AllState refuses to pay airport taxes and fees on rentals. Any suggestions?

[hrse2wtr]

I also posted on r/Allstate, but did not get much attention, so I posted it here to try to get some help. Here's my story:

I was in a not at fault accident. I had over 6 months of car rental since my car was in the shop. After sending the invoices to AllState Claim Advisor. I was told the first time that they would not reimburse airport taxes and fees which is around $1,500 since I picked up the rental in an airport.

What should I do? File in a small claim? Hire a lawyer? My insurance is Geico and I live in California. Any suggestion is appreciated! Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Thank you for your suggestions everyone! Like I mentioned, this is my first time doing car rental due to car accident, so I only asked the adjustor that "so I just rent the car, save the receipts to get the reimbursement?" The adjustor just said yes. She only emphasized not to rent the luxury brands. So I just used Priceline to search it since I had no preference on rental company. If I knew, of course I wouldn't go to airport.

 

[amw88]

@hrse2wtr Why did you pick it up at the airport instead of another location?

 

[juli123]

@amw88 No kidding. Why on earth would someone choose an airport rental?

 

[amw88]

@juli123 As an adjuster the only times people would do it is when it was after hours of all other ERACs and they needed one NOW but even then I would be like you can choose to do that but we’re not covering those airport fees. Only under circumstances where there were zero other options would we authorize paying the fees but that was very rare

 

[flajerz]

@hrse2wtr You have an obligation to mitigate costs and picking up at the airport location was the more expensive option. Was there simply not a closer rental
Location? Was the next closest impractically far? We as adjusters can’t even make a reservation for people at airport locations.

You can try small claims it doesnt hurt if you’ve got the will to do it? They might settle to avoid the cost of litigation. If you’re able to, try and find some case law in your state regarding it. Virtually all the time you are told no by an auto insurance company it’ll be backed up by previous case law.

 

[andiluvs]

@flajerz Good luck with case law.
Most states say the claimant is owed reasonable transportation for the downtime of the vehicle during the repair or settlement process for a total loss. Only a few mandate LKQ rentals. None, that I am aware, mandate covering the fees associated with airport rentals.
As you mentioned, there are also statutes that claimants have a duty to mitigate damages. That would apply to those fees since another car, meeting the statutory definition of alternate transportation, was available at a lower costs.
The likelihood that an airport was the closest rental location with available cars during the long downtime is not impossible, but it is very improbable.

 

[flajerz]

@andiluvs Agreed on all counts. But at the end of the day anything is possible and the onus is now on OP to support their claim.

With respect to case law - it’s a big country and I can’t pretend to know how other states have decided things. I assume most of the state to state stuff rhymes but I can’t know for sure.

 

[thewordiswisdom]

@hrse2wtr How much coverage does the at fault party have? Most insurance pays for a rental up to 30 days, as they're not responsible for collision centers being backed up.

 

[phdjones]

@thewordiswisdom Lots incorrect here (not trying to be rude) there is no limit on rental on third party claims other than the policy limits. 30 days would not be relevant if the vehicle is actively being repaired during this time. Presumably a six month rental is due to repairs not back up.

 

[flajerz]

@phdjones You’ll never get angrier customer calls than one who just got misinformed or overpromised by their agent.

I feel like claims handling for a short period of time should be apart of agent licensure. Perhaps the reverse could be true things like regarding misrepresentation investigations; perhaps adjusters should work in sales for a bit too.

 

[thewordiswisdom]

@phdjones No there is no limit but they're also under no obligation to pay for that long, either. In the last several months I haven't seen repairs take this long. All the posts have been stating the repair centers are backed up and the other party's carrier is no longer paying for rental.

I think you're probably the 1st person saying that paying that long is normal. Also, if they run out of property damage coverage, how would they continue paying for rental coverage?

 

[phdjones]

@thewordiswisdom It’s not the norm but if the car is being repaired and liability accepted no adjuster would arbitrarily say car is still being repaired but we won’t cover anymore it just doesn’t make sense. Also if they run out of coverage that’s it no rental no repairs nothing hard stop

 

[thewordiswisdom]

@phdjones I hear what you're saying but it 100% falls outside of what adjusters have been saying in this forum.

 

[flajerz]

@thewordiswisdom It depends on what the root cause of the delay is. For a customer with rental coverage - nothing beyond their own line coverage. But if we as the carrier caused delays by not being timely in inspecting, we might cover days we lost.

For a 3rd party, if the delays are impossible to overcome (critical components delays like airbags or seatbelts for the repair that otherwise the vehicle is not road legal) then we would continue covering rental as long as policy limits allow.

If the shop simply doesn’t have capacity for the repair and won’t own up to it and let’s the car sit there burning days, we wouldn’t cover. It’s dependent on what the delay is. And nothing is set in stone.

If the car has been otherwise road legal and safe, but they’re waiting on non critical components we might not cover.

Not sure what the others have said but simply saying “sucks that you actually are unable to get this car repaired in 30 days, no more rental”’ is in bad faith and also exposes our customers to suit, would be a failure in claims handling if I have the money to pay for the rental car for this claimant.

 

[flajerz]

@thewordiswisdom Not responsible if the repair facility simply wasted time sitting on the car for no good reason. If there are genuine parts delays, and policy limits allow for this claimant/3rd party, we’d be on the hook for rental until repairs are complete.

I’ve had Mazda customers in rentals for 5-6 months last year waiting on exhaust and door components since my customer was 100% at fault for the accident and had sufficient policy limits to cover rental almost indefinitely

 

[motabea33]

@hrse2wtr Yah no, you can’t just go to the airport where they bump up the daily rental rates and expect the insurance company to cover it all. You needed to go through one outside of that because those have deals with insurance companies to offer the reduced rates. In my system, I wouldn’t have been able to even offer an airport location.