I was stopped in a turn lane when another driver blew a red light and caused an accident in front of me in the intersection. One of the cars careened away and hit mine. The driver that ran the light was found to be at fault. All parties, 4 total, had insurance that was active.

Here is the kicker: The "at fault" party has a $25k max payout meaning all three vehicles of the other vehicles are going to have to draw from that pile and then our own "underinsured" policy will cover any remaining amount. The big problem I am having is that the at fault insurance, USAA, is refusing to cover my rental car claiming that there is not likely enough money to distribute. It is my understanding, correct me if I am wrong, that they are required to cover my rental car in a similar type of vehicle by Texas law. What ever isn't covered would also go to my underinsured policy. What I suspect is going on is that USAA, who is also my carrier, is trying to say that since I don't have rental on my insurance, they won't cover it. My policy shouldn't matter since the claim is against the at fault driver. Is my thinking correct? What options do I have if any? Thanks in advance.

But you're not going through their insurance since they only have the $25k. They are going through your policy so sounds like you are SOL unfortunately.

Subrogate through your insurance and start looking for a new carrier when USAA refuses your rental.

They are required to pay for a reasonable amount for a temp vehicle(during repairs) if their insured is liable. Unfortunately, you or your insurance carrier will likely need to incur the cost and seek reimbursement after it's all said and done due to the limits issue.

I'd file a UM/UIM claim in this situation and let your carrier figure out how much you/they are entitled to.

*former adjuster/current P&C underwriter

Edit: I've been on the underwriting side for a bit and my adjuster hat is a bit rusty. However, feel free to email if you want to talk through it.

Insuranceag10@proton.me

Former adjuster here...

If you don't have rental on your own policy, you will have to pay out of pocket, doesn't matter if the at fault carrier is same as your carrier. Keep receipts and then submit to usaa at fault adjuster and they will have to issue you a prorated amount based on the 25k PD limits on all the other parties incured damages. To recover the rest you paid put of pocket you will have to go after individual through small claims court or other legal avenues. Most people though that carry low PD limits don't have any assets so good luck recovering anything, but you never know.

When ever I had a claim where PD limits might be breached, we didn't pay for anything and the other party/parties would all have to file through their own carriers, that includes rentals, tow bills, storage, repairs, everything. Big no-no to pay over the limits on the policy.

Or they tender limits to the carrier who has the $50k total loss.

jsc8116 said:

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Former adjuster here...

When ever I had a claim where PD limits might be breached, we didn't pay for anything and the other party/parties would all have to file through their own carriers, that includes rentals, tow bills, storage, repairs, everything. Big no-no to pay over the limits on the policy.

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Thank you everyone for your replies and Pepper for willing to help me via email.

JSC, can you clarify this part? I am not sure I follow.

Yes, my plan was to file my rental with the at fault policy in hopes of getting a bigger slice of that pie but they seem to be discouraging me. I don't understand how they get around a law that says the at fault party must provide a similar rental. It sucks that there seems to be a limit on that!?

Let's say my repairs are $5k and my rental for 3 weeks is $1k. My cut of the $25k is $5.5. Could I claim that the remaining $500 be paid by underinsured portion of my policy or am I out the $500 because I don't have rental coverage?

The lady that caused the wreck was driving an Audi. I suspect she has the funds to be held accountable in small claims scenario if it comes to that. What sucks is she hit a Volvo and her Audi and late model Honda are totaled. I have an 150 and had the smallest amount of damage but it was still not drivable. I likely won't see much of that $25k.

The under insured motorist portion of your policy will pay for the rental vehicle.

jsc8116 said:

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Former adjuster here...

If you don't have rental on your own policy, you will have to pay out of pocket, doesn't matter if the at fault carrier is same as your carrier. Keep receipts and then submit to usaa at fault adjuster and they will have to issue you a prorated amount based on the 25k PD limits on all the other parties incured damages. To recover the rest you paid put of pocket you will have to go after individual through small claims court or other legal avenues. Most people though that carry low PD limits don't have any assets so good luck recovering anything, but you never know.

When ever I had a claim where PD limits might be breached, we didn't pay for anything and the other party/parties would all have to file through their own carriers, that includes rentals, tow bills, storage, repairs, everything. Big no-no to pay over the limits on the policy.

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This part is not correct, if you have UM/UIM on your policy, it will pay for the rental.

If I was inspecting a claim where our insured was at fault, and it looked likely PDlimits would be breached, we had to tell the other driver to file through their own carrier, if they were in a rental, we basically had to tell them to have their own insurance to take over the billing. Once all the bills came in for other damages, rental, towing/storage, etc we prorated the payouts to everyone involved. In the rare case the other person did not have full coverage, they had to sign a Property Damage release accepting the prorated amount and pursue Geico driver in court.

Correct, assuming he has UMPD, he would have rental/loss of use covered, some states you can't carry full coverage and UMPD, such as in Utah where I am at, you can have one or the other but not both, but there are PD limits of course on UMPD. I remember one claim where a policy holder had a $50k paid off vehicle and had no full coverage, just 25k on UMPD coverage, the person that hit him had no insurance, totaled his car out and he was screwed, Enterprise bill and towing/storage was prorated from that and he got a little over $15k, because he had to retain the vehicle since we couldn't take possession on a total vehicle since we only paid a percentage of the acv. Salvage value had to be deducted from the settlement

I don't understand how Texas allows such low limits still. When I was hit my a truck that sent me to the hospital, the bodily injury limits were exceeded from an x ray, diagnostics, and a single pain killer.

I'm a broker for commercial lines but have to take CE which involves auto, and agree with prior statements. You'll have to pay out of pocket. Sorry!

theJonatron said:

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I don't understand how Texas allows such low limits still. When I was hit my a truck that sent me to the hospital, the bodily injury limits were exceeded from an x ray, diagnostics, and a single pain killer.

I'm a broker for commercial lines but have to take CE which involves auto, and agree with prior statements. You'll have to pay out of pocket. Sorry!

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If he is in Texas and has UIMPD coverage it will pay.

This is a chicken/egg thing. On one side, you have the dreaded "ambulance chasers" and on the other, the "citizens against lawsuit abuse" types.

I agree that $30k per person/$60k per incident is pretty low. But if you try to raise it, everyone will throw a fit saying that you're just rewarding all the billboard lawyers out there.

I would say the average vehicle price is now not far from the minimums. Almost every new truck or full sized SUV sold in Texas will be at or above the minimum if totaled.

The minimums were set when the expensive vehicles were pushing $30,000.