Does Insurance Cover A Rental Car Accident?
If you or somebody you care about has been involved in a vehicle accident, you may need to use a rental vehicle for some time while you wait for your vehicle to get repaired or replaced. However, do you know who is responsible for paying for a rental vehicle in these circumstances? Here, we want to discuss rental vehicle payments after an accident occurs in Texas.
Paying for a Rental Right Away
Individuals typically need transportation right away after an accident occurs. Just because there has been a collision does not mean that life stops. Crash victims still need to go about their day-to-day lives, including going to work, running errands, getting kids to and from locations, etc.
One of the first things that people do after a vehicle accident is explore rental vehicle options. This can be a challenging and chaotic time frame, particularly when individuals have to deal with any injuries they sustained as well as the insurance carriers involved. There may be various ways to secure payment for rental vehicle coverage.
Using your rental coverage
Nearly every insurance carrier offers the ability to purchase rental vehicle coverage as part of the overall policy. In general, this is an inexpensive add-on to the overall policy and well worth it in the event a collision occurs. When you purchase rental vehicle coverage through your insurance carrier, you will notify the carrier that an accident has occurred, and they will pay for your rental vehicle costs.
There are limitations to how much coverage you receive, but these limitations depend on the way you have your policy arranged. For example, the policy may specify that you are allowed a certain dollar value each day for a rental vehicle, and typically the coverage expires after 30 or 60 days. In theory, this would be enough time for you to get your vehicle repaired or replaced.
Paying out-of-pocket and waiting for a settlement
In the event you do not have rental vehicle coverage, you may end up paying for your rental vehicle out of pocket and waiting for the claim to settle in order to receive reimbursement. Even if the other party caused the incident, you may have to pay out of pocket if you opted out of rental vehicle coverage on your personal policy.
Paying out of pocket can be cost-prohibitive, but it also may be necessary. It could also take quite a while for you to receive repayment from the at-fault driver’s insurance carrier. The money for reimbursement will not come in until after the claim settles, which could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months or more than a year.
Should You Contact a Car Accident Lawyer?
If you or somebody you care about has been injured or sustained property damage in a vehicle accident caused by another driver, we encourage you to reach out to a vehicle accident lawyer as soon as possible. A Laredo accident attorney can get involved, conduct an investigation, and help you recover the compensation needed to get through this. This includes compensation for your medical bills and lost wages, as well as payment for property damage expenses and rental vehicle coverage.