Verified answer

You attempted to commit insurance fraud by sustaining damage and then trying to purchase the insurance to cover it after the fact. You don't want to go down this road with the insurance company. Just pay for the glass you had installed before the glass company puts a mechanic's lien on your car.

An auto glass company replaced the glass in the passenger side window of my Acura. The mechanic cut his arm open with a knife, hastily finished the job, had me pay for the "completed" repair, and left. After he left, I tried to open the door and could not. I called the company, and they sent someone out next day. The mechanic asked me for a coat hanger to try to open the door. I refused. His boss called and said he was going to send a lock-smith. I said I was taking the car to Acura as I doubted his ability to properly fix it. Acura said the glass company cut a cable in the door and it would need to be replaced for $300.00 and the window was the wrong size and was being held level by a lot of putty. I instructed Acura to do the repairs and cancelled the check to the glass company.

Yes, you are on the hook to pay for the repair yourself, because your comp & collision didn't cover pre-existing damage - but you tried to use it for that anyway.

You can't argue that your insurance company or the glass company should have checked all of that before doing the repair. That's not their responsibility; it's yours (even if this was all the glass company's idea, it's still up to you as the policy holder to know the policy details).

Also keep in mind that since you upgraded your policy AND did the repair on the same day, that's maybe enough evidence for your insurance company to try to charge you with insurance fraud, so be happy they didn't do that too.

P.S. No sane insurance company would offer comp & collision that covers pre-existing damage. If they did that, then nobody would buy that coverage until their car got damaged, which would mean either that the insurance company would lose a lot of money, or that insurance premiums would increase by a huge amount.

Submitting an insurance claim for preexisting damage is insurance fraud. You are lucky the insurance co caught this before they paid - they could have had you arrested.

You had the car repaired, so you owe for the cost. In such cases, a mechanic can apply a lien to the vehicle until the repair is paid for.

In all states I am aware of, auto repair shops get their lien. Because the damage occurred when you were not covered I think you will just have to pay. You probably could have been charged with felony insurance fraud, so make the best of it and stay insured!

Of course you're still responsible. You may have had insurance when it was fixed but you didn't have it when it was broken.

Consider yourself damn lucky you weren't charged with insurance fraud for adding the coverage after the damage occurred and then making the claim.

Pay them what you owe.

yes you are