Property Damage and Auto Insurance

By Gary Alexander, Senior Attorney

Alexander & Cleaver, PA

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Property Damage and Auto Insurance

You are involved in an accident and fortunately your injuries require no medical treatment but your car and the other vehicle are totaled. Who fixes or replaces the cars?
Each insurance policy written in Maryland is required to carry liability insurance for personal injury and property damage. When you review your policy it will have some scenario such as $20/40/10,000. These numbers may vary in amounts but they all constitute a minimal coverage that may apply. The third number represents coverage for property damage resulting from the collision.
Ordinarily most drivers expect that the insurance coverage from the at-fault vehicle will cover the repair or replacement of property damages. In a perfect world, that would be the case, however, liability is not always crystal clear at the moment of the accident.
If in dispute, you are far better off having property damage repairs done by your own insurance company under the collision portions of your auto insurance. When this occurs you will be responsible for your deductible, which will be reimbursed to you when the adverse insurance company pays your insurance company for the damage caused to your vehicle. Under this scenario you are dealing with a friendly insurance company who has some reason to be concerned about the service they give to you, their loyal customer and it removes a lot of the hassles that occur when you are dealing with the at-fault driver or their insurance company.