Is it worth taking legal action with car insurance claim?
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Is it worth taking legal action with car insurance claim?
I just went through an insurance claim where my car was stolen while out doing a delivery job. This job is not my primary job and is done occasionally. My insurance told me the loss of my vehicle will not be covered because of that job. I did not know I had to be covered under what they call commercial insurance. Anyways, my car turned up and I wanted to know if they will cover at least the damages. They have not responded to my inquiries. This is also took a span of 2 weeks. It just seemed to me it was too quick to close a case. I’m currently still insured with them and curious if it would be reasonable to look into this further.
Asked on January 23, 2017 under Insurance Law, California
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
If you did not inform your insurer that you were using your car for deliveries (for a commercial use) and buy/pay for the appropriate coverage, then you breached your obligations under the policy (by not keeping them informed of changes affecting insurance) and/or effectively bought the coverage under false pretenses (claimed it was only for personal use, when it was also for business or commercial use); either would let them disclaim or deny coverage, including coverage for the damage done while it was stolen. While you can try to fight this in court and try to show that the commercial use was so infrequent, so sporadic, or so new (i.e. that you did not yet have the chance to amend your insurance) that this should not result in denial of coverage, there is a very good chance you will lose: you simply can't use a car commercially with any frequency or regularity at all without informing your insurer.
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