Length of Time of an Auto Insurance Claim

Most states give the insurance adjusters a lot of time to investigate a claim

What is length of time of an auto insurance claim? Or what should be the time frame in which an insurance company pays for your auto damage? The answer should be the day that you got in the accident.

Unfortunately, insurance companies make the process of insurance claims difficult and cumbersome. The process of investigating a claim can be very simple and it can be done very quickly. Insurance companies must at least follow this process:

-- The insurance adjuster must determine coverage (did you pay your bill? And did you have the correct coverage?) This should not take more than one hour.

Insurance adjusters know the auto policy really well and they are able to tell if something is cover or not by simply hearing you talk, but even if they do not know, then it won�t take long to sit down and read the policy. The same applies to your bill, did you pay or not?

-- The fault investigation could take a little longer. Who was at fault? Depends on what the police report and what the witnesses say. Many times it could take a day or two to get the actual report back from the police department. Sometimes a week or so. Studies show that if the insured acquires the police report, the length of time of an auto insurance claim is reduced by 50%. Depending on each state, this process could be longer.

-- Fixing the vehicle. Depending how mangled your car is, it may take up to 30 days to repair. However, you do not have to wait that long to know whether or not there is coverage for your claim or not. The repair time is part of the length of time of an auto insurance claim and must be accounted for.

The steps above outline the insurance claim process that each adjuster must follow. There are of course times when claims get ugly. Most insurance policies out there exclude mechanical break down. For example, If your car is hit and the oil is leaking out (you do not notice this), and one day later your engine is shut. Would you say that that this was mechanical break down or an accident?

The answer really depends on the insurance company and their findings.

Often times, insurance companies send engines to get analyze by experts, this will increase the length of time an auto insurance claim will take. So even tough the auto insurance claim process is not necessarily complicated, it depends in what kind of claim you have.

Most states have statutes requiring insurance companies to inform their clients of the process. Most states allow insurance adjuster 30 days to develop an investigation and give you a definite answer (cover, not covered, at fault, not at fault, or partially at fault). However, most of these statues seem to give the insurance company ways to extend that 30 days threshold.

Statutes say that the insurance company must make a decision within 30 days from the day they have knowledge of the claim (the day you flied, not the day of the accident).

So state law seem to point out that the length of time an auto insurance claim should take is 30 days. But then it goes on to say that if a decision is not possible, then all parties involved should be notified the reasons for the delay. This notification should be in writing.

So if 30 days go by and not coverage or fault decision has been made, you should receive a letter on the mail. If you do not , then you can �remind� the insurance carrier of your state law. 30 days allowed for the length of time of an auto insurance claim is unreasonable. 30 days without a car and waiting on coverage is just too much. Hopefully legislators change those provisions to at 15 days or less.

what is the lenght of time of an auto insurance claim with injuries? Learn more about the claim process.

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