Insurance reimbursement of mailbox from accident......

[edible_chicken]

A kid took out my mailbox from an accident last week. I bought the materials to replace it, saved the receipts, and i installed it. my dad still owns our house, so i gave him the receipts to let home insurance contact the kid's auto insurance to pay for the replacement. The total bill was $152.50. My dad thinks that is too high and the insurance will not pay that amount. He said they will only pay for something comparable to the original mailbox. I paid about $110 for the mailbox that was damaged. Do you think the insurance will reimburse me the full amount to replace it or what I paid for the damaged mailbox?

 

[WIChookchick]

I think it would depend if there was a co-pay on the insurance.. if not that is a LOT of money that could go to something else you might need. So yes I think the insurance co should pay it.
BUT ask them if it might make the insurance higher...

 

[edible_chicken]

the kid's insurance is paying for it. my dad is letting his insurance agent take care of the matter and faxed the receipts to the agent.

 

[they'reHISchickens]

Did you include something for your labor in replacing said mailbox? I"ll bet you didn't. I think that amount is very fair and the kid is lucky to get away with so little.

 

[NYboy]

If they don't fully cover the bill take the kids parents or owner of car to small claims court.

 

[edible_chicken]

Did you include something for your labor in replacing said mailbox? I"ll bet you didn't. I think that amount is very fair and the kid is lucky to get away with so little.

No, i did not include labor. I wanted lowes to install it but they do not have mailbox installation service. i did not want to search all over for a company to do it, so i did it myself. I thought about adding extra to the bill for my labor, but it was easy to install the mail box. The hole was already there. I dug it deeper, stuck pole in, poured concrete, stained it, and it was done.

I appreciate everyone's suggestions. I have never file a claim for insurance and I was not sure of the procedures or what to expect. I had to pray for the kid because it was a miracle nothing bad happened to the kids or anyone else. Several properties were damaged but they should consider themselves lucky it was only property.

 

[dewey]

In my experiences with things like that insurance will usually cover the value of the old but it's hard to say about a mailbox. Many people will usually just handle it privately and pay out of pocket to cover small amounts rather than run it through insurance...since deductibles alone are usually more than a small claim amount, and for the homeowner, any claim can possibly increase their rate through no fault of their own.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote:

In my experiences with things like that insurance will usually cover the value of the old but it's hard to say about a mailbox. Many people will usually just handle it privately and pay out of pocket to cover small amounts rather than run it through insurance...since deductibles alone are usually more than a small claim amount, and for the homeowner, any claim can possibly increase their rate through no fault of their own.

They aren't turning it in on their Homeowner's Insurance.
The kid who hit it is liable

 

[OldGuy43]

You could always threaten them:


Quote: Just don't mention the "willfully or maliciously" part since it was an accident.

 

[dewey]

Quote:


They aren't turning it in on their Homeowner's Insurance.
The kid who hit it is liable

"my dad still owns our house, so i gave him the receipts to let home insurance contact the kid's auto insurance"

I took what EC said (quoted above) to mean that dad was letting his own home owners insurance company handle hashing it out with the kid's insurance company...I don't know about anybody elses but my HOI will not handle property damage issues "off the books" as a favor.