How to file a hail damage claim on your car

Filing an insurance claim for a hail damage is simple. Call your auto insurance provider and verify that your insurance covers this type of loss. This type of loss is filed as a comprehensive claim and will not be filed as a collision type claim.

If you do have comprehensive coverage, then the claims rep will walk you through their process. Most likely you will be asked to drive your car into one of their temporary set ups for an estimate. If you do not have comprehensive coverage, then your insurance company will not pay a benefit toward the repairs on your car.

Caution is advised when visiting an insurance companies pop up locations because if they label your car as a total loss then you will not be able to reverse it. Even if they have no written estimate to show where the actual total loss occurred. Even if you have found a better offer and even if your vehicle is in perfect mechanical condition. In our years of experience, we have never seen it reverse.

What happens if your car is totaled from hail damage?

If you file a claim and the hail damage insurance has totaled your car, then you will be contacted by your major insurance company by phone and by mail. The auto claim representative will discuss the claim and make an offer of payment to settle the loss. You will accept, refuse or negotiate their offer. This will be your best chance to negotiate.

Afterwards an insurance adjuster will send you the check for the agreed amount and you will be expected to surrender your car to the insurance company, unless you have worked out an agreement that will allow you to maintain ownership of your car. The car title will always show a salvage title moving forward.

Some of our customers already went to a body shop for an estimate and later discovered the collision center already filed the total loss even though no one agreed to do any work yet. We can prevent a total loss, but we cannot reverse it. After you have met with an appraiser from your insurance company you must then get your first shop estimate with us. Unless the adjuster themselves total the car out on site.

How much is the cost to repair hail damage on a car?

When factoring the cost of hail damage repair cost, we can consider things like the number of dents, the car dent sizes and locations. Next, we think about the year, model and make of the vehicle. Is the metal made from steel or aluminum.

If we consider an autobody shop, then how much to fix hail damage on that car will be a very high repair cost. This can lead to a high rate of cars being processed as a total loss by the insurance company. On the other hand, if we consider a pdr technician performing paintless dent removal as the repair method, then the hail repair average cost is much lower almost every time.

How long does hail damage repairs take?

This depends on a lot of factors like how many dents, their sizes and locations. Next, we think about the year, model and make of the vehicle. It the metal made from steel or aluminum.

If we consider traditional body shops and auto painting, then we see an auto hail damage car repair take 3-6 weeks. If paintwork is needed, then you can visit our autobody service page for more information. On the other hand, if we consider paintless dent repair on the hail damage then the entire process averages about 1 week. Some of the best hail damage repairs can fix small dents in as little as a single day.

What if the insurance estimate is too low?

It is normal for the first insurance estimate to be missing things and be too small to repair your car. That is because it is only a preliminary estimate, and this means it will change to fit the job better once it is in a shop and a more accurate estimate can be compiled.

The thing you need to understand is that you are not limited to the amount of money offered up in the first insurance estimate. Whichever shop you choose will file a supplement to the claim and adjustments will be made to cover your loss fully. You will only be responsible for the deductible assigned by your policy.

How much damage can a hail stone do?

Image a rock the size of a golf ball and wrapped in felt falling from the sky. Hail damage is nothing like an everyday door dent repair. It’s a total catastrophe. Hailstones can put holes through the roof of your house. It is crazy to think about ice literally raining down from the sky. Car dents can count up past 1000+ per car. Hailstorms often cause other types of storm damage to basically everything in town. Runaway heavy duty trash cans or lose tree limbs can be flung through the air by powerful wind gust that can reach up to 150 mph. If you would like to learn more about finding a paintless dent repair company nearby, then follow this link.