Insurance Surcharge - Has anyone successfully appealed one of these?

Question

I scratched my car while driving into the underground parking garage of my new home.
I will lose my safe driver discount and my premiums will go up $850.00. It's happened to a lot of other folks in the building. It's a tight squeeze but they since no other car was involved they see me as more than 50% at fault. Has anyone ever sucessfully appealed a surcharge notice?
I'm going to try and get other people's stories. Will that help?

Answer 1

Unless you can get the parking garage assume fault for the accident, you will have to pay the surcharge. Although the design of the parking garage may not be the best, your insurance company will say you were careless and didn't maintain proper control to avoid hitting the side. If your company paid out anything for the loss, there is no way you can get out of the surcharge. If your insurance company denied your claim, they can take away the safe driver discount, but shouldn't surcharge you. This practice is perfectly legal and common in the insurance industry. In all honesty, you probably would've been better off paying out of your own pocket when you consider this surcharge will be for 3 years, and the safe driver discount may take up to 5 years to be earned back.

Answer 2

Hey, you hit a fixed object. It didn't jump out in front of you! That makes you 100% responsible for the damage. You can try and negotiate with them on the charge, but don't get your hopes up.

Other people's statements are not likely to help you very much. The simple fact that it is not hit by every driver every time they enter clearly means that there is sufficient clearance.

Answer 3

I never say never, but seeing as you basically hit a fixed object, it might be a very hard sell to get any insurance company to claim it as anything other than an "at fault" loss. It didn't jump out and bite you, it's a building.

Always worth a shot, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.