Month: June 2012

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Meeting With the Third Party Adjuster

This morning, I met the third party adjuster regarding the claim for things Aviva won’t/can’t cover.

I liked this guy. He didn’t sit there, listen to me prattle, then tell me, “I have everything I need. I’ll let you know their decision when it comes.” Instead, he told me flat out that he feels my claims are justified and, most importantly, they are not fraudulent.

I went in there to argue for $2,700. At the end, he said he had enough to recommend I be cut a cheque for $2,800 but that he suggest I pull out a couple of tax notices of assessment in support of my claim for lost income. I had claimed $500 per week for two weeks, for a total of $1,000. He said that he felt I lost three weeks of income. I went over my notices of assessment and was able to average out to $500 a week between 2010 and 2011, so my claim went from $1,000 to $1,500. I am now waiting to hear about about a $3,300 claim!

I don’t like to talk about how much money I make/live off of/my budget, but I know that the above information is going to raise a few eyebrows. All I will say is that in 2010 and 2011 I also partially lived off of withdrawals from my nest egg. So, no, I am not living on just $1,100 a month. This is the most detail I am ever going to provide about my financial situation. 🙂

Because of the major tropical storm/tornado that happened at the end of May, the adjuster is super busy. So he said that he won’t have a final answer for me till the fall, but that he will do what he can to have a cheque for me by the beginning of October. So it looks like I will likely be getting something. I still need to save up this summer for the toad conversion, but I may not have to save as much to hit the road in the fall. This story may end up having a happy ending after all.

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Cost of the Alberta Trip to Buy My New Toad

I’m meeting with the third party’s adjuster tomorrow morning to discuss my claim for non-Aviva covered expenses due to the accident. I already sent justifications/evidence for things like lost income and supplemental medical coverage, but I didn’t have much to justify my $1,500 for the trip to Alberta to buy my new toad.

So I took about an hour this morning to add up everything and get my receipts in order. My trip to Alberta cost me $1,600 in flights, hotels, taxis, buses, fuel, and food. My estimate was pretty good!

One piece of good news was that I was never charged for the car rental I ended up not using! So I only lost the two nights at the hotel in Calgary, but that was made up by staying at Chez Life on Our Ark in Stettler for two nights.

My breakdown for the trip had been:

$500 for fuel (actual: $596)

$300 for meals and incidentals (actual: $241, with this category including the bus and taxis)

$200 for the hotel (actual: $330 since I got a hotel in Sault Ste Marie)

$50 for a car (actual: $0)

So I have no problem justifying that claim. Now, I just have to get them to understand that buying a car in Quebec was not a viable option. The adjuster is a Quebecer so he does know a bit about how things work in Canada, which may help.

I will be so happy if I get that $2,700 that I am claiming. It’ll cover the toad conversion, meaning that I won’t have to save up anything this summer beyond my usual amount in preparation for departure and I just may be able to take a proper vacation in August. I shouldn’t be out this money and I really hope I don’t have to sue for it. 🙁

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Go Ahead From Aviva For Final Motorhome Repairs

My adjuster left me a message yesterday regarding the final motorhome repairs, but I missed it (I’m not very good about remembering to check my cell). So I didn’t know that she’d called until I went to call her today. I actually got hold of her immediately!

There are no issues with the estimate so VR Expert has the go ahead. I have asked them to do the insurance stuff first so that they can invoice and Aviva can cut a cheque by the time my repairs are done. We shall see…

The estimate is quite a bit more than it would have been in the US, probably because of the cost of getting parts up here, plus the tax difference. Anyway, I was told that they would be looking at what work the estimate covered, not the dollar amount, hence why there were no issues with approval. This is the first time that I can say Aviva has done the right thing without my having to stomp my foot. I expected to have to wait for them to get a Canadian estimator out here before I could even get the inspection estimate done. Instead, Aviva told me that we could skip that step so long as the repair shop and the US estimator agreed on the work to be done.

I also asked VR Expert to give me an estimate for taking out the front window and putting something to cover it. I suggested screwing in a piece of fiberglass and sealing it well, leaving me to deal with the interior, but he said he said it wouldn’t look good. I asked him to think about it and come back with a quote. I’m tired of that window and the loft is empty, so I might as well get them to pull it for me. I’m not too worry about the final look, thinking that as long as it is a nice, crisp piece I can paint it a solid colour. I’d even like to stencil Miranda’s name on it!

Work commences on Tuesday morning. I do plan to go out there a couple of times and sneak a peak.

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Thinking of Using the Euro This Summer

Until a moronic Ohioan changed everything, I had planned to take time late this summer to drive to Newfoundland, a distance of almost 6,000KM round trip. I’m not so sure I want to do that now that I have driven here from Edmonton, but anyway.

I thought that since I’d be going all that way, I might as well make a little detour that would involve getting the chance to spend a few Euro. I mean, by the time you get the Newfoundland, all you have to do is drop the car, get on a pedestrian-only ferry, and voila, you’re in a quaint French town!

Have any of my readers visited the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia?

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“Check Gauge” Light on my 2000 Ford Ranger

When I was out running errands on Saturday, my first stop was a gas station since I left with the needle way too close to the red empty line. Like on the way to Brooks, the gauge moved from ‘you have gas’ to ‘you are running on fumes’ very quickly. But unlike on that trip, a light saying ‘check gauge’ came on.

Interesting.

I got my fuel then pulled over to check the manual. As a side note, like with my Accent, I have a fully tricked out ride so all the little extras in the manual apply to me. 🙂

‘Check gauge’ could mean:

1) engine temp is too hot (nope)

2) low oil (nope)

3) fuel tank near empty (ha ha!)

I did some research and learned that that light should come on when you have about 3 gallons of gas left in the tank. Hmm. I did the math and when I took on fuel in Brooks, I had about 2 gallons of gas left, but the light did not come on.

So is my ‘check gauge’ light faulty or is my math faulty? I think I need to double check the capacity of my tank, but it looks like I have a 19.5 gallon tank according to what I can find online. I haven’t calculated my gas mileage, but the numbers on this US government page put it at 18 miles per gallon combined highway and city, which sounds about right. If that’s the case, when I landed in Brooks with 2 gallons in the tank expecting to stall at any second I could have probably done another 36 miles!

I’m not obsessed with my gas mileage, but I do like to know how far I can go when the gas gauge dips into the red. With my Accents, I knew I could do at least 30KM once the ‘check fuel’ gauge came on and I would find comfort in knowing this information for my Ranger. I want to find that sweet spot where I am taking on enough fuel to make the stop worthwhile without actually running on fumes.

I am amused by how the manual puts the worst case scenario at the top of the list for this gauge and then runs down to the least alarming one!