She said in the OP that they have already lost their interstate license and have gone out of business. So hardly worth trying to sue them.
Thanks for all the responses. I talked to both an attorney (brother’s best friend - I didn’t pay) and then called the insurance company to tell them what happened.
The guy handling the claim did not know what to do although he was pretty sure the lost-then-found stuff was legally the property of the insurance company since the claim was paid out (which I had learned from this thread and then reading the details of the policy/claim). Beyond that he had no idea how to proceed. I talked to whoever up the insurance office chain he transferred me too. That guy claimed that in 12 years working insurance, he had never come across this. He said it is very very rare for someone to file a legitimate, good faith claim, and then recover their lost items themselves. He said usually (with cars for example) the property ends up with a third party (police, impound yard, warehouse) and it is the insurance company that deals with it. He was also a little surprised we called to let them know. The claim was paid out six weeks ago and the insurance policy was expired. He claimed that in all honesty the issue was dead as far as they were concerned.
The agent is going to talk with other insurance people and figure the best course of action. It is apparently not that easy to just give money back to an insurance company. They don’t want to come out and deal with the stuff (pick up, inventory, store) even though it technically belongs to them. He said we will likely work out an arrangement to buy back the stuff for a percentage of the paid out claim (which is almost exactly what the attorney recommended I do). I apparently have a better position in this than I originally figured. The insurance company really doesn’t want to deal with this. They don’t want the stuff or the hassle of getting it.
The way I understand it is that all of your old stuff, which has now been recovered, now belongs to the insurance company – they effectively bought it off you when they gave you the money for new stuff. So you get to keep the new stuff and the insurance company takes the old stuff. However they may of course be open to negotiation if there’s some of the old stuff you’d prefer to keep and give up the replacements.
Not anywhere near 50%. It would take years to depreciate 50%.
He never even opened the boxes. If he still had them, they probably would have been returnable to the store for a full refund. The insurance company is only offering 60% of the real cash value.
This horse is still twitching! Also, Insurance companies can often get replacement stuff for considerably cheaper than what CompUSA is charging because they deal in bulk. It’s very probable that they could have replaced that equipment for the 60% figure in the OP. Why pay retail prices when you don’t have to?
Because the insurance company didn’t buy anything in bulk and give it to Leftorium! They just cut a check. I’ve never heard of an insurance company buying merchandise to give to a client. Not even for auto repairs, for which seems like they could do a huge business in aftermarket parts.
I found these sites:
‘many new cars lost 40% of their value in the first year’
http://www.car-issues.co.uk/index.html
Here’s a car depreciation calculator for depreciation. The Ford Mondeo Estate (as shown) depreciates over 50% in one year…
‘New cars can lose thousands just by driving them out of the showroom’
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/CARS/buying/depreciation_trap.jsp
Actually some do. When I had a theft claim a few years back on several items (camera, TV, VCR) State Farm said they would either give me a check or a replacement item. In the case of the camera, and TV it was a newer better model by the same manufacturer. Pretty good deal as far as I was concerned.
Your agent is negligent to say this. He’s indicating by this that he feels it’s ok for you to be double indemnified. That is fraud. I’m glad he’s going to his supervisors/up the food chain to resolve this, because all of your old stuff is now property of the insurance company as they paid out on a claim made before the policy expired.
Ginger
CAIB
(means nothing outside of Canada; means I’m a fancy-pants insurance girl in Canada, when I actually live there and work in Insurance).