- Report: #1462973
Complaint Review: Allstate - Hahira Georgia
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Allstate
Hahira, 31632 Georgia, United States
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229-834-9440
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I insured a classic car with Allstate and it was stolen and they won't pay the claim. Hahira Georgia
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I insured a classic car with Allstate. It was stored at my parents house in 2005. I had had a "falling out" with my father shortly after this time and he forbid me to be on his property to retrieve any of my belongings, which included several other classic cars, several antique boats and some antique furniture from a summer/lake house that my wife and I owned. The reason I stored these items at my parents is because we moved from Florida to Georgia with a job transfer and I did not have a home yet in Georgia. In 2010 I heard from family members that my father was working on one of the cars, a 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado, to get it ready to sell. I immediately went to my Allstate insurance agent, Larry Ganas, and told him the whole story. I told him that the car is being prepared to sell or might even be sold at this point. I then asked him if there was any point in putting insurance on my car. He said, "absolutely!" He said that the date that mattered is the date that I go down to my father's for the first time and actually see that the car is gone and I call the local police and get a police report. He told me that if I called the police while my father was living and the car was sold (by him) that he would most certainly go to jail as this action would be a felony. So I decided to wait for my father to pass away before reporting the car "stolen." That happened eight(8) years later (2016). I didn't talk to my parents for the last thirteen(13) years of their lives (since 2005).
When I went down to my parents in early 2017 I realized the car was gone and I called the Putnam County Sheriff. He wrote a report. That sheriff's office told me that they would not investigate because my dad was passed and he is the one that stole and sold my car. In the mean time I hired an Attorney in Jacksonville to help with the estate (which was all left to one of my three sisters) and to also help with this stolen car situation. He did everthing he could to help me find the car, which included getting documents and information from the Florida DMV. We saw where my dad had sold three cars on 2010, six(6) months before I insured my Toronado. One of these cars appears to be my Toronado. The problem is, I have the title to this car in my name here in Georgia. The VIN number that the DMV shows being sold is NOT the VIN that's on my title. I suggested to my insurance company that my dad likely used and old title to another Toronado that was likely parted out and sent to the junk yard years ago. But until we actually find my car, all this would at the least be "suspect."
I waited for 1-1/2 years to file the claim as I preferred having the car back. My attorney contacted the man that bought the three(3) cars from my father (a man from Finland) and then made contact with the man that bought (what appears to be my car) from him shortly after. The other two cars went over seas but my car remained here in the states. I believe this happened because of the title not matching with the car.
When I realized after a year and a half that I wasn't finding my car, I filed the claim with my Allstate Insurance Company. I handed over all the evidence that my attorney and I had acquired, which included pictures of what looks like my car advertised on the internet by the buyers, as well as their names and addresses. The lady that handled my claim with Allstate, Tameka Brown, told me that Allstate does not do any investigations. She said it's the Police Department's job to do that. This is twice I was told that there would not be any investigation done.
To sum it up, Allstate denied my claim because they said it was insured six(6) months after the car was sold even though I made everything clear to my agent right from the start, and again, he said that the date that mattered was when I go to my parents for the first time and realize the car is missing, and then get a police report. They're also using a VIN number that I did NOT insure to deny my claim. I insured the CORRECT VIN number that's on the title that I have which matches my car that was missing. Allstate is using another VIN.
I am extremely disappointed with how my wife and I were treated with this claim. We have been with Allstate for 35 years and are seriously thinking of changing companies. Larry Ganas, the owner of Allsate here in Valdosta told me to go ahead and file a report with the Insurance Commision. The fact he would suggest that tells me it is likely a waste of my time.
My attorney would like to file a law suite for me but he is not licensed in the state of Georgia.
5 Updates & Rebuttals
John
Takoma Park,United States
Your story simply doesn't add up
#2General Comment
Mon, October 08, 2018
Sorry, but the nitpick about the VIN number really isn't the point nor the reason for my rebuttal in any way. It's your behavior for more than a decade before doing anything to get your car back. You let your father keep you from claiming your car for eight years because you wanted to spare him a court proceeding, but this was only a possibility because you didn't take action in getting your car from your father's garage in the first place or at any time FOR EIGHT YEARS.
You were completely willing to accept free storage from your father while at the same time apparently worrying- FOR EIGHT YEARS- that your car might be stolen. Then you waited another year and a half after your father DIED to take any steps with your insurance company.
Your behavior was just insanely suspicious every step of the way. No honest, intelligent person acts the way you did during this entire drama. If a family member was in possession of something of great value which belonged to me, I wouldn't throw up my hands, say "oh well," insure it, and hope for the best for a freaking decade.
