Insurance company not paying my rental :(

[Memodo]

Hi everyone, I have some issues trying to deal with the insurance company and the other driver involved in the accident.

My car was hit by another van in Wisconsin-Madison during Christmas time last year. The other driver had already commited 100% faulty. And my car was not drivable so the autobody shop towed my car to repair and I had to rent a car in Madison to drive back home which is in Indiana. About 3 weeks later, on Wednesday Jan. 16th, the autobody shop in Madison said the car is fixed. But I lived in Indiana and I got job and school to go here, so I went to Madison to pick up my car over the weekend. Right now I have some trouble dealing with the the insurance company of the other driver about the rental car reimbursement.

Issues:
1. The accident was happened on Christmas Eve, the Only car we could rent was a Compact car from Dollar rental and it was $80 per day. Right now the insurance company keep saying they only pay for $24.24 per day.

2. After the first day, we went to Hertz to change into another midsize car with lower rate. We rent the car from Hertz with total 28 days, but insurance company keep saying the repair time in the shop was only 22 days and they are not paying for the extra 6 day. The car was fixed on Wednesday, but I live in Indiana so I can only go to Madison over the weekend. And they still keep saying they only pay $24.24 per day, but the rate from Hertz was about $30 per day.


I also try to contact the other driver to resolve this issue, but he keeps not picking up the phone. And the agent from the insurance company keep saying they only pay for $704.32, but I spent $1057.58 over the rental car.

I would be really appreciate if you can spend time taking a look on my issues and give me some advices. I am thinking if I can not get all the money back from the insurance company ($300 is a lot of me....), I will try to file this to the small court.

Thanks for your time.

[annjd]

Based on what you say here, you could file suit against the party at fault and insurer (or at least threaten to do so) in small claims court or in regular court; filing in small claims court is easier and requires no attorney...you could try to collect all of the costs and damages that you suffered due to their behavior...you may prevail given the unusual circumstances and timing.

[Memodo]

Thanks for your reply,

So based on your answer, I could ask for the cost and damage we suffering due to this accident. I tried to look for some terms and answers.

Here are some cost and damage I would ask for in the court:

1.The gas cost which including going to Madison to pick up the repaired car and going to the court in Chicago to file the suit. (Can we estimate this cost by calculating the mileages and MPG?)

2. the lost of our vacation time during Christmas for waiting the towing and finding the rental car. (How can we estimate this lost?)

3. Car diminishing value due to this accident.

4. The time we spend to deal with this accident, such as wage lost.

Are those reasonable for we to ask for? And are there any other we could try to ask for?

Really appreciate your help.

your time and hassle will normally not be compensated, just actual costs