I just hung with my adjuster at Aviva. I have made the decision to get started on the repairs without knowing if I will be on the hook for them or not because this was deadlocking us. Aviva can’t make a decision as to coverage until the appraiser has a chance to look at the guts of the damage. That is going to happen sometime tomorrow. I have given the mechanic the green light to do whatever work needs to be done to get me back on the road lickety split.

The adjuster seems to have changed her tune regarding whether or not I’ll get covered for this or maybe she just boiled it down to the nitty gritty. Basically, the appraiser needs to be confident that the damage could be related to the accident and that there are no wear and tear issues. If that’s the case, then I’m covered, and all is good. But if there is even the slightest hint of a wear and tear issue, I’m out of luck.

I also decided to advise the adjuster about the buzz online about this issue. I made it clear that I don’t expect that to get me any special consideration, but that Aviva needs to know that people are talking. She said that I’m free to say what I want but that they have policies and procedures to adhere to. She seemed to think that I was trying to muscle her, which is exactly why I wanted to avoid bringing up the ‘do you know who I am?’ card. But I think it was courteous of me to do so.

So I just want to go on the record to say that I think that Aviva is handling the claim, complicated as it has become, competently, if not fast enough for my needs, and that I don’t feel like a valued customer. This is my first time dealing with an insurance company where I feel like a number. I’ve never had an at-fault claim and have always been treated for my not-at-fault claims beyond the stated policies and procedures as a victim who needs special care. Call me spoiled. Entitled even.

I think my adjuster and I are still on okay terms. She brought up the appraiser’s estimate versus the mechanic’s and our conversation soon sounded, in my opinion, like an argument. I was horrified! She and I have more than enough to discuss without arguing over something that neither one of us has any control over! I quickly put the lid on that and told her that it would cost what it costs and that the appraiser and mechanic can hash it out themselves and that we don’t need to worry about that at this point.

At this point, I don’t expect any further updates from Aviva before Thursday, and I could be back on the road Saturday as planned, but surely no later than next Tuesday.

I’m heading back to the hotel. I’m nowhere near my $1,000 allowance on it, so I might as well take advantage of the facilities. They have an onsite laundry, so I’m off to drag my very neglected and overflowing laundry basket into the trunk of the rental car. 🙂

As for the rental car, my Intact adjuster says that they’re still paying for it, and will for a couple more days!

I had just hit post on the last update when my phone rang. It was the appraiser for the car.

I’d been advised to not accept anything he said until I could mull it over, but there was no reason not to.

Damage to the rear end of the car is valued at $7,400. Value of the damage on the front end, $5,000. Total cost to repair the car: $12,400. I paid about $15,000 for that car; there’s no way those kinds of repairs aren’t a total loss!

The appraiser called around Lethbridge and got an estimate of $2,200 to have a new car set up for towing. He can’t go any higher than that. However, he is putting a note in the file that he recommends I be paid that much, but that I can come back with a bill later and get reimbursed if it costs more. That’s a compromise I can live with.

Now, the value of the car. I did some market research and determined that, depending on the condition and options, the car was worth $7,500 to $9,000. I was willing to settle for an appraised value of $8,500 because of the good condition and low mileage. The appraiser came back with a figure of $9,432.

Moreover, should I have to pay GST on the next car I buy, I can submit a GST bill of up to $471.60 (5% of $9,432). So I don’t want to hear anyone say that I should have hemmed and hawed before accepting. 🙂

I still owe about $4,200 on the car. So I should be getting about $5,000 once the loan is paid out and the paperwork is completed. I am so happy that I paid the ‘cash’ price for the car and got it financed at 0% otherwise there is a likely chance I would have still been on the wrong side of the loan at this point or that the car would have just been worth what I owe on it.

I’m not sure yet what I’ll be buying to replace the car, but I want something sturdier than an Accent and not brand new. That $5,000 should go a long enough way to getting something decent.

So now, I’m focused on getting this claim resolved and money in the bank in time to get me back on the road by next Thursday. Please keep all your appendages crossed!

I just spoke with my adjuster at Intact, the car insurer. Wow, this one is going a lot more smoothly. She says that the appraiser will get back to me when he has a report and that I will probably hear from him before she does!

She did say that judging by the pictures, she’s expecting a report of total loss. She also said that there is absolutely no question of my being at fault for anything.

