so on labor day weekend around midnight, I was parked at the bissonet&59 light and a drunk/drugged out illegal mexican slammed into the back of my BMW.. I call the police, she arrested him for dwi, (possibly deported now) writes a police report and runs information on the plates of the car and finds active coverage with "home state auto ins" with a different person the officer advises me to file a claim under the policy that covers the car that hit me... I do as advised, home state auto ins company contact their policy holder and he said he sold the car 2 months ago and sent in a "written notarized statement" the insurance company then sends me a written statement saying their policy holder no longer has any insurable interest because he sold the car 2 months ago and I have to file on my policy and pay the $750 deductible on my own policy... considering the officer told me the registered owner still has legal ownership of the car that hit me, still has active coverage on the car that hit me, is there any recourse? he obviously sold the car to a guy with no ins, license, ssn? this is perfectly fine in Texas? no bill of sale, no change in ownership with DMV... Im appalled his insurance company denied my claim because they said their policy holder no longer has any "insurable interest" in the car
Did the title ever actually change hands? In whose name was the title? You may have to sue, to recover your losses, but if the title was never changed, then the sale was not 'real', and the liability would still lie with the title-holder. That's my non-expert 2-cents anyway.
I already filed under my policy against uninsured driver and my insurrance company show no real proof of sale or change of ownership per my adjuster this morning... So I don't know what will happen now
I got hit by a drunk driver who was uninsured about 10 years ago. Ended up being forced to file under uninsured driver as well. Was given no other options. Not sure if circumstances make yours slightly different.
Bissonnet and 59...I was hit there years ago in the 90s at that intersection. That area has gone to hell with all of the crack and prostitution off of Woodfair and Forum Park.
Your insurance company will fight the fight with the other insurance company to recover losses. If there is no title transfer and still active insurance, it should be a pretty easy fight. There's likely little you have to do but it wouldn't be a terrible idea to discuss with an attorney.
Long story about a similar situation below: Spoiler Something like this happened to me not too long ago. I was at my brother's house and we heard a loud bang. It ended up being someone ran into my wife's car and just left. Or so we thought. We started looking at the cars parked in the neighborhood, and it was literally the car across the street. We called the police, because no one answered the door. Seemed weird since they must have just got there, we literally just heard the bang. Police shows up and agrees with our story. Can't get anyone to answer. They figure out the phone number for someone there. I guess owner of the car. Happened to be the dad. He said his daughter drives the car, but wasn't home. Weird right? Anyway, cop said he'd keep going back to figure out who it was and give them a ticket, and get their insurance information. she also got a ticket for hit and run and no license (how do people without a license get insurance?) A few days later, he did what he said, and gave me their insurance info. I had already filed a claim with my insurance, because we didn't know what the outcome would be, and wanted the car fixed. My insurance company then filed a claim with theirs. I would always call my insurance (All State) and they'd say the other company (some small name, can't remember) was giving them the run around. So I called them directly. They told me that the person dropped their coverage on X date, so they wouldn't pay the claim. I told them that the accident was about a week before that date, so they were actually covered. They made me give them the police report (which I'm sure they already had) and a bunch of other stuff before they decided to pay it. It ended up being like 6 months before I got my deductible back. Short version. Your insurance should try to make a claim with their insurance, but you may have to do some of the foot work too. It'll be a while before you get your money back.
If you have a BMW, $750 should be chump change That aside, be prepared to pay whenever you get hit outside the loop. Too many illegals and no insurance people out there
My boss told me the moral of the story is not to drive outside the confined area of the galleria/610 loop area..
That's where the tranny's work nowadays, lol. If you're insurance company paid you, then they will probably subrogate against Home State to get their money back. Find out from your agent if that means they'll try to get your $750 deductible back too (or however much you paid). Home State could very well be doing shady crap just trying to avoid their obligation. I'm not going to say not to hire a lawyer, but part of your insurance premiums is already going towards paying for their lawyers who have similar interests as yours in this case.
Related tip, if you sell your car in a private sell keep your plates and file a VTR-346. Otherwise they can cruise around on your registration and never change the title. EDIT: If the seller filed a VTR-346 but did not keep his plates the police would runt he plates as belonging to him but he would not be liable. Could be the situation here.
You won't get anything out of it and you'll take a hit for your deductible. I hope your deductible is low and you had car rentals as part of your coverage (assuming you need to rent a car and don't want to pay out of pocket). Been there and it sucks balls.
Similar situation happened to me a few years ago. Illegal tried to cross the street when he didn't have room. Pulled out in front of me and stopped. I slammed on my brakes but couldn't stop in time. His fault. No license, no insurance, didn't speak English. Tried to offer me cash to not call the cops, but I didn't know how much it would cost to fix my car and in the end, he wouldn't have been able to afford the repairs anyway. Had to file an uninsured motorist claim with my insurance and pay a deductible. Cops gave him several tickets. He fought it and I got subpoenaed to court but he made a deal when I showed up and I got to go home.
