Denied claim, no real explanation — what am I missing here?
So I'm kind of at a loss and hoping someone here has been through something similar.
A few weeks back I was visiting a small landscaping supply yard to pick up some materials. I parked in their designated customer lot and went inside to pay. When I came back out, one of their workers had clipped my front bumper and passenger-side quarter panel with a small loader they were moving around the yard. Not a fender bender — we're talking a pretty solid hit. The owner was apologetic and told me to go through their business liability policy.
Fast forward almost a month, and the insurance company covering the business just flat-out denied the claim. The adjuster's reasoning was vague — something about the policy not extending to "vehicle-to-vehicle contact on premises" or something like that. Almost word for word reading off a script.
Here's my frustration: early on, that same adjuster made it sound totally routine. Said it happens all the time, shouldn't be a problem. Now suddenly it's denied? That flip feels really off to me.
The owner says his agent is looking into whether some other policy — maybe a commercial auto or umbrella — might pick it up. But honestly I don't know how long to just sit and wait.
My own collision coverage has a deductible that would hurt, and my car — while older — is in genuinely great shape mechanically. I've put real money into it recently and I really don't want my insurer deciding it's a total loss based on book value alone.
Is there a reason a business liability policy would just straight-up exclude this kind of thing? And is there anything I can actually do while I'm waiting on their agent to figure out if other coverage exists?