When the opportunity presented itself to claim it after the death of that family member, I wouldn't wait a year and a half to do something about it. What you did made no sense, yet you expect sympathy from your insurance company and people at this site.
I'm pretty positive that if you ever actually owned a classic car, you either abandoned it with your father, who got sick of giving you free storage and sold it knowing it was insured and that you would eventually make a claim on it, or colluded with your father to get rid of it by having him sell it and then not doing anything until he died. Either way, you aren't worthy of sympathy with any insurance company or here. Sorry.
mark
Hahira,Georgia,
United States
Read my statement again.....
#3Author of original report
Sun, October 07, 2018
If you read my statement it clearly states that the VIN number I insured with Allstate is NOT the VIN that Allstate is using to refuse to pay my claim.
Robert
Irvine,United States
The car wasn't stolen
#4Consumer Comment
Mon, October 01, 2018
First off you are talking about an Insurance Company not a Family Counselor. Your relationship with your father or anyone else in your family has nothing to do with what the insurance company is obligated to do per the terms of the policy.
But your story has more holes in it than Swiss Cheese. Based on the "facts" you posted in this report it seems that you had full knowledge that a car may have been sold before you bought the insurance. This makes it a case of insurance fraud on your part.
If someone hears in 2010 that their father is working on a car that they own getting ready to sell it, they don't call their insurance agent to insure it....they talk to their father to get the car back. If they don't want to talk to their family they contact the police to get the car, perhaps you could have used the attoney that is so willing to sue. You then would find a place to store the car that is safer. Because at that point no crime had been committed it was only a civil matter. You probably could have found a place to store it for less than the cost of the insurance.
But that not withstanding, in the end the car wasn't stolen it was sold. Your only chance would have been to go after the buyer and prove that the sale was done under false pretenses. However, since you basically had left the car there for FREE storage since 2015 and hadn't talked to anyone in your family since then, even if it was "your" car in the beginning if it ended up in court it is unlikely that any judge would have ruled in your favor, In fact it is very possible that your car was considered abandoned by you meaning it now legally was owned by your father and he could then legally sell it.
But since you waited too long no one wants to deal with it. The only RipOff here seems to be the one caused by you, and you may want to consider yourself lucky that more investigations aren't being done.
Florida Native
West Palm Beach,Florida,
United States
You didn't have insurance on it when the event happened
#5Consumer Comment
Sun, September 30, 2018
I am a consumer, not an insurance agent.
I don't understand how you can blame the insurance company for a vehicle that has a different vin number than the one you insured and that a family member sold 6 months before you ever put insurance on the vehicle. Then you waited many years to make a report about it. According to your own report you left the vehicle in your Father's possession in 2005 and you just now filed a police report in 2017 - after you Father had passed away. Your report sounds fishy to me.
I would be more concerned with the attorney you selected as he continues to take your money for fees on something that makes no sense at all. I have never heard of an insurance co paying on a claim for anything that wasn't covered at the time of the event.
John
Takoma Park,United States
Sounds like attempted insurance fraud to me
#6General Comment
Sun, September 30, 2018
So...we are supposed to believe that you stored a very valuable classic car at your dad's house, and when he "forbade" you to enter the property to remove it, you....did nothing other than buy insurance on it? Please. You didn't call the police and file a report as the first step to protect your property and get a court order that would permit you to recover your property, you just bought insurance? And let your dad hold your car in his possession for YEARS? I'm not buying it, and I don't blame your insurance company for not buying it, either.
Here's what an honest person would have done- go to the police and the court and explain that your dad is holding your property and will not allow you to retrieve it. Yes, you can buy insurance at the same time, but that's not nearly enough and I suspect you know this. Now, even if you did this you might not get your settlement unless you took serious, immediate action to get your car back, because this really smells of collusion and fraud. But at least you'd have a shot.
Instead, you claim that your dad held your car hostage and then when he died it was .....gone. You didn't file a police report for half a year after you were seperated from your vehicle for Reasons, but you expect your insurance company to take you seriously now. You have got to be kidding. Like I could have my car stolen, wait six months, and then call my insurance company and say "hey, my car was stolen six months ago, I just filed a police report this morning, pay up?"
I strongly suspect that you arranged for your father to sell the car and pass the money on to you in a clumsy attempt to defraud. Of course the insurance company is laughing in your face. They didn't get big and rich by being suckers.
By the way, your dad could have charged you for storing his car for more than a DECADE. You didn't fill out a police report, you basically abandoned your car with him. He could have even gained ownership of it through the courts. Your story is just ridiculous.
