Is it Insurance Fraud if you keep the check?

Question

Say you get in an accident and its the other drivers fault. Someone from their insurance company comes out and does an est. on the damages and then they send you a check in the mail for the damages.

Is it insurance fraud if you decide to cash the check and get partial repair work done or even none at all and use the rest/all of the money on something else. (bills, ect.)

Answer 1

No, it is not fraud. You are entitled to the $. It is your decision to repair all, part or none. except:

If your car is leased. Your lease states that you must keep the car in good condition; they will charge you if you turn it in damaged, so it makes sense to do all repairs with the money you received.

Also, if you have a second accident and it occurs on a part of the car that was damaged but not repaired, you will not get paid a second time for the old damage. It makes it hard to determine what is old damage and what is new.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

They are not sending you a check to repair your car. What they are doing is sending you a check to relinquish your claim against their company for the damage caused by the other driver. You can do whatever you want to do with the check, but you will not be able to ever bring a claim against them again. If damage is discovered later not caught by the adjuster -Their Adjuster-then you are sol. You should get someone else to assess the damage.

Answer 3

No it is not.

If the at fault carrier pays you for the damage -- it is fine if you decide not to get it repaired and just decide to live with the damage.

Where fraud can come in - is if you later claim that damage again as part of a new claim. If you had a subsequent claim, you would have to tell which ever company handled it about the old unrepaired damage.

Also - if your car is financed and you did not fix the damage - the finance company may come back after you once they find out the other persons carrier paid you to have the car fixed.

When you file a claim under your collision coverage and the car is financed -- your insurance company has to put the finance company on the check and protect their interest. This is because your policy has a loss payee clause in it that says your insurance company will protect the finance companies interest in your car.

However, when you file a liability claim against someone else's policy - their company does not have have to protect your finance companies interest in the repairable car. That's because you don't have a policy (a contract) with the at fault persons company - so they do not have a loss payee clause they have to honor.  

Answer 4

No.  Next time you drive down the road and someone has a bumper attached to their car with duck tape, and a giant rusted out dent there's a good chance that's what they did.

Answer 5

No, it isn't.

If your car is damaged, then the car isn't as valuable as it was before.

That "loss" is what's compensated.

If you want to drive around in a damaged car, and spend your money on something else, instead of fixing it, that's your business.

Answer 6

No it is not insurance fraud at all.  You have been paid for the damages, and it does not matter what you do with the money.  You can put it in the bank, spend it all or make a partial repair.

Answer 7

~~No, you were compensated for the damage to you car. What you do and how you decide to repair or not repair is entirely your business. Your car was damaged and you were compensated, the rest is up to you.~~

Answer 8

Maybe You should try to google it first ,however if you like some direct resource ,here might be helpful.

http://insurance.freetipz.info/insurance...

Answer 9

As long as you own the car outright (no payments) you can do as you wish with the check.

If you have a car loan out on it, it can get dicey, so have it repaired.

Answer 10

Nope, it's not.