The driver is responsible for the damage, and the driver’s automobile liability insurance is what pays for it. Your own home policy is the faster route: it repairs the building and then recovers what it paid from the driver’s insurer. When a car crashes into your house the fight is rarely about who is to blame, and almost always about the amount, the deductible and what counts as damage.
The Driver’s Liability Coverage Is the Source of the Money
Third party liability is the section of an automobile policy that pays for damage the driver causes to other people and their property. A house, a garage, a fence, a well head, a heat pump and a parked vehicle are all other people’s property.
That coverage has a limit. Ordinary residential damage falls well within it. A collision that destroys a structure and injures the people in it can approach it, and where more than one claimant is competing for the same limit, the order of settlement matters.
Your Home Insurer Repairs First and Chases the Driver Afterwards
Claiming on your own policy is usually the right first step. Your insurer inspects, authorises the repair and pays, and then exercises its right of subrogation to recover from the driver’s insurer.
That approach is faster than waiting for an automobile adjuster to accept a building estimate, and it means your contractor is working under a policy you already have a relationship with.
Tell your insurer immediately, and tell them a vehicle caused it. Insurers handle a vehicle impact differently from storm damage because there is somebody to recover from.
What Happens to Your Deductible
Your home policy deductible applies when you claim on your own policy. Insurers commonly waive or refund it once they recover in full from the driver’s insurer, but that is a matter of practice and of your policy wording rather than a right you can assume.
Ask the question in writing when you open the claim, and ask again when subrogation succeeds. Where the driver’s insurer accepts liability early, some homeowners are better off claiming directly against that insurer and paying no deductible at all.
When a Car Crashes Into Your House and the Driver Has No Insurance
An uninsured or unidentified driver changes the route rather than ending the claim. Your own home policy still responds to the damage, subject to its deductible, because coverage for impact by a vehicle does not depend on the driver being insured.
Suing the driver personally is possible and often not worth it, because a judgment is worth what the defendant can pay. We run an asset search before recommending it.
Where anyone was injured, the uninsured motorist section of your own automobile policy can respond even though you were not in a vehicle. That coverage is governed in New Brunswick by the uninsured automobile regulation.
Anyone Inside the Building Has a Personal Injury Claim
Property damage and personal injury are separate claims against the same driver. A person struck by debris, cut by glass, or hurt getting out of the way has an injury claim that runs against the driver’s liability coverage.
So does a person who was not physically touched but has a diagnosed psychological injury from the event. Those claims are real, they need medical evidence, and the psychological injury practice page explains what proving one involves.
Alternative accommodation, meals and moving costs while the building is uninhabitable are recoverable. Keep every receipt.
Photograph Everything Before the Debris Is Cleared
Photograph the vehicle in position, the point of impact, the damage inside and out, the tire marks in the yard and the state of the road.
Do not let the vehicle be towed before it has been photographed with the plate visible. Do not start repairs until your insurer has inspected, unless a repair is needed to make the building safe or weather tight, and photograph anything you have to fix urgently.
Keep the damaged materials where you can. A cracked foundation wall that has already been replaced is harder to value.
Get the Police Report and the Driver’s Insurance Details
Ask the attending officer for the file number. Request the report once it is available, because it fixes the date, the driver, the vehicle and the insurer in a document neither side wrote.
If the driver left the scene, report it as a hit and run at once. Delay in reporting is the first argument an insurer makes against that kind of claim.
The Two Year Deadline Applies to the Property Claim as Well
The action against the driver has to be started within two years in every Atlantic province. That applies to the building damage as much as to an injury.
Where your insurer has paid and is pursuing the driver, it is running that deadline for the amount it paid. Anything above your policy limit, and your deductible, is yours to pursue and yours to protect. If the collision also injured someone, the car accident claim and the property claim are usually run together. There is more on how the firm handles that at what we can do.
FAQ
The Driver Hit My Fence and Left a Note. Do I Still Call the Police?
Yes, if the damage is more than trivial. A police file number makes the insurance claim straightforward and protects you if the driver later denies it.
My Insurer Says the Damage Is Partly Wear and Tear. What Now?
Get your own estimate from a contractor who does not work for the insurer, and put the dispute in writing. A property insurance disagreement is handled the same way as a fire loss dispute.
Can I Claim for the Value of the Tree the Car Destroyed?
Landscaping is usually covered to a sub limit under a home policy, and recoverable in full from the driver as damage to property. The two figures are often different.