SAN DIEGO – In October, we reported how a man accused auto insurance company National General of unfairly denying his claim because of a technicality in the digital version of his application. We found out that this is not the only case, since hundreds of Californians accuse the company of doing the same thing to them.
Andy Nguyen, a San Diego resident, showed us photographs of what his car looked like after a U-turn that ended in an accident.
Andy Nguyen’s car after crashing into a light pole
Nguyen crashed into a light pole which destroyed his car, activating the airbags.
Nguyen said that aside from the physical pain, he felt calm since he had car insurance. He told us that after the accident he took photos and called his insurer National General. That’s when an adjuster asked her for details of the crash, and then asked additional questions.
“I wonder who else lives at home and their dates of birth,” Nguyen said. She answered that she lived with her parents, 20-year-old brother, and 14-year-old sister.
He added that he hoped the insurance would cover the $12,000 in damage he caused to the city by knocking down the pole, but a couple of weeks later, he received a notice of termination of the policy. That’s when he understood why the adjuster asked him who else lived at home.
Light pole down after accident
“I got angry. I felt like I was stabbed in the back,” Nguyen said.
A courage that Sergio Preciado of San Diego also knows after crashing on the 805 freeway.
“My bumper got stuck, went inward, hit the tire and exploded,” Preciado said.
In October he showed us how National General denied his claim for failing to disclose that he had a 20-year-old son living at home. He was left owing $5,000 for damages to the car he crashed.
Sergio Preciado explaining to Sergio Flores how the accident occurred
“But what does he have to do with it? He wasn’t even driving, he wasn’t with me, he was at home resting,” Preciado commented.
Both Preciado and Nguyen were reimbursed for all the premiums they paid, but it was not enough to cover the damages.
“They always have an ace up their sleeve,” said attorney Justin King. He represents Nguyen and nearly 300 motorists in a lawsuit that accuses National General of unfairly denying claims.
He is currently seeking to file it as a class action lawsuit. The complaint notes that there are only two places on the digital application where it is mentioned who lives at home. The first is under the drivers tab.
Part of the documents from the lawsuit against National General
King said that’s misleading, because an agent using the digital application will ask who the drivers of the vehicle are because that’s what the page asks for.
The second place, according to the lawsuit, is under the information of the insured. It is automatically filled with the names associated with the address.
“It’s not enough because those systems don’t always identify everyone who might be living in the home,” King said.
He indicated that this page does not give the option to add someone who was not automatically named.
One of the pages shows the part where the applicant is asked if they named all the people over 14 years old who live at home. And if he responds with a “no,” the request stops, according to statements from National General included in the lawsuit.
King said the application does not indicate a page where you can add the missing people. So they have to answer with a ‘yes’ in this section in order to move forward and the answer is already automatically marked with a ‘yes’ said the lawyer. He added that most of the answers on the application are not.
A National General adjuster also stated in the lawsuit that she and her colleagues were trained to investigate, regardless of the facts, who live at home when processing a claim.
“They ask them to look up this information so they can rescind the policy with the excuse that who lives in the home was not disclosed on the application,” King said.
We asked King if he thought it was a bug in the system or something intentional.
To which he responded by saying that he believes that “it is intentional, they are intelligent people who made this digital request, there is a lot of money involved,” the lawyer responded.
We reached out to National General Insurance and its parent company Allstate Insurance but did not receive a response. They issued a general rejection of the accusations as a legal response to the lawsuit.
“It’s a serious thing to not pay a claim to a person who has been making their monthly payments,” said Marisol Álvarez, a former auto insurance agent who owned her own company.
She collaborates as an expert in the lawsuit. She added that National General came on her radar a few years ago as a good-quality, low-cost option for her clientele. And everything seemed to be going well.
“Until maybe a year and a half, a year later, complaints began to arise with the company and they began to be rejected,” concluded Álvarez.
Alvarez said she and other officers were initially the target of anger and complaints from motorists whose claims were rejected for not naming everyone who lived under the same roof, including minors as young as 14 and 15 – regardless of whether they were in the car.
Álvarez commented that she had worked in this industry since 2001 and had never seen this type of rejection of a claim.
She lamented that National General did not let her or her team know about what it calls deviations from the rules.
We contacted the state insurance department, CDI, and asked for their opinion on the lawsuit and they told us verbatim:
“CDI is not a party to the lawsuit, and we cannot comment on the allegations within it. To protect consumer confidentiality, we are also unable to comment on consumer complaints.”
Nguyen said National General gives the insurance industry a bad reputation by using the strategy mentioned in the lawsuit to deny claims. Preciado agrees.
“They take the right to say do as you can. We wash our hands,” Preciado commented.
Remember, members of the same household, means anyone who can be under the same roof, not just family members. They can be roommates, people to whom you rent a room or vice versa. It is best to review your policy carefully or consult with your agent to confirm that you are adequately protected.
2024-02-16 23:11:02
#car #insurance #abandoned #needed #accident
