Moving a Stalled Property Damage Claim After a Crash

Attorney Answer

You cannot force the other driver's insurer to make up its mind, and there is no Florida statute that gives an auto insurer a set number of days to pay a property damage claim. What you can do is stop waiting on it. If you carry collision coverage, your own company will fix the car now and go collect from theirs later — that is what it is for.

Start with the thing people get wrong. There is a well-known Florida statute with a 60-day pay-or-deny clock in it, and it is a property insurance statute — homeowners. It does not apply to an auto claim. On the auto side the timing is governed by the insurer's general duty to handle claims reasonably, not by a stopwatch.

Two statutes are worth knowing about. The first is aimed squarely at your situation. Fla. Stat. § 626.9743(1) provides: "This section shall apply to the adjustment and settlement of personal and commercial motor vehicle insurance claims." And § 626.9743(2) provides: "An insurer may not, when liability and damages owed under the policy are reasonably clear, recommend that a third-party claimant make a claim under his or her own policy solely to avoid paying the claim under the policy issued by that insurer. However, the insurer may identify options to a third-party claimant relative to the repair of his or her vehicle." So an adjuster may tell you that using your own collision coverage is an option. What the company may not do is push you there to dodge a claim it knows it owes.

The second is Fla. Stat. § 624.155, which creates a civil remedy against an insurer for certain claim conduct, including not attempting in good faith to settle a claim when it could and should have. It has a gate on it: § 624.155(3)(a) provides that "As a condition precedent to bringing an action under this section, the department and the authorized insurer must have been given 60 days' written notice of the violation." Filing that notice is a legal step with strategic consequences, not a form to fire off while you are annoyed. Talk to a lawyer about it rather than doing it yourself.

It also helps to know what is likely behind the other driver. Fla. Stat. § 324.022(1) provides: "Every owner or operator of a motor vehicle required to be registered in this state shall establish and maintain the ability to respond in damages for liability on account of accidents arising out of the use of the motor vehicle in the amount of $10,000 because of damage to, or destruction of, property of others in any one crash." That $10,000 is the floor for property damage. Many drivers carry no more.

What you can do

1. Call your own insurer and ask whether your policy has collision coverage and rental coverage, and open a claim under it if it does. Your deductible usually comes back to you if your company collects from theirs.

2. Get the other insurer's claim number, the adjuster's name, and the adjuster's direct line in writing, by email if you can.

3. Send the adjuster your photos, the crash report number, and a written repair estimate, and ask in writing for a decision on liability.

4. Keep every receipt for a rental, a tow, storage, and anything you have paid out of pocket.

5. If the company will not respond at all, file a consumer complaint with the Florida Department of Financial Services, which regulates insurers in this state.

6. Ask a Florida lawyer about a civil remedy notice under § 624.155 before you send one.

7. Most lawyers offer a brief initial call at no cost, and a few minutes on your specific facts — the dates, the paperwork, the exact wording — is worth more than any general guidance, including this page.

⏱ Time limits apply. Florida's limitations statute is Fla. Stat. § 95.11. For a crash before March 24, 2023, a negligence claim ran under the former four-year period; the Legislature shortened the negligence period in 2023 for later accidents, and whether the old period or the new one reaches an older crash is exactly the kind of question a Florida attorney should answer on your actual dates. I am not going to compute a deadline for you from a few lines of text. Take the real dates to a lawyer, and do it sooner than feels necessary.