Context time.
A few years ago the roof of my vehicle sustained a bit of hail damage, so I filed a claim and an adjuster came out to look at the car.
There was never any follow up on it an ultimately I just left it as is since the damage was ultimately aesthetic and not super noticeable.
Well a couple of weeks ago the same vehicle got caught in flash flooding, a claim was filed, an adjuster investigated and the ruled the car totalled.
The issue comes in that while I was speaking to my insurance company about the payout on the claim, I was told that a $7,000 claim had been paid out for the hail damage in the form of a check to cover repair costs to the dealership, but the repairs had never been reported (no shit) so they were going to be deducting it from my settlement.
I never received a check nor was I contacting again by insurance or the car dealership.
After lots of phone tag I learned from insurance that the check was made payable to me and said dealer, and from the dealership that they HAD received but didn’t have the appropriate information on file so it was forwarded to the address on file. My mother’s address.
After a phone call with my mother, I was informed that she had in fact received that check. And then cashed it (don’t know how) And spent it.
Maybe an important detail to note, but my mom is the primary on the policy. I don’t know if that makes a difference.
I don’t know what to do. What remains after the deduction is not enough to pay for a new vehicle. Not even enough for a down payment.
The insurance is pulling details on what exactly happened with the check.
Are there any legal implications to this? Is someone just able to cash a check from a claim regardless of whether it’s made out to them or not?
I have no idea what is going on, what I can do, if anything going forward or what to expect.
Just… what now?
Someone cashed a car insurance claim payout that wasn’t me. Now what?
byu/goldpeake inInsurance
Posted by goldpeake
5 Comments
If the vehicle was titled and insured by your mother the check would have been in her name and sent to her. This is between you and your mother not the insurance company.
Who is on the title/registration? (assuming you properly informed insurance as well)
Be specific because if mom is not but cashed the check, she may have forged your signature
If mom is, everything checks out because in the eyes of the law, mom’s car was damaged. not yours
Your mother should not have been able to cash that check if you were the only named owner and your name was listed on the check (or more importantly her name was NOT).
Two options: pursue your mother legally for ~~wire fraud~~ forgery, or work it out with her. Insurance did their duty for the most part.
Sounds like Mom is going to jail if you really want that 7k
> I filed a claim and an adjuster came out to look at the car. There was never any follow up on it an ultimately I just left it as is
You mean you didn’t follow up. Now you see what happens when you don’t follow up.