A person moving into my apartment building, dented the side of my car in with their U-Haul moving truck.
Question:
A person moving into my apartment building, dented the side of my car in with their U-Haul moving truck. The office here knows the persons name, and address, but I do not. So, I would like to do a small claims action against this person ($750). What procedure can I do to legally get the office to give me this persons full name and address?
Answer:
Depends on the state you're in exactly what you can do when it comes
to small claims court.
In California there is a procedure to issue a subpoena before filing
suit to determine this kind of information. I've never had to do it
so I don't know what's involved.
In other states you may be able to file suit first and designated the
defendant as a John Doe, and then serve the apartment with a subpoena
asking for documents that will show who the tenant is and what his
address is.
If you have collision coverage on your vehicle, you should let the
insurance company handle this. You have the tag number and you know
who owns the vehicle, and the insurer could make the rental agency
divulge the driver's name.
I suppose you could sue the rental agency, and then they could bill
the driver for the damages. The driver probably would not have been
allowed to rent the truck without either having his or her own
insurance and/or buying a collision & damage waiver.
It occurs to me that you might be able to get U Haul to pay the
damages, in which case it would not matter who was driving the van.
How do you go about doing this? One way is to simply ask U Haul for
the money. It may or may not work, but the U Haul franchisee
undoubtedly has plenty of liability insurance which could pay for your
damages. What happens after that is U Haul's problem: presumably they
will go after the renter. The renter almost certainly would not have
been able to rent the truck in the first place without either having
insurance and/or putting down a deposit and/or buying a collision &
damage waiver--- and U Haul could also sue the driver for damages. In
fact, they probably already know about the damage to their truck, even
if they don't know about YOUR damage
I have filed a claim with U-Haul (Republic Western Insurance Co.),
and now I await word from them. I am hoping that they have a database
and that they are willing to use it to locate the renter/vehicle. I
think they have sent a letter to my apartment management asking for the
renters name since we told them that they know. Should be no reason that
they not provide the name to U-Haul. If this doesn't work, I will just
sue the driver of the vehicle as I have his name and address now (he was
not the U-Haul renter). I had a cell phone number and paid for the
information, also followed up on public records to verify the
information. It is unfortunate that people do not just do the right
thing to begin with, the world would be a much better place. Thank you
all for the great advice on this group!
I worry that you are expending a lot of time and effort going after someone who
may not even have the money to pay you--- when there are three other entities
involved in this who definitely have enough money to pay for your damages
(i.e., your insurer, the U Haul franchisee, and the U Haul franchisee's
insurer.)
I also worry that you may get in trouble for not reporting the accident to your
insurance company. Perhaps you do not have any collision damage and/or
uninsured motorist coverage. But it is possible that you do have such coverage
and are choosing not to use it for this relatively minor incident out of the
fear that your rates might go up after you make a claim. The problem in the
second case is: the driver and/or the U Haul place can (and probably will) turn
to their insurer for help. And their insurer has the right to know who your
insurer is, and your insurer will eventually find out that you have indeed had
an accident.
1) I have contact my insurance company, and they told me that my coverage
is not sufficient on this vehicle (no collision).
2) I contacted U-HAUL about the incident, and they informed me to call
their insurer which I did, and I now have a claim pending. I don't know
how to find out about the 3rd option since I don't know where the truck
was rented from (other then it being a U-Haul).
The driver of the U-Haul who hit my car, did file a claim with his
insurance company (Progressive). They informed me that he is not covered
to drive a commercial vehicle, and therefore will not pay my claim. The
driver has refused to give the persons name who rented the truck to his
insurance company, and therefore he is my only option if the insurance
company for U-Haul also denies my claim.
I heard from the claims examiner today. I was told that they are still
investigating. Playing phone tag with the driver, not getting a return
call from the U-Haul renter, and not receiving a response from my
apartment management about who the renter was that moved in that day.
I have my fingers crossed that I don't have to try the small claims, but
I will do this just because they've got me pissed. If the driver does
not have the money, I will just put a mark on his credit as a reminder of
his negligence. If he offered anything along with an apology, instead of
ignoring me, I would not be pissed.
I get the feeling none of you people have ever used a U-Haul before. When
filling out the paperwork for the truck, they ask you if you want the
insurance, if you say no, you must sign the part of the contract that states
that you understand that you are responsible for any/all damages incurred to
the truck or other vehicles.
I do seem to remember only one agent out of about 20 that I've used in the past
made a point to explain that my regular insurer would not cover a collision in
a U-Haul.
Simple answer is, he's got to sue the guy who was driving and/or the woman who
rented the truck.
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