Once she gets the report of total loss, it takes about a week for the money to land in the bank account through direct deposit. So if they can have an answer by today, which she says is likely, I could have that money by the end of next week. If it looks like that will be the case, I will have the work started on the motorhome and be ready to pay it from the auto claim when the payment comes true. It’s stupid that I have to do it that way, but I know I am in for a long battle for with Aviva.

I really need a lawyer, but the ones I have spoken to are gun shy about taking an auto case without injuries (note to self: the next time someone rear ends me, go see a doctor for whiplash). I’ve gotten a lot of advice and I know I should be dealing with Aviva through a lawyer, but that’s easier said than done. There are jurisdiction issues, too. The lawyers I’ve spoken to are located in Ohio, where the guy who rear ended me is insured, and that seems to be the right location.

The tow bar claim is under review. I will be covered; the question is for how much and whether it will be paid separately or as part of the car evaluation. I have valued the tow system at about $4,000, including parts and installation. I have receipts for everything except the tow bar itself (the cost of which is verifiable online), but the work was done by a family friend who gave me a discount on labour and part costs, so those invoices do not accurately reflect what it is going to cost me to get set up again for towing. The adjuster said she is keeping that in mind.

The mechanic came by to show me an invoice for similar work to what Miranda needs on a 2004 Ford truck on an E450 chassis (just like Miranda). The amount is $3,000. Closer to $2,000, I could have just squeaked through the payment amount. But $3,000, plus a $250 towing bill is just not possible.

Not counting the welding costs, the bulk of this invoice is for parts that I replaced very recently. No one is going to get me to believe that these troubles are not related to the accident. That said, I have been researching automotive claim laws and it’s apparently up to me to prove that the accident caused the damage. What I can prove for certain is that Miranda was operating perfectly (no trouble with her until after the accident), all her maintenance was up to date, and she was not overloaded. We’ll see what Aviva says but I still maintain that it would be cheaper for the other company to pay to shut me up than to take this to court.

I just spoke with my insurance adjuster at Aviva for the motorhome. She wants the rear axle taken apart so the appraiser can go in and have a look at the guts of the damage. I’ll get back to that in a bit.

She and I disagree on the advice she gave me about going on down the road. She says that she told me and that I agreed that if anything else came up, it couldn’t be added to the claim. As I recall the conversation and look at the exhaustive notes I made in that conversation, I understood it to be that 180 days to file my claim and that if anything directly related to the accident came up, I could include it. I should have asked for clarification, I know. I was under stress.

My position still stands. I have more than enough proof that all the maintenance on my rig was up to date and nowhere near due again. The axle failed less than 400km and just a day after the accident. There is no way this is unrelated. Aviva should not be arguing with me. They should be telling me to get the rig fixed and that they’ll be submitting the bill to the other guy’s insurance.

I told the adjuster that I am not having the rig taken apart without knowing how the bill is going to be paid. The appraiser’s estimate is that there is $3,600 worth of damage total to Miranda, including the axle stuff, the bumper, and the hitch assembly. If $1,000 for a hotel is nothing, why are they arguing with me over less than $4,000, especially since Aviva is not going to have to pay? That said, I just spoke with the mechanic and he believes that it will costs heaps more than $3,600, plus the towing bill.

The adjuster is going to call me back later today or early tomorrow afternoon. I stressed the importance of my needing to be back on the road within the week and that our time zone difference is always setting us back a day. She promised to get back to me ASAP. She’s been good on that end and I don’t want to hear any negative thoughts about her at this point. She’s at the centre of a messy entanglement of multiple insurance companies and appraisers. I know she has a hard job to do and I’m not willing at this point to say that she has washed her hands of this case.

While, as I said, I am trying to remain on good terms with my adjuster, I can tell that it will be very difficult to get Aviva to go to bat for me. I have been insured with them for almost four years without filing a claim. They are the only company to offer a product for full-timers. So it’s not like I really have an alternative.

But I just checked my blog stats and there are more than 1,500 unique visitors to this site every week who are following this story. I spoke to more than 25,000 visitors about Aviva at the Early Bird RV Show in 2011. I have sold hundreds of copies of my ebook where I mention their product. In short, a good amount of their market, existing and future, for their Elite full-timing product is going to know about how this claim gets resolved.

I was going to offer them the courtesy of letting them know all this before I started to talk negatively about how they are handling my claim, but that would sound like blackmail. Fix this in my favour or I go public, so to speak. So I’ve gone public and hope that I will be able to come back and say that they did right by me without my having to go the “Do you have any idea who I am?!” route.