So, one day in April 2005, my parents went to visit a car dealership to purchase a used car, a black 2001 Chrysler Neon. We bought insurance, the plates, etc... After it ran into mechanical trouble, they traded it in for a 2005 Dodge SX2.0 . The salesman was the same one that sold them the used car. The salesman said that he'll take care of the paperwork (ie. Faxing the Bill of Sales to the insurance office). We had a witness that heard the salesman say that he'd fax the paperwork. We had this car for some time.

In January 2006, the car crashed. We called the insurance company to attempt to file a claim, but they said that the insurance we had was still under the black Neon's car, meaning we were driving the Dodge for a few months without insurance. Now, we tried to reason with them, but it didn't help.

All we got back was $2000 for the totalled car and about $1000 for the portion of the insurance policy that was unused. My father understood that he was supposed to show the Bill of Sales to the insurance company physically.

Are we entitled to anything else? It's been over a year since then, so I don't think so. I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Thanks.

All we got back was $2000 for the totalled car and about $1000 for the portion of the insurance policy that was unused. Hello mr:

I'm lost. The car IS or ISN'T insured. There's no in between. If you got $2,000, then the car WAS insured, and you should have gotten the value of the car.

Therefore, ask the insurance company that sent you the check for a copy of the policy and read it.

excon

OK, sorry about that...

We got the $2000 from a compound of some sort (takes trashed cars for scraps and whatnot).

The Dodge was NOT insured. We had insurance for the Chrysler until the totalling of the Dodge.

I know with my car dealership and my insurance company (I just got a new car last year) it was our responsibility to let the insurance company know we had the new car. We had to call and give them the VIN, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Unfortunately for your family, I believe, even though the dealership said that they would fax the necessary paperwork, your parents did not do the follow through.

It is their car, their insurance company, hence, their responsibility to make sure that the insurance is in fact transferred and the new car covered.

Sounds like a law suit agaist the dealership and the salesman if you have witness

But Iwill be honest, my first call on my cell phone myself before I leave a car lot is to my insurance against and give them the VIN over the phone.

I write sometimes as many as 20 auto policie per day and I NEVER have (nor will I EVER) let a car dealer, salesman, or anyone for that matter, change a person's auto insurance in any way unless I either talk with via telephone the insured or the insured's spouse or someone that has a proper power of attorney. It was strickly a courtesy that the dealer, salesman extended to you by offering to fax the insurance agent a copy of the bill of sale and even if he followed through on his promise, it would then be necessary for you, the insured, to contact the ins company to make a formal change (endorsement) adding the vehicle and deleting the other veh that was traded. The auto salesman is not your agent, has no ins license probably and cannot change or endorse your policy if he wanted to...

It was more than just a few months that the new car wasn't covered.
During that time, did the insurance policy ever come up for renewal or didn't they receive a billing statement showing what car was covered?

Have you checked with the dealership's records? Maybe they did fax the info but the insurance company didn't change the policy.

Well, nonetheless, I guess we were at fault completely.

My father got lettrs from the insurance company, but he never bothered to open them (It was the day of the accident that we found out that the policy wasn't changed, and that the new pink slips were as if our car has never changed).

Our policy was up for renewal on April 2006.

And, yes, we have thought of filing a lawsuit against the salesman (not the dealership), but we saw it as a lost battle, especially now, more than a year after the accident.

Thanks anyway, guys.