

... it nags at me that he probably has keys to my daughter's apartment

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Wait until she moved out, then raise a stink with the apartment complex owner.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Exactly what we've decided, Baron. We are going to sign the form to allow our insurance company to go after him in the courts for the full amount now, then after she moves out, will pursue it with the apartment complex management, both locally and their ownership group on the East Coast. Looks like they have dozens of apartment complexes they own nationwide, and based on their online ratings from tenants, seem to be pretty responsive to complaints and concerns.