Hail damage insurance claim question

[sapopo1]

Our travel trailer got hail damage to front back and one side. Just tiny dings in the aluminum siding, everything else is fine. I was thinking about putting the insurance money toward the loan instead of fixing the damage. Let's say it gets hit with another storm and it breaks windows or damages other parts not currently damaged. I know I cannot claim the existing damage again because that would be fraud. Can I make a claim on the new damage if it ever occurs or am I no longer allowed to make any hail damage claims?

[jimw606]

Pictures, pictures, pictures of the current damage. If it happens again, you will have documented earlier damage.

[Dennis_Smith]

Here in Colorado with farmers insurance, I had $3600 hail damage to my car. Didn't want to spend that much on a $5000 car. Told the agent I just wanted the money and they wrote me a check. Since the car had this much damage I dropped the fill coverage. Any damage after that the first $3600 would have been on me. I am sure its the same with a RV.

[Caveman_Charlie]

dbbls wrote:
I would direct this question to your agent. Any answer you get here will be opinions, not factual answers.

X2

I would like to add that in my opinion I would never trust a insurance company. There the worlds third greatest evil just after lawyers and banks.

[sapopo1]

Thank you Bob. That is what I was thinking, I just didn't want to get stuck with a huge problem later down the road.

[bodyshop_bob]

Insurance is designed to "indemnify" you for a covered loss. That is a fancy term for "making you whole" after suffering a financial loss. What you do with the money is usually up to you if you own the trailer outright. If you have lien-holder they have a final interest. If you pay down the loan that makes lien-holders very happy.
If you have a second loss that involves things not paid by the first loss you have suffered a financial loss and your insurance company will indemnify you again.
If, by some chance, you change insurance companies and have another hail loss and you say, "I know it broke the skylights" and nothing else and your new company just happens to include the previous damage you did not break the law. You have a rather incompetent insurance company but you are not liable for their errors. Insurance companies share loss data. Your current insurance company has probably already reported your trailer's VIN, the type of loss (Comprehensive) and the amount of the settlement to the reporting agency. If a subsequent insurance company fails to run the necessary report and misses the previous loss and you do not intentionally mislead you are not legally committing fraud. Now, your conscious and your eternal fate may be compromised, but not the letter of the law.

[sapopo1]

I bet the amount they quoted me is the depreciation amount. It seems to be about half of what everyone else seems to be getting for the same amount of damage.

[AirForceAngler]

I went through the same thing a few years ago. With my insurance company, if I wanted the full amount for the damage, they would write the check to me AND to the repair company so we would both have to sign it. If I wanted just a cash settlement, they would write me a check, but it would be for a depreciation value, less than the repair amount. It was call, I think, a damage allowance or something like that. This could vary by company, too. We ended up taking the cash. Since my camper didn't leak, I didn't want some company to start tearing the siding off for replacement and then hope it didn't leak again. I lived with the dimples.

[dbbls]

I would direct this question to your agent. Any answer you get here will be opinions, not factual answers.